Wednesday baby..Wednesday. It begins. A new season not too mention a new era of Cavs basketball. This year it's big names and big paychecks. Something rather new to our teams history since 1971. Our track record isn't pretty, but that is behind us and this season is our chance to turn things around.
To kick off the season, the newly redesigned and rather pimp looking cavs homepage has served up the first of many Cavaliers commercials to come. Glad to see the front office minds are thinking big.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Let's Go
Friday, October 28, 2005
And there you go..
The Cavs have finally rounded out their 15 man roster. Ferry made the final cuts yesterday and it looks like the newest Cavs are none other than PG Mike Wilks and C Zendon Hamilton. Wilks, who played tremendous preseason ball, went to Rice College and has been tossed around the NBA for 4 seasons. Henderson, who according to Ferry really earned the spot playing the best out of the big men, has also been thrown around the NBA for 6 seasons and a graduate from St. Johns. I mean seriously..read the section 'Career Transactions' for both of those guys..
According to NJ.com (remember use BugMeNot), Larry Brown is actively looking to add another true PG to the Knicks roster and they are interested in Eric Snow. With Wilks now on board, that might not be too far fetched. In that article you might notice what looks like a straight up rumor that LeKing is said to prefer playing with Wilks. Whether it's a true comment..I don't know, but at this rate I say let's see how Wilks handles his first few regular season games then decide from there.
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Oh and you remember that Powerade Bron commercial where he nails those full court shots like its nothin..well, I recently came across an Urban Legends site and after a quick search for Bron, low and behold an entry which discusses whether the this ad is real or not. I mean I don't know about you, but I always thought it was real...I mean it's the King, c'mon.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Gettin Psyched
and we're in the final stretch with the regular season tipping off next week. While the press is still all over the dress code, it's time for people to give it up and start focusing on the teams themselves. Lookin around, it actually seems the ESPiN had the most solid analysis of the Cavs...yes, I am endorsing this, but it's damn good. Interesting picks for our starting lineup..Bron, Snow, Hughes, Z & Gooden. Damon and Donyell will probably squeeze their way on at the last min...just a hunch. But overall, their beat writers really think Danny has pulled this team together for a legitimate contender in the East. Psyched...real psyched..
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check out this money tidbit my buddy Aaron shot over:
When Brown addresses the media, he wants to make sure he is getting his point across. After one recent practice, Brown looked at a reporter and said, "You look puzzled." The puzzled-looking reporter said, "I am." With that, Brown took the five assembled reporters onto the practice court, positioned them as if they were the Cavaliers, and took 20 minutes to explain the offensive sets he was teaching the team.
I think the word is confidence..hopefully the press relays the same message.
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In wrapping up rather quickly, I am psyched to see sugknight114 on board to deliver some quality info from the inside of the Q. It seems not only him, but the rest of the media is most impressed with Damon Jones. We finally have our 3-point threat..in fact we have 2 of em. Oh yeah..this season is going to be spectular. I feel this is our time and it is indeed a great time to be a Cavaliers fan.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Little Cavs Update
With the season just around the corner, it seems our roster is starting to take shape. Drew Gooden, who most of us believed would be gone by now, will be a Cavalier on opening night. Note: this is the last year of his contract, in which Gilbert is paying him $4 mil, so look for a huge year off the bench from the Jayhawk grad. And remember Gooden (this year especially), you're not a scorer..
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On a lighter note, 3 former Cavs made it to SI's All Poison Team:
Darius Miles - I mean the guy even had problems in Portland..come on
Carlos Loozer - makes me so happy to see people question his worth..
Jeff McInnis - ahh..seems SI ran out of room to list all of his shady maneuvers
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Given Hughes PG exposure in the pre-season, he might end up being be our third option at PG. I kind of feel this is also due to the fact we have no money left to spend. But anyways, Mike Wilks has been crazy good in the preseason shooting 55% from the floor with no turnovers. Even if Mike doesnt stay on board, we are shaping up to have a real backcourt presence...Snow, Hughes, Jones, Bron, Luke...not bad folks.
