Highlights of the NBA Draft

WOW! Did you see all those crazy NBA trades during the draft last night? KG went where? Kobe to who? Marion is in what city? Oh, nevermind. They all stayed put, like easily predicted by J-Beanie yesterday. However, there was a slew of trades did take place.

My favorite was Zach Randolph to New York for Channing Frye and Steve “remember when I used to be called Franchise” Francis. NY may have the better end of the deal but that could change quickly. Randolph will easily put up 25-10 in the East but putting a guy with questionable character in NY City is like putting a fresh baked batch of cookies in front a fat 10-year old, leaving him a lone in the room and telling not to eat it. He’s going to eat it. It’s like letting Pacman Jones into a strip club and telling him he can’t spend any money. It’s like leaving Woody Page alone with a good looking make-up artist and telling him not to touch her. It’s like a buddy telling you not to mess with him if he passes out early on a night of drinking, then passing out at 11:00. You have to mess with him. If Randolph’s been in trouble in Portland what’s he going to do with the bright lights and all night bars in NYC. He’s going to get in trouble. The Knicks should just be thankful Roger Goodell isn’t running the NBA.

Other enjoyable moments from the night…

The awkward of David Stern’s opening speech. He fumbled his way through it and when he said “home of the Knicks and Liberty” the crowd’s reaction was great. Scattered boos and jeers. Why would he even say that? The fans of the Knicks are bitter and looking to boo anythiing and everyone was asking ‘who’s the Liberty?’

Jay Bilas’s Oprah joke about Big Baby Davis’s weight issue and Steven A. Smith laugh so hard he put his head on the desk.

All the Stuart Scott interviews with the draftees. Scott tried so hard to be “hip” he ended up not making any sense.

That Portland waited 3 minutes to pick Oden even though everyone knew they were picking him. Along those lines, how great was the “Trail Blazers draft cam” and seeing the eight suits start high-fiving when they hung up the phone like the just came up with the great move in NBA history?

Steven A. Smith actually making himself useful and predicting the 76ers would take Thaddeus Young right before Stern announced it.

I loved how Jeff Green had to wear the Celtics hat even though everyone knew he was traded to Seattle and Scott was even asking him question about playing with Durrant.

I love the move made by Danny Ferry.

I’m still disappointed no one tripped.

I’ve pleased I turned off the draft after the 14th pick to watch “Ice Age: The Meltdown.”

One thing I hate, and then I’ll call it quits for today, with Kobe and KG not being moved, that only sets up months and months of talk and speculation about why they weren’t traded and where they could still be traded. I’m Kobe/KG’d out. Let no one talk about either one until there is an actual trade. Thank you.

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GIRL POWER!!!

Oh man. I’m so excited. I knew this morning something special was going to happen today. You could just feel it. By noon, I felt like a dog before a thunderstorm. I was all antsy and knew something was coming but no one else knew what was wrong with me. Then, at 1:31, I clicked on to Yahoo to check my email and what’s the lead story…

“It’s official!” – The rumors about a Spice Girl reunion are true, says singer Geri Halliwell.

GIRL POWER!!!

Here’s all the detail’s. I’m so excited I can barely type right now. I can only hope their tour includes a stop in Northeast Ohio.

I do find it kind of weird that the tour is announced now after Victoria Beckham, or Posh Spice, moved to the USA. Is it a way for her to leave David or was it David’s idea to push her a way so he can hook up with all the Hollywood scarlets.

The best part, their manager is Simon Fuller, creator of American Idol. I can only hope he decides to turn this tour into a reality TV show where after each show, the live audience votes off one of the members until there are no members left.

Speaking of reality TV, I thought I had a reality TV corespondent but he hasn’t checked in yet. I think he’s a little embarrassed that he watches all those shows. Come on. Step up. This site could use your reality TV gossip.

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NBA Draft

The NBA Draft is Thursday. With the Cavs having no picks and the top two picks about as debatable does Pacman like strippers, I’m struggling to find something that will intrigue me about this draft. Sure the picks 3-17 and beyond are about as predictable as Mike Tyson’s next money making move but that’s not enough for me.

