Are the Cavs following the Browns with a uniform change of their own?
April 5, 2015Video: Watch all of the ridiculous highlights from the Cavs win over the Bulls
April 6, 2015Happy Monday, boys and girls. I hope you all had a splendid Easter watching the Cavaliers top the Bulls in addition to all of the other cool, candy-filled things that went down on a gorgeous Cleveland Sunday. We’ll have plenty to discuss over the next 24 hours, including a team that just so happened to lock up it’s top two starting pitchers—to club-friendly deals—for the forseeable future, one which just so happens to be starting their season on this very evening. But While We’re Waiting…
♦♦♦
I’m irrationally excited for this year’s season of Major League Baseball. Don’t get me wrong—I’m always geeked for the Cleveland Indians. But for some reason, this year finds me looking forward to all of the storylines that will unfold over the course of the next six-plus months. I can’t speak to what’s fueling this intrigue, but while I’m full go on the Cavaliers and what they do in the impending slate of NBA Playoffs, the various narratives throughout baseball are guaranteed to keep sports fans entertained through the summer.
For instance…
- Can the incredibly stocked Washington Nationals cash in on their investment?
- Can the spend-happy San Diego Padres be the team to come out of the National League West despite the reigning World Series champs and the uber talented, and extremely well-paid Los Angeles Dodgers having their say in the matter?
- Will there be a better young trio of hitters in one lineup than Jorge Soler, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant in Chicago?
- Can the young studs—Matt Harvey and Jose Fernandez—successfully come back from their run-in with Tommy John surgery?
- Can Corey Kluber repeat from last season’s incredible stretch of being nearly untouchable?
- What will second-year guys like George Springer have in store during their sophomore season—and will the Astros finally be relevant again?
- Will Michael Wacha be the best back-of-the-rotation arm in the game?
- Can Jose Abreu hit a ball 600 feet?
- Will people remember that Bryce Harper is only 22 years of age?
- Will Victor Martinez remember that he’s 41?
That’s the beauty about baseball. If you can get yourself to not live and die with all of the ups and downs of every win and loss and pitching change and bunt call by the team of your rooting interest—if you can step back and look at the game through the a wider lens—there’s a lot of great stuff to soak in. Baseball’s a game that can be incredibly boring, yet still have the chance to produce some of the best theatre in all of sports on any given night. I’m glad it’s (finally) back.
♦♦♦
I’m not sure what the future holds for Tiger Woods, but I do know that this recently released commercial from Nike (in advance of The Masters) is simply outstanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdhWhgA8Y0A
♦♦♦
Complete non sequitur, but I cannot believe how successful the Fast and Furious franchise has been. That those movies have spanned 14 years is one part incredible, and one part a testament to what has to drive other writers, producers and directors absolutely crazy.
♦♦♦
#ActualSportswriting
“Russell Westbrook Opens Up” by Lee Jenkins (Sports Illustrated): “When Russell Westbrook finishes the orange wedges, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the Taylor Swift and Katy Perry songs, he sits swaddled in white towels, his terry-cloth cocoon. He stretches out over two chairs in the Thunder locker room, his iPod with its eclectic playlist resting on his right thigh, and lets the metamorphosis unfold.”1
“Loose and Can’t Lose: Wisconsin upsets Kentucky” by Brian Hamilton (Sports Illustrated): “At the end, when the unstoppable team had officially been stopped, a towel flew high in the air over the Wisconsin bench. The players ran at anyone wearing red, leaping into arms or onto backs. They greeted the moment they’d waited for since last April with hugs and screams.”2
“After the Crash” by Jonathan Abrams (Grantland): “On that day more than 15 years ago, the NBA grieved over the death of Bobby Phills, who began his career on a 10-day contract and rose so high that Michael Jordan once named him among the best defenders he’d ever faced. Those close to Phills never seem to run out of stories about his selflessness. There was the time he jumped out of his car at an intersection to help a motorcyclist who was engulfed in flames after crashing into a nearby truck. Phills would sign autographs until his hand hurt. He ran basketball clinics and contributed to Charlotte-area charities. If you had five minutes to spare for Phills, he had 10 minutes for you.”3
♦♦♦
And final, rather than boring you with something “Du Jour,” here’s the most recent edition of “Last Week Tonight.” Do Enjoy.
- Not only is this an excellent piece or writing, but it’s about an individual who is consistently looped in with some of the toughest to cover when it comes to the NBA. Shows what can happen when there’s an actual story being told. [↩]
- I rarely include game recaps in this section, but this shows what an #ActualSportswriting gamer looks like—it’s always about the people. [↩]
- It’s a special week when Lee Jenkins and Jonathan Abrams each publish features. Bonus: Abrams’ is about a former Cleveland Cavalier. As if he wasn’t must-read already… [↩]
23 Comments
Padres moves seemed desperate and I don’t think gets them much over .500
Nats are scary as are Cards. I want that NLCS.
Houston is likely a year away still, but should be a good watch (and Kluber could very well get his first double digit SO game tonight).