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So as Mark Cuban pointed out last week, the NBA Dress Code was the fault of some owners not being able to talk to their players, not the NBA's Marketing team's decision to shape up their image. Bron, being the upstanding citizen that he is, is having no probs with the recent changes. But IHughes..well, he is. Hughes disagreed with the banning of the bling, which is actually causing the most uproar around the league. As Hughes states, "It is part of our culture.''
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Finally, check out this LeBron interview with Slam magazine. You get a sneak peak at the Blue cavs jersey, which will def be worn on Xmas day. Even though this is a Bron article, notice the mad props to Gilbert in the intro paragraph:
New Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has gone straight Cuban, renovating the home locker room and pulling out each of the arena's 20,000-plus blue seats and replacing them with cushy, burgundy-colored chairs.
So pumped to check out the new & improved Q. And of course, the King provides some masterful quotes of his own. Here's one:
If Jesus came on the court, I still wanna be better than him. That's just my mind frame. That's why I've gotten to this position I'm at now.
I am a Robot
Check out this nice find from Keith over at Buckeye Commentary:
While Ted Ginn, Jr. was streaking into the endzone off a 98 yard kickoff return, Wayne Larrivee's mind was working overtime to find a phrase to describe the play. What he came up with was "Secretariat at The Belmont!" At the time, I thought it was kind of corny but I understood the analogy. Now, I find out that ESPN's other broadcast team (yes, they brought two and it's a long story) used the phrase as well. I always thought these guys were puppets but didn't realize how close they are. Strings are the only thing missing.
note: it should read ESPiN, not ESPN..
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Enough is Enough
Ok it's time..the King received a clean bill of health from the Cleveland Clinic...Cuban is back talkin trash..the Browns season is already over....yep, it's time for Cavs basketball.
Before I start just check out how beautiful this is:
With his 1-year-old son, LeBron Jr., watching from his grandmother's lap on the baseline, James returned with 9:14 left in the second quarter and scored 10 more points as the Cavs went into halftime down 41-40.
So the season starts in less than 2 weeks and well..it's a big season for us. This is the true test to see if spending money on a professional Cleveland sports franchise actually works. The pieces are there and while not all are perfect, I can't imagine the Bulls were saying Bill Cartwright was the answer too. Bron & Hughes didn't get to play much together, but hopefully it comes as natural as Loozer & Bron.
And I just have to bring it up one more time..just to bury it for good. I was reading the horrendously awful ESPiN the magazine the other day and came across a section on the MLB Playoffs, which featured comments from teams that barely missed October. And well..there was a Tribe quote. But honestly this one made me feel a little better to know the players were just as depressed as the fans.
Take it away Ben Broussard:
"I can't even think about watching the playoffs. We came so close and we should've been there. It hurts. I'm sure I'll eventually tune in. I just need to ease my way back. It's tough to talk about watching this from home. I have a CD that I need to be promoting right now, but it just doesn't feel like the right time to be playing music."
Amen brother..amen....
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Monday, October 3, 2005
Ouch..
as of right now I can't really comment on the Tribe, but for the time being I will let Terry Pluto take over..
Welcome to club, new Cleveland fans
CLEVELAND - Now, you can teach your children about what it means to be a Cleveland sports fan.
You don't have to go into those old horror stories about ``The Drive,'' ``The Fumble,'' ``The Shot.'' You don't need to dredge up Jose Mesa and Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. You can just point to this weekend, and how being a Cleveland sports fan means having your heart broken.
Only, this was a little different.
No one expected the Indians to enter the final weekend of the season with 93 victories and a legitimate chance to make the playoffs. No one imagined that they'd have baseball's best record in the final two months of the season. No one thought that they'd finish this season winning only one of the final six home games.
Not when they returned to Jacobs Field with a 92-64 record and leading the wild-card race.
This was one of the best Indian summers in years, full of surprise endings, emerging stars, and a very likeable group of players overachieving. That remains the truth, despite losing 3-1 to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.
If you're a real Tribe fan, your head tells you all that.
But your heart still aches.
