Are the Indians dead yet? TD calms fears – WFNY Podcast – 2015-04-23
April 23, 2015D’Angelo Russell declares for NBA Draft
April 23, 2015Good morning, Blawg Pound! It’s Thursday, and the Cavaliers play Game 3 in Boston tonight. Other than that, everything else seems pretty small in the grand scheme of things. But, I’ll do my best not to just go full Cavs in this edition of the triple dub.
Leading off (and hopping up on this soapbox that I don’t need at 6-4), the Cleveland sports fan in-fighting among the superfans and tweeters from the different teams is getting to be absolutely ridiculous. Not a day has gone by in the last several weeks where there isn’t a Tribe fan poking fun at Browns fans for being excited about the NFL Draft, or uniforms, or anything really. As far as some are concerned, Browns fans should just hang their head in shame without relief until the team makes the playoffs again. Or, it’s the Cavs-only fan jabbing the Tribe’s attendance or their slow start or their injuries. Heck, there’s even the occasional Browns-only fan that cannot find anything nice to say about the Cavaliers and resorts to some tired narrative about Kevin Love or quiet Q crowds or something.
Look, if you don’t follow all three Cleveland teams, that’s cool. I would surmise that very few of us follow all three with the same intensity. For me, the pecking order is Cavs, Indians, and Browns, and I don’t really hide that. It’s also acceptable to have an opinion and share that opinion on one of the other teams, even if you don’t follow them that closely. Where it crosses the line is when it becomes the point and laugh show. Being Cleveland fans (even if it’s only for one of the three teams), we’ve all experienced the battered underdog fan syndrome. Why unnecessarily churn up that kind of sentiment in your own community? It’s just not productive or educated or something I want to be a part of. </rant>
Along these lines, David Burkart at EHC has a quick response to Dan Shaughnessy’s Cleveland slander article. It’s really all that needs to be said about the situation, other than the fact that Shaughnessy is a trolling buffoon.
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Speaking of that playoff crowd, I was in attendance on Sunday for Game 1. While it may not have been the loudest I’ve ever heard The Q, I think it was a pretty good showing for the first game of what fans hope is a long playoff run. Being in college and with every penny I had (and then additional pennies I didn’t) promised to The Ohio State University during the first LeBron era, I only attended two Cavalier playoff games: the Flip Murray game in 2006 and a second round win against the Nets in ’07. I’m hoping to hit at least one game each round this spring (and summer, knock on wood) to make up for lost time.
Outside of Golden State, most of the crowds have sounded similar. Chicago and Atlanta certainly weren’t any louder than The Q with Toronto the clear winner in the East thus far from a noise level perspective (and only with noise level, seeing as how they might not make it back there for Game 5).
Right or wrong, whether it’s ticket price, crowd noise, or general buzz, most fans are treating this as a marathon rather than a sprint. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see louder and louder crowds in Cleveland as the Cavaliers advance round by round.
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As your local uniform designate, I think the Dawgs By Nature poll on the favorite new Browns uniforms is definitely worth a share here. The fans as a whole got it just about 100 percent right with what I was thinking. They liked the brown tops with orange pants the best, which I expected given the history with them. I still can’t find a better combo than the orange tops with the brown pants, which the pollsters ranked third.
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Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell officially announced that he is entering the NBA Draft on Wednesday. I held out only the slimmest of hope that his additional time to make the decision meant he was seriously considering returning for his sophomore year in Columbus. I don’t fault him for leaving, as he’ll be a certain top five pick in the draft. My only regret is that he didn’t get to play with a better Buckeye team around him and that he had to carry the worst Ohio State team in probably seven years.
At the next level, it will be interesting to see where Russell will fit. My hope is that he doesn’t fall into the combo guard tweener status that could hinder his development. Russell does a little bit of everything. He rebounds well for a guard, he’s a highlight reel passer, and he’s a willing defender. His scoring will follow him to the next level. I wish him the best and hope he joins Mike Conley, Jr. as a Buckeye star in the Association.
Our friends at Eleven Warriors put together a little ode to Russell’s short time in the scarlet and gray.
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Those who are reminding us that the Indians were 5-10 to start the playoff season of 2013 might be forgetting just how hot that team had to finish the season just to get into the Wild Card game (ten in a row to close ring a bell?). Granted, 5-9 isn’t the end of the world, but at least two of those games have been absolutely teed up and handed over to the opponent. Going 3-5 against Chicago and Minnesota is a killer when you have six upcoming games against scorching Detroit and Kansas City.
