Today in sports history

Happy 40th birthday, retired NFL quarterback Doug Pederson.

Who can forget the eight games Pederson started for the Browns in 2000, our boys' second year after expansion, after Tim Couch got hurt playing behind a practically nonexistent offensive line. Original backup Ty Detmer had been injured in the preseason and was not available. Pederson had been the starter for much of 1999 in Philadelphia, while the Eagles waited for Donovan McNabb to mature. The nine games he started in '99, added to the eight he started in '00, are the only NFL starts Pederson would ever make. And it's no wonder. For his career, he threw 12 touchdowns against 19 interceptions, and completed just 54.8 percent of his passes. The Browns went 1-7 with him under center. After he and fourth-stringer Spergon Wynn both got hurt, wide receivers Kevin Johnson and Dennis Northcutt played quarterback in the last game of the season, Chris Palmer's last game as the Browns' coach. The Browns lost 24-0 to the Tennessee Titans, in a game we Browns fans will remember for a long time.

Still, a lot of failed quarterbacks would trade places with Dougie-boy. He was on an NFL roster for 12 seasons, 1993-2004. I don't have any idea how much money he made in those 12 seasons, but I'm pretty sure it's more than I've made in my journalism career. The last four of those years, he only played in mop-up duty for Brett Favre in Green Bay, but he was also the holder on place-kicks. Six of the 12 years of his career, he didn't throw a single pass the entire year. But he could still call himself an NFL quarterback, which not many people can say.

The King reigns

With a little bit more than four minutes left in last night's game against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Cleveland Cavaliers were losing by 11, 81-70. It wasn't looking good for the defending Eastern Conference champions.

But then a heckler in the crowd on the Cavs' offensive end pissed off LeBron James.

LeBron hit a three-pointer with 4:03 to go, cutting the Portland lead to eight. After a defensive stop, Drew Gooden hit a nine-footer to cut it to six. After another defensive stop, LeBron hit another trey, and suddenly, it's 81-78. Zydrunas Ilgauskas came up big on the other end, blocking Steve Blake's five-footer, and Blake fouled Gooden going after the rebound. Playing off a pick set by Drew and Z, LeBron hit another three. And with 2:26 left, the game was tied.

Travis Outlaw responded with a long jumper to make it 83-81, and then Gooden got fouled on the other end, hitting one of two free throws with 1:39 left. Then the teams traded scoreless possessions until the Cavs finally got the ball back with 4.9 seconds left, down 83-82.

LeBron took the ball at the top of the arc, with Blazers star Brandon Roy trying to guard him.

Poor Brandon Roy. He never had a chance.

LeBron went to his right, and blew past Roy like he was standing still. The King made a couple of moves on Portland's big men, then hit a layup from the left side of the bucket. Score: 84-83, Cleveland. Time remaining: three-tenths of a second.

Fittingly, King James himself stole the Blazers' desperation inbounds pass, and the Cavs had won yet another game they had no business winning, simply because they've got the best fourth-quarter player in the NBA. LeBron scored 37 for the night, 17 of which came in the last 12 minutes.

My goodness, am I glad he plays for Cleveland.

Today in sports history

I seem to be doing this a lot, but it's this time of year that the Baseball Hall of Famers are announced, and 30 years ago today, one of the tragic figures in Tribe history got in: Addie Joss, the only Hall member who's had the 10-year career minimum waived. There's a good reason for that. He died after his ninth major-league season.

Many fans may know that the Indians were the first team to have two pitchers throw perfect games. Joss' perfecto on October 2, 1908, was one of the great clutch performances of all time. He beat fellow Hall of Famer Ed Walsh and the White Sox 1-0 in the midst of a four-team pennant race, needing just 74 pitches (!) to send 27 men back to the dugout. Walsh tossed a four-hitter himself. The Naps, as they were then known, wound up losing the pennant by half a game to Ty Cobb's Tigers, but Joss certainly did his best. He finished 24-11 with a 1.16 ERA. This was the dead-ball era, of course, but 1.16 is still pretty damned impressive, and it was good enough to lead the league.

