Where's LeBron going? Probably nowhere

Loyal reader Jeff Brown sent me the following link to a Bill Simmons column on ESPN's Page 2. If I may quote from Jeff's email:

Team LeBron is making everyone think they have a chance at LeBron in 2010 so multiple teams clear cap space and weaken themselves competitively in the short-term (like Detroit did) ... which inadvertently gives Bron a better chance to win a title over these next two years! It's devious and hilarious. I love it. I would do the same thing. Can't you see Worldwide Wes whispering to Dumars, "Yeah, LeBron loves Detroit, he could totally see himself there, you should kill your 2009 chances so we can maybe sign with you."

From http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/storypage=simmons/081126&sportCat=nba&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2

...

The Cavs' chances are increasing for a title this season and next, as we watch teams falling all over each other to arrange their salary caps to make a run at "The King" even though the Cavs can offer him a considerably higher salary than any other team.

Which reminds me, I'm surprised that our loyal hometown hero, C.C. Sabathia, has not yet inked his foregone conclusion contract with the Tribe. I guess he and the Tribe are just making the other teams expend unnecessary energy, in order to wear THEM out and increase the Tribe's chances
in 2009 and beyond.

Jeff (I think) is just joking about CC, but it is truly interesting what's happening with all this talk about LeBron in New York. I don't think anyone's saying there's NO chance LeBron won't sign with a team in a bigger market, but the national media generally seems to have no idea about the salary cap rules that would allow the Cavs to sign or trade for another big name, THEN sign LeBron to a bigger contract than anyone else can offer.

LeBron is far from the main thrust of the column. Simmons also holds forth on who the main contenders are this season, and our Cavaliers are in his top three. (They also seem to be in the "general consensus" top three, from what I have seen.) They've certainly been impressive thus far, and have to be considered legitimate.

Will LeBron be a Cavalier after his current contract expires? I don't know, but I think so. In any case, there's not much point worrying about it right now.

Pathetic

I don't know what to say about the Browns. They were terrible. Brady Quinn was awful, but Braylon Edwards sure didn't help him much.

Would that I had more to say. I just can't bring myself to think about it more.

Whew!

Boy, the Browns danced with the same demon that bit them the last two weeks. (I know I'm mixing metaphors, but it's late.) The difference came down to the kickers: Phil Dawson hit a 56-yarder (his fifth field goal of the game), and Rian Lindell missed a 47-yarder. At 33, Dawson is having perhaps his best season as a pro, as he has hit on 22 of 24 field goals, and set his own career long twice this year. The second of those was the one that won the game tonight.

Brady Quinn wasn't as good tonight as he was last week, going 14-for-36 for 185 yards, but he made a few big throws, and he was good enough to win.It's important to note that he didn't throw any picks. Jerome Harrison's 72-yard run was a thing of beauty, but that Leodis McKelvin immediately answered it with a TD kickoff return.

And the Browns were definitely lucky. Besides the missed field goal, they were extremely lucky that the nose of the ball touched the ground before Ko Simpson could corral it on one lazy duck Quinn threw. (I know, the expression is "wounded duck," but this one didn't wobble. It wasn't wounded. It was just lazy.)

Well, as I said, it's late, and if I didn't have to get up so early tomorrow, I'd write about how the offense failed to capitalize on all the interceptions, and about how awful the kickoff coverage was, and about how Braylon Edwards is so great at everything except catching the ball (though it should be said he didn't drop any easy ones tonight), and about how the only guys who made plays on the Browns defense were guys the average fan has never even heard of before, and about how Marshawn Lynch ran wild on our defense ... but why wallow in it. We won!

Six straight

Due to a shortage of time, I haven't posted anything about the Cavaliers since their last loss. They've reeled off six straight wins since then, after last night's 110-99 win over the Nuggets, and are looking like one of the true heavyweights of the Eastern Conference.

The acquisition of Mo Williams is definitely bearing dividends. Williams led the Cavs with 24 points last night, to go along with six assists. LeBron, despite "only" 22 points, was his usual self, adding 11 assists and eight rebounds. The Cavs ran away with it in the second half, after being down 61-58 at the break.

This is a good-looking Cavaliers team. I look forward to a deep playoff run, presuming everyone stays healthy.

Cliff Lee, Cy Young

To the surprise of no one, our man Cliff Lee took home some serious hardware today. Lee went 22-3 this year with a 2.45 ERA, and there is no question he was the best pitcher in the American League.

