Matthew Dellavedova (!) added to Rising Stars game
February 11, 2015Cleveland Indians, MLB toying with earlier start times
February 12, 2015Good morning and Happy Thursday! After Thursday night’s game against the Bulls, we’ll endure over a week with only the NBA All-Star festivities to discuss on the floor (outside of a couple Buckeye basketball games). It’s a bit of a slow time in the sports world, but we’re going to keep plugging along.
Let’s begin with a discussion that I’ve had on here oh so many times: the inclusion of Ohio State content alongside Cleveland sports content. I went to The Ohio State University for college from 2006-2011. There are a couple of other Buckeye alums on this site, and there are several more that call themselves Ohio State fans. Whenever we do a list, Ohio State is usually considered in the discussion but sometimes overlooked.
The fact is, Ohio State is in Columbus, two hours plus southwest of Cleveland. There’s no denying that. The Buckeyes don’t play their games (outside of the occasional NCAA basketball tournament game) in Northeast Ohio. However, according to the New York times graphical survey by zip code, most of the zip codes in Cuyahoga county and Northeast Ohio in general have at least 70% Ohio State fans as OSU has pluarality in every single zip in Ohio. There are also about 42,000 (out of 58,000 total) Ohioans on campus at OSU right now, and a pretty good chunk of them came from Northeast Ohio as well. Many of the team’s stars are Ohio grown and raised right here in Northeast Ohio.
What I’m driving at is sports talk radio covers the Buckeyes, the TV guys cover OSU, and yet every time we include OSU in something, someone feels like they have to cape up and tell me or someone else that Columbus and Cleveland aren’t the same thing.
You’re right. They’re not, but Ohio State’s reach is far beyond the 270 belt. It’s the State’s flagship university. You know, Ohio, that place where Cleveland and the rest of Northeast Ohio resides.
In my rankings of the fiercest rivalries, I even qualified with a disclaimer that allowed you to for the sake of argument to consolidate the rankings down to just 12 teams if you didn’t want to factor in Ohio State’s rivalries. In our WFNY Sportsman and Top Ten moments pieces that we do at the end of each year, I make the case for Buckeyes often, but I also realize that they have to have to be extraordinary for inclusion. Luckily for me, winning the national championship shouldn’t make it too difficult to get Ezekiel Elliott or Cardale Jones on that list as well as the Buckeyes capturing the title. A perfect example of someone who is likely to not make the cut, however, is D’Angelo Russell, who is having a phenomenal year for the scarlet and gray on the hardwood. Unless he guides the team deep into the tournament, it’s unlikely that he’ll garner enough support to make that list, despite the fact that there’s an outside chance he could be the No. 1 pick in the draft come this summer.
If you’re not an Ohio State fan, I’m not asking you to become one. I’m asking you to just look past the Buckeyes pieces and find something else that suits you without feeling the need to remind us that the two biggest cities in Ohio are not one in the same. I know already. I even changed my Twitter avatar so I don’t forget it.
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Speaking of those rivals, how about the movement afoot by one Michigan student for a contemporary spirit song for the maize and blue? Most Michigan fans that I’ve seen are outraged about the whole ordeal, but I suppose someone had to step up and say “Hang On Sloopy” was going to become a mainstay at Ohio State games, right?
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If you want to relive all the glory of the national championship season, this 26-minute YouTube video that the guys at Land Grant Holy Land stumbled upon should wet your whistle.
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For a little Tribe talk in the heart of winter, be sure to check out Did The Tribe Win Last Night’s Steve Eby, who catches up with Sandy Alomar Jr.
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Charles Barkley is no stranger to making a fool out of himself, but he did it again on Tuesday night when he went all in on basketball math and analytics. I really enjoyed this rebuttal by Nylon Calculus’s Hal Brown. I’ve always been a fan of multiple viewpoints when it comes to sports analysis. I’m not a whiz-bang with numbers like our own Jakey Stats is, but I like to include a sprinkle of advanced statistics in my features and Behind The Box Scores. But, I do think statistics without application and perspective can be dangerous. No metric is the end-all, be-all. I still watch and re-watch a lot of games and do film analysis. I think they’re both vital to any successful big-picture evaluation. The film analysis can help explain WHY or HOW someone is avoiding a certain area on the court or their rebound or assist percentage is down.
These two have long been almost mutually exclusive schools of thought, and they shouldn’t be in today’s big-time sports.
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Finally, I’ll leave you with my something fun for the week: Law and Order.
If you guys follow me on Twitter, you’ll know when TNT or, yes, WE airs a L&O binge-a-thon on Saturday or Sunday morning or a weeknight. I’ve never been a huge fan of TV dramas as I mainly stick to comedies. However, ever since I was 8 or 9 years old, when my family had four channels to choose from, the original Law and Order has been appointment viewing for me. It only got worse in college when I could watch 8 episodes straight on TNT after waking up from a night of socializing.
