Bye, Jhonny; roundup

• In case you missed it, the Indians traded Jhonny Peralta to the Tigers just before last night's game against the Yankees. Peralta came up through the Indians system and debuted in the majors in 2003, then replaced the great Omar Vizquel as the Indians' shortstop beginning in 2005. He never really lived up to the expectations the Tribe front office had for him. In '05, at just 23 years old, Peralta hit .292 with 24 home runs (the latter number a team record for a shortstop) and appeared to be a budding superstar. But he's never had another year that good. He's been a good enough hitter for a shortstop, except that he was never a very good defensive shortstop, which is why they moved him to third this year to make way for the slick-fielding Asdrubal Cabrera at short. He is just 28 (barring any forged documentation; he is Dominican, after all) and may have more good years in him, but I wouldn't put money on it. And since he is in the walk year of his contract and the Indians aren't going anywhere, there was really no reason not to move him.

• Coming back from Detroit is Giovanni Soto, who is not to be confused with Cubs catcher Geovany Soto. This Soto is a 19-year-old minor league pitcher who hails from Puerto Rico, and is 6-6 with a 2.61 ERA in A-ball. He's a long way from the majors, but his early results are promising. He's struck out more than three times as many hitters as he's walked, and he's given up just two home runs in 82 innings. Still, though, a lot can happen to a young arm, and the proverbial streets are proverbially littered with the proverbial bodies of many promising young pitchers who never made it because their young elbows and shoulders couldn't handle the strain they were putting on them. I'd have thought the Indians could have gotten more than that for an established major league infielder who can play short or third and has some pop in his bat.

• I love this a lot more than I feel I should: Some douchebag showed up at the Indians-Yankees game last night wearing a Miami Heat LeBron James jersey, and got screamed at and taunted so much, he had to leave. The police escorted him out. I don't know if he left voluntarily or what, but he probably should have known better than to pull that crap. Nobody seems to know who he is, but he looks young, which, as anyone who's lived through adolescence and is old enough to reflect on it knows, equals stupid. He probably intentionally showed up in that to get attention, but he's lucky he didn't receive that attention in the form of fists to the face.

• Oh, yeah, the Indians lost 8-0 to the Yankees. Fausto Carmona had his worst outing of the season. The Tribe offense couldn't get anything going. Alex Rodriguez didn't homer, so he's still stuck on 599. The end.

• But how about Tuesday night's game! Josh Tomlin beats the freaking New York Yankees in his major league debut! That's fantastic. Tomlin outpitched former Indian (and Cy Young winner) CC Sabathia, taking a shutout into the eighth inning, then came out after giving a leadoff double to Robinson Cano. He held the Yankees to three hits and zero walks in his seven innings of work. Bully for you, Josh! Keep up the good work! (Oh, and he struck out just two. Now, don't be negative.)

• Rest in peace, Jack Tatum, 1948-2010. The Ohio State great is best known for paralyzing a guy on a hit in an NFL game, but it was a perfectly clean, legal hit. That's just the nature of football. He wasn't a dirty player, he was just a hard hitter.

Today's roundup involves Jeopardy!

• The Indians dropped their third in a row yesterday, as the New York Stinking Yankees came from behind to beat them 3-2, behind a two-run homer by Curtis Granderson off probable soon-to-be-former Indian Jake Westbrook in the eighth. Westbrook pitched pretty well, giving up three runs in eight innings on four hits and two walks against five strikeouts, while pitching to a very powerful Yankee lineup. But he gave up two home runs, and that was his undoing.

• Shin-Soo Choo again showed why he's the best player on the Tribe. Not only did he hit an RBI double that temporarily put the Indians ahead 2-1, he threw out Granderson trying to stretch a single into a double. Replays showed Granderson should have been called safe, but still, it was a heck of a play by Choo, who fielded it off the wall and gunned it to second in one motion.

• The game drew 27,224 fans, which is the Indians' third-highest home attendance of the season. (The top two were the home opener and Nationals rookie Stephen Strasburg's second major league start.) That's due to two factors: One, the Yankees always draw well in Cleveland; and two, Alex Rodriguez is one home run away from his 600th. With Mr. Rod failing to go deep last night, we can expect another large crowd tonight. Too bad for the Indians' bottom line the Yankees are only in town for four games; the Tribe remains 30th out of 30 teams in home attendance.

• Westbrook's contract is up at the end of the season, and while he probably won't be all that expensive next year, given his injury history, it makes sense for the Tribe to flip him for prospects because they're not playing for anything this year. The trade deadline is this Saturday, so this might well have been his last start as an Indian. On the other hand, Westbrook seems like the kind of guy who might help a contender for the rest of the year and then come back to Cleveland. Who knows.

• Jhonny Peralta is also in the last year of his contract, and I don't see any reason not to get prospects for him too. No doubt Mark Shapiro will see what he can get for a lot of players, but off the top of my head, those two guys are the ones who seem most likely to go. Peralta's been kind of a disappointment the last couple of years, both with the bat and the glove, but he could help a contender who's got a hole in the infield, such as Colorado.