There really isn't much I can say in a small space about Lee's 2008. We all know how he struggled in '07, getting sent to Buffalo, then returning in a bullpen role. And we all know how he dominated this year, from start to finish.

A couple of months ago, I wrote in this space that I looked forward to posting a game-by-game account of Lee's season after he won the Cy Young. I do look forward to that, but it's not going to happen tonight. That's well within my rights as a blogger.

Herbert Jude Score, RIP

The great Herb Score left us on Tuesday.

Those of my and adjacent generations remember Herb as the voice of the Indians, which title he held from 1964 to 1997; four years on TV, and three decades on the radio. A native of Rosedale, Queens, Herb retained his New Yawk accent, and I'll always remember how he said, for example, "Jose Can-SECK-o," instead of the more common "Cuhn-SAY-co." But he has been a Clevelander for a very, very long time, and no doubt would have identified himself as such.

I heard an interview with Tom Hamilton yesterday on the Wills & Snyder show on WTAM, and he said the only time he ever saw Herb stand up in reaction to something that happened on the field was when Tony Fernandez hit what proved to be the game-winning home run that sent the Indians to the World Series in '97. It was Game 6 against Baltimore, and Fernandez's run was the only one scored in a pitcher's duel between Charles Nagy and Mike Mussina (neither of whom figured in the decision). I'll never forget the call Herb made on that home run, which occurred in the top of the ninth: "And the Indians are going to the World Series! ... Maybe. They still have to get through the bottom of the ninth."

Herb retired after that season, so the thrilling, extra-inning seventh game of the World Series against the Marlins was the very last game he ever called. His pending retirement was no secret, and I remember thinking how fantastic it would be if the Indians should finally win a World Series in Herb's last game behind the mike. Alas, it was not to be.

And I haven't even mentioned Herb's playing career. I'm not old enough to remember him as a player, but he was one of the American League's best pitchers for a couple of years. In his rookie year, 1955, he went 16-10 with a fine 2.85 ERA and 245 strikeouts -- which would stand as a rookie record until 1984, when Dwight Gooden would break it. (Gooden, ironically, would have a similar career to Score's, but for vastly different reasons.) He followed it up with an even better season in '56, going 20-9, 2.53, 263. He turned 23 on June 7 of that year, and it must have looked like a Hall of Fame career in the making. But a Gil McDougald line drive bounced off Score's eye on May 7, 1957, and he was never the same again. He pitched until 1962, but ended his career with just 55 wins.

Through it all, Herb was, by all accounts, a genuinely nice man, never thinking of himself as a celebrity. I'm sure I would have loved to sit and talk baseball with him over a beer, or a cup of coffee, or whatever beverage he favored. For those of us who have listened to a lot of Indians games on the radio, Herb was an old friend, and there will never be another like him.

Rest in peace, Herb. We miss you.

Cowher in Cleveland?

My friend Hutch sent me this link to a Plain Dealer story about a guy who's running an online petition to get the Browns to hire Bill Cowher to be their new head coach. Obviously, they've been disappointing this year under Romeo Crennel, but it's worth noting that Crennel was at the helm during the team's winningest season in the expansion era. Does a guy forget how to coach in the space of a season? I don't know, but barring a phenomenal turnaround the rest of the season, it's quite likely that there are going to be some serious changes after the season, and Crennel's job is certainly not safe.

So what about Cowher? We know he's got Cleveland roots, spending time as an assistant here under Marty Schottenheimer before the Steelers picked him off. He went 149-90-1 in 15 seasons in Pittspuke, and won a Super Bowl. But that was in an organization that has made good personnel decisions; it bears mention that his replacement, Mike Tomlin, is 16-9 over a season and a half. The Browns, as we all know, have NOT made good personnel decisions over the years, but it's clear that there's enough talent on the current team to be right up there with Tomlin's team. If we'd just won the last two games -- both of which we were leading late -- we'd be 5-4, a game back of the Steelers.

Is Cowher the guy? I don't know, but I don't think Crennel is. We'll see what happens.

Come all without, come all within

You'll soon see what we've got in Brady Quinn.

It seems an odd time to make a quarterback change, given that Derek Anderson actually played a decent game on Sunday. Also, we've got a Thursday night game this week, which gives Quinn a short schedule to prepare as the starter; seems like it would make more sense to start him the next week, with 10 days to prepare.

Former Browns QB Trent Dilfer, speaking on "SportsCenter," expressed the opinion that the decision to bench Anderson was quasi-buffoonish, saying that it was made because the fans wanted it. Whether that's the real reason or not, I cannot say for sure, but I hope we can all agree that if that's the reason, it's a bad reason to make a quarterback change.

