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 ...

Indians win third straight

No time for anything but quick hits:

• The Indians have followed up their seven-game losing streak with a three-game winning streak. Yes, seven is a much bigger number than three, but still, it's nice to see them put a few W's together. Fausto Carmona pitched well, Kerry Wood slammed the door for the save, and Matt LaPorta homered in the 6-5 win over Toronto.

• Here it is, the last day of June, one month from baseball's non-waiver trade deadline. The Indians have a few pieces that could be attractive. In case you missed it, the trading has already started, as Russell Branyan got shipped off to Seattle over the weekend for a couple of OK prospects. Outfielder Ezequiel Carrera hasn't done much in AAA this year and is in fact currently on the disabled list, but won the Class AA Southern League batting title last year, hitting .336. He's only 22, so let's hope he develops. Shortstop Juan Diaz is hitting .295 with seven homers in high A-ball, at age 21. I'm looking forward to seeing what he's doing in a couple of years.

• Other players that could bring attractive prospects include Wood, Austin Kearns, Jhonny Peralta and Jake Westbrook, all of whom are in the last year of their current contract. (In Kearns' case, it's the only year of his contract.) None of those guys figure to be hugely expensive next year, but this team's not going anywhere right now anyway, and might as well try to get some players who could help build something for 2012 or '13.

• The Cavaliers have said they will have a coach in place by the time LeBron James becomes a free agent. That happens less than 12 hours from now, so we'll see. It's looking like it'll be either Brian Shaw, who has no NBA head coaching experience; or Byron Scott, who took the Nets to the NBA Finals a few years ago but has a sub-.500 record in 10 years as a head coach. And the reports are overwhelmingly that Shaw is the guy. In fact, though the most recent news story I can find says the Cavs haven't made an offer to Shaw, his Wikipedia page has been edited to say he's the current head coach of the Cavaliers. Take that with a grain of salt, because any idiot can make a Wikipedia page say anything, but still.

• I have no idea what to make of Shaw at this point, but he's been an assistant of Phil Jackson with the Lakers since 2004-05. Jackson, who has now won 11 titles as a head coach, would be any organization's first choice for head coach. But he's not available, so maybe his top assistant really is the best guy out there. It's hard to say what kind of head coach he'll be, but oddly enough, that's almost beside the point right now. The only thing that really matters is what coach will entice LeBron to stay in Cleveland. So the question isn't whether he'll really be a good coach, but whether LeBron thinks he'll be a good coach. It seems ridiculous to look at it that way, but the fact is, a player like James matters a lot more to the team's prospects than any coach ever could.

• Reports on where LeBron will end up have been flying like mosquitoes at dusk. I've read that he's leaning toward Chicago, that he's giving strong consideration to Miami, and that Cleveland still has the inside track—all in the same day. It's obviously not possible that he could go all three places. So who the hell knows.

• With the U.S. out of the World Cup, eliminated by Ghana for the second World Cup in a row, I initially decided to root for Mexico. Our neighbors to the south were eliminated the very next day. Out of the eight teams remaining, I think I'll pull for the Netherlands. I'm not sure why. Maybe because Dutch people wear wooden shoes and smoke pot in public and have names like Stijn Schaars and Demy de Zeeuw (both names of players on their squad). Either way, they're up against Brazil on Friday, after which I'll probably have to pick a new team to root for.

Tribe ends skid, but still sucks

If you're a Tribe fan, you've got to love Shin-Soo Choo. After his two home runs yesterday, Choo is back in the team lead with 12, and his four RBIs were key to the Indians' 5-3 defeat of Cincinnati, ending the club's seven-game losing streak. Choo also leads the team in RBIs, hits, total bases, and the three major average stats (among those with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title).

Carlos Santana also went deep, for his fourth home run in just 15 games. True, 15 games isn't much of a sample size, but he's shown he's definitely a major league-caliber player, and could play in an All-Star Game as soon as 2011. Heck, he might have gotten there this year if he'd started the season in Cleveland. And speaking of young talent, rookie Mitch Talbot won his eighth game of the year, which leads the team; and his 3.88 ERA is none too shabby.

All of that is encouraging, unless you look at the standings. The Indians are now 27-47, which puts them on a pace to go 59-103. That would qualify as the second-worst record in team history, behind the 1991 team's 57-105. Though, it should be noted that the '91 team included a lot of players who would go on to be stars during the Tribe's coming glory days — players like Albert Belle, Carlos Baerga, Jim Thome, Sandy Alomar and Charles Nagy.

And the Indians are not, as a certain commenter recently claimed on a previous post, the worst team in the American League. That would be the Baltimore Orioles, who are an eye-popping-bad 23-52, which puts them on a pace to go 49-113. They could threaten the mark for single-season losses, set by the expansion 1962 Mets, who went 40-120. As bad as this Indians team is, we can at least take some comfort in the fact that the club that takes the field every day in Baltimore is worse. Not much comfort, but some.

News flash: Losing on a walk-off homer sucks

A quick roundup on what's going on in the world of sports:

• The Indians lost a tough one last night in Philadelphia. They scratched out a run in the top of the ninth to go up 6-5, though they should have scored more. But then Kerry Wood gave up a two-run walk-off homer to Jimmy Rollins in the bottom half, and the Tribe now has a four-game losing streak and the second-worst record in the American League.

• Obscured in the difficult loss were Shin-Soo Choo's pair of two-run home runs, bringing his season total to 10 and tying him with Russell Branyan for the team lead. Also, Carlos Santana had two RBIs, both coming without hits (though he did have a hit in the game, and drew a walk). Santana's major league career is off to a roaring start, as he's hitting .353/.477/.706. He's only been up for two weeks, but if he were to keep up that pace long enough to qualify, he'd currently be leading the AL in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage. It's doubtful he could keep hitting like that over a full season, at least this early in his career, but he's shown Manny Acta enough that he's going to stay batting in that number-three hole for quite a while.

• The United States will play Ghana, who finished second in Group D, in the next round of the World Cup. Ghana finished 1-1-1 in group play, and is ranked 32nd in the world by FIFA. (The U.S. is ranked 14th.) I think we have an excellent chance of moving on, as long as we don't get another America-hating referee. Fingers crossed.

• The Cavaliers don't have a pick in tonight's NBA draft. There are rumors that they'll try to get one via trade, but I find it hard to care about the draft when there's a much, much bigger off-season consideration going on with this team. Off the top of my head, I can't remember what it is ... Oh, yeah. LeBron.

• I have never heard of a tennis match lasting 10 hours, but that's what's going on right now at Wimbledon. (And you've never heard of it either; it's never happened before.) American John Isner is locked in an epic struggle with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut that was suspended 10 hours into play. Can you imagine playing tennis for 10 hours? These guys are some of the best athletes in the world, but their bodies must be killing them right now. And they have to take it up again today, probably both fighting off soreness like they've never felt in their lives. From the Associated Press story:

Never before in the history of Wimbledon, which was first contested in 1877, had any match -- singles or doubles, men or women -- lasted more than 112 games, a mark set in 1969. Isner and Mahut have played more games than that in their fifth set, without a victor, although the American came close: He had four match points but Mahut saved each one.

"He's serving fantastic. I'm serving fantastic. That's really all there is to it," Isner said. "I'd like to see the stats and see what the ace count looks like for both of us."

Well, here they are: Isner has 98 aces, Mahut 95 -- both eclipsing the previous high in a match at any tournament, 78. All the numbers are truly astounding: There have been 881 points, 612 in the fifth set. Isner has compiled 218 winners, Mahut 217. Isner has only 44 unforced errors, Mahut 37.

And this cannot be emphasized enough: They are not finished.

No one won yet.

After the two men split the first four sets, they are tied 59-59 in the fifth set. They will start up again at 10:30 a.m. our time. One of them could win it right away, or it could last another few hours. Should be interesting.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

When the clock hit 90 minutes in the U.S. match against Algeria this morning (our time), it was still zero-zero (or nil-nil, as they say across the pond). England was leading Slovenia 1-0, appearing to erase any possibility that we might sneak through to the next round on a tie-breaker. And then Landon Donovan, considered by many the greatest American-born soccer player in history, kicked in a rebound after Algerian goaltender Rais Bolihi stopped Jozy Altidore on a breakaway.

The unbelievably dramatic 91st-minute goal sent the Americans into the round of 16, eliminating the Slovenians after their loss to the Brits. And it also took the focus off what was apparently a bad call by a referee in the first half. I didn't see the game (I have a job), but according to the AP's initial report:

Clint Dempsey put the ball in the net in the 21st minute off the rebound of Herculez Gomez's shot. But the goal was called offside, just as Maurice Edu's late goal was disallowed against Slovenia last week, a score that would have given the Americans a victory. Replays appeared to show Dempsey was onside.