• The Cavaliers made a trade yesterday, sending Delonte West and Sebastian Telfair to the Timberwolves for guard Ramon Sessions, center Ryan Hollins and a second-round draft pick. West has been a starter before, and has done some nice things on the court, but he was highly inconsistent this past year — possibly due to his legal troubles — and I'm not very sorry to see him go. Telfair is just a throw-in; he never contributed to the Cavs in any meaningful way. The 24-year-old Sessions only averaged 8.2 points and 2.1 assists last year for the Wolves, but that's in just 21.1 minutes a game, and he had 20 points and 24 assists in one game. He's got an upside. Hollins, 25, will probably never be more than a backup center, which is fine. We'll need one. Anderson Varejao will probably be the starter, with Z and Shaq both gone.

• OK, a game show is not a sport, but this too cool not to mention: The "Jeopardy!" Clue Crew spent some time at the Cleveland Clinic at November, filming an entire category's worth of clues for the show. The Cleveland Clinic category will come up Friday. I DVR "Jeopardy!" and look forward to getting all the questions correct.

Good times at the Tribe Social Deck ... er, Suite

My lovely wife, Lisa, and I were invited to watch last night's Indians game from the Tribe Social Deck, and I can tell you it was a great place to watch the game from, even though we technically didn't watch it from there. This is the first season for the Tribe Social Deck, which, for anyone who doesn't know, is an area set aside for bloggers and social media users. My wife sent me a story about it, with a link to apply, and you can probably figure out what happened from there.

We arrived at the Social Deck, which is right next to the left-field bleachers, about 10 minutes before game time, and were chatting with the fellow social media-ites (who included Kory, the night guy on Q104), and were sweating our petoots off when a helpful Tribe employee named Rob came by and told us we were being moved to a suite because there was rain in the forecast and because of the hot, sticky weather. And I probably don't need to tell you there's no better way to watch a baseball game than from a suite. That's my wife in the photo below.


Oh, don't get the wrong idea. They didn't feed us all the hot dogs and hamburgers we could eat or anything like that. They had the food cupboards and the fridge all tied off. But my wife scammed a beer off a nice older gentleman in the adjacent suite, who told her he and the friends he was with at the game are all from New York, but now live all over the country and get together to watch baseball games every so often. They're obviously all doing pretty well for themselves.

Anywho, Rob provided us with the materials that are usually only given to the reporters in the press box, which was four pages, front-and-back. It included a page of tidbits about what's going on with the Indians these days — to take just one example: "Better arms: Over the last 23 games the Indians pitchers as a whole sport an ERA of 3.10 (203.1 IP, 183H, 70ER) and have lowered their team ERA from 4.87 to 4.44... Starters are 11-7 w/a 3.46 ERA (137.2IP, 134H, 53ER) in the 23G... Pitching staff has allowed 3 earned runs or less in 17 of the last 23G, over with the Indians are 15-8." There was a page about last night's starter, Mitch Talbot; a page and a half of info about each of the Indians' other players, one by one; a bunch of charts; and a list of every game this season, with the outcomes. Fascinating stuff. I wonder if I could get them to email those materials to me before every game. (Special thanks to my wife for bringing her printout home; I forgot mine in the suite.)

Anyway, we watched the game from the seats around the deck, rather than sitting in the air-conditioned suite. Eight of the ten Tribe Social Deck guests did that; two ladies, whom I never actually met, chose to sit in the suite, which I kind of understand on some level, because it was certainly more comfortable in there, temperature-wise, but I don't go to games to sit inside.

And it started out well for the Indians, with Talbot on fire out of the gates. He tied a team record by striking out six hitters in a row — and it should have been seven, but a third strike was called a ball. But Talbot apparently wore out around the fifth inning, when he gave up a three-run home run to Ben Zobrist. The umpires originally said it was in play, and Zobrist appeared to have a triple, but I could see from our suite on the third-base side that it bounced off the railing, not the fence. Since baseball now has replay for possible home run calls, the umpires looked at it and got it right. The wheels came off for Talbot after that, and everybody was hitting him hard until Manny Acta finally took him out in the sixth.

Rays starter David Price went in the opposite direction, struggling early and giving up three runs in the first two innings, the last two of which came via a two-run homer by Shelley Duncan. But Price really settled down, and the Tribe hitters couldn't get anything going after that.

The loss was the Indians' first to the Rays at home since 2005, which is astounding, given that the Rays have been one of the best teams in baseball the last couple of years, and the Indians have been one of the worst. Still, the Tribe is playing good baseball right now, and is 7-2 since the All-Star break. Justin Masterson starts against Wade Davis in the rubber match at 1:05 today, and while Masterson's had a very up-and-down year, he's capable of shutting a team down.

So ... yeah, huzzah for the Tribe Social Deck. May it last for eons.

Browns' rookies report — yay, football!

