The Showdown: Kyrie vs. Delly
August 10, 2016Going, going, Tomlin: Ball Played
August 11, 2016Great news, gang. I’ve moved on from crying about the NBA Finals. My new thing is crying about the Olympics.
No seriously—I f’ing love the Olympics. I love the competition and the drama and the athletes’ stories from around the world. I love the primetime, showy sports like gymnastics, swimming, and beach volleyball, and I love the offbeat “wait, that’s a sport?” sports like team handball and kayaking. I was at a bar on Put-in-Bay Saturday night and I kept finding myself distracted by the fiercest table tennis match I’ve ever seen, blaring on a TV in the corner. That’s how much I love the Olympics.
This said, I had every intention of using my once-in-awhile While We’re Waiting… spot to wax poetic on the fact that I firmly believe Simone Biles is at least 87 percent helium—and my newly found dream to be the world’s first 32-year-old aspiring gymnast.
But then this happened.
"We are excited to announce today that our team will be named the Cleveland Monsters." – COO @_MikeOstrowski pic.twitter.com/GE0a1jIJPC
— Cleveland Monsters (@monstershockey) August 9, 2016
Say goodbye to the American Hockey League’s Lake Erie Monsters, and say hello to the American Hockey League’s… Cleveland Monsters.
When you think about teams in this city changing their names—this probably isn’t the first one to come to mind, is it?
As a sports fan with a background in advertising and marketing, I was instantly curious as to why now—on the heels of a 2016 Calder Cup Championship—the team would choose to change its identity.
From the team:
“This brand refresh has been in the works for several seasons and we are thrilled to make the Cleveland Monsters a reality at long last,” said Monsters SVP and COO Mike Ostrowski on Tuesday. “In the wake of the Monsters’ Calder Cup Championship and the Cavs’ NBA title, and heading into the Monsters’ 10th anniversary season, we feel now is the perfect time for our organization to honor our great city and proudly become in title what this team has always been in sprit, the Cleveland Monsters.”
I’m so torn on this. I get it: You want to pay more explicit homage to the city that’s been your home for nine years. And yes, it’s a city on the rise and a city of champions and a city that wowed the world in mid-July. Why wouldn’t you want to more directly align yourself—and your team’s entire identity—with the city of Cleveland?
Well for one, you might not want to do that because a “Cleveland Monster” is not really a thing. While the name “Lake Erie Monsters” conjures up grainy, wonderful photos of Loch-Ness-like creatures and mythical folklore of the almost unbelievable, “Cleveland Monsters” simply falls flat. In an effort to more closely tie itself to the city it calls home, the team’s identity lost a touch of originality, a unique, offbeat aspect that made it impactful. Yeah it was a little different, but so is Olympic table tennis—and sometimes that can be a good thing.
I also understand the team’s strategy to err on the side of being more specific. After all, a team known for being associated with Lake Erie could be headquartered in a lot of places. Is the team in Sandusky? Is it in Erie, Pennsylvania? Does anybody care? I imagine that, like the New England Patriots or the Carolina Panthers, people who cared would figure it out.
I’ll spare you, dear readers, of the throngs of tweets the team received in response to the “brand refresh.” You can peruse them for yourself, if you’ve got that kind of time. But I can tell you that some were positive—and many more were not. The team, however, responded with the unflinching consistency of a social media manager who has mastered the Copy/Paste function.
Appreciate the feedback. We embrace our past but are excited to identify with the flourishing city and arena we call home!
— Cleveland Monsters (@monstershockey) August 9, 2016
While I don’t love the loss of originality, I don’t mind Cleveland being home to another defending champion. There are worse things, I suppose.
Happy Thursday, you guys. Here’s a little “go-get-em” inspo, cortsey of Laurie Hernandez:
Adopting the @lzhernandez02 "I got this" before doing anything that scares me from now on. #Olympics pic.twitter.com/ecJ5eJx7T9
— Hannah Sampson (@hannahbsampson) August 10, 2016
79 Comments
Ha. I wonder when poor Jessica writes something like this if she imagines in her wildest dreams that us fools would somehow turn this into a medieval Olympic battlefield.
Well, if she doesn’t, then she hasn’t been paying attention. Every WFNY writer has his or her blood, sweat, and tears regularly reduced to inanity by us.
Honestly, I think it’s the other way around. I think if they tried to chasten the uniforms, the volleyball players would get upset and probably complain about restriction of motion. It is, of course, a sport that originated on beaches where people typically wear a whole lot of not much.
I’m not very good anymore, but once upon a time I used to be pretty serviceable at beach volleyball, so it has a soft spot in my heart. The tactics are very different than indoor volleyball, and I like the two-on-two dynamic.
http://img.pandawhale.com/post-36434-Tyrion-Lannister-cheers-gif-dr-iK5y.gif
about 90% related to the Olympics, which is directly embedded in the article.
as far as tangents, this thread isn’t straying very far. don’t worry, it’s still the preseason.