So not only did we get hosed out of a victory over Slovenia, we came this close to getting hosed out of a victory over Algeria. The U.S. would have gone 0-0-3 and been drummed out of the World Cup, when we should have been 2-0-1 and a strong favorite going into the next round. Is this a referee conspiracy? I doubt it, but I have to admit it's possible. There are a lot of America-haters out there, and surely some of them are soccer referees.

But it doesn't matter now, if we get clean officiating the rest of the way. As the Group C champions, the U.S. will next play the second-place team from Group D, which includes Germany, Ghana, Serbia and Australia, at 2:30 eastern time on Saturday. Any one of those nations could finish second, and that will be decided this afternoon. I don't know if we have a realistic shot at beating the Germans, but the rest of those teams shouldn't be a big problem for us.

Indians skidding again; more thoughts on more stuff

Sometimes it's darn near impossible to keep a regular sports blog AND a regular life. But I'm back.

• Mitch Talbot was not yet three years old when Jamie Moyer made his major league debut in 1986, but Moyer has hung around long enough to pitch against Talbot last night, and it was quite a pitcher's duel. Moyer's Phillies scored two off Talbot in the bottom of the first, then the Indians came back with one in the top of the second, and there was no more scoring after that. Talbot, who's having a fine rookie season, was the hard-luck loser in this one. He went seven innings, giving up four hits and three walks, and striking out four, in the Tribe's third straight loss.

• The one run scored off Moyer came courtesy of a Russell Branyan home run, which was the 505th Moyer has given up in his lengthy career. That ties him with Phillies great Robin Roberts for the most home runs given up in a career, and Moyer will no doubt hold that record by himself in about four days, or possibly nine. Two weeks, tops. This falls under the category of dubious records you can't get without being pretty good for a long time, because nobody's going to keep throwing you out there if you suck. It's like holding the record for striking out (which belongs to Reggie Jackson, Hall of Famer), being caught stealing (Rickey Henderson, Hall of Famer) or grounding into double plays (Cal Ripken, Hall of Famer). More important than the home run total is that it was Moyer's 266th career win.

• The home run was Branyan's 10th of the year, in just 48 games, after he started the season on the disabled list. He's only pinch-hit in a lot of those games, too. He's only had 156 at-bats. So in a 600-at-bat season, he'd be on pace to hit 39. He and Shin-Soo Choo (who has eight dingers) are the only hitters providing any power for this team all year, though Carlos Santana has shown some promise in the two weeks since his call-up.

• The U.S. soccer team's game against the Algerians starts in about an hour and a half, and if the Americans win, we're into the round of 16. As I covered in my last post, there's a possibility of moving on with a tie, but I don't think anybody wants to see what happens in that case. This team is definitely one of the 16 best at the World Cup, but they have to prove it on the pitch. France was supposed to be one of the best too, but they've been eliminated. It can happen.

• From the department of "Are you bleeping kidding me?" comes a story of a fishing tournament in North Carolina. At the 52nd annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, anglers on a boat called the Citation bagged an 883-pound marlin, which not only would have won the event (the next-largest marlin was 528 pounds) and set a new record for biggest marlin caught in the tourney (previously 831), but would have brought in a nearly $1 million purse for the boat's owners and crew. But it was discovered that one of the boat's mates, 22-year-old Peter Martin Wann of Alexandria, Virginia, did not have a North Carolina fishing license, which he could have bought for $15, and the boat was disqualified, the catch erased from the records. They lost out on a high-six-figure purse because one of the crew members forgot to get his fishing license. Can you bleeping believe that bleep? Bleep, man! ... I first heard about this story on WTAM this morning, and Bill Wills was saying how that guy probably lost a bunch of friends over this. But I'm sure he feels awful about it, and at some point, whoever heads up the crew has to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. Yes, it's his fault, but it's not all his fault.

Tie helps a little, but we needed a win

Because most sporting events are at night and I go to bed early, it's fairly rare that I get a chance to blog about a sporting event that just happened. The U.S.-Slovenia match ended a little over an hour ago, but I still think that counts. Of course, I didn't actually watch it, because I have a job, but still, I am capable of laying out the potential advancement scenarios for you.

First, the match itself. Slovenia took a 2-0 lead into halftime, but a goal by Landon Donovan in the 48th minute (shortly after the second half started, for the uninitiated among us) cut the lead in half, and a goal by Michael Bradley tied it in the 82nd minute (perilously close to the end of the game).

By the sound of it, the Americans definitely outplayed the Slovenians, but were victimized by a questionable call by the obviously anti-American referees. (All right, I don't know if they were anti-American, but it seems plausible.) Maurice Edu appeared to score a goal that would have given us the lead in the 86th minute, but the Malian official disallowed it, apparently for a foul before Edu got the ball. And there were two other near-goals in the first half that the Slovenian goalkeeper managed to stop. U.S. goalie Tim Howard, playing with sore ribs, was not able to stop either of Slovenia's shots on goal in the first half.

For those of you who don't follow soccer or understand how this works, we're in a group with Slovenia, England and Algeria. The top two teams in the group advance to the next round. A win gets you three points, and a tie gets you one. Slovenia, at 1-0-1, leads with four points. The USA, at 0-0-2, is second with two points. England plays Algeria this afternoon, but currently has one point by virtue of tying the Americans on Saturday. Algeria has no points, because they lost to Slovenia in their only game so far. The U.S. team no longer controls its own destiny; we could beat Algeria and still not move on. Allow me to explain.

If, as expected, England defeats Algeria in this afternoon's game, which starts at 2:30 Eastern, that will tie England with Slovenia at 1-0-1. The Brits and Slovenes have a date with each other next week. So here are the scenarios, assuming the British beat the Algerians:
• If England and Slovenia tie and the U.S. beats Algeria, that will create a three-way tie between England, Slovenia, and the United States, at 1-0-2. The tiebreakers are top goal differential, followed by total goals, then total points in matches between the three teams concerned, then goal differential in those matches, then total goals scored in those matches. If the tie is unresolved after all of those questions are answered, FIFA will draw lots.
• If England beats Slovenia OR Slovenia beats England and the U.S. beats Algeria, we're into the next round, because we'll have five points and the loser of the Slovenia-England game will have four.
• If the U.S. ties or loses to Algeria, we're out, no matter what happens between Slovenia and England.

Now then, if England and Algeria should happen to tie, that would mean we'd be tied with England in the standings at 0-0-2. Under that scenario:
• If the U.S. beats Algeria, we're in, no matter what happens between Slovenia and England.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and England beats Slovenia, we're out.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and Slovenia beats England, we're in.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and Slovenia ties England, it goes to a two-team tiebreaker between us and England.
• If Algeria beats the U.S., we're out.

And if Algeria should happen to defeat England, which is unlikely but nonetheless possible, that would put Algeria into second place, with the three points from that victory. Under that scenario:
• If the U.S. beats Algeria, we're in.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and Slovenia beats England, we're out.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and England beats Slovenia, we're out.
• If the U.S. ties Algeria and England ties Slovenia, we're into a two-team tiebreaker with Algeria.
• If the U.S. loses to Algeria, we're out.

Got all that? Good. There will be a test on it later. Bottom line? Go Algeria! Beat England! Or at least tie them! But don't get too much confidence!

Some birthday notes

OK, I don't mean to fish for happy birthday wishes, but, well, it IS my birthday.

• The Indians were playing pretty well until they ran into the red-hot Mets. In each of the first two games of the series, the Mets have undone the Tribe with one big inning. On Tuesday, it was because of terrible fundamental defense by the Indians' infield, including the pitcher and catcher. Yesterday, it was because of four consecutive doubles given up by Tribe pitcher Mitch Talbot, who turned in his worst start of the season. Talbot attributed some of that to a problem with the signs between him and rookie catcher Carlos Santana, especially with runners on second.

• Left fielder Shelley "Slam" Duncan didn't play those doubles very well, as all four went to his part of the field. He did make a fine catch on a foul ball in front of the tarp, but that doesn't make up for his lapses. But he is an inexperienced left fielder, and Manny Acta knew that when he sent him out there. Duncan did hit a two-run homer for the second straight game, so maybe Acta knows what he's doing, at least a little bit.