Today's post will be a roundup, because that's my favorite brand of weed killer:

• With the Indians season basically a lost cause and the Cavaliers in the throes of their most disappointing off-season in team history, it's with some degree of excitement that we welcome the start of Browns' training camp. Rookies reported today, and that includes presumed future starting quarterback Colt McCoy, who signed a four-year contract yesterday. McCoy will be third on the depth chart this year, behind Trent Dilfer and Jeff Garcia — sorry — behind Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace, but the winningest quarterback in NCAA history will get his shot, and probably soon. I predict he's the starter in 2011.

• The Tribe was hot out of the gates in the second half, and though they were never in Wednesday afternoon's 6-0 loss to the Twins, they're still 6-1 since the break. No, they won't contend this year, but if some of these youngsters start reaching their potential, a division title in 2011 wouldn't be that far-fetched.

• Shin-Soo Choo will reportedly be in uniform tonight for the series opener against the Rays. With Asdrubal Cabrera having been activated earlier this week, the Tribe is pretty darned close to full strength. The only key player still out is Grady Sizemore, who will miss the rest of the season. Maybe these guys can keep it going. Who knows. I do know this—the Indians have a surprising 17-game winning streak over the Rays at Progressive Field, even though the Rays have clearly been a better team than the Indians for the past three years.

• I've been invited to watch tomorrow night's game from the Tribe Social Deck, apparently because of my extreme blogging power. And I'm taking my most faithful reader — my lovely wife, Lisa — with me. Sorry if you were hoping I'd give you that other ticket. A lot has been written in other places about the Tribe Social Deck, so I won't bore you with any pregame details, but I'm sure I'll be moved to write a few words about it post-.

• The Cavaliers continue to be spurned by players who'd rather play for superior teams for less money. Matt Barnes, who played for the Magic last year, turned down an opportunity to replace a certain departing All-Star in the starting lineup, choosing instead to sign with the defending champion Lakers. He'd have made $7 million in two years here, but will pull in "just" $4 million in the same time frame in L.A. The Cavs can't seem to catch a break.

• Speaking of that departing All-Star, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson were among the former superstars who spoke out against what he did in leaving Cleveland for Miami. I heard a rumor on WKNR, quoting an unnamed blogger, that while LeBron doesn't give two turds what you and I think, Magic and Michael's comments made him reflect upon turning his back on Northeast Ohio, and now he regrets it. It's just a rumor, and anyway, no matter what LeBron thinks now, he's under contract to the Heat for the next six years. But regardless, I hope it's true. I hope he does regret it, I hope he never stops regretting it, and I hope he someday dies a bitter old man because of that regret. If that's hateful of me, then I guess I'm hateful.

You can't stop these Indians, you can only hope to contain them

The Indians won their sixth straight game last night, beating the Twins 4-3, for their longest winning streak since September 2008. And for that, I believe we can thank Twins catcher Joe Mauer, who did one of the dumbest things I can think of a ballplayer doing. Mauer is a three-time batting champion despite being a fairly slow runner, which is typical for a catcher. The reigning American League MVP came up with one out and runners on first and second in the seventh inning of what was then a tie game, after the Twins had already plated two in the inning to even things up at 3. If I'm a Twins fan, I'm feeling pretty good. There's no guarantee Mauer gets a hit, obviously, but there's nobody the Twins would rather have up there in that situation. A single to the outfield would score the runner from second and put the Twins ahead.

So what does Mauer do? He tries to bunt his way on. From the Associated Press' gamer:

Mauer put forth a reasoned argument, saying that facing hard-throwing lefty Rafael Perez, who likes to throw cutters away, coupled with Indians third baseman Jhonny Peralta playing way back invited the move.

"It's just giving me a base hit," Mauer said. "It got off the end of the bat a little bit and I didn't get it out there far enough. Didn't execute."

That may be, but it apparently never occurred to Mauer that nobody scores from second on a bunt single. Joe Mauer is a great player, and if I were to pick one guy to build a team around, it would be either him or Albert Pujols, but that was just plain stupid. Thanks, Joe. Yesterday was not my birthday, but doubtless there are a few Tribe fans whose birthday it was, and I'm sure they appreciate the gift.

The Indians broke the tie in the top of the eighth when Travis Hafner doubled to the gap in right center to plate Carlos Santana, who had walked to lead off the inning, and after a scoreless bottom of the eighth and top of the ninth, Chris Perez — thrust back into the closer's role after Kerry Wood's recent injury — set the Twins down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth.

Justin Masterson, in his first start since the All-Star break, had a reasonably strong outing, going 6 1/3 and giving up three runs on seven hits. Two of those runs scored after Masterson left the game, as Rafael Perez gave up two hits to score the runners Masterson had left on base. R. Perez got the win, which bugs me a little, but that's the way baseball's archaic scoring system is.

And the Indians remain unbeaten in the season's second half. I'd like to point out, for what it's worth, that each of the six games of the current winning streak was started by a different pitcher — the five regular starters plus Jeanmar Gomez, who made a spot start against Detroit because of the doubleheader. Jake Westbrook, who started the first game of the streak, starts in a 1:10 p.m. game today, against Francisco Liriano. A seventh consecutive win would be super.

