WaitingForNextYear

WFNY Wednesday Wahoos: Indians Minor League Weekly Review 5/16

May 16, 2012 by Jacob Rosen · 3 Comments

Every Wednesday, I bring you all the highlights from the week that was for the Cleveland Indians organization, along with some added insight on what it means for the major league squad.

It’s now mid-May and baseball season is full in force. As I write this, I’m traveling high speed up I-95 in Florida, toward the end of two weeks of Southern traveling after college graduation. During this journey, even over the last 24 hours, I’ve passed through many of the cities hosting High-A Florida State League baseball teams – Daytona Beach, Viera, Port St. Lucie, Jupiter, etc. While I didn’t attend any games, it reminded me of a special characteristic of the Cleveland Indians organization. [Read More]

Unearthing a Cavaliers Time Capsule

May 16, 2012 by Rick · 4 Comments

Back at the beginning of May, I came across an interesting piece from Paul Lukas of Uni-Watch and ESPN fame. The article was about a sports fan named Andy who had lost his job and decided to sell some of his childhood sports memories to help with bills. Read the back-story here.

The condensed version of the story is this: when he was a kid (late 80′s, early 90′s), Andy wrote to a ton of major league sports franchises asking for autographs, stickers, or anything they were willing to send. He got answers back from 16 teams. He saved whatever they sent in the original envelope and stored them away.

And now he was selling them on eBay. [Read More]

A Farewell to Armond Smith

May 15, 2012 by Craig Lyndall · 69 Comments

I don’t know if it is unique to Cleveland that Armond Smith could be such a big topic of conversation, but it sure feels that way. Smith was cut in favor of Adonis Thomas yesterday after apparently getting beat out in rookie camp with shorts on. This morning on Kiley and Booms I heard Bud Shaw once again mention that at least we wouldn’t see Pat Shurmur running Armond Smith on 4th and 1 again. It goes to show that the more I mature, just how far I still have to go because it made me angry. I know Bud was just going for an easy punchline, but let’s not re-write history here.

First of all, I need to talk about a comedy rule of three that I have been obsessed with lately. I heard Aziz Ansari talk about it and I think he was paraphrasing Joe Rogan. Or maybe he was paraphrasing Louis C.K.’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast? Anyway, I am continuing the game of telephone and paraphrasing the paraphraser. The idea in writing jokes is that you have to go three levels for truly good and original comedy. When a topic comes up, the first thought you have is the joke that everyone comes up with. The second joke is better than the first, but it is still probably a bit facile. The third joke will be truly original. It isn’t a hard, fast rule, but that’s the idea. References aren’t jokes and are rarely good punchlines. Using Armond Smith’s run on 4th and 1 is quite simply the first crack available and as I think I proved it is nothing more than just second-guessing the coach because it happened not to work.

So let’s get back to that play one final time as we bid farewell to a 4th string running back that won’t even be a footnote in Cleveland Browns history. [Read More]

The Terrelle Pryor era in Ohio State: Was it all worth it?

May 14, 2012 by Scott · 11 Comments

Patrick Maks is back, this time with a take on a former Ohio State player who has recently been in the news due to lengthy profile in Sports Illustrated. Patrick asks, was it all worth it?

Before he’d ever taken a snap as a college quarterback, Terrelle Pryor received a standing ovation on a brilliantly sunny day against Youngstown State in Ohio State’s cakewalk of an opener in 2008. Months before that, Sports Illustrated called his college decision “the most anticipated signing day announcement in history.”

Talk about hype. A look at just the numbers suggests he lived up to the most of it.

Key word: most.

[Read More]

TD and Craig on More Sports and Les Levine 5-15-2012

May 16, 2012 by Craig Lyndall · 1 Comment

In case you couldn’t tune in or live outside of the area, TD and I had a chance to talk sports with Les Levine yesterday. Les is the best in the business and honestly just as nice a guy as you could ever meet. We talked about the Indians, the new Horseshoe casino, Dan Gilbert, MLB collective bargaining and all sorts of other topics. The hour flew by.