• Game seven of the NBA Finals is tonight, and it starts at 9 p.m. here in the Eastern Time Zone, where approximately half of the country's population resides — including the visiting Boston Celtics' home fans. I'd like to stay up and watch it, but I have to work tomorrow. So I have to decide whether I want to miss the excitement or come to work bleary-eyed. This is an increasing trend in pro sports, and I'm getting sick and tired of it. I know the game starts at 6 p.m. in Los Angeles, where it's played, and that if it started earlier, ticket-holding fans who work would have trouble getting there in time. But which is more likely: that a few thousand Lakers fans who have tickets would have trouble finding a way to get out of work early, or that several million East Coast fans with TVs will decide to go to bed at halftime because they have to get up for work the next day? Stupid NBA.

• If the Celtics should happen to win tonight, it will make me feel ever-so-slightly better about the Cavaliers having lost to them two rounds ago. It will be very small comfort, but some comfort.

• It's been hard to pay very close attention to the World Cup, since all the games in South Africa are played during work hours over here, but it's been exciting so far. Switzerland pulled off a monumental upset of Spain yesterday, which I think is great because Switzerland is my daughter's ancestral homeland on her paternal side. The next US game is tomorrow morning (our time) against Slovenia, and there's been some question about the health of American goaltender Tim Howard, who sustained a rib injury in Saturday's tie with England. Howard has been cleared to play, with the assistance of pain pills. I hope they don't make him loopy.

• What in the world is up with those vuvuzelas that the South Africans keep blowing? It sounds like every stadium in the country is being attacked by killer bees. My beautiful wife says it drives her crazy, and things that drive my wife crazy are simply unacceptable. I'm told the players and some of the fans hate them, but that FIFA won't ban them because it's such a big part of South African culture. I'm also told that they can cause hearing damage. I'm sorry, but any culture that embraces something that stupid needs to re-evaluate its priorities.

Not heartbroken over Izzo

I'm neither surprised nor disappointed that Tom Izzo has chosen not to become the next coach of the Cavaliers. Izzo left some money on the table in the short-term, as the Cavs were offering him $6 million a year — double what he's making at Michigan State. But he traded that for the job security of his college coaching gig, which is much greater than any NBA team could ever offer. He's pretty much guaranteed a job in East Lansing until he dies or decides to retire, and there's just no parallel in professional sports. Somebody like Phil Jackson will probably never get fired, but even he couldn't coach until he's in his 80s, like Joe Paterno has at Penn State. I know it's a different sport, but the principle is the same.

It's pretty obvious that if Izzo had been able to get some kind of indication from LeBron James that he's planning to stay in Cleveland, his decision would have been different. Izzo claims that if he found out LeBron were staying, that wouldn't necessarily change his decision. That may well be true, but it would clearly have shifted the equation in that direction, and Izzo admitted as much.

So now we know one person who's NOT going to be the Cavs' next coach. But who IS it going to be? I expect and hope that Dan Gilbert will look at other coaches with NBA experience, and not continue to go fishing in the college ranks. They've reportedly already talked to Mike Krzyzewski, whose situation at Duke is very similar to Izzo's at Michigan State, but even more so, if that makes sense. Coach K has already passed, which suits me just fine. Jeff Van Gundy apparently wants to stay a TV analyst, which is too bad, because I think he would have been a good choice. Byron Scott is available, but he wants to wait and see if Phil Jackson's going to stay with the Lakers, the team Scott spent most of his playing career with. That strikes me as a bit greedy, because there's no guarantee he'd get that job even if it did become available, but he's a grown man and can make his own decisions.

So who knows who the &#@$ it'll be. Whether LeBron stays or goes changes the whole package for any coach, that's for sure.

Thirty years ago today: Jorge Orta

There's not much news in the Cleveland sports world today, so I thought I'd revisit something that happened 30 years ago today. On June 15, 1980, the memorable Jorge Orta went six-for-six in a 14-5 win over the Twins, becoming one of just 35 players in American League history to get six hits in a nine-inning game.

Orta, batting second and playing right field, hit five singles and a double in that game. But that might not even have been the most notable performance of the game, even if it was the rarest. Teammate Toby Harrah went four-for-five, including a triple and a home run, and knocked in seven runs.

Dan Spillner, in his last full season as a starter, went 6 2/3 innings for the win, even though he didn't pitch particularly well. He gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits and four walks, striking out four. Sid Monge went the last 2 1/3. Spillner would spend 1981 in the bullpen, then become the team's closer in 1982.

Orta, a native of Mazatlan, Mexico, had a pretty decent year in 1980, hitting .291/.379/.403, in a low-offense era, and making his second (and last) All-Star appearance. He was spending his first of just two seasons in Cleveland, before being traded for Rick Sutcliffe. Orta's 16-year career that would end in 1987 with Kansas City, where he was a member of the World Series champions in 1985.

In fact, Orta would be a key player in one of the most controversial plays in major league history in that World Series, as first base umpire Don Denkinger made what might have been the most famous blown call in baseball history until Jim Joyce's recent gaffe. Orta led off the bottom of the ninth of game six with the Royals trailing the Cardinals three games to two, and 1-0 in the game. He hit a ground ball to St. Louis first baseman Jack Clark, who flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell at first, and the throw easily beat Orta to the bag. Denkinger was watching the bag and listening for the ball to hit Worrell's glove, but because it was so loud in the ballpark, he couldn't hear the ball hit the glove, and therefore had to guess. He guessed wrong, and called him safe. The Royals would go on to win that game 2-1, then beat the Cardinals 11-0 the next day to win a World Series that should have gone to the team on the other side of Missouri. And yet, 25 years later, we still don't have instant replay for anything but home run balls.

Tribe wins four straight; thoughts on Nebraska, World Cup, etc.

A few thoughts on what's currently going on in the sports world:

* After last night's 7-1 victory, the Indians are riding a four-game winning streak. They're still a long way from contending, but this team is starting to do some exciting things. Last night's stars were Carlos Santana, who homered and doubled to drive in three runs in his second career major league game; and Fausto Carmona, who is really having a strong comeback season. The win evened his record to 5-5, but with a nifty 3.23 ERA that is good for 13th in the American League.

* The Indians have spent most of the season in last place in the AL Central, but their record is now a bad but at least somewhat respectable 25-36. That puts them on pace to finish 66-96. More importantly, they have moved into a virtual tie for fourth place, just percentage points behind the woeful Royals.

* As loyal reader Jeff Brown has been trying to get me to write about, the Indians are dead last in the majors in attendance. From Jeff's most recent email on the subject:

As I've mentioned several times now, the Indians rank dead-last in home attendance, and by a growing margin: they are averaging 15,658, and the next worst team (Toronto Blue Jays) are averaging 16,267.

For perspective, there are 12 major league teams averaging MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY FANS as our lowly Cleveland Indians, Steve,

But here's the real rub, Steve -- the Indians rank 14th out of 30 teams (in the upper 50 percentile) in AWAY attendance, meaning that in the eyes of the rest of the league, they are a worthy team to watch in person.

View it here:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance/_/sort/awayAvg

So what the hell is wrong with hometown Tribe fans, Steve? If visiting teams can support them better than more than 1/2 of the teams in the majors, why the hell can't Cleveland fans get their heads screwed on straight for a change?

I find it highly doubtful that fans on the road are all that interested in the Indians. I think it's much more likely that the Indians' road attendance is helped by the fact that they've played in cities where the home team draws well. They've gone to Minnesota, which has its new ballpark; along with places like Chicago, Anaheim, New York, etc. Their road average will probably come down.

But it is somewhat distressing to see the home attendance numbers. It's simply a function of the fact that this team got rid of its best established major leaguers last year in favor of cheaper young talent. It was an understandable decision, but it has definitely cost them at the gates.

* One game that will raise that average number, at least a little, is this afternoon's game, in which Indians hitters will face Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg in his second career start. That's going to be pretty interesting. Strasburg would have to strike out 13 Indians today to tie the major league record of 27 strikeouts in a pitcher's first two starts combined, set by Dodgers rookie Karl Spooner in 1954.

* Another mailbag item from Jeff Brown concerns the Big Ten landing Nebraska:

The Big Ten Conference hit a home run by getting the University of Nebraska as a new member.

Even if the Big Ten stays put and doesn't invite any new members from this point forward, this is a slam dunk and greatly improves the conference.

They have some of the best football fans, rich tradition, national titles, an iconic figure in Tom Osborne who is still their A.D., and fits in very well culturally into the Big Ten region.

And while they had a few down years after Osborne retired as head coach, lately they have come raring back and are once again a powerhouse under stud coach, Bo Pellini.

