C-Cap Recap: Indians, Twins & Indian Twins
May 16, 2016Hue Jackson: Too soon to name Robert Griffin III Browns starting QB
May 16, 2016Happy Monday, you guys. The city of Cleveland’s professional basketball franchise finally has an opponent for the Eastern Conference Finals. While headline writers around the world had hoped for a Cavs matchup with the Miami Heat, Cleveland, instead, has to go toe to toe with the country that booted Kyrie Irving from the All-Star game in the final week of tabulations.
If you were in Independence on Sunday night, as a fan of this team, you would’ve been amazed. All too often, we read quotes in stories penned by others, stripping away all emotion and context because, frankly, the city doesn’t have many writers capable and willing to describe scene. But on Sunday night, as the Miami Heat fell victim to a Game 7 loss to the Toronto Raptors, LeBron James was as stoic as the statutes that line the Guardian Bridge across from The Q.
Let’s take you inside Cleveland Clinic Courts for a minute. Walk inside the media doors. Go through the media room right outiside the pristine gymnasium, and make a sharp turn to the right where the padded wall awaits—the one that has the Cleveland Cavaliers’ logos interspersed with those of the Cleveland Clinic. It’s the perfenct backdrop for video recordings. A 6-foot-9-inch James stands by, just days after lightheartedly discussing movies, and offers the following:
“How much of the game did you get a chance to watch?”
“Enough.”
“What are Toronto’s strengths?”
“They have a lot of strengths.”
“Is there anything you’ve done differently since Atlanta?”
“We’ve got our work in.”
“Do those knicks and knacks kind of go away?”
[shakes head]
“The losses to Toronto during the regular season seemed to push you guys into a different direction both times.”
“We were a different team during the regular season.”
“Will you talk to Dwyane about what he saw?”
“Possibly.”
“Is there any feeling that you haven’t faced Dwyane or Miami in the playoffs?”
“No.”
Oooooooh boy. I’ve seen jovial LeBron. I’ve seen wound-too-tight LeBron. And I’ve seen not-in-the-mood-for-this-crap-bring-on-the-opponent LeBron and if this is the mindset that carries into Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. LOOK. THE. EFF. OUT.
Toronto is a good team. They have two All-Stars, more than Cleveland has had, and has had the Cavs’ number throughout the season. They’re not Detroit. They’re not Atlanta. But it would be silly to think that they weren’t the easier of the potential opponents for the Eastern Conference Finals. Do I think Toronto is the 10.5-point underdog for Game 1 that Vegas has already set? No. But do I think, at least based on what I’ve seen in the postseason thus far and how LeBron looked on Sunday evening, that the Cavs aren’t eying up another sweep? No freaking way.
I’ll leave you with two tweets:
Looooot of green beyond the arc in the Cavs' regular-season shot chart vs. the Raptors: pic.twitter.com/X9sb1bdZnt
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) May 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/Cavsanada/status/731993317462794240
They may be “The North,” but they’re about to run in to a buzzsaw. Sorry, Canada. At least you have poutine.
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While my Friday included my car being flat-bedded to a nearby impound lot after a ne’er-do-well decided to cause a four-car pile-up with me in the middle, it started out fantastically when I awoke to find Chance the Rapper releasing a new mixtape exclusive to iTunes. Since the release of Acid Rap about three years ago, the community (for lack of a better term) had been waiting to see what was next. Chance was featured on a a host of tracks from a variety of big-named acts, most recently featured on the opening track of Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, but would only give us a taste in the way of a verse here and there.
What was long rumored to be called Chance 3 due to it being the Chicago emcee’s third mixtape1, was in fact dubbed Coloring Book, and it was littered with joyful and exuberant quintessential Chance from front to back. No lie: There’s a moment in “Blessings” where you can hear him smiling as he raps “Chisel me into stone, prayer/whistle me into song air, dying laughing with Krillin saying something ’bout blonde hair.”2
And lest one play the super-hip and psh-whatever “Who’s Chance the Rapper?” card, here’s Jimmy Fallon dropping some science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZyt5dSNcFo
As much as Kanye wanted The Life of Pablo to be a gospel album, Chance took that and cranked the dial up to 100. He’s ambitious yet conscious. His lyrics have meaning in addition to melodic flow. He rolls with some of the richest cats in the game—Kanye, Future, Lil’ Wayne, 2 Chainz and Justin Bieber are all on Coloring Book—despite being unsigned by any record label. Chance is a hipster’s dream, fighting against the establishment while producing what may very well be one of the most important hip-hop albums of 2016.