Worse yet, I can’t get past the wasting of good outings from Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer. The bullpen, the bats, and the defense are all raging dumpster fires right now, and when Jerry Sands and Ryan Raburn are sort of carrying your offense, you’ve got issues.
It’s not over, not by a long shot, but the Indians have to stop digging here soon or it will be.
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Would you like some more links? Well, here you go.
– Reds skipper Bryan Price’s F-bomb tirade against the media was pretty uncalled for and hilarious simultaneously. The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay got creative with his extensive knowledge of other F words and had some fun with it.
– When I was browsing Eleven Warriors, I came across their link to Darren Rovell’s tweet. This tweet contains a picture of NFL Draft prospect Marcus Mariota and a mountain of Subway food sculpted to look like him. Yes, it’s as terrifying as it sounds.
– The Sacramento River Cats will be wearing “Legends of the Hidden Temple” inspired uniforms this summer. That’s an A in my book. I was a huge “Legends” fan as a youngster and into my teenage years thanks to the magic of syndication. My occasional disgust at uniform look overload has an exemption for minor league baseball creativity. It’s a family friendly environment where this kind of stuff doesn’t do any harm.
– And finally, filed under “All Out Cool Things,” this kid throwing out the first pitch at the Columbus Clippers game wearing his Iron Man prosthetic hand is awesome. The backstory about the SIena students making his cool prosthetic possible restores one’s faith in humanity.
Make it a good one, all. Fourteen wins to go. #LOBOB
44 Comments
Umm, what Boston sports pundit isn’t a troll?
I can understand not following all three teams with the same intensity (Browns, Tribe, Cavs for me), but actively rooting against your town’s teams makes no sense to me whatsoever. If the Cavs win it all, I’ll be as out-of-my-mind excited as the next person, not moping about because it wasn’t the Browns. CLE sports twitter is quite clique-ish though, with several folks more interested in being a brand than a fan. It definitely takes away from the fun of interacting in that arena sometimes.
The one thing very noticeable already in the crowds at the Q is the collective Cleveland fan habit of “tightening up” very quickly at signs of adversity. The whole arena tenses up, and I have to think that vibe is detectable on the court. Ultimately the players have to make the plays, but we’ve all been in a tense atmosphere before, and know that it can most definitely have an effect on someone. I’m as guilty of it sitting on my couch as the folks in the stands, but it can’t be doing our guys any favors. I think we’ll see the Cavs best performance of the series on the road, where playing the villian can be much easier than playing the savior.
Brown top-Orange pant is still my favorite new look. But my brother sent me an orange Joe Thomas jersey, and I admit I like it FAR more than I did seeing it on a hanger in a store. Not enough to make orange-on-orange acceptable, though.
And the less I say on the Tribe right now, the better. Opportunities simply continue to be wasted.
Jackie MacMullan (whom I still associate with the Boston crowd) is terrific, though she’s an actual reporter.
This is good work, Kirk.
I cannot for the life of me understand how someone, assuming he/she is actually from NE Ohio, can be a fan of just one of the teams without being a fan of all of them. I have never played basketball, don’t particularly enjoy watching it (except in person), and have only watched about 2 collective hours of the Cavs this year (yes, almost entirely this week), but I would still consider myself a “Cavs fan” to the extent that I ever want any NBA team to win a championship. Of the three, I have the least desire to see the Cavs win a championship, and would love for the Browns or Indians (in that order) to do it first, but I still want them to do it, and I’ll cheer from my seat on the bandwagon and be happy. To that end, I’ll just assume that every other NE Ohioan will be happy right along with me (and continue to avoid Twitter like it’s a sharknado).
Orange on orange (on orange) all day for me. If we’re going to highlight the uniforms, let’s HIGHLIGHT them.
“Tightening up” ie. Pucker Factor is ingrained in the NE OH genetics.
You can’t fight DNA.
It’s our sports Spidey Sense. We KNOW what’s coming…
It’s not for everyone, I know, but a healthy dose of Buckeyes football helps salve the condition. It’s still there, oh it’s still there, but it has been assuaged somewhat.
Ummm, yeah, that does nothing for me.
In 2007, who’s Spidey Sense wasn’t going off after game 5? We KNEW what was coming.
The city’s pavlovian response to Shaughnessy – whose piece was not at all offensive by Boston media standards – would be funny if not so sadly predictable. Look, downtown Cleveland is dead at night by big city standards, and confetti in the first round is only normal to us because we think the jerseys of Bingo Smith and Nate Thurmond represent some special contribution of a golden era. Columnists like Shaughnessy aren’t just playing the smirky superior east coast game, they are plenty vicious against failing Boston teams as well.