It's true that Nebraska is a great get for the Big Ten, but I don't know if I'd quite call it a home run. Texas, which is a national power in football, basketball and baseball, would be a home run. Notre Dame, the nation's most storied football program, would be a home run. Nebraska is a solid two-run double off the wall. The Cornhuskers have probably one of the 20 best football programs in the country, and they definitely make the conference stronger in that sport. And it gives the Big Ten a solid presence at its western end. Schools like Iowa and Wisconsin often have strong teams, but the conference is usually dominated by eastern teams like Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. This makes the possibility of a Big Ten championship game more interesting, as the league will probably separate into eastern and western divisions.

* The United States soccer team got one of the luckiest goals you'll ever see to tie England yesterday. Short of an own-goal, I can't think of a luckier way to score in soccer than having the goaltender fail to scoop up a ball that's rolling slowly toward his waiting arms. But the Americans deserve credit for holding a very strong British team to one goal (which they scored just 3 1/2 minutes into the game), and this bodes well for our chances to advance in the World Cup. Our remaining preliminary-round games are against Slovenia and Algeria, and we'll be favored in both.

Gotta love the walk-off

Some quick thoughts:

• Going into the bottom of the ninth last night, it looked like another tough loss for the Indians, as Kerry Wood had come this close to saving the game, but with two outs and two strikes on J.D. Drew, he threw a slider that slid too much, hitting Drew; and then gave up a two-run homer to Adrian Beltre to give the Red Sox a 7-6 lead. But the Indians' offense roared back in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases with nobody out against Daniel Bard. Bard then bore down and struck out Travis Hafner, then got Jhonny Peralta on a pop foul. Enter Russell Branyan, who roped a single to right that scored two runs and gave the Indians a walk-off win.

• The Tribe won despite committing four errors, three of which were committed by third baseman Andy Marte in the first inning. Two of those were on one play, as he failed to field the ball cleanly to score one run, then threw it away to score another. As a result, Mitch Talbot had to work a lot harder. He only gave the Indians four innings, giving up five runs, three of which were unearned. Marte is supposed to be strong on defense, but he sure didn't show it last night.

• The Indians are reportedly set to call up catching uber-prospect Carlos Santana in time for tonight's game against the Nationals. In the words of ESPN's Rob Neyer:

There are so many things to love about Santana, whose performance has improved as he's moved up the ladder. He was great in fast-A, greater in Double-A, and sublimely brilliant in 56 Triple-A games this year. He's 24, though — older than Matt Wieters and Buster Posey — and so it's time to move him up and see what he's got.

Couldn't agree more, Rob. They will presumably send down Lou Marson, who's been good with the glove (and the arm) this season, but terrible with the bat.

• Speaking of the Nationals and uber-prospects, Stephen Strasburg will get his second career start Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field. Strasburg struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in his first career start, while walking zero of them, in seven innings. This kid looks like the real deal. I look forward to seeing what he's got. And I'm obviously not the only one, as the Indians have reportedly sold more than 8,000 tickets to that game since it was announced that Strasburg would be starting.

• Tom Izzo was in town yesterday, being wined and dined by the Cavaliers. It sounds like they're close to a deal. I'm not backing off what I said the other day, which was that the track record of college coaches who jump to the NBA isn't good, and therefore it seems a bit foolish to hire one, but Dan Gilbert seems to have his mind made up. Izzo apparently hasn't signed anything yet, but if he does, I hope he proves me wrong.

A fun inning; Masterson's masterpiece

Going into the bottom of the eighth inning last night, the Indians were clinging to a save-opportunity-size 3-0 lead over the Red Sox. The way Justin Masterson was pitching against his former team, that lead looked fairly safe, but it was the type of situation in which a team hopes to add an insurance run or two. Well, they did that, and then some.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona chose to use Boof Bonser to try to hold the Indians' lead to three. Bonser (fun fact: he legally changed his name to Boof a few years ago) hadn't pitched in the majors yet this season, having just been activated after a rehab stint in the minors due to a groin injury. He now has the distinction of a sideways 8 in his ERA and WHIP columns, because he didn't record an out. He pitched to four hitters, all of whom would eventually score. Since Bonser couldn't get anybody out, Francona pulled him in favor of Joe Nelson, who failed to retire any of the first five hitters he faced, and the first four of those would also score.

Here's a quick blow-by-blow of that Indians eighth:

1. Trevor Crowe walked and stole second.
2. Shin-Soo Choo singled to center, sending Crowe to third.
3. Austin Kearns walked to load the bases.
4. Russell Branyan singled to right, scoring Crowe. Score 4-0. Bases still loaded.
At this point, Nelson "relieved" Bonser.
5. Jhonny Peralta singled to right, scoring Choo. 5-0, bags still juiced.
6. Travis Hafner homered to right for his 10th career grand slam. Indians lead 9-0.
7. Luis Valbuena singled to right.
8. Anderson Hernandez, who was recently called up, doubled to deep right for his first hit as an Indian, sending Valbuena to third.
9. Lou Marson walked, loading the bases AGAIN.
10. Crowe grounded into a double play, plating Valbuena and sending Hernandez to third. 10-0, but now with two outs.
11. Choo walked.
12. Kearns walked, sending Choo to second and loading the bases yet again.
13. Branyan reached on an infield single to third, scoring Hernandez. And it was 11-0.
14. Peralta struck out looking.

So the Indians sent 14 men to the plate in the inning, six of whom batted with the bases loaded. They batted around before even making an out. They collected seven hits — including five in a row — and drew five walks.

As Crowe was coming to the plate to start the inning, I told my wife the game would probably be over in about 20 minutes, since if things went according to plan, we only had the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth to go. But the bottom of the eighth alone lasted more than half an hour. (She pointed out that she had predicted the game would last another hour, and that her prediction was closer than mine. True, honey, but who could have predicted an eight-run bottom of the eighth by the punchless Indians?)

Masterson, whom the Tribe acquired in last year's Victor Martinez deadline deal, made quick work of his former teammates in the top of the ninth, as he had done all night. Masterson put together a masterpiece, a two-hit complete-game shutout, the first nine-inning goose egg of his career. And he needed it. Though he has now won his last two starts, that two-game winning streak follows a streak of 17 starts without a win, dating back to last year. He hadn't been as bad as that sounds — after this one, his ERA is a decent 4.74 — but he certainly didn't look like any great shakes on the mound. But he pitched like an ace last night. In the words of Francona, his ex-manager:

"All the things we used to brag about when he was in our uniform he showed tonight. He maintained his velocity from the first pitch to the last pitch, he threw a lot of strikes, he stayed down in the zone, he elevated a couple of times I'm sure on purpose, changed speeds enough on the lefties, got the slider under their hands. That's about as good a game as he could pitch."

Let's hope we see more of that from Masterson. If he can keep it going, the Indians could actually have the makings of a strong starting rotation.

Tribe's new young arm

There are a few things I could write about today. There's the Indians' 4-1 loss to Boston yesterday, in which Austin Kearns' homer was the Tribe's only run; there's Victor Martinez's first return to Cleveland in an enemy uniform; there's further developments on the Izzo front; there's minor stuff from the Browns' optional workouts; there's always more to report on LeBron; and there's the fact that the Cavaliers will be introducing new general manager Chris Grant this afternoon.

But today's Cleveland sports news that interests me the most is Major League Baseball's amateur draft, in which the Indians, with the fifth overall pick, selected Drew Pomeranz, a left-handed pitcher from the University of Mississippi. Pomeranz, named the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year as a junior this season, went 9-2 with a 2.24 ERA in 16 starts for the Rebels. He struck out 139 hitters in 100 2/3 innings, against 49 walks. Opposing hitters batted .195 against him.

I listened to a little bit of the Indians-Red Sox game on the radio last night, and Mike Hegan and Tom Hamilton were talking about Pomeranz's prospects. They compared him to Mike Leake, whom the Reds took with the eighth pick in last year's draft. For those who haven't been following, Leake signed late last summer, the Reds chose to rest his arm the remainder of the season, and after a stint in the Instructional League, he made the big club out of spring training to be the first player to totally skip the minor leagues since Xavier Nady in 2000. Leake is off to a phenomenal start, going 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA so far. (It must be noted that Leake is a right-hander, and Pomeranz is a southpaw; nonetheless, their college numbers are similar.)