Joss died of tubercular meningitis on April 14, 1911, just as what would have been his 10th season was starting. He was 31 years old. Had he lived 100 years later, he'd have probably spent a few days in the hospital and been ready to pitch again by mid-May. But medical science wasn't there yet. He was a well-loved man by teammates and opponents alike, and the first "all-star game" was organized that year to raise money for his family. As the great Cy Young said of Addie, "He was a great man. I feel sure he never made an enemy."

I seem to be posting a lot of sad stories lately. Sorry about that. I'll try to find something more cheerful for my next post.

Belichick's trial by fire in Cleveland

Here's an interesting look at what Bill Belichick learned from his failures in Cleveland (thanks to my good friend Jeff Brown for sending it to me). Of particular interest is the comparison between cutting our beloved Bernie Kosar and giving Tom Brady the QB job over Drew Bledsoe.

Of course, any Browns fan who's tempted to think "what if" has to remember that the franchise that gave Belichick his first coaching job is not in Cleveland now, but Baltimore. But when the new Browns came into existence in 1999, he was available. He took the New England job in 2000. I can't say I've ever come around to liking, or even really respecting, Belichick, but if he were on the cusp of winning his fourth Super Bowl for Cleveland, how would we feel about him? Let's be honest, we'd be ready to build a solid-gold statue of him and put it in Moses Cleaveland's place on Public Square.

Today in sports history

On this date 20 years ago, the "Bad Boys" of Detroit beat the smug boys of Boston 125-108 before an NBA-record 61,938 fans in the Pontiac Silverdome, a few months before the Pistons' current home, the Palace of Auburn Hills, opened. Larry Bird led all scorers with 25 points, and Adrian Dantley led the Pistons with 22.

The match-up was between two of the NBA's elite teams, but they were going in opposite directions. Both teams would go on to win division titles that year, in the days when each conference had just two divisions. They would go on to meet in the Eastern Conference finals, which Detroit won four games to two, putting an end to the Bird-McHale-Parrish Celtics dynasty.

Boston had won its last (to date) NBA title in 1986, then lost to the Lakers in the Finals in '87. In '89, they finished 42-40; Bird played just six games that year due to injury, and though he would play three more years after that, the Celtics didn't so much as reach the conference finals in that time. His career ended with an Eastern Conference semifinals loss to our Cavaliers in 1992. His last game was played at the Richfield Coliseum, a contest the Cavs won 122-104 to take the series four games to three. I remember seeing someone holding a sign at that game that said "Larry Legend: Nance, that is."

Back to 1988, the Pistons would go on to lose the NBA Finals to the "Showtime" Lakers, but they'd get a rematch in '89, and Detroit took home the trophy that time. They successfully defended their title in '90 against the Portland Trail Blazers, before being dethroned in '91 by Michael and Scottie's Bulls.

Oh, Romeo

The Browns are negotiating with Romeo Crennel on a two-year contract extension, which would mean that he, Eric Wedge and Mike Brown will have all gotten two-year extensions in rapid succession. The extension is reportedly going to be worth about $4 million a year, which is just further proof that I took the wrong career path.

Crennel got the Brownies turned around this year, his third with the club. They missed the playoffs, but as I covered a few days ago, they deserved to get in more than the Titans did. But let's not forget that Romeo's three-year record is still 20-28. I'm glad he's here, and I look forward to seeing how we do next year with him calling the shots, but I don't think he's the second coming of Paul Brown.

Next year will probably depend more on signing Derek Anderson and Jamal Lewis than it will on anything the coaching staff might do. Don't get me wrong — the much-improved offensive line has a lot to do with it too. And Brady Quinn just might be the budding superstar many people think he might be. But an offense needs playmakers, and these guys showed in '07 that they're playmakers.

Today in sports history

Fifty years ago today, a car crash tragically paralyzed Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella, ending his baseball career at age 36. With intense physical therapy, he eventually regained the use of his arms and hands, but he never walked again. However, there's a silver lining to this story, as you will learn in a few moments, if you'll be kind enough to bear with me.