Indians are cooking with gas

I don't know who those guys were wearing Indians uniforms at Target Field in Minnesota yesterday, but they sure didn't very much resemble the Cleveland Indians we've been watching all year. Not only did the Tribe put up double digits in the runs column, but they pounded out 20 hits, a season-high. And by going 5-0 out of the gate in the second half of the season, these terrible 2010 Tribesmen set a new club record. Who could have predicted that?

Trevor Crowe, who's hitting just .261 with just one single home run in 231 at-bats at the big-league level this year, had the game of his life last night, going 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs. I don't know quite what the Indians expect of the 26-year-old Crowe, but based on what we've seen so far, this game might be the highlight of his career. Sorry, but he's just not that good; still, he should feel good about that performance last night.

Jayson Nix, who's so good the White Sox cut him in mid-season, had three hits. In fairness to Nix, he's been hitting a lot better since joining the Tribe on June 25. He's still hitting .227 for the season, but that's up from .163 when he came over; and he's hit six of his seven long balls this season in a Cleveland uniform.

Aaron Laffey got the win. He did labor through his five innings of work, but nonetheless held the Twins to one unearned run on five hits and four walks, striking out just two. The Twins had at least one runner on base all five of Laffey's innings, and loaded them in the fourth, when they got that unearned run on a passed ball by Carlos Santana. But the bottom line is he only gave up that one run, and got the win.

Justin Masterson takes the mound for the Tribe tonight against the Twins' Kevin Slowey. Let's see if they can keep it going. We still have a chance at an undefeated second half. That'd be awesome.

Four-game sweep, batches!

I figured the Tribe had a chance to play well against the Tigers this weekend, but a four-game sweep? Never would have guessed that.

Yesterday's 7-2 win was particularly satisfying, in part because of Jhonny Peralta's extremely unlikely inside-the-park home run, which came in his first at-bat upon returning to the lineup after missing three games with the flu. I don't know about you, but I don't usually feel like running 120 yards at top speed when I'm getting over the flu—and Peralta's probably no faster than I am. He did get an assist from the bullpen door, which opened when Detroit's Ryan Raburn crashed into it in a vain attempt to catch Peralta's ball on the fly. Raburn subsequently landed on his petoot, and was unable to get up in time to make a play. I've often said that when you watch a baseball game, the chances are excellent that you'll see something you've never seen before, and that was one of those moments.

Jeanmar Gomez won his major-league debut yesterday, and was better than anyone had a right to expect. Dude was lights-out, going seven innings and giving up two unearned runs on just five hits. He walked one and struck out four. Gomez is a home-grown prospect, having signed with the Indians as an undrafted free agent out of Venezuela in 2006. His career ERA is 0.00. I'm pretty confident he won't keep that up, but he sure showed a lot of promise. Gomez only started that game because Saturday's doubleheader threw off the rotation, and he got sent back to Columbus after the game—but barring injury, we'll surely see him again this year, and probably very soon.

Sunday's victory followed a pair of one-run wins in Saturday's twinbill, necessitated by a May rainout; those, in turn, followed an easy 8-2 win on Friday night. And the Indians, who went a dismal 34-54 before the All-Star break, are now 4-0 since the break. If they can win all their games after the break, they'll finish 108-54. I think I'll order World Series tickets right now.

The second half approacheth; other thoughts

• The Indians open the second half of the season tonight against the Tigers, with opening-day starter Jake Westbrook also starting the first game of the second half. I don't suppose it makes much difference, because the Indians ain't goin' nowhere nohow, but I'd have started Fausto Carmona tonight. He's been the team's best starter thus far, and he didn't pitch in the All-Star Game, so he's rested. But that's a minor quibble.

• The Tigers, though they are a strong 48-38 overall, are a surprising 16-25 on the road. That's probably an aberration, but regardless, the Tribe has a fighting chance in this series.

• I don't have time to write a complete second-half preview, but in a nutshell, here's what I think we'll see the rest of the season: trades of veterans with expiring contracts, and a lot of young players trying to prove they belong in the majors. It's hard to imagine that they could be much worse than they were in the first half, but if they get rid of their high-priced talent and put the games in the hands of unproven youngsters, that is in fact entirely possible. But it doesn't matter much. The important thing is trying to contend in 2012 or 2013. Preferably both.

• Shin-Soo Choo could be returning soon, which would be a big help. He hit off a tee Wednesday and took some swings in the batting cage Thursday, and says he feels close to 100%. The Tribe's offense isn't very potent even with Choo in the lineup, but if they're going to score some runs in the second half, he's going to have to be one of the guys who knocks them in. Asdrubal Cabrera will likely also be back soon; he's currently on a rehab assignment in Akron. He's not the run producer Choo is, but he can hit some, and his slick glove is always welcome.

• And now ... the Cavaliers. A judge has given Delonte West eight months' home detention rather than jail for carrying weapons in Maryland. He will be allowed to leave home for practices and games, which means he'll be able to play. There's no stopping the Cavs now ... (I would like to point out that West didn't actually use his guns on anyone, but I guess nobody much cares.)