"There are so many layers of dysfunction that this decision represents," Dilfer said. "It shows a total lack of discretion and wisdom at the very highest level of the Cleveland Brown organization."

All that said, the question remains: Is Quinn the guy? I have no idea, but we're going to start finding out on Thursday. What we do know is that Anderson has been spotty at best this year. Maybe Quinn can do better. I sure hope so.

Coming from ahead to lose

I don't have a whole lot of interest to say about today's Browns game, but I do want to discuss what I consider to have been the play of the game. I don't mean to blame Braylon Edwards for today's loss -- there's plenty of blame to go around -- but if he'd come down with that deep pass when the score was tied in the fourth quarter, he probably would have scored, and it would have changed the whole complexion of the game. It's impossible to know for sure, of course, but I think there's about an 80% chance the Browns would have won.

You may notice I have not named the Browns' opponent today. I'm not sure if this will be a hard and fast rule going forward, but at least for now, I'm not using their name. In fact, I'm not saying about that team, except that I freaking HAAAAAAATE losing to them.

On a side note, the Giants trounced the Cowboys 35-14 today, to improve to 7-1. The Browns are still the only blemish on their record. I'd like to see the Browns that took the field that day again, but I've come to terms with the fact that I probably won't see them again this year. Maybe if we could play undefeated teams every week, we could win some games. I hope the Titans are still undefeated when we play them in week 14.

Cavs fail another test

The Cavaliers have played two games against the NBA's elite, and have lost them both. Last night's 104-92 loss to New Orleans was disappointing, given that the Hornets were playing without starters Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic, not to mention the fact that the Cavs were actually winning as late as the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter. You'd think that if one of the teams were to fall apart down the stretch, it'd be the one playing without two starters.

The difference in the game -- statistically, at least -- was turnovers. The Cavaliers made 18 of them, to the Hornets' 14. That's not a big difference in and of itself, but the Bees made better use of the turnovers they got, converting them into 26 points, compared to the 12 points Cleveland got off New Orleans' TOs.

LeBron didn't have a great game, scoring just 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting. He did dish out 13 assists and got seven rebounds and three steals, but as the Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst reports, he went 2 1/2 quarters without hitting a single bucket from the half-court offense. When your all-world perennial MVP candidate and defending scoring champion goes dry for that long, it's pretty tough to win.

Congratulations, once again, to Charlie Manuel and the Phillies

I'm on record as rooting for the Rays in this World Series, but at the same time, I couldn't be happier for Charlie Manuel. I certainly would not have predicted in mid-September that his Phillies would be the champs, given that they were still locked in a division race with the Mets.

Chase Utley made the defensive play of the series -- and one of the most savvy defensive plays I've ever seen -- in the seventh inning last night. With the score tied at 3 and Jason Bartlett on second, Akinori Iwamura hit a ground ball up the middle, and Utley fielded it behind second base. He faked a throw to first as Bartlett rounded third, then gunned Bartlett down at home. Absolutely brilliant. If Utley had actually thrown to first, Bartlett would certainly have scored; if he hadn't faked the throw, Bartlett wouldn't have even tried to score, so the Rays would have had first and third with two outs. Either way, the World Series might be headed back to Florida.

I liked what Fox did at the end of the game, when they had a camera trained on each of the Phillies' players on the field, and at least a few on the dugout. They then showed us the reactions from each of those corners at the moment Eric Hinske struck out on a Brad Lidge slider to make the Phillies the champs. Charlie was pretty reserved, but he was obviously thrilled as he shared a group hug with a few of his coaches before heading onto the field.

This was Philadelphia's first pro championship in any major sport since 1983, the year I turned 12. I'm still waiting for Cleveland's first in my lifetime. I'm happy for the Philly fans, but it does make me more than a bit envious.

Heavyweight slugfest goes Penn State's way

Ohio State battled a very strong Penn State team up until the final minute last night. And a Terrelle Pryor with another year's worth or so of experience might well have pulled out that game.

Color commentator (and Buckeye alum) Kirk Herbstreit felt Pryor was trying to make too much happen on the play in which he coughed up the ball in the fourth quarter, which the Nittany Lions recovered to set up the field goal that made the final score 13-6. Herbstreit felt that Pryor should have just taken the sneak inside and picked up the first down. No disrespect to Herbie, but I disagree. Pryor thought he saw an opening to the outside and would try to pick up a few extra yards -- which I applaud. His mistake was not carrying the ball more carefully.