Campanella's career was cut short on both ends. He didn't get his first shot until age 26, in 1948, because of the color of his skin. But he was comparatively lucky in that regard; if he'd been 10 years older (as fellow black catcher Josh Gibson was), he might never have gotten his shot (as Gibson didn't). But he became the Brooklyn Dodgers' second black player, after Jackie Robinson. Given that he was playing in the Negro Leagues at age 15, it seems likely that Campy would have reached the majors several years earlier, had it not been for the poisonous and euphemistically named "gentleman's agreement" that barred black players from the majors.

On a side note, 2008 will mark the 62nd major-league season since Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. Before that, the last black players to play major-league games were Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Welday Walker, who played catcher and outfield, respectively, for the now-defunct Toledo Blue Stockings of the now-defunct American Association in 1884 before racist pressure from the other teams' owners forced Toledo to drop them from the team. So the majors still haven't been integrated as long as they were segregated. What a dirty shame. I've often been bothered by the extent to which race is still an issue in American politics, but when you consider where we came from, it's hardly surprising.

So anyway, Campanella played 10 years for the Dodgers. They were moving to Los Angeles in 1958, so he'd have had to pack up and move out there. He was running a liquor store in Harlem, and was on his way home to Long Island from said store on January 28, 1958, when his car hit an icy patch, skidded into a telephone pole and overturned.

The Dodgers retained Campanella as a spring training instructor for the young catchers in the organization, and in 1959, he wrote (with a ghost writer) the inspirational "It's Good to Be Alive." The book chronicles his recovery from the crash that nearly took his life, and expresses his refusal to succumb to self-pity. I admit I've never read it, but I'd like to. Michael Landon, of "Little House" and "Highway to Heaven" fame, made his directorial debut in a TV-movie version of the book, in which Paul Winfield played Campy.

Roy Campanella died of a heart attack in 1993. He'd been named to the Hall of Fame in 1969 (he was first eligible in 1963; why it took the voters so long is beyond me), and the Dodgers retired his number 39 in 1972. He was posthumously named the 50th best player of all time by the Sporting News in 1999, and in 2006, the Dodgers created the Roy Campanella Award, given to the Dodger who best exemplifies his spirit and leadership. That same year, he was featured on a U.S. postage stamp, along with Mickey Mantle, Hank Greenberg and Mel Ott.

Fumbles at the Forum, er, Staples Center

That was a satisfying win over the Lakers, despite the comedy of errors in the closing seconds. For those who missed it, after L.A.'s Ronny Turiaf hit a layup with 13 seconds left to put the Lakers within 96-95, Larry Hughes took the ball on the end line to try to inbound it to someone who could hit foul shots. Boobie Gibson's good at that, so he figured he'd get it to Boobie. But Boobie, trying to make a move that would let him elude Kobe Bryant just enough to get the ball, slipped and fell, and barely got a hand on the ball. Luke Walton picked it up and tossed it to Kobe under the hoop. With the other three Cavs down the floor, Kobe had only Hughes to beat for a layup, but Larry managed to get a hand on it. It went off the rim and bounced back to Bryant, who knocked bodies with Boobie and fell down himself. Hughes picked it up and got a quick time-out, after which LeBron got the ball and hit his free throws with nine seconds left. Bryant and Walton tossed the ball back and forth to each other for nine seconds, neither able to get off a three without a hand in his face. Walton probably should have taken the shot; he got the ball with about two seconds left, and LeBron scrambling over to him. It wouldn't have been wide open, but he's got to take that shot. Instead, he wussed and sent it back to Kobe, but it was too late for him to get a shot off. He did throw up a prayer after the buzzer went off, but it didn't go in anyway.

Of course, this win was not without its price. Anderson Varejao hurt his ankle in the third quarter. X-rays were negative, but he's got an MRI scheduled. We'll see how that turns out. Maybe he won't be out long. Fingers crossed. When Z fouled out with about four minutes left, it sure would have been nice to have Andy come in for him.

How about that rain delay in the first quarter? It looked like the roof was leaking, but it turned out that some roofers had left their soaking-wet clothes on a catwalk over the court, and that's where the water was coming from. I guess that's what happens when you make roofers work on a Sunday.

Partners on the ice ...