When an Armond Budish calls the press and grabs the mic to bravely defend mildly snippy language tucked into some backhanded compliments in a column written for Celtic fans, he shrinks us to the size of a little central Ohio hamlet. He precisely reinforces the insecurity Shaughnessy writes about, without a shred of self-awareness. Suck it up, cupcakes. If we’re really rust belt tough we’ll stop searching everywhere for perceived insults.
I wear this proudly…
http://theonlyclevelandstore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Brownie-shirt.jpg
Sure, sure. I understand. You can only treat those that want to be treated.
My Spidey Sense goes off in every game in which any Cleveland team has a lead, however big. And it’s usually right.
Whose hoos is who’s?
Although, my Spidey Sense didn’t go off during last years draft. First round…pick #4…
And Boston is a second-tier city with a huge inferiority complex because it’s not New York. Maybe he should focus on the plank in his eye instead of the speck in Cleveland’s.
He does, all the time. Should we criticize local writers who take jabs at Miami’s “Fan Up!” or L.A.’s celebrity culture? He’s going to focus on what entertains his readers. Our reaction to him is as insecure as he portrays us.
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Okay, a little nitpicking: Burkhart’s response was fine and measured. I appreciate it. But . . . it’s so distracting to read an article defending the merits of the city that I love when it misuses “it’s” so glaringly and so often. I almost stopped reading (but I understand that this is a problem with me and not the article). Criticize lazy reporting all you want, but please, please, please don’t be a lazy writer while doing so.
/ Quickly scans comment to make sure he’s not being a lazy writer while criticizing lazy writing . . . finds some flaws (dumb opening! starting a sentence with “But . . . “), but chalks it up as “creativity” and decides to go with it anyway.
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Official beverage sponsor of Cleveland Sports
does Peter Gammons count?
orange shoes with orange socks and orange pants and orange belts and orange jerseys and orange helmets.
but, all with white and brown striping because we are not garish.
Yeah, let’s not be ridiculous.
But, now that you mention it, I think that would be awesome. I’d even ask the players to consider painting their skin orange.
the spray tan would work for some players better than others. however, we could always mandate those stretchy elbow sleeves that NBA players seem to love so much.
The Shoe most definitely experiences the pucker. Not sure 10 more national titles could change that. It really is genetic.
We should find out.
All of this.
I get that we don’t like to hear what Shaughnessy had to say, but what about it is slander?
That’s not a problem with you.
I’m game
“the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person’s reputation”
So I guess it’s more libelous, but the point stands.
I was taught in law school that the distinction is no longer important. It can all be labeled defamation.
‘America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.’
ORANGE ON ORANGE CRIME!!! I’m loving it! I like all the combos because they remind me of the Browns. But I’m def buying an orange jersey. I’ve been wearing the same authentic white Eric Metcalf jersey that my girlfriend’s parents bought me for my birthday in high school (1993ish). Time to move forward with the new regime….
Go Cavs,
Go Browns
Go Indians
Go Buckeyes
Go CSU
Go Case Western
Go Baldwin Wallace
Go John Carroll
Go Heights Tigers!
I was sick the day they taught law in law school.
as a native Clevelander living in New York, I concur.
I actually do love Boston, but, to be fair, Boston seems pretty dead on weeknights after work, too, so, I’m not really sure what that guy’s talking about. Although, almost every city seems pretty dead to me anymore.
But, really, all you have to do to shut a Bostoner up is say these two words: “Big Dig.”
Ever since i misspelled, “Wednesday” in the 3rd grade spelling bee I have been a spelling snob. I got your back hear.
*You’re
“Damage” is always the hard part, and truth is an absolute defense.
Same, plus I married a woman from Boston.
I think you are conflating civic pride with weakness here, Harv, and that’s a bit unfair to the Cleveland fan base.
There was also a lack of civility in Shaughnessy’s piece, and I’m not sure we should be using “Boston media standards” as any sort of lodestar.
I strenuously object
Problem solved.
http://www.costumebox.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/o/bodorng-morph-orange.jpg
Pride doesn’t induce defensiveness or overreaction. I mean, were proud Miami politicians making speeches in response to the insults hurled by Cleveland writers after The Decision? I’ve never seen a population that, as a group, fixates so much about what people elsewhere think about their city, their teams and players. It’s certainly not because we’re the “proudest.”
I’m pleased that people feel an affinity for their city/region and believe it is worth defending against condescending generalizations. We seem to disagree on how to interpret it – I see it more as civic pride and you see it as representing a collective wound. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between…but tilting more to my side of course 😉
Next up, paint the field orange