Yeah, there’s all the trade talk. KG going to LA or Phoenix, Marion or Amare leaving the Suns, nobody wanting to go to Boston, but what are the chances of that happening. Boston already said they aren’t trading their No. 5 pick, Phoenix would be stupid to trade Amare and KG has been wanting a trade for like 18 years now. I just have a feeling nothing major is going to happen, just like at the trade deadline. All these teams talk about a big trade but no one will pull it off when the time comes.

There aren’t even any crazy named foreigners in the draft to make crowd go “who did David Stern just introduce?” and the player who’s name it was looks around the green room at the other foreigners until they finally agree it was him.

I’ve read so much stuff on the draft I feel it has already happened. I feel the same way about the draft as I do about ‘Live Free or Die Hard.’ I was excited for it until everyone over-played, over-wrote, and over-talked about it. I’ve seen so many mock drafts and none have been the same. Only the top two picks. I was going to do my own but I just don’t care anymore and I don’t want to bore you with it.

About the only thing exciting about this draft is seeing what crazy dance Joakim Noah will do and what player free falls like Brady Quinn.

The draft is supposedly the deepest and most talented it’s been in ages and the only thing I want to see happen is someone trip when they walk on stage. How has that not happened in the years of all the drafts?

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Yankees, Tigers, (oh), Inidians, Oh my!

While the Yankees keep finding fun ways to lose (giving up a game-winning, walk-off, bases loaded walk to lose to the incredibly bad Orioles is very fun), the Tigers can’t handle the Rangers losing two in a row including giving up three in the top of the ninth to lose 9-6 last night, the Indians look to be back on track. The win and the Tigers’ loss put the Tribe back in a tie for first place while the Yankees lost all but assured a Yankee free October.

For the sixth time at home this season, the Indians won in their final at bat. Kelly Shoppach was the hero last night with his GW 3-run, no doubt about it home run. Before we confess my man love for him, let’s not forget some other key plays in that ninth inning. First, Grady Sizemore’s one-out walk then getting back to first so he wasn’t doubled up on Casey Blake’s long foul out that looked like it would be double. Then there was Eric Wedge’s decision to pinch run Victor Martinez after he was walked with Ben Fransisco. A great move since there was no way Martinez was scoring on Travis Hafner’s game tying double.

After Jhonny Peralta was walked, Shoppach stepped to the plate. Two pitches later he was back at the plate being mobbed by his teammates. Watching that final inning and the celebration it brought back memories of the late 1990s when come from behind wins in their final at bat was nothing out of the ordinary for the Tribe and celebrations at home plate were as common as stadium mustard.

The Tribe’s big week before the All-Star Game has started with two wins, a Cy Young performance, a slugger slump busting and a back-up walk off winner. The only thing better than that is the Yankees on life support and the Tigers not being able to beat the Rangers. Watch out, now. I think the Indians are about to drop some hurtin’ bombs.

Oh, for some fun on what Yankee fans are experiencing this morning check out GMoney’s blog (gmoneysack.blogspot.com). I love Yankee fans.

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Indians listen; Die Hard still not out; classic Rocky scene

I guess all I have to do is call out the Indians and they respond. In yesterday’s post I questioned whether Indians fans should be happy they are only two games out of first place when they offense has been awful or worried. I called out Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko saying they need to get going for the offense to get going. Well guess who comes up big for the Tribe last night? That’s right, Hafner and Garko. It’s about time. Hopefully Hafner’s HR and Garko’s what turned out to be the game winning double gets them back on track.