My favorite character, and one of my favorite characters in all of television, is Jack McCoy, played by Sam Waterston. The Executive Assistant District Attorney turned DA by the end of the series was on the show for the last 16 of its 20 seasons. His wise cracks are right on par with long-time cop on the other side of the spectrum, Lenny Briscoe, played by the late Jerry Orbach. When one of the cops tells McCoy he could get a ham sandwich indicted, McCoy pipes back, “A ham sandwich would be easier. At least it has meat on it.”
Oddly enough, Law and Order is one of those shows that almost nobody that I interact with enjoys. My parents, friends, coworkers, etc. have either never heard of it or have only heard of it because of me holding the TV remote. It’s like my own experience. I don’t have to analyze it any more than I want to. I don’t have to defend opinions I have about the show or the characters. It’s a nice refreshing intercession from my time online discussing sports.
Now, there’s talks of restarting the franchise for a 10-episode return, which could potentially include Waterston and Chris Noth among others. If it happens, I will be ecstatic. The series ended abruptly with an improper sendoff with its cancellation, and this would help give some closure.
That’s all I’ve got for this Thursday. Hopefully the Cavs send us into the All-Star break on the right note.
78 Comments
A double entendre! I knew these guys were sly.
Lorem ipsum to you too, CB. 🙂
This is intriguing and admittedly unknown to me.
No question Ohio State takes the rivalry more serious. But the one sidedness of the last decade has probably added to the anger on the other side.
It’s hard to beat what happens inside state lines.
My dad was a member of the OSU marching band from 1957-1961. He always tells me how their biggest rival at the time was Minnesota, and how it took him somewhat by surprise that Michigan became the rival after that. He doesn’t harbor the same hate for Michigan that I do. It’s there, by association, but not by memory or experience.
That is absolutely clear enough, though I would question how many people actually read the “About” page. Perhaps copying and pasting that sentiment somewhere near the site’s header or placing it prominently on the home page would help.
Ha, nice usage of tools. I would have got it, but can see how it might be confusing.
“Could not connect to device” period, no other information. Thanks tools.
Or here’s an idea… if you see an OSU article that you don’t want to read……well…. hmmm…..no, nevermind.
I have no idea how to avoid reading something on this site.
Sorry.
It was a tie in 1905. The most recent Case win over Ohio State was in 1911.
http://www.collegefootball.bz/ohio-state/opponents/case
thank you for that link. i was going completely off of memory of a deflated football with a score in their supposed athletic hall of fame. The score was 9-0 on it, so it must have been the 1911 game.
10-11-2 alltime record against the Buckeyes. Now that is an even series!!! I think we found the in-state rival. Sure, Ohio State has a 7 game winning streak, but that just means that Case used to own them.
“Plurality”? I thought this was a sports blog…..
I grew up down the road from John Carroll, and I STILL don’t care!!!
http://cdn.moviestillsdb.com/sm/304d33dbb466e88ffaea73823b7e0563/friday.jpg
Does Michigan still have a football team?
Or: “Most disliked teams by the numerical majority of people living in Cleveland and vicinity.”
Kirk – cmon, man, make this happen!!
i don’t hate Penn State but I have a respect for them as a true rival based on their pedigree, their rabid fanbase, their amazing stadium experience, and their ability to play OSU like a true rival, regardless of the talent they have on the field. I’d be OK with a secondary rivalry with PSU (i guess i should say i AM OK with it, because that’s how it seems).
wow. you went all geometric on his ass. nicely done.
Michigan grads or human? In that particular Venn diagram I’m not sure the circles actually touch.
do you think there are other blogs out there with this many nerds?
Why are you assuming that I don’t want to read about Ohio State? I’m a Buckeye fan. I simply offered a way for the staff to end the conversation which the author seemed to be weary of.
When you say “supposed athletic hall of fame” are you referencing Ohio State or Case? If Case, I didn’t even know we had one of those!
“We” beat “them” a number of times (10 as pointed out by mgbode) so I gotta make sure I rep where possible. Go Case Scientists!
PS., I like the Rough Riders name the best, and let it be known that Case first used seal brown in 1890 and was part of the first organized football game in Cleveland (in 1887) although we lost to Central High School.
What can I say, I’m a mathlete.
I apologize for emphasizing the word YOU, when I should have used the words “a reader”.
It’s not the staff’s responsibility to disclaim anything, it’s a personal responsibility of a reader to choose what they do and don’t read.
That’s like a person drinking a beer and then yelling at the bartender for getting drunk.
I hope not… maybe there’s an award??
Yes, I was talking about Case. It is (or at least was) in what basically is a large walk-in closet between the racquetball courts and the basketball courts. I did work-study with the AD when I went there and he proudly showed it to me (one of the things he got funded). As little as there was in there, it was a good thing that he had started it.
Of course I accept your apology. None was truly needed, but I thank you anyway. I agree with you too, by the way. The reader is the responsible party. However it seemed that the author had a desire for an end to the conversation about whether Buckeye topics were relevant within the WFNY community, and I merely offered a suggestion to help facilitate that end by making it clear to the irresponsible among us.