Pryor did make a mistake -- albeit an understandable one -- on the throw that was intercepted in the end zone in the final minute. He threw what was essentially a Hail Mary, with 20-some seconds left on the clock. Keeping in mind that in college, a first down stops the clock until the chains are moved, Pryor had time to try to find somebody underneath and then run up and spike the ball. It's likely that it wouldn't have made much difference, but regardless, a more experienced quarterback probably gives his team a little bit better chance in that situation.

It should be said that the Buckeyes couldn't get anything going on the ground, which kept the pressure on Pryor. Beanie Wells picked up just 55 yards on 22 carries, and Pryor himself only got six yards with his legs, on nine totes.

The Penn State Nittany Lions now look pretty good to get to the national title game, and I'm rooting for them. It'd be neat to see Joe Paterno win another championship at age 81.

What a mess

I'm really not sure what to make of this Kellen Winslow Jr. situation. The sequence of events went something like this:

• Winslow spent a few days in the hospital with a staph infection.
• The Browns didn't want anybody to know what it was because they were gaining a reputation for spreading staph infections.
• The team didn't tell anybody and asked him not to tell anybody either.
• Everybody wondered what was wrong with Winslow, and people were filling in the blanks on their own. I actually heard someone speculate that he'd contracted a social disease.
• Winslow missed a game, which incidentally was the best game the Browns have played in years.
• Winslow got out of the hospital and played in the next game, which incidentally didn't go well at all for the Browns.
• Winslow complained after the game that he felt like a piece of meat, because Phil Savage never called him while he was in the hospital with a staph infection.
• Savage suspended Winslow for a game, without pay, for making comments that were "unwarranted, inappropriate, and unnecessarily disparaging to our organisation."
• Winslow appealed his suspension.

There seems to be a lot of blame to go around here. It's the ugly truth that professional athletes basically are pieces of meat. The teams really don't care about them as people; they only care about what they can do for them on the field of play. Winslow should know that. On the other hand, I can understand that it would be a bit frustrating to have people speculating about what's put you in the hospital, and to top it off, nobody from the team bothers to check in on you while you're in there. If LeBron James or Zydrunas Ilgauskas were in the hospital, I have to believe Danny Ferry would call to see how they were doing; ditto with Grady Sizemore and Mark Shapiro.

But there's a right way to do things, and there's a wrong way. Popping off publicly about how your GM behaved while you were in the hospital is the wrong way. Then again, suspending a player for popping off is probably not productive either.

What a mess.

World Series!

For the first time in probably decades, the World Series matches up two teams that, between them, have combined for exactly one WS title -- the Phillies, in 1980.

The Cinderella Rays finally finished off the Red Sox last night, in a game it seemed like you'd have had to be a little high to think they'd win, given Boston's recent history of coming back from big series deficits (including last year's heart theft against the Tribe). Matt Garza and the Rays' bullpen held the big Red Sox bats in check, and while things were touch and go there for a while in the eighth, rookie David Price -- a veteran of exactly seven major-league games, including this postseason -- came in and struck out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded to end the threat. Then he set them down in the ninth, stranding a lead-off walk, to give the Rays the American League pennant in their first above-.500 season in team history. Price had not even pitched professionally until May 22, but the boy's apparently got ice in his veins. He has no regular-season wins or saves, but he now has one of each in the postseason.

I'm looking forward to this World Series. I'll be rooting for Tampa, but the Phillies aren't exactly the Yankees. I'm glad one of these teams will be the new champions.

Too little, too late

The Browns offense that showed up in the fourth quarter of today's game against the Redskins looked a lot like the Browns offense that took the Giants to the woodshed on Monday night. The problem was that the Browns offense that laid an egg for the first three quarters looked more like the Browns offense that laid egg after egg for the first four games of the season.

The defense played pretty well, but predictably wore down after the offense failed to keep the defense off the field for most of the game.

I don't know what else needs to be said. The Browns are now 2-4, and this is shaping up as another lost season.

But hey, at least the Buckeyes are winning.

Hafner goes under the scope

So it seems the Indians "cleanup" hitter, Travis Hafner, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder yesterday. The procedure by Dr. James Andrews is described as a "debridement," or cleaning out, of his right shoulder joint. I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you that Hafner spent most of 2008 on the disabled list, and didn't do much when he did play (.197/5/24 in 198 at-bats). He was an absolute monster in 2006 (.308/42/117), but fell off precipitously in 2007 (.266/24/100).