I don't often watch figure skating, but I couldn't help but take note of John Baldwin Jr.'s proposal to his skating partner, Rena Inoue, yesterday at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota. Baldwin and Inoue skated through their routine, then bowed to the opposite sides of the crowd, and then Inoue turned to see Baldwin on his knee. Neither one of them were miked, but you could see that Baldwin was saying something to Inoue, and she couldn't quite hear him over the din. He repeated himself, and you could see her nodding "yes," and then they kissed. The ice melted beneath them, just a little.

Bob Costas had a nice line: "This is something new for me. In all the sports I usually cover, the only proposal I can recall hearing was that they eliminate the designated hitter."

Whenever I see a public proposal like that, I can't help but think, what if she doesn't want to marry him? Does she break his heart on national television? Does she say yes just to avoid embarrassing him, and then give him the bad news later? Does she change her mind just because he proposed in such a romantic, public way?

In any case, congratulations to John Baldwin Jr. and Rena Inoue. May you stay upright and stick all your landings together.

Today in sports history

Forty-five years ago today, our man Elmer Flick was elected to the Hall of Fame, along with Sam Rice, Eppa Rixey and John Clarkson.

Who was Elmer Flick? He was a dead-ball-era outfielder, born in Bedford, Ohio, in 1876. He made his major-league debut in 1898 with the Phillies, and after four years with them, he broke his contract and signed the crosstown Athletics, now, of course, in Oakland. After 11 games, the Phillies obtained a court order stopping him and other players who were under contract to them from playing for the A's. They were undoubtedly hoping he'd come back to them, but instead, he signed with Cleveland. He spent the remainder of his career with his hometown club, finishing up in 1910.

He was a .313 career hitter, winning one batting title (1905, .308; the second-lowest number for a batting champion in major-league history) and one slugging title (also in 1905, .462). He'd put up far better numbers in other seasons, but there wasn't a lot of hitting in the American League in 1908, for whatever reason. He also won three straight triples titles (1905-07), and is now 30th on the all-time triples list. He won an RBI title in Philly (1900, 110) and two stolen base titles (1904 and 1906).

After the 1907 season, the Tigers offered Cleveland a young outfielder named Ty Cobb for Flick, but the Indians refused because of Cobb's prickly reputation. As much as I dislike Ty Cobb, that was pretty stupid. Cobb was 21 years old and coming off the first of his 11 batting titles, and he remains the career leader in batting average to this day. Flick was 31 and on the decline. He wound up playing just 79 more games for the Tribe.

Elmer Flick is, by any measure, a marginal Hall of Famer; there are numerous men with better numbers who are still on the outside looking in, and there are very few Hall of Famers who played as briefly as he. I cannot hazard a theory as to why he was elected over some others (perhaps his memorable name?), but he went in 53 years after he played his last game. He was still alive to enjoy the honor, and January 27, 1963, was surely one of the best days of his life. He died in 1971 in Bedford, two days shy of his 95th birthday.

Staying the course

I've heard some hand-wringing about how little the Indians have done this off-season, but as ESPN's Peter Gammons points out, it's far from being time to panic. A talented team that doesn't change much is still a talented team. Sure, the Tigers are going to be better than last year, but our Tribe will be right there.

On this day in sports history

On January 26, 1913, Jim Thorpe relinquished his 1912 Olympic medals for being a professional athlete. He'd won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon. Unfortunately, prior to that, he'd received something on the order of $35 a week to play baseball in the Eastern Carolina League in 1909 and 1910. He did all right for himself after that, becoming one of football's first superstars, even after playing some major-league baseball. He was the Bo Jackson of his day, I suppose. Regardless, there wasn't nearly as much money in baseball OR football in those days as there is today, and he died broke in 1953.

For the record, Thorpe played one season (1921) with the Cleveland Tigers of the American Professional Football Association, which now goes by the name National Football League. He also played for the Canton Bulldogs, in the days when football was pretty much confined to western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.

In any case, it's amazing how much things have changed in less than a century. Anyone remember how the "Dream Team" breezed through the Barcelona Olympics in 1992? That team actually had one player (Christian Laettner) who hadn't played professionally. I haven't taken the time to check this, but I'm pretty sure no U.S. Olympic basketball team has had a single amateur since then.