• It took the Houston Rockets less than a day to match the Cavs' offer to guard Kyle Lowry, so the Cavs are still looking for a backup point guard. They may also be looking for other players. They seem to have a hole at small forward, for example. I can't remember who was there last year, but I think I remember hearing he's gone.

• Oh, yeah. I remember now. Here's something cheery for those who wish ill on the Miami Heat next year (which I'm thinking is pretty much all of us): LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were all on the team that represented the United States in the 2006 FIBA World Championship, which is basketball's version of the World Cup. Not only did that team not win the title, they didn't even get there. They were eliminated by Greece in the semifinals. That Greek team had exactly one NBA player on it (Vassilis Spanoulis), and I've never heard of him.

• Someone named "dkbfish" just commented on my last post about how he's getting back at LeBron with "forever ungrateful" T-shirts. I don't think whoever that is cares about my blog at all, he's just trying to sell T-shirts. But what the hell, I left it up. Maybe he'll send me a free one. (cough)

Z leaves too; other thoughts

• OK, in my last post, I said that I hope my next post about the Cavaliers would be about the players we do have, rather than the ones we don't. Then Zydrunas Ilgauskas signed a contract with the dreaded Miami Heat — the same team that managed to land a somewhat more prominent ex-Cavalier. Z has long been one of my favorite players, and I'll miss him, but I don't begrudge him the chance to go gunning for a title in Miami. His situation is totally different from that of his teammate (whom I've chosen not to name in this post, for my own childish, petty reasons). If Miami does win a title next year, Z's presence on the roster will be the only saving grace, for me.

• The Cavaliers signed erstwhile Houston Rockets guard Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet yesterday. Under the NBA's labyrinthine salary-cap rules, the Rockets have a week to match the offer, if they so choose, because Lowry is a restricted free agent. Lowry is a tough defender who averaged 9.1 points and 4.5 assists in 21 minutes a game last year. ... Is he a high-impact guy? Heck, no. Let's hope this isn't the only move the Cavs make this offseason.

• Last night, the National League won its first All-Star Game since 1996, thanks to a three-run double by the Braves' Brian McCann — who's on my fantasy team, but I don't get any credit for that hit, which I think is BS. If the All-Star Game counts for something (home field advantage in the World Series), I think the stats should count in fantasy leagues. I'm dead serious about that.

• As I predicted, the Indians' lone All-Star, Fausto Carmona, did not get into the game. He wouldn't have gotten in unless the game went to 15 innings or so. But I hope he had a good time watching it from the bullpen.

• Overshadowing the All-Star Game, of course, was the death of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, 1930-2010. Steinbrenner was born on the Fourth of July in Rocky River, the son of a world-class hurdler. Long before he bought the Yankees, he revitalized the dying Kinsman Marine Transit Company and parlayed that into a majority share in the American Shipbuilding Company, in which he made enough money to buy the Yankees for $8.8 million in 1973. Never mind what the Yankees have done on the field since then — that was a remarkably sound investment. The team is now worth an estimated $1.5 billion, with a B. That's a 17,000% return on his initial investment. Steinbrenner owned the one team in American sports that I hate the most, but I've never held that against him. In fact, I kind of liked the old poop. The good news is, now that he and Billy Martin are reunited in the afterlife, he can hire and fire Martin again.

Stern weighs in

NBA Commissioner David Stern says LeBron James' prime-time "The Decision" special was "ill-advised," and that he should have let the Cavaliers know he was leaving before he announced it on national TV. Gee, thanks, Dave. He added that the way James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh met to discuss their futures together didn't violate league rules and won't be investigated. Whatever. What good would an investigation have done anyway? What would we want out of it, for him to force LeBron to come back to Cleveland? Would we want a player who doesn't want to be here?

Stern also fined Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert $100,000 for his open letter to fans after James' announcement. Big deal. Dan Gilbert has $100,000 in his change jar. I'm pretty sure it was worth $100,000 for him to blow off that steam. Stern also rebuked Jesse Jackson, who said Gilbert's comments indicate he thinks of James as "a runaway slave." This is a sports blog, and I'm not going to get into issues involving the racial climate in this country, except to say I'm pretty confident Gilbert would reacted the same way if James were white.

This whole situation is just ugly, sad and unfortunate. Did Gilbert overreact? Sure, he did. But he was angry and hurt. How many of us can honestly say we'd have handled it better?

Regardless, there will be a Cavaliers season that starts in October. The Cavs won't be the marquee team they've been for the past seven years, but they'll win a few games. How many, I have no idea. They'll probably take a while to recover from this, but they've got a good management team in place, and given a few years, they'll be competitive again. I'm tired of thinking about who they don't have anymore. I hope my next Cavaliers-related post will be about who they do have.