If it wasn’t for them, then the Tribe could have wasted another Cy Young worthy performance by C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia through his second complete game of the month. And that’s not including his 9 innings in the game the Indians lost in extra innings. C.C.’s a beast. Like Sabathia, Josh Beckett has 11 wins with a slightly lower ERA, 3.04 to 3.24. Dan Haren, who Cleveland faces tonight, is 9-2 with a 1.78 ERA but it’s C.C. who should start the All-Star game. C.C. has the most innings pitched, has more strikeouts than both of them, has throw two complete games to none for both of them including one shutout. C.C. has been more dominate and if a little more run support he could easily be 13-1 or even 14-1. He still has two more starts before the All-Star Game and if he gets to 13 wins he deserves to start. Beckett can still get to 13 wins too, but we’ve already went over why C.C. gets the nod above him. I think it helps that Jim Leyland is the manager of the AL. Being in the same division he should stick with C.C. out of respect.

More on the who should make the All-Star Game probably tomorrow but for now I need to talk about something that’s been bothering me for some time.

It’s the new Die Hard movie, Live Free or Die Hard. I can’t believe this movie comes out tomorrow. I’m so confused by that. Doesn’t it seem like it’s been out for a month now? When I saw the preview for the 538th time this morning during my SportsCenter hour, I honestly thought I must be watching something I DVR’d. There’s no way this movie hasn’t opened yet. It might be the most promoted, hyped movie of all time. I swear they’ll been showing the trailer since January. Any desire I had to see it (which I had only a little in the first place) was killed off with all the previews. As soon as I saw a car jump a toll booth to take out a helicopter, I knew the movie had no chance. If that wasn’t enough, how about the scene were the car is flip towards Bruce Willis and then miraculously two car pull up right next to him and stop the other car from landing on him. Even Bruce Willis from Unbreakable thinks that is ridiculous. I know I’ll eventually see the movie, either on DVD or when it finally makes its way on to TV and there are Die Hard marathons like the Rocky marathons (how much is Spike TV, TNT and USA going to love running those), but until then, I don’t need to hear detective John McClane say “yippee kai-yay mother fucker.”

While I’m on the subject of sequels that come out way to late after the pervious movie and by action stars that well past their prime, I need to mention something about Rocky Balboa. I enjoyed the movie just because I wanted to since I’m a big Rocky fan but one scene always makes me laugh and I had to share it. It was right before Rocky started training for his fight with Antonio Tarver. Here’s how it went. Just sit back and enjoy. A classic movie moment.

Duke: You know all there is to know about fighting, so there’s no sense us going down that same old road again. To beat this guy, you need speed – you don’t have it. And your knees can’t take the pounding, so hard running is out. And you got arthritis in your neck, and you’ve got calcium deposits on most of your joints, so sparring is out.

Paulie: I had that problem.

Duke: So, what we’ll be calling on is good ol’ fashion blunt force trauma. Horsepower. Heavy-duty, cast-iron, piledriving punches that will have to hurt so much they’ll rattle his ancestors. Every time you hit him with a shot, it’s gotta feel like he tried kissing the express train. Yeah! Let’s start building some hurtin’ bombs!

Yeah! Got to love them hurtin’ bombs!

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A big week upcoming for Tribe

The Cleveland Indians are only 2 games out of first place, trailing the Detroit Tigers. If someone would have told me that at the beginning of the year I probably would have been happy with it. The Tribe is 12 games over .500 at 43-31. Again, would have been happy with it at the beginning of the year. Cleveland is just 10-12 in June. Ten times they scored 3 runs are less. They won only 2 series and one of those was against Kansas City. Hafner has all of 13 hits in the month, Ryan Garko have been even worse with 9 hits and Trot Nixon has been nonexistent with 7 hits. Only two players on the roster are hitting over .300 and one of them is the back-up catcher (Kelly Shopach hitting .373 and Victor Martinez at .314). The three players with the next best averages aren’t even everyday players – Jason Michaels .294, Franklin Gutierrez .292 and Garko .291. The Tribe is still second in runs scored (5.4 a game), fourth in home runs but only sixth in batting average.