Thorpe's medals were reinstated in 1982, nearly three decades after he was alive enough to enjoy it. Why anybody ever gave a crap if an Olympic athlete had received a few bucks to play sports beforehand is beyond me.

It's raining 3s

It seems our Cavaliers set a new franchise record last night. And not in a good way.

The Phoenix Suns hit 17 three-pointers on their way to a 110-108 squeaker over the Cavs. They took 33 shots from beyond the arc, which works out to 51.5 percent 3-point shooting. Truth is, I didn't see the game; I went out last night and forgot to DVR it. But those numbers tell me our boys didn't get any hands in the Suns' faces. Steve Nash, the only 6-foot white Canadian ever to be named MVP of the NBA, hit seven of nine. That's just crazy.

This was the Cavs' first game since Sasha Pavlovic went down with a sprained foot. Sasha was mostly in the starting lineup for his defense (his offense has been pretty lame all season), so Mike Brown chose to replace him with alleged defensive wizard Ira Newble. Newble is by all accounts a fine human being, and he and I went to the same college, but the box score tells me he didn't do much. Defense can be hard to quantify, and he did get three steals in his 12 minutes, but he also scored zero points, got one rebound, and committed two turnovers and two fouls. You can't start a guy in an NBA game who's not going to give you more than that.

I don't know why Boobie Gibson hasn't been starting all season, frankly. Sasha's got some skills, but Boobie's got more, if you ask me. If Mike Brown calls me today, I'm going to tell him to start Boobie.

Today in sports history

Thirty years ago today, the Rangers traded former Indian and admitted spitballer Gaylord Perry to the Padres for Dave Tomlin and $125,000. It's hard to evaluate, from this vantage point, what an eighth of a million dollars was worth in baseball terms in 1978, but from a player-for-player standpoint, the Padres absolutely messed with Texas. At age 39, Gaylord won the NL Cy Young in '78, going 21-6 with a 2.73 ERA in 260 1/3 innings.

The Rangers, who were apparently strapped for cash, sold Tomlin to Cincinnati, where he somehow went 9-1 out of the bullpen despite a hideous 5.78 ERA. I'm guessing he gave up a few leads, and the Reds' offense, while no longer the Big Red Machine of the mid-'70s, was still strong enough to get them back. In any case, he gave the 62 1/3 innings that year. He hung around until 1986, bouncing around to Montreal, then Pittsburgh, then back to Montreal, but was on the mound just 101 2/3 innings the rest of his career after '78.

Speaking of men named Perry in 1978, that was the year Journey released its first album with Steve Perry on vocals. And the wheel in the sky kept on turning.

And speaking of trades, here's an in-depth analysis of the series of events that led to the Indians getting Andy Marte. At the time, all the analysts thought the Braves got fleeced. Now? Looks like the Tribe got the short end. There's still time for Marte to prove himself, but it's looking less and less likely that he will. Mark Shapiro has done a fantastic job, but this one looks like a mistake.

You can't Betancourt

The Indians have given their best reliever a two-year contract with a club option for a third year. Frankly, I'd like to see Rafael Betancourt get another shot to be the closer. Joe Borowski saved 45 games last year, but he also blew eight saves, and he's 36 (hell, he's a month older than I am, and I'm certainly no closer). Borowski's ERA was a pretty ugly 5.07 for the season, and some of his blown saves were particularly gruesome. Not to mention some non-save-situation games he pitched. Anyone remember that game against the New York *#&^ing Yankees when the Indians were leading by four runs with nobody on and two outs in the ninth? I know he led the AL in saves last year, but I'm still very nervous about having the guy who lost that game as my closer.

Betancourt got a shot as the closer in 2004, and didn't do well. He blew seven saves and converted four. But outside of that, he's been lights-out. He's got a career ERA of 2.80, and he allowed three-quarters of a baserunner per inning last year. That's pretty damned impressive. Not bad for a guy who started his professional career as a middle infielder, then learned to pitch and didn't even reach the majors until he was 28.

So, anyway, yeah, I'm glad he's on our team.