LeBron is still gone

• Obviously, the number-one sports story on everyone's mind in Cleveland is still LeBron James, even though it's been four days now since he made his ridiculous little announcement in a national TV special. And who am I kidding? It's still going to be the top Cleveland sports story for a little while yet. I don't want to wallow in this situation, but I can't deny the wound is still raw. My wife asked me last night if I hate LeBron James. I try not to be the kind of person who hates people in general, and especially not athletes, but I can't deny there's a little bit of hatred there. I've had fantasies about him accidentally getting one of his legs torn off, for example. That certainly doesn't come from a place of love and forgiveness. I'm not proud of those feelings, but like most Clevelanders, I feel betrayed.

• With that in mind, I understand why Dan Gilbert felt the need to spout off about LeBron after his announcement last week. If you're reading this blog, I'm sure you've read at least part of that letter, so I won't go into the details of it right now. But Gilbert was angry and frustrated, and let the world know about it. Not only did LeBron not tell Gilbert he was leaving before he told a national TV audience, he reportedly refused to return any of his voice mails or text messages at any point after the Cavaliers' playoff run ended. No wonder he was so fired up. Still ... as a team owner, he should have shown some restraint. As loyal Of Fair Hooker reader Jeff Brown pointed out in a reply to my last post, that kind of thing has the potential to scare off any other free agents that might have considered coming here.

• I didn't think the Cavaliers would do anything to help LeBron make more money, which would have involved a sign-and-trade deal. I'm happy to see I was wrong. Certainly not because LeBron will make more money, but because at least we got something out of this debacle. They got two first-round and two second-round draft picks. Given that the Heat will likely go deep into the playoffs, those picks will be low in those rounds, so we're obviously not going to get another LeBron out of any of them, but we should be able to get some decent talent out of that. The Cavs made the best of a bad situation.

• That's enough of that, at least for today. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, I'll post a list of companies that have LeBron as a spokesman, so we can all boycott them.

• The Indians go into the All-Star break with a dreadful 34-54 record, which is hardly surprising given the fact that they traded away most of their top veterans last year, and most of the rest of their top veterans have gotten hurt in the first half of the season. This team does have a lot of young talent stockpiled, but they're at least a couple of years away from contending. Thank goodness we're in the mediocre AL Central.

• The Tribe's lone All-Star is Fausto Carmona, and I'd say it's fairly doubtful that he'll get into the game. Fausto has had a fine first half (8-7, 3.64), but I think it's obvious that if it weren't for the rule that every team has to be represented, coupled with the fact that Shin-Soo Choo got hurt, he wouldn't be on the AL team. Still, he should be proud of what he's accomplished in coming back from some terrible, injury-filled years in 2008 and 2009.

He's gone

This one hurts.

Northeast Ohio native LeBron James has turned his back on us. Arguably the greatest pro athlete ever to call Cleveland home has decided he'd rather play in Miami. He's chosen to leave the team that plays an hour from his hometown in order to play in a city to which he has absolutely no personal connection whatsoever. Not to mention, he left $30 million on the table to do it.

Over the 11 hours or so since LeBron made his announcement last night, I've had about a million different things go through my head that I thought about addressing in this space this morning, and if I had all day to write this post, I probably still wouldn't get to them all. But I think the thing that hurts the most about this is the knowledge that LeBron will probably win multiple NBA championships, but not for Cleveland.

It's hard to make sense of what LeBron just did. I can't help but think he doesn't really understand it himself. A celebrity of LeBron's stature lives his life in a bubble, and while he certainly knows he'll be leaving behind some hurt feelings back here, I don't think he realizes the full ramifications of this. If he'd stayed in Cleveland, he'd have been the city's greatest athletic hero of all time. After he retired, they'd have built a statue of him outside the Q (or whatever it'll be called then). He'd be universally loved in his hometown of Akron and the entire region. Now, he'll be forever despised here. This is not like Manny Ramirez or Jim Thome leaving for more money somewhere else. This is someone who was from here and could have made more money to stay, but chose to leave anyway. The fact that he's his sport's best player makes it hurt just that much more.

LeBron's stated reason for going to Miami is that he feels that's his best chance to win a title. I must admit, you can look at the Heat roster as it stands now and defend that sentiment. They've got Dwyane Wade and now Chris Bosh to go along with LeBron. I do believe LeBron is genuine when he says that's his reason for leaving. But here's the thing about that — he could have won a title in Cleveland THIS YEAR, if he himself had played up to his own standards in the playoffs. He wasn't the only Cavalier who didn't play well in the Boston series, but we've seen him play a whole lot better than he did then. Yes, with players like Wade and Bosh on his side, he won't shoulder so much of a burden, but if he'd stayed in Cleveland, the Cavs could have gotten him somebody like that. Bosh balked at playing with LeBron in Cleveland, but if LeBron had made the decision to stay here, I'll bet Bosh would have reconsidered.

Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's angry letter to fans guarantees that the Cavaliers will win a title before LeBron does. I wish I could believe that. Without a marquee player like LeBron, this team will be lucky just to reach the playoffs next year.