With all that said, the Indians are still only 2 games out of first place. They’re in a better spot than they’ve been since 2001. There’s no doubt the offense has struggled but they are just two games back. So should we be concerned with the lack of offense or should we be happy they are in a pennant race? Being an optimist, I want to just be happy they are in a pennant race, but I can’t. They should still be at least tied for first, like they were when they went into the weekend. Instead they were one Martinez home run away from being swept by the triple-A like Washington Nationals. I can’t see the offense getting any worse. Hafner can’t be slumping this bad all year. Pitchers aren’t giving him anything to hit so he chases after some pitches he normally wouldn’t to try and get something going. He’ll lock in soon. If he gets it going again, the rest of the lineup will follow. He’s the key.

The next week and a half will be very important to how the season plays out. Back-to-back four game home series with Oakland and Tampa Bay lead into a big series at Detroit. The Tribe has to take 5-of-8 from the A’ and Devil Rays at the worse. The Tigers are playing really well. They got Texas and Minnesota before the Tribe. Cleveland can’t afford to fall anymore more than, at the worse, 3 games back before their match up. At least that way, a sweep would tie the two teams up. Of course, the Tigers could come in and sweep the Indians at which point it would be a six game hole and things could be ugly. Not to put a lot of importance on a series in the first week of July, but the July 3-5 series is very important.

The Indians’ bats need to get it together. Thank goodness for C.C. and Fausto and just about the rest of the pitching staff. Hopefully coming home and playing AL teams again will get the Tribe back on track. They are only 2 games out of first, which normally I’d be happy about, but it almost feels like more than that.

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Three babies less than a week old who I’m jealous of

Remember those old Gatorade commercials with Michael Jordan and the song “Wanna be, wanna be like Mike.” First of all, great commercials. Second, I think the new slogan should be “Wanna be, wanna be like Bryce” or ““Wanna be, wanna be like Sam,” or “Wanna be, wanna be like Ella.” I think I could be happy being anyone of those three newborns, or at least their best friend.

LeBron James, Tiger Woods and Jeff Gordon all welcomed children into the world last week. For LeBron it was his second, Woods and Gordon are first time fathers. LeBron and Gordon are worth an estimated $200 million while Woods sits at $252 million. I think these kids are going to have a pretty decent life a head of them.

I mean how cool would it be to be one of these kids? You’re life is set before you learn to walk. Hell, before you can even open your eyes. All come from athletic, good looking, self driven, motivated respected parents. The dads are on top of their respected athletic fields and the moms are knockouts. Well, Lebron’s isn’t quite supermodel status but still a very attractive female.

Some lucky babies came from these couples.

Bryce Maximus James will have a little bit of a chip on his should, however. He is LeBron’s second son and will be known as LeBron’s son who isn’t named LeBron. I don’t think he’ll have to worry about any limited athletic ability. He’ll even have LeBron, Jr. to push him hard and further than his brother and father have gone. I can only hope LeBron, Sr. plays in the NBA long enough to play with LeBron, Jr. and possibly Bryce. Let’s see, LeBron is 22 now, LeBron Jr. is 2, Bryce a week. You have to be one year out of high school to play in the NBA so that means most people would be 19 when entering the draft. So in 17 years, when LeBron Jr. is eligible for the draft, his dad will be 39. Two more years until Bryce is eligible makes him 41. Kind of a stretch but possible. Although, LeBron will probably be bored with the NBA by then and on to some other business but let’s hope he pulls a Robert Parish and sticks around. Then again, LeBron’s sons might not even go to the NBA. They might be in the NFL. After all, LeBron was All-Ohio as a sophomore wide receiver. Or maybe they’ll be great golfers, or soccer players, or tennis players, or bowlers, or darters, or swimmers, or beach volleyball players. The possibilities are endless because they are LeBron James’s kids.

The only people luckier than Sam Alexis Woods are any boy born within the past year or will be born in the next year. You’re telling me Sam isn’t going to be one of the greatest females ever to grace the earth. She’ll have athletic talent like a pizza has calories, she’ll have the coolest set of parents, she’ll be loaded and you know she’ll be knockout. The daughter of a Swedish supermodel and a man with the chiseled good looks of Tiger, she her path is already paved. She’ll make Maria Sharapova and Amanda Beard look like a pile of puke. And with the work ethic and respect Tiger has, it’s safe to say she won’t follow the lifestyle of Paris, Brittany or Lindsay.

