Tigers 7, Indians 5: Salazar’s implosion starts Tribe demise
April 17, 2014Dion Waiters is Waiting For Next Year
April 18, 2014Jason Kipnis gets tossed and makes lip-readers blush. The Tribe lost yesterday, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some fireworks. Jason Kipnis must have used some language that the umpire found inappropriate.
Kipnis’ account sounds tame.
Said the Indians second baseman: “I didn’t think I showed him up. I didn’t try to stand there. I’m not here to show the guy up. I was just walking away and I told him that the first pitch changed the entire at-bat and you don’t need to be helping a guy like that out. Obviously, I used a couple words to express [myself], but that’s the full sense of what I said.”
But, whatever he actually did say, it looked like this when the umpire emphatically tossed him from the game.
*****
Johnny Manziel is coming to work out in Cleveland this weekend. I know I’m a bit of a broken record on this, but please please please let the Browns find a good reason to draft this kid. Please let him tell you everything you need to know that says his attitude, skills and potential equal what the Browns are looking for as the next dominant starting NFL quarterback. Please let it be so. I don’t know enough to say that’s the case, but if it worked out that way and he’s available and has the ability to translate his wildly entertaining college skills into success on the next stage it will be so good for all of us.
*****
There’s something about Teddy Bridgewater that makes me unsure of him. He didn’t play the best competition in the country, but that’s not it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Teddy had a good career with Louisville. He appears to be a even-keeled, smart kid. I think I finally figured it out. I think Teddy Bridgewater is an introvert. I think he’s a little on the meek side and those things are probably what’s stuck out to me as something that will keep him from being a dominant player at QB at the next level. Maybe I’m totally wrong, but it just seems to me that he might not be capable of being the kind of leader I imagine succeeding in an NFL huddle. Maybe that’s just his YouTube interviews with the media and he relates better to his teammates, but it gives me pause.
*****
“What do you mean the Browns’ defense is rated at 78?! It should be at least an 82!” Travis Benjamin is fast, but he doesn’t think he’s fast enough… in Madden. Rick told us recently that the Madden people were in Cleveland getting data on Browns players for the latest version of the franchise football video game. Well, there’s a follow-up on the Browns official webpage. Travis Benjamin is among some Browns players who think they should have higher ratings. Apparently the 98 that the game’s designers gave him for his “speed” rating wasn’t perfectly high enough for his tastes.
“I should be the fastest guy in the game,” exclaimed Benjamin, who was tabbed with a 98 speed rating in last year’s version of the game. After hearing the power Moore has, Benjamin even tweeted him to convince the producer his case. Benjamin plays the game several times a week online with teammates Phil Taylor, Greg Little and Dion Lewis.
I love this fun little story about video games and NFL players. If their giant contracts and larger-than-life personas distance themselves from fans, this is the exact kind of thing that brings them closer together. I can remember year after year with my own (sometimes delusional) hopes for the Browns fueling outrage when I’d look at a Brady Quinn, Colt McCoy or even a Brandon Weeden player rating and wish it was higher.
Let’s hope they get Johnny Football’s rating appropriately high after he becomes the next Browns quarterback. Can you imagine scrambling all over your TV with him? (I know. I’m a broken record… errr… faltering MP3 player?)
*****
Coming of age as a rock fan… On Monday night I went to see that band I told you about last week, Mansions. They played at the Grog Shop and it was a really great show, but something funny happened that I wanted to tell you about.
In November I drove all the way to Pittsburgh to see the same band headline a show. Because it was in a small club, I was able to buy some of the band’s merch and also meet them. That’s one of the things I love most about small clubs and meeting the bands that generally play there. They are real regular people and very nice to meet before or after they play.
Anyway, fast forward to this past Monday and I was in the Grog Shop and it occurred to me just how much older I was than everyone else there. I was surrounded by kids who had their hands stamped as being under 21 years old. As I was waiting for the music to start, it occurred to me that many of these kids must have been born in the mid to late 90’s when I was well on my way to finishing high school. That’s mildly depressing, but whatever. I was at a rock show and loving it at age 35. No biggie, right?
Well, after the show, I went over to say hello to the band before leaving and Christopher Browder, the lead singer, recognized me. “Hey! I remember you! You were in Pittsburgh!” Now, that kind of floored me. Out of all the people that he has met since being on tour in 2013-14, he remembered me. We’re talking about a band that has played more than 25 shows in the past 30 days alone. And trust me when I tell you that he really did remember me. He wasn’t just putting it on, I’m quite sure.
But it doesn’t make sense to me that anyone would remember me. I’m a really plain-looking kind of guy. I don’t have a lot of defining characteristics that make me stick out. I have no piercings or tattoos or wild hair. When I go to rock shows I wear jeans, t-shirts, maybe a nondescript sweatshirt or hoodie.
