Cavs trade Brendan Haywood, Mike Miller, picks to Blazers for trade exceptions
July 26, 2015C-Cap Recap: A Thoroughly Defeated Tribe
July 27, 2015Happy Monday, you guys. I come to you fresh off of a crazy weekend in Indianapolis where I was able to take in my first NASCAR experience: The Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard. As you may know, I am by no means a fan of said sport, but thoroughly enjoy watching the best at anything compete at high levels. Getting to do so for an entire weekend—one that was very loud and hot and humid with a UV index of at least 3 million, give or take—was one hell of an experience. I’ll have plenty more in the coming days, but will leave you with this: The people watching was spectacular.
♦♦♦
The last thing I want to do is to steal the thunder from our impending weekend recap (which is an incredibly entertaining look at the current Indians situation), but good God what an embarrassing display put on by the Cleveland Indians this past weekend. I will admit to not seeing much of it, but it’s really freaking hard to get swept in a four-game series at home, yet the Tribe managed to accomplish such thanks to another dismal effort at the plate.
This front office (in addition to a cavalcade of apologists on Twitter and the like) can continue to trot out this whole young, talented, and locked-up rotation bit of lip service until they’re blue in the face, but until this group of executives can roster a quality group of bats in addition to guys who can catch the ball (two more errors yesterday), they’re only going to serve to frustrate those young and talented arms who continue to toss quality start after quality start but receive nothing in the way of run support.
Check out this quote from Jason Kipnis following Sunday’s loss:
“We’ve been playing like shit, there’s no way around it. Embarrassing. No fight. People are worrying about their own things, nobody’s held accountable. It’s just not the way we’re going to do business here.”
It will be interesting to see how said accountability manifests itself from here out. The front office has seemingly been Teflon thus far, but until they can find a handful of players who can swing a piece of wood and make consistent, quality contact with an incoming baseball, we’re going to be trading in this same misery of what-could-have-been. But hey, Training Camp starts this week.
♦♦♦
This was just released last night, but this story on the women who spoke out against Bill Cosby is an incredible piece of reporting married with an excellent cover. I’ll be shocked if this doesn’t win some kind of award.
♦♦♦
Turn on the A/C and chill off those hot takes. Here’s this week’s edition of #ActualSportswriting:
“Chip Kelly, football’s most intriguing figure, is also its most unknown” by Kent Babb (Washington Post): “There are holes in the Kelly story, unanswered questions and mystery that have grown his legend as much as anything. His middle name is absent from many public records, and even Mark Saltveit, who has written two biographies of Kelly, has had trouble accounting for a six-year period of Kelly’s life, between his final game as a college player at New Hampshire and his graduation from the school.”1
“The lingerie football trap” by Jordan Ritter Conn (Grantland): “A primer: Yes, they play football while wearing next to nothing; and yes, the spirals and tackles and playbooks are real. No, most players are not aspiring models or actresses; and no, they do not get paid.”2
♦♦♦
And finally, John Oliver on prison sentences. Be good, you guys.
- I love when profiles are written about individuals who decline to participate—it’s an incredible challenge for a writer. Factor in the mystique surrounding Kelly, and you have a solid piece of work. [↩]
- A look at the under-discussed LFL in addition to some focus on key women who have played in the league for some time. [↩]
23 Comments
Yeah, sure the Tribe sucked this weekend, buuuut…the Four Letter fired Cowherd! Woohoo!
Good riddance to that pompous prick.
http://media.giphy.com/media/MGcPtfsD8L5Kw/giphy.gif
“Chip Kelly, football’s most intriguing figure, is also its most unknown”
1. Really? Kelly is the most intriguing figure in all of football? By what measure? Where are the standings? Who’s the second-most intriguing? By how much? What’s the score? Who was the most intriguing before Kelly?
2. And, wonder of wonders, he’s also the most unknown. Really really? Chip Kelly is the most unknown figure in football? I rather doubt that.
I dislike stupid, unnecessary hype. It’s lazy and unprofessional writing.
“Chip Kelly, football’s most intriguing figure, is also its most unknown”
Quick, name the coach of the 49ers.
Jets? Chargers?
Yeah, I thought so.
I’m with you, man.
I get your point….but, counterpoint on the intriguing portion…
Chip Kelly is willing to dive into areas that conventional football doesn’t. From practice schedules, monitoring athletes sleep, nutrition, and movement 24-7 (intrusive to say the least), roster management, and actual offensive/defensive identity are extremely intriguing (to me at least).
As for unknown, I think it is more off for such a widely known name coach, he has some extremely big holes in his biography and he doesn’t like talking about himself. It’s a bit lazy and the article really means that he is insular with his personal life, which can lead to being “unknown” in a matter of speaking.
Regardless, it’s a really well-written article that gives facts about Chip that were not previously out there for public consumption.