Rolling Stone has already referred tot he stream-only release as a Masterpiece. NPR says he’s taking TLOP and taking things a step further—one-upping his mentor. Pigeons and Planes lets us know that, much like West, Chance was working on this album until the very last minute.3
As much as I had hoped TLOP would be the game-changing album, or that Kendrick Lamar’s LeBron-fueled release would be the one, it could be this Rage Against the Machine Mixtape that takes it all home. Chance has it all: He’s a terrific artist without the ego4 He has the backing of the game’s biggest and best. And he’s quietly dropping some of the most anticipated albums of today’s landscape.
Gospel, y’all.
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Did you watch Believeland on Saturday night? What did you think? Was it fun to relive all of those crushing moments again? Hell no. But was it great to go back through all of those Where Were You When moments and get a deep dive into the most integral players in each moment? You’re damned right it was. Earnest Byner, Kevin Mack, Bob Golic—the list goes on. And while the documentary ends with some feel good moments, it was great to see the connection among Cleveland fans on Twitter following the premiere.
Following the documentary, I posed the question: Where were you when LeBron made his decision to return to Cleveland? The replies were still tricking in 12 hours later. And while I wasn’t necessarily amazed by the number of replies—it’s easily the biggest, most poistive story to hit Cleveland since, well, who knows?—but how vivid some of the descriptions were. Check them out here:
This was just a sampling—the number of replies seemed only be outdone by the quality of them, a rarity in the Twitter space. People were moved by James’ return, and couldn’t wait to share what his decision meant to them as fans, the entire crux of Believeland. As the players and owners and coaches and managers come and go, some of them stick with us out of nostalgia—be it good times or bad—but they’re few and far between. We’ll all be here long after any character currently making their mark in our citywide escape known as Professional Sports. We just have to hope a chunk of them watched Beliveland as well, as it may help them understand why we are the way we are. (My “Where Was I” story is documented here.)
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Read any good hot takes lately? Trick question. Here’s this week’s #ActualSportswriting:
“The Voice of Baseball” by Tom Verducci (Sports Illustrated): “Circumstances created an ideal audience for Scully. By tone, wordsmithing and sheer talent, Scully turned that audience into generations of votaries. He became not only a Southern California star but also a national treasure, branching out to call 25 World Series on radio and television when baseball was king… The man who called his first event, a 1949 Boston University–Maryland football game, from the roof of Fenway Park armed with a microphone, 50 yards of cable and a 60-watt bulb on a pole now can be heard worldwide by anyone with an Internet connection and an MLB.tv subscription.”5
“How NFL Quarterbacks are made” by Robert Klemko (MMQB): “Chris Cook’s involvement in his son’s affairs and his outsized, sometimes abrasive personality were noted by several NFL evaluators as potential red flags for Connor Cook, who fell to the Raiders in the fourth round. After the Michigan State QB was drafted, screenshots of aggressive and homophobic tweets apparently published years ago by Connor’s father surfaced in media reports and provided a public glimpse of what teams had known for months.”6
“Man versus Marathon” by Jere Longman (NY Times): “A quarter-mile below sea level at the Dead Sea, where the barometric pressure is high, there is about 5 percent more oxygen to breathe. The naturally enriched air had been shown to increase exercise capacity in those with chronic lung disease. Would it do the same, Pitsiladis wondered, for the world’s fastest distance runners? The Sub2 Project, as it is called, is an attempt at the extraordinary — to reduce by nearly three minutes the world record of 2 hours 2 minutes 57 seconds, set at the 2014 Berlin Marathon by Dennis Kimetto of Kenya.”7
“Final Four Raptors prove they belong” by Bruce Arthur (Toronto Star): “All of Canada isn’t tuning in, but people are watching in record numbers. Three years ago the ratings peak was a little over 900,000 for Game 7 against Brooklyn; some executives thought this Game 7 might approach 2 million. The franchise has slogged through a lot of crap, self-inflicted and otherwise. This is a moment.”8
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And finally, John Oliver on the perils of 9-1-1, which mostly comes down to those who make the call.
Be good to each other. Have a killer Monday.
- Not to be confused with a released album as it will not be sold for purchase. [↩]
- And yes, in case you’re wondering, that Krillin line is undoubtedly a reference to Dragonball Z, something near and dear to the Rapper. [↩]
- The game done changed, kids. [↩]
- Which matters to people, apparently. [↩]
- As if you needed a reason to read a Verducci story, one of the best in the buisness goes one-on-one with the best in his business, Vin Scully. [↩]
- So much here that I could have block quoted a ton of the piece. You’d be much better served checking it out for yourself. [↩]
- A great story that mixes science and a little quirk with distance running. A 1:59:59 marathon would require a pace of 4 minutes 34 seconds per mile, which is outright insane. [↩]
- This week’s reminder that commentary can be #ActualSportswriting. A shame that the Raptors are going to get it handed to them in the coming days. [↩]
20 Comments
I recorded Believeland. I’ll watch it this week.