Same can be said about Ella Sofia Gordon. Since I’m not a big NASCAR guy, I know nothing about Gordon but, oh my, is he dreamy. And that wife of his, damn! Jeff Gordon and Ingrid Vandebosch were meant to make babies together.

I wonder if any of those couples is looking for an agent/publicist/manager/assistant/drug-dealer-keeper-a-wayer. Or at least someone who can ride their coat tail.

Just for the fun of, I can’t resist and I know you want to see it, two more pictures of Elin and Ingrid.

You’re Welcome.

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Vegas Memories

Not to much to write about today but after reading ESPN.com’s Bill Simmon’s column yesterday on his most recent trip to Vegas I thought I’d share a few stories from my Vegas trips. First of all, any story that comes for a Vegas trips is automatically 10 times funnier if you’ve been to Vegas and can relate to it with a story of your own. Second, stories are never as funny if you aren’t there, but they do make you appreciate the scene in Vegas.

I’ve been to Vegas three times. Once with the family when I was like 12 (obviously no big stories from that trip), once with the family when I was 19 and another time three summers ago when I was 21. In total, I’ve been kicked out of a casino three times, twice from the same one on two separate occasions.

I’ll start with the more boring and move to the more entertaining. When I was 19, my brother (21 at the time) and I were just playing some of those video poker machines. We were at some rinky dink casino (no hotel) across the street from The Mirage that gave a way a free frozen margarita. I used my brother’s idea to get one for me. A few minutes later, brother tried to get one himself and the guy said, “really? You just got one.” He wouldn’t give my brother a drink since you were only allowed one a day. Kind of funny. As we sat and played video poker, a security guard came up and asked us for ID’s. Needless to say, we were asked to leave.

After leaving that place, we were wondering the streets trying to pick the next place to go. Since we were young, we didn’t have much money to gamble away and I’m not a big gambler to begin with. As we walked the strip, we saw the greatest sign in the world. Outside the Barbary Coast there was a huge sign “ALL DRINKS $1.”

We couldn’t believe it. Inside we went. My brother went up and bought two draft beers. Down those went and next up was two rum and Cokes. Down those went and we were only out $4. We ended up meeting a wedding party from Canada and sitting at the little lounge with them. We were sitting at one of those small tables no bigger than a foot with big chairs around it.

After a few hours of drinking and shots, one of the Canadians stood on his chair, dove across the table and tackled my brother. Somehow, no drinks were spilled and we all laughed about it. About 10 minutes later, he did the same thing but tackled me. Well, a few minutes later, I decided to take revenge. I stood on my chair, drove across the table and tackled the Canadian. We laughed, lingered on the ground a little while catching our breath. By this time there were tables and chair knocked over all over the place and no one else left in the lounge.

A security guard came over and basically said “what the hell are you doing! Get out of here.” The weird part is he only kicked my brother and me out. Oh well, by that point it was like 4am anyway so that was OK by us. We picked up another beer on the way back to our hotel (got to love the no open container law) and then had to slam the beer just outside or room while we heard our mom waking up for the morning. I think we got about an hour or two of sleep that night.

Two summers later I was back but this time with two buddies, Jon and JP. We were on a cross country road trip to LA where I was going to be staying for the summer. We obviously had to stop in Vegas. The first night was relatively quite (by Vegas standards since we got in so late), the second night was the memorable night.