It would be ridiculous to predict such a start for Pomeranz, simply because it so rarely happens. For that matter, it would have been ridiculous to predict such a start for Leake. And even Leake's fast start doesn't necessarily indicate future success in the majors. How many times have we seen a young pitcher dominate, only to flame out because of arm trouble? Current Indians closer Kerry Wood is a prime example of that, but at least he's been able to stick around as a reliever. The same cannot be said of his former teammate Mark Prior, who won 18 games at the age of 22, but hasn't pitched in the bigs since 2006, when he was just 25, because his arm gave out. There's just an awful lot that can happen to a young arm.

The Indians have until August to sign Pomeranz. If they don't, he can go back to Ole Miss and pitch again next year; but I don't anticipate too much trouble on that front. I would presume they'll handle him similarly to how the Reds handled Leake last year. And barring injury, we'll see him at Progressive Field in 2011 or 2012. I look forward to it.

Izzo to Cleveland?

The Cavaliers have reportedly offered their vacant head coaching job to Michigan State's Tom Izzo, one of the most successful college coaches out there since he took over the job in 1995. In Izzo's 15 seasons, the Spartans have won one NCAA championship (in 2000) and six Big Ten titles. They have reached the Final Four six times, including each of the last two years. In his first two years in East Lansing, Izzo took the Spartans to the NIT; they have not failed to secure an invitation to the NCAA Tournament in the 13 years since. He is the winningest coach in MSU history. This man has earned his stripes.

I should note at this point that the Cavs are in kind of a catch-22 situation right now, as they will likely have trouble hiring a top coach without signing LeBron James first, and they will likely have trouble signing LeBron James without hiring a top coach first. That said ...

I caught a little bit of talk about Izzo on "Mike & Mike in the Morning" on WKNR this morning, and the eponymous hosts disagreed about whether they wanted Izzo to test his skills in the NBA. Mike Greenberg really hopes he stays in the college ranks, where he's built up a great program and makes more of a difference to his team than he might in the NBA; and Mike Golic would like to see him at the top level of the sport, which is of course the NBA. (Both were careful to say that they're not presuming to tell Izzo what to do.)

Of course, Greenberg and Golic are not Cavaliers fans, so far as I know, and therefore are looking at this through the lens of the national sports media. But Greenberg made some good points. Izzo would be taking a great risk by jumping to the NBA. If he stays at Michigan State (my dad's alma mater, by the way, in the interest of full disclosure), he's basically guaranteed a job for as long as he wants it, and could eventually become East Lansing's version of Dean Smith or Jim Calhoun — or Woody Hayes or Bo Schembechler. They would someday name the court after him and such. If he goes to the NBA, even if he's very successful for a few years, he's probably gone the first time the team has a 50-win season when the team leaders were expecting 60 wins.

And the fact is, the track record for successful college coaches coming to the NBA is not very good. Look up P.J. Carlesimo, Rick Pitino, Tim Floyd, Lon Kruger, and John Calipari, just for starters. All were highly successful college coaches who bombed in the NBA. The only one of those who had any real success at all after going to the pros was Pitino, who won a division title with the Knicks in 1988-89 but lost in the second round of the playoffs; Pitino nonetheless has a losing record as an NBA coach, as that was his only plus-.500 record in six NBA seasons. There probably is a college coach who's come to the NBA and done very well, but off the top of my head, I'm not thinking of him.

Can Izzo break that mold? I don't know, but I kind of doubt it. He's a great coach in the college ranks, and I think he should stay there.

Talbot gets his seventh win

I've written about Mitch Talbot enough in this space that I'm starting to feel like a broken record. Talbot came into the season with some major-league experience, but zero major-league wins. And now he has seven, after yesterday's 3-1 victory over the White Sox. The Indians are now a game and a half behind those same White Sox for fourth place in the AL Central, which isn't much, but it's something.

Talbot allowed just one run in seven innings of work, on six hits and three walks. He struck out five. For the second time this season, he out-pitched former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy. He leads all major-league rookies in victories, and his 3.54 ERA puts him 18th in the American League, just one one-hundredth of a run behind teammate Fausto Carmona (about whom I haven't written much this season, but definitely should, because he's quite a comeback kid). It must feel pretty good to be Mitch Talbot these days.

The Indians will go for the three-game sweep this afternoon, as Jake Westbrook faces off against Mark Buehrle -- who, like Peavy, is having a very disappointing season so far. I like our chances.

I cannot believe that just happened

Armando Galarraga was one out from the 21st perfect game in major league history tonight against the Indians. One out away. He got Jason Donald to hit a fairly routine ground ball between first and second. First baseman Miguel Cabrera fielded it, set his feet and delivered a strong throw to Galarraga, who was covering first. The ball got there, and it landed in the webbing of Galarraga's glove a full step before Donald reached the bag. First base umpire Jim Joyce called him safe.

He called him safe.

Armando Galarraga just pitched a perfect game, except it won't go into the record books as a perfect game because the first base umpire blew a call on the last out of the game. THE FIRST BASE UMPIRE BLEW A CALL ON THE LAST OUT OF WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A PERFECT GAME.

I know a lot of fans, even when their team is on the losing side of a no-hitter, will root for the pitcher to get it. I am not one of those fans — I would rather see my team break up the no-hitter. And according to how this game will be recorded in the books, I did see my team break up the no-hitter. But I would much, MUCH rather have seen this go into the books as a perfect game than see it broken up on a bad call at first base.

Ladies and gentlemen, baseball NEEDS instant replay. As it stands now, it's only allowed on home run calls. That's baloney. Commissioner Bud Selig is on record as saying he doesn't want it expanded, and as long as Bud doesn't want it expanded, it's not going to expand. But Bud is going to see what happened in this game. Armando Galarraga lost his perfect game because of a bad call. How can he allow that to happen?

I feel really sorry for Jim Joyce. I can't imagine what he was looking at, but I'm sure he made the call he thought was correct, unless he somehow bet a buttload of money that Armando Galarraga wouldn't pitch a perfect game. When he sees that replay, he's going to be sick. Come to think of it, he's probably seen it by now, and he's probably not going to get much sleep tonight, because that's a big damn call to get wrong. He drew the wrath of the entire Tigers organization and the home crowd, and understandably so.

The one guy who took it in stride was Galarraga, who simply smiled and went back to work, retiring the next hitter, Trevor Crowe, on another routine ground ball. You've got to hand it to him — he pitched the game of his life, and appears to be happy with the victory, perfect game or not.

LeBron James to Larry King: Cleveland has the edge

In an interview that will air Friday on CNN's Larry King Live, LeBron James had this to say when the eponymous star of that show asked him whether the Cavaliers have the edge to keep him:

"Absolutely. Because, you know, this city, these fans, I mean, have given me a lot in these seven years. And, you know, for me, it's comfortable. So I've got a lot of memories here. And — and so it does have an edge."

LeBron also told Larry that his main goal is winning championships "and not just because of LeBron James," which strikes me as a bit arrogant for someone who could probably have propelled the Cavs past the Celtics if he'd played the way we've seen him play in the playoffs before.

He also said he won't try to dictate who his next coach will be, that he would love to play with either Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh, and that he's humbled by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push for him to sign with the Knicks and President Obama's call for him to go to the Bulls. (The latter seems like an unbelievably stupid thing to say, politically. Ohio's a very important swing state that Obama probably doesn't want to take any chances with in 2012.)

All of this is very preliminary. LeBron can't do anything until July 1, and will certainly take longer than that. I hope he stays in Cleveland, and I'm inclined to think he will, but there's a long way to go before we find that out.

Courting LeBron

A couple of things happened yesterday on the LeBron James front. First, fellow free agent Dwyane Wade (who really should fix the spelling of his first name already) told a Chicago Tribune reporter that he wants to talk to LeBron and Joe Johnson of the Hawks before he decides where to sign. It's highly unlikely that all three could possibly play for the same team next year, but two of them potentially could. If they do, that team is not going to be the Cavaliers, because the Cavs don't have the flexibility under the salary cap to sign a big-name free agent other than LeBron.

Of course, this having run in a Chicago newspaper, the questioning came around to the possibility of those free agents winding up with the Bulls, and Wade said some stuff about the impersonality of the organization, and how Jordan and Pippen are no longer involved in any capacity, blah blah blah. OK, so it sounds like he's not ga-ga for the Bulls. That doesn't mean he and/or LeBron won't sign there.

Second — and be forewarned, this is almost totally irrelevant — a group of L.A. Clippers fans rallied outside the Staples Center yesterday in support of LeBron coming there. This actually made SportsCenter, on a day when the Lakers won game five of their playoff series against the Suns in the same building. Did these poor misguided souls actually think their little rally would have any effect on what LeBron does this off-season? I guess there are people with too much time on their hands anywhere you go.