Spent the weekend boating, and watching Stipe bring a championship to Cleveland!
Not sure who I wanted to face the Cavs. I guess it depends if you wanted to watch LBJ and his BFF Wade go all Magic-Isiah smoochy-huggy before every game, or watch that insufferable dbag Drake on the Raptor sideline.
Where were you when LeBron came home?
I had just finished a 17 hour shift on my very last night of work with Union Pacific in Houston. Typically worked 5pm-5am shifts and was ready to get the hell out of there at 4:40am before my replacement showed up. Right as I was about to leave, I had to respond a damn derailment and didn’t leave until a little after 10am. I then went straight to a meeting with my realtor to sell the house and got a text from my brother. I’ve never been so excited and exhausted at the same time.
I am happy the Cavs got the Raptors only due to being able to read Arthur about the games. He is among the best in the league as can be seen in that article Scott linked to above.
Don’t worry. By Game 3 when they get to Toronto, Drake will have switched his allegiance to the Cavs since the Raptors will be down 0-2.
Last night I put my my Believeland comment on a month old post so I’ll stick it here. I was tired so now it reads testier than intended.
If the point is to convince the nation that Cub fans don’t even know suffering I guess it did its job. Certain things were presented nicely – Byner’s genuine pain, Rizzo capturing fan reactions to various events with precision – but I found the overall effect unbearably pathetic in that weirdly prideful way we now love to show the world. But contrary to the movie theme, this town is not stuck in a fetal position because of a star alignment. That’s not what brought Chuck Noll and Cowher and Tomlin to Pittburgh instead of here.
I dunno, maybe a lot of details in this movie really annoy me because so many of us (often including me) have taken to wearing our sports suckitude just as obnoxiously as Red Sox fans ever did. Here’s some little things that fingernailed my chalkboard:
– The impression that there is equal blame on the city for Modell’s heavy money losses and his quick sneak-a-way after not giving the city a chance at the end of the season as he promised. Really. With revenue sharing and close to the league’s best attendance. If the film maker was not going to challenge his duffus son on basic facts, why have him on?
-Arsenio Hall. Really. Has he stepped foot in this metro area once since high school? Kinda like interviewing Ruby Dee for a documentary on slavery. Raab clearly cares enough to have produced it, but so many others with no cred and, not surprisingly, weird statements.
– False equivalency and inclusions to fill the narrative. Stepien injuring peeps with ball tosses from the Terminal was barely news, then or now. The Shot did not abruptly assassinate an expected march to a trophy. It was a mid-round playoff game, and they had so many more chances to get by the Bulls. But they couldn’t. Because the Cavs weren’t good enough.
Here’s the crux of our heartbreak, our problem, our losing: ownership. Mediocre owners like Modell will have teams that ride up and down, just like Rozelle intended. Great owners like the Jacobs can select the right execs, fund it generously and put their teams in a position to win, and then good fortune determines much of what happens ext. Bad owners … ’nuff said. With good or mediocre owners of 3 teams we’ll get a ring or trophy, probably a few. It’s not us, or the soil, or some guilt at having left. It’s all them. I’ve seen lots of my teams go up for sale and they’ve yet to ask my approval before they accept winner’s bid.
– Verducci writing about Scully is so wonderful. Verducci points out something amazing: Scully has talked baseball with someone who arrived in the majors in 1906 (Branch Rickey) and guys who arrived in 2016. Mind = blown, and this makes him a treasure even if he wasn’t the GOAT at what he does.
– The soccer flop has now infected the NBA at the highest level and I want to know if Adam Silver will take the action needed to stop this scourge, right now. If you fine Andy $5K for flopping, something way more severe needs to be done about two incidents yesterday: Wade’s no contact, “I’ve been shot” fake and Lowry’s pantomime trip in the lane. A one game suspension applied at the start of next season should stop this barge of floating eurotrash before all the players see what they might get away with.
I refuse to watch it. ESPN has played the Misery Montage for years. They seem to find it quite hilarious to point out at every loosely-relevant opportunity. I figure that if it was more Cleveland bashing, I’d be pissed… if it was a sympathy story, it would rub me the wrong way considering ESPN’s enjoyment of our misery. I’m glad some people enjoyed it, but I will not be one of them.
