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If you’re disgusted by the Indians’ opening series, (and aren’t we all) take heart that the Clippers begin their season tonight against in Louisville. If you didn’t see TD’s excellent team preview, do yourself a favor and check it out.

In addition, the Dispatch has a few nice pieces to check out. Columbus first baseman Jordan Brown said this about the team-

“(The Indians) expect to see a lot from pretty much the whole lineup and the whole pitching staff. They have expectations for every single person, which is unlike anything I’ve ever heard of for a minor-league team.”

Top 1st: Cleveland
- G. Sizemore struck out swinging
- M. DeRosa struck out looking
- V. Martinez walked
- T. Hafner struck out looking

0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors
Cleveland 0, Texas 0

Bottom 1st: Texas
- I. Kinsler singled to left
- M. Young doubled to deep right, I. Kinsler to third
- J. Hamilton hit sacrifice fly to right center, I. Kinsler scored, M. Young to third
- A. Jones singled to center, M. Young scored
- N. Cruz walked, A. Jones to second
- M. Byrd homered to deep center, A. Jones and N. Cruz scored
- C. Davis struck out swinging
- T. Teagarden grounded out to second

5 runs, 4 hits, 0 errors
Cleveland 0, Texas 5

Weeeeeee!

Cavaliers 98, Wizards 86 (Box)

Honestly, the game really doesn’t warrant a full recap. The Cavaliers dominated both ends of the floor. LeBron didn’t touch the court in the fourth quarter, except to play a little air guitar. Here’s what is worth talking about from this one-

Andy Varejao was back, and in the starting lineup. He didn’t handle a couple of passes early, which is out of character for the usually sure handed Brazilian. It made me wonder about the wrist, but both of the passes appeared to be at least touched by a defender, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. He played with energy, and aside from those passes gave no indication that the wrist was bothering him.

Ben Wallace was back as well. He came off the bench and played meaningful minutes. Mike Brown used Ben for two nine-minute stretches. I was happy that Brown didn’t pull him in the second half, but let him get his legs and stamina back. It seemed to pay dividends immediately.

Last night welcomed back the return of Ben Wallace to the Cavaliers frontcourt.  In fact, the arena team shop was holding a Welcome Back Ben sale by displaying his jerseys proudly in the entrance of the store.  But what his return also marks is the addition of another body to the Cavaliers post game – one that is much-needed with news that J.J. Hickson will miss up to three weeks with some lower back issues.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you the sky is falling after last night’s 8-5 loss in Texas. The fact of the matter is it’s only two games. There are 160 more to go. The $215 million Yankees are also 0-2 after losing again in Baltimore yesterday. Neither C.C Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang made it out of the fifth inning and failed to record a strike out. Does that make you feel any better?

Now to our Wahoo Warriors. Last night’s starter Fausto Carmona was hoping to take his superb Spring with him into his regular season debut. Instead, he looked like Fausto version 2008; the one who was wild with all of his pitches. The Rangers, who seem to own the Tribe no matter the year in Arlington, jumped all over him for six runs and seven hits through five innings.

According to TMZ.com, Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed last night in a hit and run car accident after pitching for the Los Angeles Angels.  Adenhart was only 22 years old and had pitched 6 innings for the Angels just hours earlier.  The news is beyond tragic, and undoubtedly brings back the nightmares that Indians fans had in March of 1993 when Indians’ pitchers Steve Olin, Tim Crews and Bob Ojeda were involved in a deadly boat crash.

So it is with a heavy heart that we report this awful story here.  Baseball fans everywhere will be mourning and keeping the entire Adenhart and LA Angels family in their thoughts and prayers in the coming days.

Blue Jackets 4, Blackhawks 3 – SO
(Box) – Highlights

Record: 41-29-10  (92pts – 6th place)
Sports Club Stats Rank: 6th, 100%

CBJ 6th Seed “Magic Points” Number: 1

It was only fitting. Trailing 3-2 late in the third period, the Jackets were running out of chances. Rick Nash wasn’t having his greatest game: he’d missed a penalty shot in the first period, and had knocked a puck into his own net late in the same period on an attempt to slide and block a shot. Five and a half minutes left. The Jackets needed to dig deep. Again, it was only fitting.

After some very scrappy cycling, the Jackets were able to keep the puck in the Chicago zone. The defense had broken down on the clearing attempt, and Nash was free on the left doorstep. Jason Chimera managed to get the puck to him, and he skated across the crease uncontested, poking the puck below Nikolai Khabibulin. Tie game. Welcome to the playoffs, Captain! I called it The Biggest Goal In Franchise History last night, and coach Ken Hitchcock agreed after the game: “It’s franchise fitting, really. It’s only fitting that Nash scored the biggest goal in the history of the franchise. It’s scored by your captain, by your best player at the most opportune time. To me, it’s fitting for Rick Nash, for his legacy, for this franchise.”

With the NBA regular season winding down, the story lines aren’t heating up, but rather becoming more and more homogenized. With few real playoff races and seeds up for grabs, talk has primarily centered around the MVP race, home court advantage, and which teams have the best chance of winning the title.

So with that in mind, I got to thinking about the Cavaliers’ chances of winning the title. There are literally close to a hundred different ways of looking at it. You can look at any combination of efficiency ratings, point differentials, assist to turnover ratios, rebounding rates, and on and on. What I wanted to do, though, was try to compare the Cavaliers to past NBA Champions to see how they rate.   

While We’re Waiting aims to be the round-up of the recent WFNY-esque information for your morning viewing. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email in the sidebar.

We all knew that we had the “Chosen 1″ on our team.  But did you know we had “Chosen 2″ as well?  Dr. Seuss would be proud of Anderson.  [Shaver Sports]