WaitingForNextYear

Tie score after the first quarter in Indiana, 38 all. As the score indicates, there was very little defense played. LeBron is off to a fast start as are the Pacers’ guards. Indiana head coach Jim O’Brien is watching the rest of this one from the locker room after two quick techs. Here’s hoping the Cavs remember what defense is…

At this point the news has spread and most everyone in the Ohio State community is aware of the passing of NE Ohio native Stefanie Spielman last night after her fifth bout with breast cancer.

Together with her husband Chris and her family, Spielman fought cancer on a public stage and helped to change the image of a cancer patient.  From her first diagnosis the Spielmans worked together to raise funds to fight cancer.  For eleven years, through four recurrences of the disease, she made her fight with breast cancer public and raised over six and a half million dollars for the James Cancer Hospital to fight cancer.

We at WFNY want to express our condolences and sincere gratitude to her family for being so open and strong and passionate and honest. It’s often the case that in death people are memorialized and put on a pedestal. This is not an instance of that. Stefanie Spielman truly was a hero, in every sense of the word.

More information about the Stefanie Spielman Cancer Fund can be found at the James Cancer Hospital’s website.

I missed the Ohio State UNC game last night and headed to ESPN this morning to check out the highlights.  According to what I read, Ohio State made a bit of a run at the end of the game to make it interesting.  Then again, according to the “highlight” video on ESPN, UNC scored 5 buckets and Ohio State didn’t score any.

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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 in the sidebar.

So when Mangini was talking about evaluating their injuries, this is what he meant… “Punter Dave Zastudil, who may have been headed to the Pro Bowl for the first time, and tight end Steve Heiden, the second-longest-tenured Brown on the active roster, were placed onto the Injured Reserve List late Wednesday afternoon and thus will be lost for the rest of the season. It’s more bad news for the bandaged-up and beaten-down Browns, who, at 1-8 and having lost four in a row, stagger to Detroit on Sunday to face the equally staggering 1-8 Lions, losers of six straight.” [The OBR] (more…)

The Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes yesterday afternoon in a “winner gets the BCS bid” game.  It is a near certainty that the BCS game will be the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.  Jim Tressel was criticized by a great number of fans and media for being too conservative with QB Terrelle Pryor and playing for overtime on the Bucks’ last possession in regulation.  It seems to be the dominant story most people are talking about this morning.  Tressel relied on his defense in OT and they came through holding the Hawkeyes scoreless.  Ohio State responded on its ensuing possession with a game winning 39 yard field goal.  It’s a little crazy  to come down hard on the coach after a game in which you win your 5th straight Big Ten championship and are headed to your 6th BCS bowl in 7 years. 

While the Buckeyes have been regulars in the BCS this decade, they have usually found themselves in Tempe or the National Championship game.  This will be their first Rose Bowl since that classic game in 1996 against Jake Plummer’s Arizona State Sun Devils.  While this week will be devoted to coverage of The Game, in thinking about the immediate implications of yesterday afternoon I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the potential Rose Bowl scenarios for OSU.

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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 in the sidebar.

Browns could be the cure: “Playing on a primetime stage before a national audience has not been a kind setting for the Ravens, who have lost their last five contests on Monday night.  The revelation that the team hasn’t won on Monday night since routing the Green Bay Packers, 48-3, on Dec. 19, 2005 was downright earth-shattering to linebacker Terrell Suggs.  ‘That’s disturbing…Are we really 0-5? I didn’t even know that until you said it. Hopefully, this streak ends Monday, but like I said, we know they’re cooking up some new stuff over there, and they’re going to defend their own field. So we’ve just got to prepare for everything.’’ [Edward Lee/Ravens Insider]

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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 in the sidebar.

Delonte for Captain Jack: “Cleveland continues to show the most trade interest in Golden State’s Stephen Jackson, sources say. Yet we still await a firm signal that a deal is imminent…If/when the Cavs and Warriors do reach that point, you can almost count on Delonte West’s inclusion in the deal. In spite of the considerable off-court tumult in West’s life already this season, I’m told Golden State is not averse to taking him in a Jack deal. Especially not when West’s $4.5 million salary in 2010-11 can be bought out for $500,000 as long as he’s waived by Aug. 2, 2010.” [Marc Stein/Weekend Dime ESPN]

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We had a great response to our ticket contest. Thanks everybody for entering, but we now have our winner.