In the unlikely event that this is not enough for you to read about Betancourt's deal, here's another blogger who's gone into a bit more depth. It's good stuff.

Women behaving badly

Just as the Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman was getting ready to go back to work after her racially insensitive on-air gaffe, ESPN2's Dana Jacobson was apparently having a few vodka drinks on her way to insulting one of the world's major religions.

We know this: Jacobson, in a roast of fellow ESPN2 personality Mike Golic, a Notre Dame grad, said "f- Notre Dame," and she said "f- Touchdown Jesus." We also know that she was sloppy drunk. There are conflicting reports about whether she said "f- Jesus," and if so, how bad an offense that would be. Bill Donohue, who appears to speak for American Catholics (I am not one, in case you were wondering), seems to want her fired if she said that. Notre Dame has forgiven her, which is what Jesus taught us to do, if I properly understood my United Church of Christ Sunday school lessons.

I say, give the woman a break. How many of us have said something we regretted when we've had a few too many? (Come to think of it, I don't think I have; at least not that I remember. But still.) She wasn't on the air, and let's not forget that this was a roast. The whole point of a roast is to insult people, as long as it's funny. I've heard more creative jokes, but I could see where it'd be funny coming out of a drunk woman's mouth.

Here's something to ponder: What would happen to her if there were even a hint that she'd said something like that about Muhammad? Even naming a stuffed animal after him is punishable by death in some people's eyes.

This rundown of female TV sports personalities is interesting. Of course, the whole premise of the article is that it's usually men who do these things; I haven't taken the time to evaluate whether that's true, but it seems likely.

Well, I'm off to wash up before bed. I wonder if I can find some holy water around here somewhere.

Today in sports

Happy 40th birthday, Mary Lou Retton. It's amazing; when I was younger, I would watch hours and hours of the Olympics. Now? I can figure out that there's a Summer Olympics this year, because the year is divisible by four, but I don't have any idea where or when.

But when that little 16-year-old firecracker from West Virginia did her thing in 1984, I was into it (keep in mind, I was only 13 myself).

She even got her face on a Wheaties box. A gymnast! On a Wheaties box!

Cavs are clicking

What can I say about the Cavaliers' 121-85 domination tonight of the team formerly known as the Baltimore Bullets? Big Z (no, not Zapp Brannigan) went 10-for-10 from the field, and for once, someone other than LeBron led the team in scoring. Sure, he had 24 to James' 23, but still.

The Cavs outscored the Wizards 43-17 in the third quarter, and that's when the game was decided. What did Mike Brown tell the Clevelanders at halftime? Did someone slip some amphetamines into their Gatorade? And what did Eddie Jordan tell the visiting Washingtonians? It was a respectable 52-46 at halftime, but perhaps he sensed the game was getting out of reach and said, "Listen, fellas, we all know we aren't good enough to beat these guys. They proved it in the playoffs the last two years. So let's not bother to defend, and just jack up some prayers at the offensive end, and save up some energy to go dancing in the Flats later."

Really, it's amazing how well the Fightin' LeBrons played tonight. The Wizzes came in on a 7-of-9 winning jag, and have been playing about as well as anyone outside of New England. But they looked like a high school team against the Cavs. The AP reports: According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Cavaliers, who had a season-low six turnovers, are the first team since 1969 to have at least 39 assists and six or fewer turnovers.

The Cavs have won 11 of their last 13, and are starting to remind us how they managed to win the Eastern Conference last year. I'm starting to get excited about this team again.

On this date

On January 23, 1962, Rapid Robert Feller — arguably the greatest Indian of them all — was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, along with another great player you might have heard of, a fellow known as Jackie Robinson. Feller got 150 out of 160 votes for the Hall, which means that somehow, 10 writers felt he wasn't worthy. The man won 266 major league games, and would undoubtedly have topped 300 if not for Hitler. Then again, Robinson only got 124 votes, which is just four more than the 75% needed to get in. That's an absolute embarrassment, and probably shows how much racism we still had in this country in 1962.

Fortunately, racism has been eradicated since then. Ahem.