And then it hit me. I do stick out. You know what the one defining characteristic of me is in that setting? I’m old. In my mind I’m still just like the same guy I was in my mid twenties, but that’s not what my increasing number of grey hairs broadcast to the world.
Ah well. What’re you going to do, stop living? Well, someday, yes, but not anytime soon.
Have a nice weekend everyone.
22 Comments
NFL = Performance under pressure. Manziel runs, Bridgewater makes completions (70% when blitzed). More than anything, players respect guys who can play.
http://images.bidnessetc.com/content/uploads/images/source2/don-t-be-that-guy-3-93da579a65ce84cd1d4c85c2cbb84fc5.gif
Craig is praying that Johnny will ask him to the prom. Johnny’s so dreamy.
Oh pleeeeeeeze, Johnny! Pleeeeeze pleeeeeeze, pleeeeeeze, pleeeeeeze, pleeeeeeze.
My boy crush is on Sammy.
Oh pleeeeeeeze, Sammy! Pleeeeeze pleeeeeeze, pleeeeeeze, pleeeeeeze, pleeeeeeze.
(Only three more weeks of this lunacy.)
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The Notebook? Am I on WFNY or Jezebel?
I saw someone had it on facebook about what happens when they ask their wife what they want for dinner…but congrats for knowing it was notebook ha
I do not know and do not want to know what Jezebel is
yeah, being married means enduring crappy movies because you’re hoping it will pay off
Saw the Cloud Nothings in Chapel Hill last night. Aside from being a great show, it was over before 11:30 which was great for this ‘old man.’ I was actually surprised at the age spectrum. I expected a very young crowd, and while there was definitely a contingent of under 21 kids, there was also a nice crowd of 30somethings.
New album is great, but “Wasted Days” is still the highlight song of their live show IMO.
That is why mlb.tv pays off since I am out of market. If i have to sit through things, I put the game on the ipad on my lap
I don’t know who the Browns are going to draft or how it will turn out, but I have a feeling that the Browns will have a Niners-esque turnaround. Signing veterans like Dansby, Burleson, and Hitner; plus new HC with no-nonsense attitude should lead to sustained watchable football next season led by Hoyer at QB (he’s worth a legitimate shot since he can’t be worse than Weeden).
I used to be with it. Then they changed what “it” is. Now everything is wierd and scary.
Great story about being an aging rock fan Craig it really hit home. 2 summers ago I saw Old Crow with the Lumineers in Pitt and fit right in. Went back a few months later to see Lumineers by themselves, my wife and I were 2 of the 4 oldest people there. I remember having a talk with the only other 40ish people about how disapointing it was that the Civil Wars had broken up. And it hit me that 20 year old me would laughing his face off at me. And I was oaky with it. I dont need music to manufacture anger and resentment anymore. I just need to pay a plumber to drag a Barbie out of the main sewer pipe, or see the bank lose our mortgage payment
Just wait until you are staring down the barrel of 50.
I will be there in six weeks.
Still feel like a little kid most of the time.
I won’t be saying “this new generation, they dress like gypsies and their music sounds like noise”.
Going to have to check out the Cloud Nothings. The new Men and War on Drugs are my current new favorites.
Amen!
Optimism in April – I like it!
OCMS with the Lumineers you say? Yes, please. And pass the Tiger Balm. My back is killing me.
I find myself aging right along with the maturity of the Avett Brothers’ lyrics, and I like it.
“There’s nothing good, because nothing lasts. And all that comes here, it comes here to pass. I would voice my pain, but the change wouldn’t last. All that comes, it comes here to pass.”
FYI: This is what it looks like to stare down the barrel of “a” 50 (caliber).
wrong end
No. You don’t want that. Staring “up” the barrel of a .50 is a “significant emotional event.”
Dinging Bridgewater for sounding like an introvert … Yikes. Ever hear Joe Montana interviewed in his playing days? Unitas? Bernie in his younger days? A lot more mumbling humble stuff at their shoes than the cocky “it” attitude that gets the media all fired up.
I have no idea if Bridgewater will be any good, but better to watch his on-field leadership, how his teammates respond to him. There’s very successful QBs who aren’t all rah-rah. And plenty of Ryan Leaf, Jeff George, Derek Anderson extroverts who can’t play.
Avett Bros. along with Frightened Rabbit and The National have definitely soundtracked my “parenting years”.
The Avett Brothers definitely hit closest to the mark though. The Gleam came out the winter before my first was born and The Carpenter the year after my second. When I Drink to A Fathers First Spring pretty much sums up 3/4 of the last decade for me.
If you give Manziel the same team and the lousy play calling that was given Brady Quinn at Cleveland you will get the same results. Same for Bridgewater.