It aches because the Indians finished the season with six home games, and all they needed to do was win three to at least force a one-game playoff for a ticket to the postseason. Four wins meant the postseason.
They won one game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a talented but young team with a lame duck manager.
They won none against the White Sox, who had clinched the American League Central Division and were resting many of their regular players.
They sent fans home shaking their heads, not so much angry as sad.
So why does your heart ache today?
Because you know the window of opportunity doesn't open often around here, and it was just slammed on your fingers.
Opportunity wasted
That's what it felt like Sunday at Jacobs Field.
Heartache.
It was a sellout crowd of 41,034. There were fans on their feet every time the Indians had a runner on base, every time a pitcher needed a big out. The bleachers were packed with fans waving white towels. There was a huge sign reading I BELIEVE.
They certainly wanted to believe, especially in this final six days of the season.
Did they ever want to believe.
A wonderful weekend of baseball, this should have been...
Every game a sellout. Every day nearly cloudless. Every game-time temperature in the 70s. Ideal weather for the end of the baseball season, remarkable for Cleveland in early October.
If ever something special was about to happen to the Indians and their fans, this seemed to be it, the curtain being lifted on some serious October baseball.
Instead, the Tribe's heavily promoted Hunt for October ended with them shooting themselves in the foot.
Suddenly it was a frightening flashback to April and early May when the Indians couldn't hit and couldn't win at home. They pitched well, but that wasn't enough.
They lost these last three games by scores of 3-2, 4-3 and 3-1.
It was the same game, over and over.
Get behind, stay behind.
The Indians led for only four of the 30 innings this weekend, and that was by a 1-0 count.
That's why by the seventh inning of Sunday's game, those waving white towels began to look like surrender flags. The cheers seemed loud but forced, sort of like urging your kid to win a marathon yet knowing she needs knee surgery.
Out with a whimper
Three hours after the game began, the Indians were down to their three final outs.
Due up were Ben Broussard, Aaron Boone and Casey Blake, the killer B's who have done that so often to the Tribe lineup this season. All three are streak hitters, all three were in slumps for much of the final four weeks.
Broussard hit a non-threatening fly ball.
Boone walked, which is rare for him.
Blake struck out, not all that unusual.
Then Grady Sizemore grounded out to end game.
And the season.
It's not meant just to bash these guys, but the bottom of the lineup is the team's weakness, and it haunted them Sunday.
There was more.
Every player felt pressure. Every hitter seemed anxious. None of them really delivered.
As Coco Crispsaid, ``We kept waiting for a big inning, we had so many lately.''
This was a team that hit 50 homers in September, but only one this weekend. In their final 30 innings, they scored more than one run just once -- that was two runs in the seventh inning on Saturday.
``We gave ourselves a chance,'' Tribe Manager Eric Wedge said.
But it still hurts.
The bad, good, and ugly
This was such a strange season.
There was a slow start, the Indians not even moving beyond .500 to say until the middle of June. On July 30, they were only 54-51, seemingly just dreaming about the playoffs.
No one really believing it, except the management and players.
Then they began to win and win and win.
The fans seemed to resist them, not wanting to be disappointed. For most of the summer, they had baseball's fourth-lowest attendance. Fans still moaned about losing Omar Vizquel, Jim Thome and other favorites from the recent past.
They knew their team had the fifth-lowest payroll in baseball and complained about the owner being cheap.
But the Indians kept winning.
And they began believing.
When postseason tickets became available, they sold out in one day. They sold out the three games against Chicago, doubling their season sellout total from three to six.
When he managed the Tribe in the middle 1970s, Frank Robinson joked that Indian Fever was a 24-hour disease.
This weekend, it was hot.
Then the bats went cold.
When the game was over, many of the fans stood and applauded for the team. Then they were allowed on the field to walk around the bases. Many of them stayed to do just that.
As they did, the song Don't Be Cruel was on the public address system.
Most of the fans weren't, they just seemed sad, like they knew something like this would happen. Like it always seems to happen to their favorite teams.
You know the Indians are headed in the right direction, that there really is reason for hope about next year and to feel good about this one.
But right now, it might just hurt a little too much to think about that.
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