Brady, Brady, Brady almighty

I can't help but be amused by the attention given to the walking boot seen on Tom Brady's foot while he was delivering flowers to his girlfriend. I guess, with a week and a half still to go before the big game, and nothing else going on in sports besides regular-season basketball and hockey, and the Australian Open, they've got to find SOMETHING to make a story out of.

But as much as I might like Tom Brady to miss Super Bowl XLII (and not just because he plays for the Cheatriots; he's also a Michigan man), I'm pretty sure that a walking boot 11 days before the game isn't going to keep him out. The Giants will just have to beat them at full strength.

Also, is it me, or has ESPN been replaying this Tom Brady Bunch segment on every single SportsCenter for days? It was funny once (especially when Drew Bledsoe shows up), but come on.

Today in sports history

I'm not much of a boxing fan these days, but 35 years ago today, George Foreman defeated Smokin' Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship of the world. That was in the days when he was a boxer, and not a fat-reducing-grill salesman.

Also, 20 years ago today, Larry Holmes came out of retirement at age 38, in an ill-advised attempt to regain HIS heavyweight title. His opponent? A 21-year-old future felon by the name of Michael Gerard Tyson, 14 months after Iron Mike had become the youngest heavyweight champion in history. That was in the days when he was a boxer, and not a tattoo-faced rapist.

The last boxing match I watched was Tyson's 89-second embarrassment of Peter McNeeley in 1995. I won $50 on that fight, because I and the people I watched it with all threw in $5 for a pool on how quickly the fight would end. I think I had one minute, which was the closest without going over.

Finally, 10 years ago today, the very worst team name in the history of major North American professional sports was chosen. The Minnesota Wild. Ugh. Awful. It actually hurt my fingers to type those words. Other abominations: the Miami Heat, the San Antonio Rampage and Syracuse Crunch of the AHL.

You may have noticed I said "major" North American pro sports: That's not counting Major League Soccer, pockmarked with European-sounding team names like F.C. Dallas and the D.C. United and Real Salt Lake. But if you're counting soccer, the worst of all is Chivas USA. It's the name of a liquor, followed by the name of the same country the rest of the teams play in. At least the Minnesota Wild is just stupid; Chivas USA actually offends me.

Dungy returns

I see Tony Dungy has decided to return for another season with the Colts. That's all well and good; Dungy is a respectable man, and I wish him well. But I hope he learned something from what's happened in the playoffs this year.

We Browns fans won't soon forget that our team missed the playoffs because they had to play 16 games against teams that were trying to win, while the Tennessee Titans only had to play 15 games against teams that were trying to win. In their 16th game, they played Dungy's Colts, defending Super Bowl champions, who were locked into the AFC's #2 seed, win or lose. So they decided to go ahead and lose. Peyton Manning and most of the other starters came out in the second quarter, and the Titans' starters were able to beat the Colts' backups.

A few other coaches did the same, but Dungy was the only one whose decision to rest his starters directly affected who did or did not get into the playoffs. The conventional wisdom around the NFL was, hey, he's got to do what's best for his team. But did he really do what was best for his team?

Among other teams whose coaches didn't try to win in week 17, in the interest of preserving their starters for the playoffs, were the Jaguars, Buccaneers, Packers and Steelers. The Packers managed to win their last regular-season game anyway. The only one of the remaining teams to win a playoff game was Jacksonville, but that was against Pittsburgh, and someone had to win.

The Cowboys rested anyone who was questionable, but played most of their starters in a blowout loss to Washington. They fell to the Giants in the playoffs.

The Chargers played hard in week 17; they were playing for the third seed in the AFC, but they had a playoff spot clinched. They went on to upset Dungy's boys to set up a date with the Patriots in the AFC Championship.

But I keep coming back to the game that was played the Saturday of week 17, in which neither team had anything to play for in terms of playoff seeding, but both teams did their best to win. The Patriots were playing for an undefeated season, and the Giants were trying to stop them. New England won a hard-fought 38-35 thriller. And hey, look who's in the Super Bowl!

This is just one season's worth of results, but it sure seems to prove that every team should try to win its last game. If you rest your starters for the playoffs, they won't be sharp, and you will lose.

And dadgummit, the Browns should have gotten in.

Hey, check out my brand-new blog

Howdy, folks!