On a personal note, I'm going camping with my family this weekend and probably won't be posting anything for a few days, so I'd like to wish you all a safe and effective Memorial Day weekend. ... Wait, safe and happy. Sorry, I edit medical-related magazines and see a lot of FDA reports.

Balky balk calls? I don't think so

Somebody needs to get Mark Buehrle a pacifier and a blanket, and gently rock him to sleep.

Before I write more about Buehrle and his balks, I do want to say something brief about the way the game ended. The Indians went into the bottom of the ninth with a 5-1 deficit, and were facing White Sox closer Bobby Jenks in a non-save situation. They quickly put three runs on the board and had the bases loaded with just one out. Jenks managed to strike out Austin Kearns and retire Russell Branyan on a lazy fly ball to left to end the threat. It's disappointing that they lost, but at least they managed to make it interesting.

Now then, back to Mark Buehrle. First, a little background. I've never liked Buehrle, especially since he hit Travis Hafner in the head with a pitch a couple of years ago that caused Hafner to miss a few months, and I think he hit him intentionally. His manager, Ozzie Guillen, is a colorful character, but speaks freely enough to prove that he generally has his head up his rear end. So when I heard Buehrle and Guillen had been ejected for arguing balk calls in yesterday's game against the Indians, I couldn't help but feel a perverse pleasure.

It was a noon game, and I have a job, so I didn't see it until I watched the highlights on SportsCenter this morning. They showed both of the pickoff moves that got Buehrle called for balks, and they were clearly both balks. Buehrle made a move toward the plate, then threw the ball to first. That's deceiving the runner, which is the very definition of a balk. Buehrle told reporters afterward that those moves were no different from the ones he'd made on previous throws to first; those other throws were not shown on SportsCenter, so I can't speak to that, but the balk calls that first base umpire Joe West made were 100% correct.

Guillen got ejected for arguing the first one, and Buehrle got thrown out for tossing his glove to the ground after the second one. He then argued vociferously and tried to advance upon West, while his teammates held him back. Buehrle said after the game he was just trying to get his "money's worth," but I can't imagine what he thought was going to happen when he dropped his glove. Did he think West would apologize and send the runner back to first? If he'd given it just a moment's thought, he'd have known it was an ejectable offense.

But Buehrle isn't much of a thinker, I guess. Neither is Guillen, for that matter, who said after the game that West thinks people pay to watch him umpire. But one of Buehrle's comments really rankles me. Taken from the Associated Press report on yesterday's game:

"I think he's too worried about promoting his CD [West is a country music singer and songwriter with his own website] and I think he likes seeing his name in the papers a little bit too much instead of worrying about the rules."

Does he realize what a serious accusation that is? Does he care? He's suggesting that Joe West called two balks on him, not because he actually balked, but because he wants people to see his name in the paper and buy his CD? What kind of sense does that make? That's not a post-game comment, that's a tantrum thrown by a person who always thinks he should get his way.

Would somebody please change his diaper and fix him a bottle? He's cranky and ready for beddy-bye.

Rookie Talbot outduels former Cy

Mitch Talbot entered 2010 with zero major-league victories. Less than two months into the season, he has six, while pitching for a bad team. What do you know about that!

Talbot went six strong innings (and one shaky one that got him lifted) in the Indians' 7-3 victory over the White Sox last night, giving up two runs on six hits over his seven innings. He walked none, struck out four — three in the first three innings — and kept the ball in the yard. He held the Sox scoreless over the first six innings, then gave up two runs on four doubles in the seventh. Mark Kotsay did him a favor by getting thrown out trying to stretch his double into a triple.

In any case, Talbot was lifted after having thrown just 77 pitches, 57 of which were strikes. He stands at 6-3, 3.73. Any team in the bigs would love to have that kind of production, and all he cost us was Kelly Shoppach. It's too soon to truly evaluate that trade, but so far, it looks like quite a fine move by Mark Shapiro. He's been our best starter so far this year, and his six wins tie him for second in the American League (with Boston's Clay Buchholz, behind David Price of the Rays, who has seven). If he keeps this up, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the All-Star Game.

Another young Indian contributed to this win, as Jason Donald opened the scoring with his first major-league home run off 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy. Peavy's obviously not the pitcher he was a couple of years ago, but that nonetheless had to be a thrill for Donald. Shin-Soo Choo's blast that followed gave the Tribe back-to-backs, and the Indians battered Peavy for six runs on eight hits over six innings.

The Indians and White Sox play the rubber match today at 12:05. Jake Westbrook, who seems to have mostly gotten his stuff back after missing a year and a half, will face off against Mark Buehrle, who's not having a good year at all. I wish I didn't have a job, so I could watch it. (Just kidding. ... Or am I? ... Yes, I am.)

Cleveland Brownout

When I told my 11-year-old stepdaughter this morning that the Cavaliers had fired head coach Mike Brown, she said, "Good! Now I don't have to kill him!" Relax, Mike. She was just joking. (I think.)

The Cavs announced this morning that they had fired Brown, who presided over the most successful period in team history, but couldn't push the right buttons to get the club over the hump. In Brown's five seasons at the helm, the Cavaliers went 272-138, never winning fewer than 45 games. He led them to the team's first-ever Eastern Conference championship in 2007, but they never got back to that point despite winning 66 games in the regular season last year and 61 this year — the two winningest seasons in Cavs history.

He was named NBA Coach of the Year just twelve months ago, but that was before he and his coaching staff couldn't find an answer for Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic; just as they couldn't find an answer for Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics this year. (To be fair, Stan Van Gundy and the Magic are coming up with even fewer answers for those Celtics in this year's Eastern Conference Finals.)

Brown is widely regarded as a defensive specialist, and the statistics bear that out. The Cavaliers allowed 95.6 points per game all year, which tied them for fifth in the league in that department. They held opponents to a .442 shooting percentage (fourth) and racked up a .772 defensive rebounding percentage (second). Those numbers all dipped a bit during the postseason, but this was a strong defensive team.

It was on the offensive side that the Cavs suffered this postseason. They struggled a bit on that end of the floor against Chicago in the first round, but then had nothing with which to challenge Boston offensively. LeBron James' elbow was clearly a factor, but that only underscored Brown's offensive lack of creativity. His offensive philosophy all year long (and indeed for all his time in Cleveland) was basically, give the ball to LeBron and let him create. When you've got a superstar like LeBron, that's got to be an easy trap to fall into. But when LeBron's not able to create the way he's used to being able to create, you've got to have some other way of putting points on the board. Brown didn't come up with anything that fit that description, and Doc Rivers and the Celtics ate him for breakfast.

Obviously, the subplot to anything involving the Cavaliers this offseason is whether this improves our chances of signing LeBron. The only person who can give a reasonable answer to that question is LeBron, but an ESPN.com poll is about evenly split: 29% say it makes him more likely to stay, 30% say it makes him more likely to go, and 40% say it will have no effect on his plans. I personally think it makes him slightly more likely to stay, because he may have the chance to practically dictate who the next coach will be, if he so chooses (and if Danny Ferry does what he asks).

It should be interesting. If not altogether pleasant.

Tribe is sliding, and not in a good way

There's a lot going on with the Cleveland Indians these days, and not much of it's good. Consider the following pile of facts:

• After having lost their last four in a row, the Indians are now 16-24, in last place in the American League Central. Their season run differential is -42, which is worse than all but one other AL team (the Orioles). They are on pace to go 65-97.

• The Tribe just suffered a two-game sweep at home against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals have won six of their last eight, responding well after Ned Yost replaced Trey Hillman as their manager. Nonetheless, it's the first time they've swept anybody this year, and only the fifth time they've won two straight all year.

• The Indians are playing without their top two hitters in the batting order, shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who is out for eight to 10 weeks after undergoing surgery on his fractured left forearm — broken in a collision with third baseman Jhonny Peralta as they both went for the same ball; and center fielder Grady Sizemore, who was having a crappy year anyway, but regardless, is on the DL with a knee.

• In their place are two players who quite recently were plying their trade in Columbus. Manny Acta has Trevor Crowe leading off and Jason Donald hitting second. Donald just made his major-league debut on Tuesday and got two hits, but has oh-fored since. Crowe is at least holding his own with a .333/.385/.458 line in six games, but he was in AAA for a reason.

• Russell Branyan, who a couple of weeks ago hit three home runs in two days, is now in a 1-for-22 slump. That one hit left the yard, naturally, and we've known Branyan was an all-or-nothing kind of hitter for a long time; still, he's now got an ugly .197/.284/.424 line.

