A pretty… no, a very… boring sports day yesterday. When the lead story on ESPN.com is the Women’s Final Four and when on SI.com it’s a Men’s Final Four preview and a “The Hornets are for real” story (way to get creative SI and be on the ball), you know nothing great happened yesterday. (Sorry, I can’t get excited about Candice Parker overcoming an injury and leading Tennessee to the to the Final Four. Can anyone?)
So, today, we’ll just share some thoughts on the three Cleveland teams since that seems to be the thing to do (the Akron Beacon Journal and the Cleveland Plain Deal had those three things on the front page and no game coverage, since there wasn’t any games).
> Fausto Carmona makes his first start of the season tonight. There are some big question marks around the ace-in-the-making (hopefully). He was dominate in the regular season last year but not so much against Boston in the ALCS. Did those two bad starts rattle his confidence like the four blown saves in a week did in 2006? I say no. Fausto said it best (well he didn’t actually say, his interpreter Luis Rivera did since Fausto doesn’t speak English. Come on, Fausto. You’ve been here long enough to know how to speak English. This is, for some reason, annoys me. If an athlete has been playing in the USA for more than two years, he should be able to speak at least some constructive sentences in English.) Sorry for the rant. Let me start over. Fausto said it best, “The batters learned about me, but I learned about the hitters, too.” I think Fausto will have another great year. With a 95-mph sinker it’s hard not to. He’ll win at least 17 games this year.
> The Cavs are finally back in action at Charlotte tonight. I know the Bobcats aren’t that good but this is a must win game for the Cavs. They have been horrible are the road in the second half of the season. They’ve lost six in a row on the road and the last three in Charlotte. On the year they are just 16-22 away from the Q. That’s not going to get it done in the playoffs. Any win on the road is a big win for them. Plus Toronto, Washington and Philadelphia are only three, three and three and half games back for them for the fourth seed. With only eight games left it’s probably safe but you never know. Phily and Washington are playing well so the Cavs need to win to secure that spot.
How come Damon Jones has played about 11 combined minutes in the last four games? What does Mike Brown have against him? One month DJ plays. On month DJ doesn’t. I don’t get this. When given minutes Damon Jones (doesn’t it seem like when you say his name you just have to say the full name? saying Jones doesn’t seem right.) he has produced. He’s a good shooter and while he’s not the best on defense, he give a good effort and knows the rotation pattern. Gibson and DJ should be the first guards off the bench.
I’d love to see the Cavs do some small-ball line-ups. Andy/Wallace/Smith, LBJ, Wally/West, Damon Jones, Boobie. I think that would be a fun unit who could run the floor, let LeBron handle the ball, penetrate and score or kick to Wally/West, DJ or Boobie spotting up. I’m not saying use this all the time, but give a shot and see what happens.
> The rumors continue to fly around the Browns schedule like high school girls talking about who is sleeping with who. Yesterday we learned about a possible Thanksgiving night game. Today, it a season home opener against Dallas for a 4:00 start as Fox’s national game. That would be an amazing opener. The first game of the year is always a crazy and awesome experience in Cleveland and a 4:00 game would give 80,000 fans three more hours to get crazier. This game, with a Thanksgiving game and another prime time game; it’s looking like the Browns are getting respect and going to have one awesome schedule. (However, it will be a brutally tough schedule. More on that when the schedule is finally released but for now, the rumors are fun to talk about.)
Hey, Girlfriend’s Brother, when I told my mom about the possibility of the Browns playing on Thanksgiving and me going to the game and missing Thanksgiving dinner, she didn’t seem to pleased. What are the chances of Girlfriend’s Brother’s Mom letting GFB and Girlfriend’s Brother’s Dad miss dinner to go to the game? I say even lower than my mom letting me go.
On a side note that no one cares about but me, for some reason ESPN.com hasn’t been loading at work since the end of last summer. I’ve gotten used to this and learned to like SI.com. Today, for whatever reason, I decided to try ESPN.com again and everything on the site works. Again, not that you care, but I’m pretty happy about that. Throw that in on top of going to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet and today is a great day.
Fratello
I’m impressed that you know the name of Fausto’s interpreter. To prove your point even further, Ozzie Guillen has lived here for over 30 years now and can’t speak English at all.
Make sure you watch ESPN2 tonight so you can see Mike Mussina’s quest to give up 15 runs in the first inning.
The Browns opponents have been released I know, but when do the actual game dates come out?
You better bring your A+ intimidation game for the home opener…Cowboy fans aren’t easily scared and are usually carrying knives and calling everyone “gringos”. It might actually be the first time ever that I root for the Browns…nah, I’ll just root for a terrorist attack instead.
By the way, what exactly is the story behind the name “J Beanie”. Indulge your readers if you could.
The NFL full NFL schedule is set to be released next week, or maybe early the week after.
Go Moose!!! I’ll be pulling for him.
I think Brown fan and hold his own against anyone. I’m not worried about a Cowboy. I’ve seen little girls being yelled at for wearing non-Browns gear and I’ve seen people beat up for saying the wrong thing.
As for the story of J Beanie, it’s a good one. A tale better told by the other half of J Beanie.. the J if you will. I’ll share it tomorrow unless J himself comes out from his hiding spot and tells us in his own words. I’ll do what they call a teaser on TV… think projectile vomiting.
I will actually be disappointed if they host a Thanksgiving Day game. I’d rather have our primetime game on a Sunday night. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday to overeat, watch football and take naps. Plus I don’t know anybody that actually watches that third game on NFL Network. This year it’s my familys (rather than the wifes) turn for Thanksgiving dinner which will make it a little tougher but I don’t think it will be a problem. Especially since that game will start no earlier than 8:00. My side of the family usually eats earlier so we should be okay.
But hey, thanks for bringing the whole holiday issue up. I finally have a good six month stretch where I don’t have to think/fight with my wife as to who’s family we’ll be at for the holidays. Anybody who just got married or will be getting married and has both sets of family within twenty minutes of eachother should prepare for that yearly fight.
Thanks for that advice, GFB, I now can look forward to that argument every year.
//What the fuck did I get myself into
You’re welcome Graig. I take it you’re getting married soon. I have to say that’s been the worst part of our marriage, and I think it’s that way for most newly married couples. But everything else is great.
OK, that’s sweet guys but this is a sports blog, not tea time with ladies where we share our feelings.
The Thanksgiving game would be in addition to another Sunday/Monday night game.