My name is Steve Mullett, and I'm a 36-year-old Cleveland sports fan. Anyone who fits that basic description will surely recognize the inherent frustration involved; anyone else who's been paying attention to sports in general for the last 30 to 40 years can undoubtedly figure it out.

Cleveland's last championship was in 1964. That Browns team was led by Frank Ryan and Jim Brown, and won a 27-0 upset over the Baltimore Colts in the NFL Championship. But Baltimore got its revenge by stealing that team from us 31 years later. In any case, it was seven years before I was born, and while I appreciate the victory on some level, I wasn't there to experience it.

I've seen my teams reach the championship round three times now — the Indians in '95 and '97, the Cavaliers in '07. The Cavs were in those games against the Spurs, but they didn't win any of them. And nobody really expected them to have a chance against Duncan & Co. Ironically, they've now beaten San Antonio in four straight regular-season games. Too bad they can't flip-flop those results!

The Mark Price-Brad Daugherty-Larry Nance Cavaliers of the late 1980s and early 1990s were a fine team, but a fellow by the name of Jordan kept them out of the NBA Finals. How many damned times have I seen that clip of him hitting "The Shot" over Craig Ehlo? How many times must I see it? Everyone who played in that game is retired. I hereby beg the people who run TV networks to stop inflicting it upon me.

The Tribesmen acquitted themselves pretty well in those two series, but they lost them both to what I will always believe were inferior teams. Those '95 Braves had a lot of talent, but any team that has Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome hitting sixth and seventh ought to win a World Series. And I might add, they led the American League in ERA that year, with a strong rotation that included near-Hall of Famers Dennis Martinez and Orel Hershiser. And Jose Mesa, in his first year as a closer, had one of the 10 best seasons any closer has ever had.

But '97 was the worst. There is no way those Marlins were better than our Tribe. It was with bitter irony that we Clevelanders watched Dave Dombrowski demolish that team after they pulled that series out of their backsides. These 11 years hence, I no longer hold the aforementioned Mr. Mesa personally responsible for letting that one slip away, but the fact is, he blew the biggest save of his life. He'd struggled that year, and I remember thinking, as the game went into the ninth, that I didn't think he was going to be able to hold it. The Jose Mesa of 1995 would have slammed the door on the Marlins. The Jose Mesa of 1997 couldn't do it.

And then there's the Browns. No, they still haven't reached a Super Bowl. Had the Super Bowl started two years earlier than it did, they'd have played in Super Bowl I, but of course, there's no point contemplating that. It was before my time anyway. The Browns of my teen years had their chances, though. Boy howdy, did they ever. I don't hate John Elway, as many of my fellow Browns fans do, but I have to admit, whenever I see his toothy face, I feel just a little bit like punching it.

No other city has such sporting heartache, certainly during my lifetime, anyway. In addition to The Shot, we have The Drive and The Fumble (relating to those awful Elway-Kosar battles of the 1980s), and of course, Red Right 88. Leading up to this past Sunday's frigid NFC Championship in Green Bay, ESPN ran a graphic of five notable playoff games played in extreme cold. Every one of them featured a team in a cold-weather city against a team from a warm-weather city. Every one of them was won by the home team except one — the Browns, in the Red Right 88 game against Al Davis' Oakland Raiders. That was in January 1981, and I was nine years old. I thought I'd never feel such pain as a sports fan again. Little did I know.

When the Indians blew a three-games-to-one lead over the Red Sox in the 2007 ALCS, I have to admit, part of me didn't care. But how will I feel when one of my teams finally wins it all? It will happen, sooner or later. It must. I will go to my grave convinced that last year's Tribe would have swept the Rockies in much the same fashion as those Red Sox did.

So this blog is going to be mostly about Cleveland sports. There will be the occasional post about Ohio State (the one team I root for that has actually won a title -- and in extremely thrilling fashion, at that), and I will dabble in observances from around the sporting world. I will certainly blog about college hockey very soon, as my alma mater, Miami of Ohio, has about as good a team as anybody this year. But it'll be very heavily about the Indians, Browns and Cavaliers, because that's who I watch the most.

I hope you enjoy it.