I’m not saying he’s not intriguing. He is. I’m questioning the fact that he is “the most” intriguing figure in football. What are the criteria for ranking intriguement? By what standard is he more intriguing than, say, Rex Ryan or Steve Spurrier or Chuck Kyle or Johnny Manziel or Ed Hochuli?
As for unknown, again, what are the criteria for being “the most” unknown figure in football? There’s not a second-string junior college player somewhere who has bigger holes in his biography and who dislikes talking about himself even more than Kelly? Closer to hone, I’ll bet Belichick dislikes talking about himself more than Kelly does. So how is the “the most” unknown?
It’s a lazy, unprofessional headline.
If the owners, GM, and manager aren’t fired up about this BS, then why should fans care about this team? Don’t complain about attendance when the product is garbage.
Congrats on your first NASCAR experience, Scott. As a veteran of many, it is undeniably an enjoyable experience that lives with you for years, regardless of one’s affinity for the sport (which I happen to love). No doubt, the people watching is amazing. Certain components of my family to this day talk about the people experience at the Brickyard years ago. From the Tony Stewart (and other drivers) toilet paper, to the extraordinarily loud lady yelling to her friend, Mindy Hale, 100 rows above us in the deafening din whilst spraying everyone around her with her spray bottle of what was presumably water (I hope), to very public beer bonging, to the guy sitting in front of us with a tattoo of a topless women on a motorcycle superimposed on two very strategically located skin cancer blisters (get the picture?), the event was absolutely sublime.
Just can’t do it. Cars turning left for 3 hourzzzzzzzz…
I’ve been to Indy 3 times to watch MotoGP. A much more compelling “sport” in my opinion.
http://d22zlbw5ff7yk5.cloudfront.net/images/stash-1-50adaa44516ec.gif
As someone who works in the field, mandatory minimums frustrate everyone (except for probably prosecutors and legislators). Have you ever tried to read Ohio’s sentencing statutes? They read like choose your own adventure books.
But good luck running a “reasonable on crime” campaign. Or, if already elected and working to fix the laws, have fun being portrayed as “soft on crime” during your re-election run. Moreover, when you run on a “tough on crime” platform, you necessarily have to pass some needless law in order to justify your election. Said needless law quite often usurps judicial discretion and results in situations like those in the Oliver video.
thank you! next time i see someone talk about attendance i’ll remind them of this past weekend where the indians scored 5 runs in 4 games and were not only swept but crushed by a last place team in their division on a weekend celebrating larry doby and slider.
Like I said before been a NASCAR fan since the days I grew up watching that #9 Coors Silver Bullet. I also liked Indy cars with Rick Mears but I lost my passion for that sport. I’m still with NASCAR however. Kyle Busch is en fuego right now, in a good way!
you know, haven’t actually watched this movie in about 3 years and these gifs get me jonesin’. Maybe time to just buy it and store it with my other medications.
Know what you mean. It’s on the very short list of movies I have to periodically re-watch.
Don’t buy it just yet, though. It’s on Netflix. (Until it isn’t.)
right, until it isn’t. Some I just have to own to know they’re there in an emergency. Would be interesting for commenters to compare our idiosyncratic lists, the “break glass in emergency” ones you need to click the universe back into place. Mine are freakin’ weird, with no obvious common thread.
Worked for a time at the U. S. Attorney’s office, S.D. of Ohio. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are like a recipe book for a dinner at the crappest party ever (and I helped prosecute!). Judicial discretion has been thrown entirely out the window, which might be good for some defendants in Texas, but is a travesty for most others.
But I think the sentiment that created this is recently changing, finally.
Well, I’ll contribute (you can tell by the list when I stopped “watching movies”):
The Big Lebowski
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Tombstone
There are a few others that I also periodically re-watch, but they don’t quite come up to the level of the Big 3, at least in terms of “medicating the universe.”
I usually try to my cull gifs from The Godfather and Game Of Thrones, but the Big Lebowski has a lot of good material.
Love “O Brother” on multiple levels. Own the soundtrack only.
– Godfather I, II
– Garden State
– Good Will Hunting (as if you can’t find it any given night on cable, but it’s kind of a father-daughter thing)
– Lost in Translation (Bill Murray fanatic, and this edges Broken Flowers as his finest)
– Defiance (I have no explanation for this one)
Good list.
I have a peculiar favorite Bill Murray movie: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (but I’m something of a Wes Anderson fanatic, without even being a hipster, and this is Anderson’s best, in my opinion – but any of his movies could set the universe right, under certain cosmic circumstances).
Never saw Life Aquatic for some reason. And the only Andersons I’ve seen are Royal Tenenbaums, which I thought overrated, and Darjeeling Limited, which was great. Been meaning to see Rushmore for a decade.
Swap out “O Brother” and replace it with “A Few Good Men”, and that’s a fine start to my list. I’d likely have to go to a top 10 though.