I’m with you on the ownership. Gilbert has been supportive, although at times quite petty. Any positive results are years away, but I’m encouraged that Haslem seems to have a very deliberate plan in place and letting his people do their jobs. DOLANZ R CHEEP (sorry, had to throw that in there). At the very least, there is reason for optimism on the ownership front.
Gilbert’s been petty? Maybe. But has it really hurt the team in anyway? Don’t think so. He’s the best owner we have. But, “any positive results are years away…” ? What? This isn’t good enough for you?
http://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/keep-calm-and-king-of-the-north.png
Listening to Cowherd read The Letter, that had already been released by SI, on the Four Letter was priceless.
it’s great to see for some rare archival footage. But just now what really really bothers me about it just pinged: it’s 90 straight minutes of “and how did you feel about that?” That’s appropriate for long time friends having a beer. Not so much talking to acquaintances or strangers. Begging other cities to cluck “Yes, woe is you.” Really ickey.
Serious question. I get why Clevelanders (not this one, but others clearly) would want to watch something like this. But why are the “other cities” watching? The seasoned sports fan/cynic in me says there are only two plausible reasons I can think of, neither of which is good: 1. Morbid curiosity (like watching a reality show set in a funeral home) or 2. Pure, sick schadenfreude.
Where were you when LeBron came home: Caddying on the third hole at Sand Ridge. Guest in my group got a phone call, hung up and said “That was LeBron, he’s coming back!”
Believeland: Would have liked to see some more local media personalities. Paul Hoynes got what, 5 seconds of air time? No sighting of Pluto, Shaw, Livingston, Cabot, Bull, Fox, Ken Carman etc. The Browns’ heartbreak was a good 90% of the film, I thought there could have been a little better balance.
Sure, it was cool to see Kenny Lofton talk about the 90’s magic…but there was no mention at all of the 2007 ALCS against Boston! I was at game 4 whre he ripped one over the right field wall. That was the most electric that place had been since the 90’s madness….then commence slow painful heartbreak: Carmona and Sabathia shrunk, Josh Beckett put up legendary numbers….can’t blame Joel Skinner but come on dude, YOU GOTTA SEND KENNY HOME!
I watched the Buffalo Bills 30for30 and found it fascinatingly good.
The Cleveland sports story is the BEST sports story out there. If the city ever wins a title that is. Hollywood rejects storylines and miserable as the things that we have suffered.
“Hey, let’s have the football team in this movie lose because the player takes off his helmet…no, OK, how about if the ref’s decide to replay a down well after another play has taken place and a fan riot breaks out?…no, OK, how about the basketball team loses to a roided up team coached by a porn star but those revelations only happen the day after the series ends and before they play the Finals?….no, OK, how about the baseball team has a swarm of bugs help them defeat the mighty Yankees and go up huge on a team from Boston, but lose three straight as news comes out about their own player doing PEDs?…no, OK…”
By the time everyone retires from baseball, there is a definitive chance that Vince Scully will encompass 150 years of MLB (current players that become managers, sportcasters, etc.).
Really good points Harv. I disagree with the proposition the piece puts forward that we fans are always expecting the worst given our history. This is pure superstition and offensive to all fans. The past has nothing to do with the future – the Cavs fate in the playoffs is solely up to them and their efforts. I am not waiting for some tragedy to happen. Also, even if we win the title, our daily lives will change little, if at all. Sports are a great form of entertainment, but that is all they are. My family, friends, career etc. are what really make a difference in my life. I closely follow all of our teams, and feel the pain momentarily after events like the drive, shot etc., but it ends there.
Didn’t see that one, but yeah I saw Jim Kelly as a speaker at some conference talk about it in a personal way. I was definitely interested in the Buffalo story too. But you and I (and Clevelanders in general) may be an exception group to have sympathy for those folks further up the lake.
“Believeland” was nothing new at all for a native Clevelander if anything it was a 1:30 minute highlight of the most notorious sports failings. I loved the Newman theme song from “Major League” to start the piece. Oh and Scott Raab as well.
Agree with much of what you said, but…
As someone who lives outside yet visits Cleveland, the negativity aura felt within the city limits is mind-numbing and quite real compared to other cities.
Ownership is a piece, but I wouldn’t argue the crux. Jacobs and Gunds never won it all. Modell had the Browns on the verge of the Super Bowl 3 times. Gilbert is a horrible owner, but has LeBron to thank for any semblance of success the franchise has seen under his watch.
Yes, the Indians pre Jacobs and Stepien are the definition of horrid ownership. Stepien was so bad the league had to intervene with new rules. But if Elway throws a pick on 4th and 18 or Byner scores, there is a much different narrative on Modell. Haslam is pretty much a slime bucket, but his wife may actually turn this thing around here.