The Indians say Hafner will be ready for opening day in 2009, but he will turn 32 on June 3 next year and will be coming off an injury-plagued year that was followed by arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Given that most hitters peak around age 27, I don't think Hafner will ever have another season like he had in 2006, when he was 29. In fact, I'll be surprised if Hafner's production in 2009 is as good as it was in 2007. I hope I'm wrong.

Well, what do you know?

When the Browns were 0-3, none of us could have possibly imagined this outcome tonight. And in fact, even when they were 1-3, with a win over the woeful Bengals, we all figured we were basically sacrificial lambs against the undefeated defending champion Giants tonight.

But the team that took the field tonight in the brown and orange was not the same team that took the field any of the previous four games. In fact, I can't swear it's even the same team that went 10-6 last year. This team tonight looked better than any Browns team has looked since ... well, the Modell era. I don't want to exaggerate, but that's how it feels right now. I just sat here and watched every play of this game, and I still can't believe what my own eyes beheld.

Derek Anderson is suddenly a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback again, thanks in part to great protection from the offensive line that previously looked so shabby. Jamal Lewis could get a first down any time he wanted. Braylon Edwards seemed like he was open by five yards at all times. And Eric Wright, for the second game in a row, made the play of the day. That 94-yard interception return not only featured a fantastic read on Eli Manning and an athletic move to step ahead of the receiver, but a tremendous return in which he eluded Manning's attempt to force him out of bounds and/or knock the ball loose. When Wright kick-stepped over the goal line, we all knew it was over.

Thirty-five to fourteen over the undefeated, seemingly invincible, Super Bowl champs. This was probably the most satisfying early-season Browns win of the expansion era. Savor it, ladies and gentlemen. I sure hope it's a sign of things to come.

Very interesting

Loyal reader John Arthur "Hutch" Hutchison sent me this link about all the necklaces you see hanging on ballplayers' chests these days. Honestly, I hadn't really noticed, but it turns out Randy Johnson's behind a lot of it. They're called "phitens," and supposedly, they confer some sort of benefit on the players who wear them. Sounds like a load of hogwash, but then again, that's what doctors used to think of hand washing. (P.S. Wednesday is Global Handwashing Day, so be sure to celebrate in appropriate style.)

I'll never forget the image of Carlos Baerga jogging onto and off of the field with his big ol' silver chain and pendant bouncing up and down between his chest and his face. I guess I always figured it was a Latin thing.

I'm pissed at Channel 8

Like most 21st-century Americans, I have cable. In my case, about 75% of the reason I have cable is for the sports you can only get on cable. So I'm paying to see tonight's Browns game, whether a local station picks it up or not. But I'd also like to be able to flip to the National League Championship Series during commercials. And I can't, because Fox is showing the NLCS, and Channel 8 bought the local over-the-air rights to tonight's game. The HD Fox channel also has the Browns. The Fox Spanish-language channel has the Phillies and Dodgers, but I'd have to pay extra for that channel. I love the Browns as much as anybody else, but I've already got ESPN. I want the local Fox station to show the damned baseball game that Fox is showing.

This sucks.

Defense, special teams do it for Buckeyes

The Ohio State offense did very little in Saturday's 16-3 win over Purdue, but it didn't need to, thanks to Malcolm Jenkins and his defensive cohorts. Jenkins blocked a punt that Etienne Sabino (of whom I'd never heard) returned for a touchdown, and later added an interception that any one of four Buckeyes could have had.

Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeye O only gained 222 yards on the day, to Purdue's 298 yards; and only managed 14 first downs, to Purdue's 18. They didn't score an offensive touchdown, but did set up three field goals, which adds up to three times as many points as the Boilermakers' offense managed. The OSU D was impressive, keeping Purdue from getting inside the 30 until the last half-minute of the game.

Pryor, quite simply, struggled. He tried to do too much with his legs, which turned a couple of small gains into big losses. I recall one play in particular in the third quarter, in which Pryor faked a handoff to Beanie Wells and then took it off-tackle himself. First off, if he'd actually given the ball to Wells, he'd have had about a 10-foot hole to run through, and would have probably picked up at least 10 or 15 yards. I accept that if the play calls for a fake, you can't just give the back the ball, because he's not expecting it; but Pryor could have seen the soft spot in the defense and called an audible. Maybe that's too much to ask of a freshman quarterback. Anyway, once Pryor took the ball, it looked like he could have made about three or four yards if he'd cut up the field early, but instead he tried to cut it outside and wound up losing a couple of yards. But he's learning, he's obviously got a lot of talent, and the most important thing was the W.