We hopped around from casino to casino, gambling and drinking beers starting at about 1:00 p.m.. By 6, we were inside the Barbary Coast slamming drinks. At one point, Jon and JP wanted to go gamble at the Bellagio, just to say they had. For whatever reason, I got separate from them. I called them and I thought they said they were at Paris. I couldn’t find them and I thought they were playing a joke on me. Being drunk, instead of laughing, I got mad. A good hour later, after walking around a bunch of casinos all by myself, I finally found them outside the Barbury Coast. We sat outside bitching at each other for a while. Finally, we were like why are we yelling at each? This is Vegas, we’re drunk and we are acting like a bunch of girls. Celebrating our rekindled friendship we walked back into the Barbary Coast. JP was in front of me so I thought it would be a good idea to jump on his back. Well, he couldn’t hold me up and we both fell on the sidewalk. Instead of getting up, we just laid there. People were actually walking over us as we just laughed.

The place where memories are made.

We ended up meeting a few girls at the lounge (the same one I got kicked out of two years earlier). They asked us if we wanted to do a Yager Bomb with them. Being the cheapo college students we were, we said “no, that’s probably out of our price range.” They responded with, “No, it’s a dollar too.” Well then, Game on. After that it was safe to say the night was a blur. Who can say no to a $1 Yager Bomb?

As the night worn on, JP and Jon wanted to play some more roulette. While they were playing, I walked around like an aimless drunk. I decided it was getting about that time to leave. I walked up behind Jon, who was wearing a red shirt, slapped him hard on the back hard, I mean real hard, and said “let’s go.” Only when Jon turned around, it wasn’t Jon. It was a dealer who always was wearing red.

“Oh, crap,” was the only thing going through my head. Then I saw a guy in suit, behind the tables start walking towards me. Before he got to me I said, “I know, I’m out of here,” and basically threw myself out. I sat outside for like 3 minutes then came back. Afraid of getting caught, I hid behind a slot machine trying to get JP and Jon’s attention. Finally, I did and we were out.

We walked outside and to our amazement, it was light. Turns out it was about 6:00 a.m. then. Got to love no clocks in a casino. We grab a cab and head to my friend’s house where we were staying. Just a few minutes into the ride we realize we don’t have enough money left to get to her house. The cab driver said she’d knock a few bucks off the price if someone mooned the strip. Well 15 plus hours of drinking in me that sounded like fun. I hop out of the cab and drop my pants for a good 10 seconds well the cars around me start honking their horns and I return with a wiggle and a wave.

Some how we eventually made it home, slept no more than 4 hours and were back on the road to cap our trip to LA. Can’t wait for our next trip to Vegas.

Got to love Vegas.

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Cavs need big offseason, probably won’t happen

Before I get to what the Cavs need to do this offseason, let me address the few comments from Graig and Scott on yesterday’s column. First the Cory Lidle Airlines fantasy baseball team name. I agree with Scott that that is a low blow and the only thing worse than naming your fantasy baseball team Cory Lidle Airlines is having a fantasy baseball team. I don’t understand how you can pay that much attention everyday for 947 straight days. I have tried before and always lose interest by the end of May.

Second, Fausto Carmona’s season is a feel good story. Whether you think putting him in the closer’s role last year was stupid or not, they way he rebounded this year is remarkable. He had the stuff to be a closer it was just he had little to no experience in the bullpen at all. Had they eased him into the role he probably would be a fantastic closer this year or next year. But it didn’t work out and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Had he not been tried as a closer last year, then they probably would still be messing around with the idea this year. What did it hurt to try it out last year? We weren’t making the playoff anyway and we learned he is a starter. It all worked out. But even this year Carmona came out and lost his first start of the year, his 11th in a row. He could have easily been a head case and been useless the whole season. But he turned things around and is an All-Star. If you want to be negative, Graig, and call it a stupid move by the worst manager of all time, fine. Be as negative as you want. But all I know is it takes a special player to rebound like Carmona has.

OK, now that that is out of the way on to the Cavaliers. The Cavs season has been over for less than a week and already all kinds of rumors are being thrown around about what they will and will not do this offseason. Well, I’ve decided to get in on it and throw out some ideas that I think they should do. First, the things they shouldn’t do. They shouldn’t trade to get into the first round unless it’s to get Greg Oden, Kevin Durant or Mike Conley. That’s not going to happen so it makes no sense to trade to take a mid-to-late round pick. We don’t need more rookies.