I’ll buy that. It certainly makes me feel better about it. The ancient Olympics were played in the nude, after all.
I also loved playing the game at one point in time, but was never good. I absolutely appreciate the skill that it takes.
We’ll get up to game shape soon. That strange hiatus (let us never speak of it again) took a lot out of us. But we’re resilient. We’ll push through. Grind.
http://blog.socialmediaadgenius.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Wax-On-Wax-Off-300×211.jpg
Yeah I probably should have made the caveat that I never even used the whole “putting a number of fingers behind your back prior to serves” thing, as that seems to be the gating factor for being someone who takes beach volleyball seriously, but I could bump, set, and spike to the locations where I was aiming more often than not.
If putting a number of fingers behind the back is all it takes, why don’t you and I get together and start training for Tokyo? We can do that!
Baby steps. It’ll be a bit before we again delve into a subject like playing for the Browns is indeed better than sitting in a frozen port-a-john during the Battle of Stalingrad.
All-pro material, right there.
That there was some of our finest work. Hands down. We’ll get there soon.
http://previews.123rf.com/images/feedough/feedough1206/feedough120600251/14107199-Business-man-hand-with-thumbs-up-ok-sign-at-his-back-on-blue-background-Stock-Photo.jpg
Ha… I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. Doesn’t bother me if the topics go in a… new direction. 🙂
Indeed. My favorite will forever be the GIF-fest that was “Brandon Weeden Cut Day” but there was more creativity in the port-a-john thread.
Must bring it to everyone’s attention that there is an error in the above post. There is, in fact, a Cleveland Monster according to images.google.com
Doing a “cleveland monster” search there will return images of Ariel Castro
So, we are left with these options:
(1) The Monsters marketing did the search, saw it returned Ariel Castro and approved it anyway
(2) They didn’t bother to do the search
Misery breeds creativity.
This explains Irish writers and why the WFNY commentariat are at our peak form during Browns season.
I suppose it could have been an effort to redeem the name, like when the last pope picked the name Benedict?
I’m guessing #2 is more accurate. Which sentence actually describes what they did (or failed to do). It’s a steaming pile of #2.
I will say, though, if the logo always keeps the water allusion to Lake Erie, I suppose it’s okay. Remove the water, and they might as well be the Cleveland Castros (which, in a demented way, follows your plan for the Cleveland Fellers).
My Olympic hot take: While I don’t doubt the dominance of Michael Phelps, a substantial portion of his greatness is derived from the fact that he was lucky enough to compete in a sport with fifty different events.
The rule for things like swimming and running should be: one short race, one long race, one team race.
If you want another event, you need to add something that requires a completely different skill (see: hurdles, jumping). Simply requiring a specific form (e.g.:walking, specific swim stroke) does not qualify since the competitor is still attempting to achieve the same result (moving as fast as possible on land, in the water) with no new skill required.
YES!
http://i.imgur.com/hl4ie.gif
Thank you for your tolerance. You’re doing God’s work. Or something:)
“Ray Farmer Gets Fired Day” was fairly epic…or just cathartic.
EDIT: How could I possibly forget…”Banner and Lombardi Get Fired Day” still makes me tingle.
Jessica suggested elsewhere they be the Cleveland Napoli’s, which works pretty well in that regard as well.
75 comments and counting. I believe you have the Gold Medal for the “New WFNY” thus far.
Millennials in charge?
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/f6/Farnsworth_I_don't_want_to_live_on_this_planet_anymore.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130629034453
As a freshman at THE Kent State University at the end of the 20th century, I was required to earn one credit of Phys Ed via a semester of a sport of my choice. My initial selection was volleyball, something universal to summer gatherings, of which I had many fond memories. But then a cute girl in freshman orientation class informed me she was taking badminton for her credit, at which point I made the switch so fast that I may have actually traveled back in time. The point of this story: badminton is actually awesome, and I watch it during the olympics whenever possible.
https://media.giphy.com/media/W5mUWKOhOVigw/giphy.gif
Why every event from American Gladiators hasn’t been made an Olympoc event is forever beyond me
http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/71e590fd-242c-42ba-9d9f-3cf68071f8e2/d1513acc-aaf8-46c6-a4f8-67611f5bd44e.gif
Props to the Monsters for winning the Cup, but this name change comes off, regardless of any insistence that it had been “in the works”, as an attempt to capitalize on the Cavs title. Add in the fact that it loses a lot of meaning by dropping the “Lake Erie” part, and https://media.riffsy.com/images/caf36592c475cac6cd3ae56fe0eee919/raw