But, to all of those and more, I too am incredibly excited for this season. Helps that Tribe should be really good I think.
Is Bobby Phills remembered more for being with Charlotte than Cleveland? I remember him being on the Cavs but didn’t follow him much after he left the team, so I don’t know how his career as a Hornet compared to that as a Cavalier, just that he spent more time in Cleveland. Obviously he was with Charlotte at the time of the accident, just curious if he was still basically the same player, or if his last jersey is how is legacy is carried on.
Cause it’s baseball, baseball, baseball!
http://img.pandawhale.com/post-14551-Dancing-Dodger-Fan-j1YE.gif
Why? Cause it’s baseball, baseball, baseball!!!
http://gifsection.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Lonnie-Chisenhall-and-Jason-Kipnis-danced-to-YMCA.gif
http://youtu.be/GDa1H4uhcnQ
I’m pretty sure the Padres are being run by a 12-year-old who thinks he’s playing MLB: The Show. Glad they’re not my team, though they’ll be fun to rubberneck.
We’re in agreement on the Astros. Anything is possible of course, but the West looks pretty strong this year.
great Nike commercial. Sweeping you through a life story in 120 seconds in a way that makes the viewer enjoy the transparent emotional manipulation – that’s a true art form.
PLAY BALL!
Glad I was wrong on the Kluber extension. Seems very team friendly, but I guess that’s to be expected since they had the leverage.
FOR IT’S ROOT, ROOT, ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM!
Tom Hanks forgot to shave from the set of Cast Away to A League of Their Own. And also got a team of Marla Hooches.
Ah yes, the little known Cleveland Rasputins, 1895-1897.
What a hitter.
I always thought Cleveland too — he played six of his nine seasons here — but I suppose Charlotte is where he got his big contract, and by the time he got there he may have been more of a known commodity. For the purposes of Abrams’ story, at least, a Charlotte-centric approach makes more sense.
1. Baseball can be incredibly boring depending on how it’s talked about. I love the game. I love the whole season. I don’t want to spend more than 30 seconds dissecting Terry Francona’s decision to hit and run or go with the long-reliever to start the fifth rather than letting the starter go for one more inning. This is why I find the sports-talk radio thing such a conundrum with baseball. The abundance of games hurts the urgency with which I feel like talking about regular season games until after July 4th at least. I know all games count the same, but still. I wasn’t panicked by the Cavs’ early-season struggles either, so it’s not just baseball.
2. The next person from a media company that expresses doubts about putting their content in a location other than their own proprietary website is going to have to answer to HBO. They are now my answer for “We don’t want to give up control by putting our stuff available on iTunes or Youtube.” Most people who won’t “give their stuff away for free” don’t bother charging on their own websites, and yet won’t “give it away for free” in the place where the most people are. YET YET YET, HBO who DOES charge their customers finds it in their best interest to put John Oliver’s segments on Youtube. If it’s good enough for HBO, then it’s good enough for you too with your crappy proprietary website. Serve your customers wherever they are however you can.
3. An no discussions of WAR, PERA, DIPS, Flips, Flaks, Flooks, etc. Perpetrators of metrics discussions are to be wedgied and duct taped to the tether ball pole.
Does HBO do this with anyone other than John Oliver though?
I think there’s a noticeable difference between videos/music that people will come back to again or at a date well after originally aired, compared to a “news” show. Is anyone going to rush out and buy the dvd/download last seasons Last Week Tonight like they will with Game of Thrones?
Love your second point. It’s also why the NBA is still dominating from a social media standpoint and the NFL and MLB (who demand self-hosting) are only shared when someone pirates video or creates a GIF.
No, they don’t. I wouldn’t expect them to either. I was speaking of news media companies in particular. I’m not advocating HBO toss GoT up on Youtube or anything like that. 🙂
If we’re talking almost strictly news media, then yes, I think I mostly agree.
I guess the difference then becomes that someone like CNN will actually break news and has more interest in driving you to their website than HBO does, and while they don’t charge on their website, they do collect advertising revenue. CNN can make more money by having you come to their site and hanging around than HBO.
But is the NBA actually doing better business than the other two leagues with their process? The average NBA teams makes half as much revenue as the average NFL or MLB team. Spamming social media and turning that into revenue are two different things.
There are so many ways to measure this, but the NBA is likely elated that whatever their mix of decisions resulted in a 180% increase in their national TV contract to just over $2.6 billion per year. There’s very little way to point directly to a single cause and effect, but the NBA’s doing plenty right – it would appear – based on that renewal.
Sure, the NBA isn’t going broke. But every sport is seeing huge jumps in tv contracts. I think the NFL doubled their TV contract a couple years ago, and the Dodgers alone are getting close to $350M a year from TV and two-thirds of LA can’t even see them. MLB and the NFL are doing plenty right too.
You’re right that it’s not easy to measure how much better the NBA is doing with their policy compared to MLB and the NFL. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. But I think it cuts both ways. When the NBA allows fans to freely pass along their video, they get good PR, but they also suggest to the customer that the product should be available freely, or very cheaply. And that doesn’t create a good customer for them.