While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com
“Carmona, as was made evident when it was publicized that the Indians had financed dental work to help improve his nutrition, did not grow up in the kind of context. Here, in a blunt instrument sense, is the situation it seems Carmona faced: remain in 3rd-world poverty or falsify his identity, illegally, and give himself a much better chance of changing not only his own life but the lives of those around him. He chose the latter, and it worked out in spades. Did he make the smart choice? Did he make the ethical choice?
What does it mean that by dumping dollars into a sport, I support a system that forces young athlete after young athlete to such a decision point? What does it mean that 15 year olds in the Dominican Republic are forced to make a choice in a context that is more complicated, both morally and legally, than any situation I’ve faced in 27 years of life, and likely more complicated than any I’ll ever face? Is reform of such a system even possible?” [Let's Go Tribe]
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“But now, Cleveland is somehow sitting pretty at 6-7 – tied with the New York Knicks for the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference. Being on the playoff fringe isn’t a great accomplishment in the grand scheme of the league, but the Cavs’ competency is sudden and, on first glance, a bit baffling. Cleveland was able to add two top picks (Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson) in the off-season thanks to some lottery luck, but this is, more or less, the same team that lost 63 games a year ago. Are we really to believe that those rookie additions alone – coupled with Varejao’s return from injury – were enough to right the most depressing team in basketball?
As is usually the case with such questions, the answer is yes and no. Irving has been truly fantastic in his rookie campaign thus far, and his offensive excellence is a big reason the Cavs have gone from having the second-worst offense in the league last season to an above average offense this year.” [Mahoney/NY Times]
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Browns beat writer in hot water? “Whispers from the friendly confines of the Plain Dealer newscomplex tell Scene that Grossi’s errant, insulting tweet might have the Browns beat writer in trouble today. Newsroom rumors, which are all they are at the moment, have Grossi actually in the office today, which as one person pointed out, never happens. That might not be anything — he did have a taping of some inside sports videocast for Cleveland.com. But, the editors and bosses have been talking to everyone’s favorite “most irrelevant writer in Cleveland,” and folks are assuming it’s a dressing down.” [Grzegorek/Scene]
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The story of Bob Feller demanding a pay CUT- “Yes, the Nolan Ryan of his time demanded a pay cut. Don’t even bother imagining this happening today. Feller’s agent (which was himself, back in ’50) would never allow it. Peer pressure wouldn’t allow it. The rules of collective bargaining probably wouldn’t even allow it. It might not even occur to him. So there’s no way that Bronson Arroyo, who had an NL-worst 5.07 ERA in 2011, ever would walk into the office of Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini and hand over $2.4 million, or 20 percent of his $12,000,000 salary. Same goes with A.J. Burnett and the New York Yankees.” [Brown/Big League Stew]
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All part of a master plan? “This season, they enter the draft with 3,120 points in first and second rounders alone. That doesn’t even account for the 3rd and two 4th round picks. In layman’s terms, the Browns are walking into a gun fight with an Uzi. H&H have addressed the other areas of the team enough to get us by. We need a triggerman.
H&H have acquired picks while developing the other areas of their roster. They have waited patiently to spring their trap to catch that damn mouse. Now, I can’t say the trap will work perfectly and we will draft our Super Bowl winning QB. Who knows, maybe the ball gets hung up going down the track and we draft a bust, I don’t know. But it’s time to crank that wheel. We are leaving the 2012 NFL Draft with a Quarterback.” [Dawgs by Nature]