• Kerry Wood, who is being paid eight figures to save games, hasn't saved one yet. To be fair, he's only had one opportunity since coming off the DL, but he blew it spectacularly on Wednesday against the Royals. He pitched to seven hitters and only got one out, giving up five runs on four hits and two walks in what turned from a 4-3 lead into an 8-4 loss. His ERA now stands at 18.90. Being fair again, Wood had been good in his last three outings before that, allowing just one hit and one walk in a combined 2 1/3 innings. Still, that was an epic implosion.

• Justin Masterson, installed as the third starter out of spring training, has yet to win a game. He hasn't pitched that badly, but he does have an ERA of 5.65 and a WHIP of 1.81. That's not a good way for a young pitcher to stay in a starting rotation. If only they had other options.

• The Tribe is last in the AL with 23 home runs, 12th in the AL in runs scored, 13th in slugging, and 12th in on-base percentage.

This is a bad Indians team, ladies and gentlemen. We all knew they'd be bad, but I sure hoped they'd be better than this. Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of reason for optimism right now.

The great Joe Tait steps down

Cavaliers announcer Joe Tait announced yesterday that 2010-11 will be his last season as the team's mouthpiece. It's kind of hard to imagine there being Cavaliers radio broadcasts without Joe, who has been announcing Cavs games since the team's inception in 1970-71, but for a couple of years in the early 1980s when Ted Stepien mucked things up for him.

I've always been a baseball fan first, and I'll always remember Tait's tenure at WUAB-43 announcing Indians games with Bruce Drennan in the 1980s. They were an entertaining pair, and they livened up what was usually some terrible baseball in Cleveland. But then the Cavaliers decided to make him an employee, and he stopped moonlighting on baseball.

It's hard to overstate how good Tait has been, broadcasting basketball games for four decades, most of that time without a partner. He has announced some phenomenal basketball teams (albeit none that have quite scaled the summit), and he has had to describe some awful basketball teams. I heard a quote on WTAM yesterday — which I can't find online anywhere, so I have to paraphrase — that he had nothing to do with the great basketball or the terrible basketball, he was just along for the ride. He will be inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame's broadcasters wing later this year, and deservedly so.

Joe has been an entertaining, informative voice on the Cleveland sports scene for my entire life, and I'm sure going to miss him.

Tribe takes second straight series

Jake Westbrook came within a single out of pitching a complete-game shutout yesterday against the Orioles, just one start after getting his first major league win since 1988. OK, it was 2008, but the point is, it was a long time. Westbrook gave up nine hits yesterday, but a lot of them were ground balls that happened to find holes. He struck out eight, against a single walk. If he pitches like that on a regular basis, he'll do just fine. He still got the complete game in the Indians' 5-1 victory, on 116 pitches.

Westbrook was aided by home runs from Matt LaPorta and Russell Branyan, the latter of which was Branyan's fourth home run of the year, all coming in the past week. There's no question that the guy can touch 'em all if he makes contact. ... Incidentally, you may remember that "touch 'em all time" was Jack Corrigan's signature home run call when he broadcast Tribe games on WUAB-43. A friend of mine used to think he was saying "touch of old time," which confused him because there were more home runs being hit than ever before. I found that amusing.

In other notes:

• The Celtics beat the Magic in Orlando to steal home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals yesterday. Maybe the Cavaliers weren't so bad in that series; maybe it's just that the Celtics are playing over their heads right now.

• WTAM has started a daily "LeBron watch" or whatever they're calling it at 7:45 every morning. The guy can't do anything until July 1, so what there is to talk about every single day between now and then, I can't fathom. But I'm sure they'll come up with something.

• In a non-sports-related note, heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio died of stomach cancer yesterday. At various times the lead singer of Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, his own band Dio, and Heaven & Hell, Ronnie had a unique, powerful voice, and while his lyrics could be a bit hokey, he had his own style, and this is a great loss to the music world. Rest in peace, Ronnie. Anyone who wants to hear Ronnie sing on a great song they've probably never heard should check out this youtube link.

An eight-run explosion!

As I try to forget about the Cavaliers ...

Heading into the ninth inning last night, the punchless Indians seemed about ready to putter their way to a 2-0 loss, with both Orioles runs coming off solo home runs by Ty Wigginton off Tribe starter Mitch Talbot. It looked like Talbot, who had given up two runs on five hits in eight innings of work, would be the hard-luck loser.

Enter Baltimore's 28-year-old rookie closer, Alfredo Simon. Entering last night's game, Simon was 5-for-5 in save opportunities and had not given up a run in his 8 1/3 major league innings since getting called up in late April. Simon got the first hitter, Trevor Crowe, on a pop foul to the third-base side. (More on Crowe later.) That was the only out Simon would record in this one. Asdrubal Cabrera singled to right, Mark Grudzielanek drew a walk, and Shin-Soo Choo followed with an RBI single that put the tying run at second. Then Simon made a mistake up in the zone to Austin Kearns, who was previously 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Kearns deposited it in the left field stands, giving the Indians a 4-2 lead.

Tribe manager Manny Acta got closer Kerry Wood warming up to protect the lead in the bottom of the ninth, as Orioles skipper Dave Trembley pulled Simon in favor of Cla Meredith. Meredith was only slightly better than Simon, walking Travis Hafner, giving up a single to Jhonny Peralta, then striking out Russell Branyan for the second out of the inning. Mike Redmond followed with a two-run double, then Crowe swatted a home run to right that gave the Tribe an eight-run inning and a six-run advantage. Cabrera flied out to end the inning.

Crowe, who had JUST been called up from Columbus the same day, would follow his offensive heroics with a sterling defensive play in the bottom of the ninth. Acta had chosen to go with Tony Sipp instead of Wood, saving Wood in case of a closer game today or later in the week, and Nick Markakis opened the inning with a double off Sipp. The next hitter, Miguel Tejada, sent a liner toward shallow center, where Crowe was playing deep. Crowe got a great jump on the ball, took off on a full sprint toward the infield, and made the play with a diving catch that saved a run.

And that, my friends, is why the Orioles are one of baseball's worst teams.

Epitaph on what used to be such a promising season

As last night's game ended, my wife was holding our three-month-old daughter and trying to put her to sleep. We watched LeBron James hug Celtics players one by one, then take off his jersey and walk into the locker room, as the ESPN commentators wondered aloud whether that would be the last time LeBron ever took off a Cavaliers jersey. As the postgame interviews started, leading off with Kevin Garnett, I picked up the remote and asked my wife what she'd like to watch. She said, "Definitely not interviews with Celtics players."

I scrolled through the recordings on our DVR, found last night's installment of Jeopardy!, and we watched that. It's the annual Tournament of Champions, and though it was a runaway for one of the contestants, the Tournament of Champions is always interesting to watch. At no point during the program did I stop thinking about what I'd just seen from Boston, but it was at least a helpful diversion.

After Jeopardy! ended, my wife asked me if I was sad. I don't remember word for word what I said, but it was something to the effect that no, I'm not sad, but I'm very disappointed. It's just a sporting event, it's really not important in the grand scheme of things, etc., etc. But I really wanted to see this Cavaliers team win a championship.

I really wanted to see this Cavaliers team win a championship.

The team that steamrolled through the NBA all season, swept the Lakers, hung tough against all the league's heavy hitters, and looked unstoppable, simply rolled over when it counted the most. LeBron James' elbow obviously is a big part of the reason why, as he clearly was physically off his game for this whole series against Boston, but he seemed mentally off his game too. He grabbed 19 rebounds and had a triple-double last night, but he seemed to play lazy defense too. How many times did he fail to stay in front of his man, for example? And as the seconds ticked off at the end of the game, he and the Cavs completely gave up, conceding when they still might have had some faint glimmer of hope if they fouled to stop the clock.

Now the talk will turn to LeBron's future. Will he stay in Cleveland? Will he go to New York or Chicago or Miami? I have no idea, and right this minute, I barely even care.

Which LeBron James will show up tonight?

Will it be the LeBron who torched the Celtics in game three, or the LeBron who couldn't hit a jump shot to save his life in game five? Will it be the LeBron who scored the Cavs' last 25 points to beat the Pistons in double-overtime in game five of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007, or the LeBron who kept passing up opportunities to drive the lane off pick-and-rolls the other night? Will it be the LeBron who has dominated the NBA all season, or the LeBron who had seven turnovers in game four of this series? Will The King show up, or will he The Serf? Will we witness the kind of dominance we've always known him for, or will he let this Cavaliers season (and possibly his Cavaliers career) end with a faint whimper?