We Cleveland sports fans have been through a lot in our lives, and every time we see an event such as The Drive or The Shot or Jose Mesa's meltdown, it's another dagger in our hearts. As I've matured over my 39 years on this planet, I've learned to try to keep myself from getting too wrapped up in the outcomes of sporting events. Ever since the world learned what LeBron James has chosen to do with the next five years of his life, I've tried very hard to remind myself that it's just sports, that it's not really anything important. But so far, I haven't really been able to convince myself that this doesn't hurt.

It does. It hurts like hell.

LeBron's ready to choose ... right?

Reportedly, LeBron James is going to announce at 9 p.m. Thursday on ESPN what he's going to do with the next five years of his life. ... Well, OK, we know he's going to play basketball, but we don't know for whom. We don't know where he's going to make his announcement, other than the fact that it's going to be shown on ESPN. So there's still not much that we know; only that we'll know more in a little over 36 hours.

According to reports, James tried to convince the Raptors' Chris Bosh to come to Cleveland from Toronto in a sign-and-trade deal that would have sent Anderson Varejao to the Raptors. That would seem to be a good sign for the Cavaliers, that LeBron is trying to recruit other big names to come here. But although Bosh wants to play with LeBron, he doesn't want to do it in Cleveland. That could be a huge blow to the Cavs. Bosh is reportedly close to signing with Miami to play with Dwyane Wade, but the Raptors aren't going to do a sign-and-trade with the Heat, as Miami doesn't have the players to make it worth their while. So if Bosh does sign in Miami, he'll be leaving $30 million on the table, under the NBA's salary cap rules; not to mention (possibly) the chance to play with LeBron. It is possible that LeBron could join Wade and Bosh in Miami, but if he does, he'll also be leaving $30 million on the table.

I could start going into what the Cavaliers' options are if they don't sign LeBron — or, for that matter, if they DO sign him — but I'm just going to wait and see what he does before I start in on that crap.

We'll find out tomorrow night. And whatever he decides, you and I will survive.

LeBron-a-thon continues

I've been away from the computer for a few days, but I will attempt to round up my thoughts on what we've missed over the long weekend. Starting ... wait for it ... now!

• LeBron James is still keeping his mouth shut about his plans for signing anywhere, if he has any. He's currently running his three-day basketball camp in Akron, and is reportedly behaving as if he's got nothing else on his mind. That's a good thing for those young men who are attending his camp; maybe not so good for media outlets that are trying to get a read on what he's going to do. It's been reported that he's likely to announce something as soon as his camp is over. Maybe so. I guess we'll just have to wait.

• Amar'e Stoudemire announced yesterday that he's agreed to a nine-figure contract with the Knicks, and has been recruiting LeBron to join him there. How much difference will that make to LeBron? Only one man knows. And that's assuming he even knows, which he may not.

• The Indians are 3-2 so far in the month of July, but continue to get hit with injuries. Shin-Soo Choo, who's been their best player all year, is out with a thumb injury that he sustained while diving to catch a fly ball on Friday, and we don't know yet whether he needs surgery or not. He's likely to be out a couple of months, but we'll see. Grady Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera are both out too; Sizemore for the season, Cabrera until late July or early August. Those are the Tribe's three best position players. It's tough for any team to overcome that, much less a young, cheap team like the Indians.

• Matt LaPorta continues to sizzle, but took an elbow to the head while covering first base on a ground ball in yesterday's 9-3 win over Texas. LaPorta's two-run homer gave him five on the season — four of which have come since June 29 — and he's hitting .333 with a .412 OBP and .767 slugging average since taking over first base when Russell Branyan was traded June 27. But he was dazed and nauseous after Elvis Andrus clocked him with his elbow while LaPorta was trying to field a throw that bounced in the dirt. Let's hope this doesn't throw him off his game, because he's doing some fine things right now.

• The Netherlands, which I'm on record as rooting for in the World Cup, has its match with Uruguay at 2:30 this afternoon to see who plays the Germany-Spain winner for the championship. Uruguay, you may be surprised to learn, won the first-ever World Cup in 1930, and also won the title in 1950. The Dutch have reached the final twice, most recently in 1978, but never won it. The nation then known as West Germany won three titles out of its six trips to the final, and the unified German team lost the final in 2002. Spain, much to my surprise, has never gotten to the final. I tend to root for teams that have never tasted the glory, so I'll be rooting for the Dutch and the Spanish to reach the title game. It should be interesting.

Indians are on fire! But nobody put them out!

Our lousy baseball team (the Indians, duh) swept a four-game series against the Blue Jays this week, culminating in yesterday afternoon's 6-1 triumph, keyed by a three-run homer off the bat of Matt LaPorta and a fine performance by starting pitcher Justin Masterson, who got his third win of 2010 after failing to win a single game the first two months of the season.

First, let's talk about LaPorta. At 25, he's getting his second shot to play every day in the bigs, thanks to the Russell Branyan trade. His first shot came at the beginning of the season, when he was the everyday first baseman for a while, but he knew he'd be losing his job when Branyan came off the disabled list. Now, he's in no one's shadow. Whether that explains this week's power surge, I cannot say, for I am not a licensed therapist, and I have never spoken to him anyway. But facts are facts, and it's a fact that he entered the series against the Blue Jays with just one home run in 123 at-bats at the major league level this year. He has now gone deep three games in a row, and since the start of the Toronto series, his average stats have jumped from .211/.281/.268 to .228/.300/.353. His minor league numbers (56 home runs in 884 at-bats, including five dingers in 69 at-bats at Columbus this year) suggest this is closer to the LaPorta we should expect to see, and I hope they're right. Don't lie to me, Matt LaPorta's minor league numbers.