Congratulations go out to Ryan, whose name was randomly selected (I love the randomizer.org). He gets two tickets to the Browns/Ravens game on Monday night. No word yet on which protest he will be taking part in.

Seriously, it kind of stinks that you don’t have another option doesn’t it? If you aren’t at your seat at kick-off then you must be with the Brown-out protest. If you are in your seat then you are with the anti-Brown-out protest. What if you just want to go to the game?

Anyway have fun at the game Ryan!

As we have described to you before, many of our best ideas for columns start in long-winded group email conversations. Sometimes these chats become post-worthy in themselves, like this one did. Not only was it interesting fodder, but it also gives you, our loyal readers, some insight into our crazy day to day world (all while trying to work at our regular, paying jobs). This particular one was spawned by Anderson Varejao getting absolutely posterized by Dwayne Wade during last night’s Cavs win in Miami.

Rick: Anyone wanna start andyvarejaoneedsahug.com?

Rock: I was furious with Andy last night. Yes, it was extremely embarrassing, but he’s not the first to be dunked on and he won’t be the last. There’s no reason to start jawing with Wade after the fact. What could he have possibly been saying to him anyway? (more…)

I have been involved with Junior Achievement for a little while now.  They do programs in the schools on a volunteer basis to help teach kids about elementary business and economics.  The JA volunteers are usually local business people who go out and teach classes once a week over the course of a few weeks.  At the end, the kids get an idea about how businesses and taxes and all that stuff works.  I taught a third grade class for two years and it was a lot of fun in addition to teaching the kids some stuff.

Anyway, Junior Achievement is having their auction right now to raise money and I noticed there were a lot of things that Cleveland sports fans might be interested in. (more…)

So I’m in Germany right now.  I watched the Buckeyes’ win over Penn State on Saturday afternoon (night here) live via interwebs thanks to my wife, who used the camera on her laptop to broadcast the game for me (and a few hundred new internet friends).  I was excited because the team looked good, etc.  Sunday morning I read through some of the articles and saw Doug L’s video of the Buckeyes singing Seven Nation Army with the OSU student section, and it made me laugh and smile.

Then on Sunday afternoon I went for a walk with my boss through town and we heard cheers coming from the soccer stadium here in Karlsruhe.  We decided to walk by and see if we could get in the game.  The guy at the gate told us there were 10 minutes left and we were free to go have a look-see. The home team (Karlsruhe) won and there was celebration-doing after the game.  Included in the celebration was a techno version of Seven Nation Army.  After seeing video of the Buckeyes sing and dance to the song, I couldn’t help but smile again and think about home while standing in a stadium 4000 miles away.

Here’s the audio (I hope this works): Techno Seven Nation Army mp3

Just a heads up that I’ll be appearing on the Sportstalk with Koza show today at 5:05 on ESPN Lima’s 93.1 The Fan. I believe you can listen to the show through the site here. I’m not sure how long the segment will be, but I appreciate Vince giving us the chance to talk Cleveland sports with those in the Northwestern part of the state.

Those interested in calling the show the number is 1-888-894-ESPN. I hope to get to talk about the Cavs, as well as the current sad state of the Browns.

And yes, I realize this is shameless self-promotion. But admitting that is best right?

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 in the sidebar.

Assessing the Bears both today and for the future: “I’ve never understood all of the hype surrounding QB Jay Cutler. Sure, he has shown the potential to be a very productive quarterback. But there are other games where he’ll make decisions throughout the game that prevent the offense from doing much of anything. For all of the potential he has had the past several years, he has failed to move on to the “next level”, which is why I was thrilled when Cutler was not dealt to the Cleveland Browns early in the offseason. If you recall, the Browns were one of the teams reportedly interested in the former disgruntled Bronco.” [Chirs Pokorny/Dawgs By Nature]

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Cliff Lee is an absolute stud.

Not that Indians fans needed any reminder of that, but the performance he put on last night in game one of the World Series, was pure domination of a lineup that is probably the best 1-9 the league has seen since the mid-90’s.