I think it’s safe to say everyone agrees the Cavs need a point guard. Names being thrown around have been Mike Bibby and Earl Boykins. I like each player but neither would be a good fit on the Cavs. Both are shoot first guards and we know we don’t need that. Boykins is 5’5” and a liability on defense and Mike Brown won’t like that. The best free agent guard for the Cavs is Steve Blake. Blake is a distributor and a quality shooter. He’s not the best point guard by any means but look at what he did in Denver last year. Playing with AI and ‘Melo, he was able to rack up assists and hit open three’s since the defense had other people to worry about. With Blake at point, a healthy, attacking Hughes at the 2 and LeBron, Blake will have a chance to do the same thing.

With that said, I would do just about anything I can to get rid of Hughes. That is going to be difficult to do, however, thanks to his big contract. The thing with Hughes is I think he can be a good, not great scorer on another team. He just doesn’t fit in with the Cavs and needs a new system. If the Cavs can convince another team of that then they might be able to get a real good value for him.

It would be nice to package Damon Jones, Ira Newble and David Wesley together and send them just about anywhere.

It’s going to be tough but they have to sign Varejao and Sasha. If they can’t sign both, I’d rather have Varejao but he will be the tougher sign. He’s such a unique player and teams would much rather have him than play against him. If he gets more than the mid-level exception ($5.5 million) it will be tough for the Cavs to pay him more than Gooden.

Rumor is the Bulls are interested in D-Good. I’d be willing to trade him only if we got an upgrade at PF. Gooden has adapted to his role with the Cavs perfectly over the last two years. To trade him, we’d have a pretty special package and I don’t think the Bulls are willing to give up what the Cavs need. Mainly a point guard like Kirk Hinrich or Ben Gordon, especially if they are still interested in Kobe.

Basically the Cavs have an important offseason but not a lot of options. The biggest thing is what will happen with Anderson and Sasha. I think what it is going to come down to is a disappointing offseason where the Cavs comeback with much the same roster. If that’s the case, let’s hope Mike Brown does what he said he needed to do earlier in the year and hire an “offensive coordinator” to get the most out of his talent.

I hope I’m wrong about a quiet offseason and the Cavs make some good chances but the odds are stacked against them.

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El Pato beats Tiger; Fausto beats odds

Got to love the fact that the trophy presentation at the United States Open Championship, an interrupter was used and the winner doesn’t speak the national language of the nation’s championship he just won. I find that a little big funny.

Other than that I was happy to see Angel Cabrera win the U.S. Open yesterday by holding off Tiger Woods. I’ve like Cabrera for a while now. I think it started just because I liked his name and grew when I saw him at his practice round during the NEC World Championship (now Bridgestone) at Firestone Country Club in Akron two years ago. Despite not speaking English was entertaining fans with little ball tricks between holes and then gave away at least a dozen balls. A very enjoyable, outgoing, friendly guy.

As much as I’d like to see Tiger set the record for most majors won, I like it when other guys battle him and win too. It makes the game much more fun to watch when you don’t know who is going to win rather than Tiger destroying the field.

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On to the Indians. Is there a better fee-good story right now then what Fausto Carmona is doing? He went from blowing four saves in a row last year and losing 10 straight games, looking like he would never be affective in Cleveland again to posting an 8-2 record with a 3.15 ERA in what should be his first All-Star appearance this year. What a turnaround! He has become the Francisco Liriano to C.C.’s Johan Santana. A pretty dominate 1-2 pitching combo.

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One final note, spent the weekend out on Portage Lake at a buddy’s house. A phenomenal time to say the least, although I was a little sore Sunday morning from tubing. But at the bar Friday night, I tried Miller’s new beer called “Chill.” Interesting beer. It’s suppose to be a light summer beer to rival Corona. I has that Corona taste but it has lime flavor already in it instead of putting it in yourself. It probably has a bit too much lime. Good for one beer or two but probably not six or more. Plus, squeezing the lime in a Corona is half the fun of drinking a beer like that.

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