Now, on to Masterson, who has been up-and-down the last few weeks, after being pretty much just down in April and May. He was bad in his last outing going into yesterday's game (six runs in five innings in a loss to Cincinnati), but was very good yesterday, giving up just one run in 8 1/3 innings, on eight hits. He struck out five, didn't walk anybody, and kept the ball in the yard. And while he's still not consistent enough, he's really turned his season around. On May 24, after giving up five runs in four innings of a loss to the White Sox, Masterson was 0-5 with a 6.13 ERA, and appeared to be about ready to lose his spot in the starting rotation. He's now 3-7 with a 4.85 ERA, and though he's not likely to pitch in any All-Star games anytime soon, he's obviously a highly serviceable starter right now.

Masterson did get into trouble in the ninth, the inning in which the Blue Jays got their one run. Masterson left with the bases loaded, just one out, and the one run in, and rookie Frank "Extra Consonants" Herrmann came in to face Jose Molina. It was a save situation, because the Jays had the tying run on deck. After getting ahead of Molina 1-2, Herrmann got him to hit a routine double-play ball to shortstop, ending the game. Not only was it Herrmann's first major league save, he became the third Indian to save a game in three days. I'm sure that's been done before, but I can't remember ever hearing of it. That's pretty cool, if you're into that sort of thing. Which I am. If that makes me a nerd, then I guess I'm a nerd.

The Tribe opens a three-gamer tonight against Oakland at Progressive Field, and comes in riding a season-long five-game winning streak. Can they keep it going? Tune in tonight to find out!

We cover all three Cleveland teams in this roundup!

• Ladies and gentlemen, the best player currently under contract to the Cleveland Cavaliers is either Mo Williams or Antawn Jamison. LeBron James' contract expired a little more than 12 hours ago, and he is now beholden to no man. Until he signs his next contract, of course, at which point he'll be more beholden than ever, because it's going to have some very large numbers following dollar signs on it. He's going to spend the next few days meeting with representatives from several teams (the Nets are in town right now), who will probably do anything he asks in hopes of signing him. This is a family blog, so all I'm going to say is that there's really nothing I'd put past some of these team owners.

• After it looked so certain yesterday that the Cavs were going to name Brian Shaw as their next coach, the reports today are that Byron Scott is the guy. I frankly prefer Scott, since he's got head coach experience in the NBA and has even taken a team to the Finals. (Of course, so has Mike Brown ... Stop that, Steve.) Scott's agent has said he's agreed to be the next coach, which is a pretty strong source. Regardless, as I said yesterday, the only thing that really matters, as far as who the next coach is, is whether it makes LeBron want to stay. No matter who the coach is, they're title contenders with LeBron, but without him, they're the Clippers.

• Break up the Indians! After last night's 3-1 victory over Toronto, the Tribe is now riding a four-game winning streak. And for winning pitcher Aaron Laffey, it's been an enormous week. Not only did he just get his first win in the majors this season, his wife gave birth to their son on Tuesday. Laffey was very good last night, limiting the Blue Jays to one run on five hits over six innings, striking out five and walking two. Matt LaPorta, who has taken over first base after the Branyan trade, homered for the second-straight game; and Shin-Soo Choo also went deep. And Chris Perez, who had so many white-knuckle moments early in the season as the closer while Kerry Wood got healthy, slammed the door in a 1-2-3 ninth. Perez was closing this one because Wood had pitched three days in a row, and has really turned his season around.

• I will pass this factoid along without comment, but it's something I noticed: The Indians' starting lineup for today's series closer against the Jays has exactly two players who have spent the entire season with the Indians at the major league level this year: Choo and Travis Hafner.

• I was looking on the Yahoo fantasy sports site today, and found they have rated the Browns 31st out of 32 teams in the NFL from a fantasy perspective. The piece, by Andy Behrens, which you can read here, notes that the Browns figure to have a strong running game, featuring Jerome Harrison and second-round draft pick Montario Hardesty; but the passing game figures to be dookie, behind Jake Delhomme. An excerpt:

Seriously: If a team wants to deliver a groin-kick to its fan base, the best way to do so is to acquire Delhomme. He's turned the ball over 27 times in his last 12 games, dating back to his catastrophic playoff performance against Arizona. Jake threw 18 interceptions in 11 appearances last season.

At this stage in the 35-year-old's career, he's simply not someone you want at the controls of an offense — not in real-life, not in fantasy. Delhomme was a mess in Carolina when he had Steve Smith at his disposal; there's no reason to expect better results with the Browns' receiving corps.

Well, we do have Seneca Wallace waiting as his backup ...