Clifton Phifer Lee pitched a complete game, six hitter, allowing zero earned runs (1 unearned) on six hits, walking nobody and striking out 10. Consider this – Cliff did all of his damage against a lineup that features:

• seven players with 22 home runs or more
• seven players with 81 RBI’s or more (Derek Jeter had 66, but hit .334)
• eight players had a batting average of .274 or higher (Nick Swisher hit .249, but had 29 homers and 82 RBI’s) (more…)

A few months ago I was lucky enough to check out the US premiere of the STVM documentary More Than A Game in Silver Spring, MD. If you’re new to the site, I recommend reading some of our past articles about the film – I did a three part set with a film review, interview with the director Kris Belman, and an after-party/discussion session wrap.

The film has had a slow roll-out in theaters over the past few weeks, starting in Akron, LA, and New York and spreading to select markets last week. Kris emailed me yesterday letting me know the film is out in DC and asked if I could spread the word – consider it done, friend. In addition to showing in a few theaters around our nation’s capital the film is also around 40 or so cities this weekend. (more…)

Last year, we were pretty excited to learn that we had won Scene Magazine’s “Best Sports Blog” of 2008.  We had just started this here site a few months prior, so getting an award before our first birthday was pretty exciting.  Since then, it has been nothing but growth in terms of readership, communityand team coverage. 

With that said, we are proud to announce that we’ve been voted as “Best Local Blog” in this year’s Reader’s Choice section.  While there were not a formal category for Best Sports Blog this year, getting Reader’s Choice honors means that it was you guys – and not the actual magazine – that spoke up.  Either that, or Denny stuffed the ballot box one night after hitting up a DC bar. 

Regardless, we’re pretty pleased with how things have come along in this very quick year and a half.  Without the readers, this wouldn’t be possible – so I think I can safely speak for the site when I say thank you all.  Here’s to many more Thirsty Thursday’s in Akron with a few wins sprinkled in here and there.  Oh, and a championship would be nice as well.  For the entire list of the Best Of recipients, head to CleveScene.  Here’s to another one in 2010…

Cheers.

While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something else you think we should see and write about? Send it to our fancy tips email in the sidebar.

Badgers frustrated: “I think if you’d told the Badgers coming in that they would run twice as many plays as Ohio State; gain twice as many yards; force almost as many three-and-outs (six) as they allowed first downs (eight); and hold Terrelle Pryor below 150 yards total offense and pick him off once while limiting the Buckeyes to one offensive touchdown, I think the Badgers would have taken that game. The Wisky offense went on three different drives of at least 14 plays, on the road, which is the essence of Badger football.” [Matt Hinton/Dr. Saturday]

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Earlier this week, TD waxed poetic about the handful of former Indians who have been traded away within the last two seasons and will also be playing well into the month of October.  This list did not even touch on those that left via free agency, which could potentially field an entire starting nine, and it still provided us with over 1200 words on the successes that we could have had playing for Cleveland.

Things got off to a solid start for the two more recent Cy Young award winners.  Cliff Lee and the Phillies kicked off the playoffs with a win over the Colorado Rockies.  Lee naturally worked a  six-hit, one-run complete game.  He also managed to go 1-for-2 at the plate and recorded a stolen base. 

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Sorry to break you all away from Braylon Edwards and WKNR/850AM, but this story is definitely worth sharing.  If there is any complaint at all, it should be that it took this long to have it unearthed. 

When American Idol was just picking up steam as a reality show back in 2004, there was a kid who was joining his friend who desperately wanted to try out for a shot at winning the competition.  Waking up before sunrise, heading downtown and standing in line for what seems to be ages.  But he wasn’t going to just wait in line forever and not give it a shot on his own…

I strode confidently across the green turf spray painted with an orange “Cleveland” in the only appropriate outfit to wear while singing “Bernie Bernie” (more…)

In response to Michael Reghi’s comments late yesterday afternoon, the much-discussed WKNR/850AM radio contributor Sabrina Parr took the set in order to defend the comments that have drawn the ire of many including local authorities. Similar to your evening news broadcast, the program waiting until one of the final segments for Parr’s response, but nonetheless.

“I’ve never met Michael Reghi, and would introduce myself if he was in the studio today. But clearly, he knows about me,” stated Parrr. “I looked up credibility. It describes the power that inspires belief. Yesterday, from my description and the listeners that tuned in leading to reports means I was pretty credible.” (more…)