I don't know. By the next time I post on this blog, the Cavaliers season may be over, and LeBron may have played his last game as a Cavalier. I dearly hope neither of those things will be true, but both of them have an uncomfortably high probability of being so.

If that happens, maybe I should stop subjecting myself to the torture that is being a Cleveland sports fan. The Cavs won't be worth much without him, and the Browns and Indians don't seem to be anywhere near contending anytime soon. Maybe I should start watching ballet or take up knitting or something instead.

SOME good news

Nobody's really paying attention to the Indians right now, what with the Cavaliers on the verge of ending what was once such a promising season — but hey, the Tribe's won three straight. OK, the last two of those came against the pitiful Kansas City Royals; and OK, they're still just 13-18, and have zero chance of contending this year. Still:

• Russell Branyan has hit three homers and driven in five runs in his last two games.
• Fausto Carmona, Aaron Laffey, Chris Perez and Tony Sipp combined on a shutout yesterday. Carmona only threw 70 pitches through five innings, and surely would have gone longer if not for the rain delay. He's now 4-1 with a 3.43 ERA. Is he back to his 2007 form? Time will tell.
• Jake Westbrook FINALLY won his first game since 2008 on Tuesday.
• Mitch Talbot, who came into the season with exactly zero major-league victories, is now 4-2 after beating the Tigers on Sunday.
• The Indians are now in third place, one game ahead of the White Sox and 3 1/2 ahead of the Royals.

The Tribe goes for a sweep in a day game today. I hope they get it, because that would at least mean that SOMETHING good happened in Cleveland sports today, in case the Cavaliers get eliminated.

Pathetic

I don't have much to say about that embarrassment at the Q last night. If it was LeBron James' last home game as a Cavalier, he will have gone out with one of the worst performances of his NBA career. He didn't have much help, either from his teammates or from the coaching staff, but LeBron is the back-to-back MVP. He sure didn't play like it. We've seen him take over games like this, but for whatever reason, in this series — with the sole exception of game three — he's been unable or unwilling to do it.

If the Cavaliers lose game six in Boston and LeBron leaves in the coming offseason, he can't say the front office didn't give him enough pieces to win with. The only person LeBron can blame for not winning a title in Cleveland is LeBron.

Don't panic, Cavalier nation

Yes, the Cavaliers lost yesterday in Boston, and it was a game they could have won. They had it down to a two-point game with less than five minutes left, before the Celtics pulled away at the end.

Yes, Rajon Rondo dominated, scoring 29 points with 18 rebounds and 13 assists. How does a 6'1" guy get 18 rebounds in an NBA playoff game? Seriously! We've got to find a way to slow that guy down.

Yes, LeBron James played like he did in game two, failing to take over at any point, perhaps raising more questions about the health of his elbow. He flirted with a triple-double himself, but only scored 22 points and turned the ball over seven times.

But you know what? It's now a 2-2 series, and games five and seven (if necessary) will be in Cleveland. The Cavaliers are clearly the better team, when LeBron is playing like LeBron. Game five is tomorrow night, and I think the Cavs will be ready.

Now THAT is what I'm discussing

Was there some question about one of LeBron James' joints? I vaguely seem to remember something like that ... maybe a shoulder or a wrist?

I'm joking, of course. We all know there has been some doubt about the health of LeBron's elbow, pretty much since the playoffs started against Chicago. And after game two of this Boston series, you read in many places (including Of Fair Hooker) that the elbow was clearly hampering The King. But he came out last night and silenced all that talk. LeBron came out like a man on a mission in that first quarter, pouring in 21 in the game's first 12 minutes and spurring his team to a 19-point lead at the quarter pole.

A lot of times, when a team gets off to a huge early lead, they'll start relaxing and let the other team back into the game. The opposite happened last night. The Cavs never let the foot off the accelerator, and coasted to a hugely impressive 124-95 win. It was the biggest road victory in Cavaliers postseason history, which is impressive; it was the biggest home loss in Celtics postseason history, which is astounding, given how many playoff games the Celtics have played in their storied history.

LeBron was the main catalyst, but this was a total team effort. James dominated that first quarter and put in 38 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists on the night, but really, everybody contributed. Antawn Jamison had 20 points and 12 rebounds; Shaquille O'Neal had 12 points and nine rebounds; Mo Williams had 12 points and seven assists; Anthony Parker scored 11 on four-of-four shooting, including three from downtown; Delonte West scored 14 off the bench; Anderson Varejao had six points and four rebounds in just 17 minutes.

And the Cavaliers regain the upper hand in this series. If they keep playing like this, it's going to be a five-gamer, and the Cavs will clinch it at home on Tuesday. Obviously, the Celtics are capable of beating our boys in one game, but I say it's over two games from now.

Lesson to young infielders: Get your glove dirty!

It can't feel good to be Luis Valbuena right now. The proximate cause of the Indians' 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays yesterday was the fact that a ground ball that should have been the last out of the game went under his glove into left field, allowing the next hitter, Adam Lind, to come up and hit a two-run homer off Chris Perez. ... For that matter, it can't feel very good to be Chris Perez, because even after Valbuena's gaffe, Perez still had a chance to close it out. But home runs will happen; balls that squirt through between infielders' legs are not supposed to, at least not at the major league level.

Valbuena, the Tribe's everyday second baseman, was playing shortstop because Asdrubal Cabrera's leg is bothering him. We can sit here and say Cabrera would have made that play — but let's be honest, if you'd put a third-string high school DH out there, he'd probably have made that play. Valbuena was playing out of position, and the ball does come off the bat a little differently at shortstop than at second base. Still, he obviously should have had it, and he knows that as well as you and I.

This was the club's fourth straight loss, and undoubtedly the loss that stings the most so far in the young season. When the Indians were 10-13 a few days ago, Bob Frantz on WTAM was saying this is not that bad a team. Now, at 10-17, they're on pace to lose more than 100 games, they're in last place in the AL Central, and there seems to be very little reason to hope they're going to be respectable. Sorry, fans, but that's the way it is.

LeBron James' elbow has its own Twitter page

It's true! The team says nobody there has anything to do with it, and nobody seems to know who's writing it, but it's up—and as of this moment, it has 4,432 followers. It appears to have been created April 28. LeBron's elbow's most recent tweet:

Night everyone. I'm trying to read everyone's funny comments but LeBron keeps singing Usher's My Way in his sleep so it's kinda distracting.

In all seriousness, this elbow thing has to be a major concern. LeBron, Mike Brown and the Cavaliers are downplaying it, but he's getting a second MRI on the joint, which leads me to believe it's giving him more trouble than he's letting on. He insists on not using the elbow as an excuse for his tentative play, and while that's an admirable quality in a superstar, it doesn't mean the elbow isn't negatively impacting his game.

The Cavaliers have other issues in this Boston series, but clearly that elbow is #1. If LeBron's not healthy, the Cavs are in trouble. Sure, they've got other fine players, but if we're going to get to the promised land, he's the only one who can lead us there.

Time for concern, Cavaliers faithful

It's a new series with the Boston Celtics, ladies and gentlemen. But now it's a best-of-five, and the Celts have home-court advantage. And the questions about LeBron James' elbow are back. Fortunately, he's got three days to rest it, but that helps the aging Celtics too. Beantown manhandled our boys on the way to a 104-86 victory.

LeBron, on the day he formally received his second straight NBA MVP award, made a lot of mistakes and had little impact on this game until the fourth quarter, when the game was out of reach. He scored 24 points, 12 of which came in that fourth period, on 7-of-15 shooting (0-for-4 from downtown). He was able to get the ball inside a few times, and that's where most of his points came from. He wasn't able to hit from the perimeter worth a darn. He turned the ball over five times. He made some defensive contributions, to be sure, but this game was proof that as LeBron goes, so go the Cavs.

The Cavaliers were lacking in defensive intensity in this one. The Celtics had six players in double figures, but the biggest key to their offensive output was point guard Rajon Rondo. His 19 assists tied a Celtics team record for a playoff game — and when you tie a Celtics team playoff record, you know you've done something special. And late in the second quarter, he made one of the prettiest basketball moves I ever saw, dribbling toward the right side of the backboard, then stopping short as he held the ball off to the right, before moving left and laying the ball up. That move faked out not one, but two Cavaliers defenders. Regardless, it's Rondo's ability to create for his teammates that the Cavaliers simply have to find a way to stop.

There is reason for optimism, however. For example, look at the teams' respective outside shooting in this one — the Cavaliers shot just 4-of-21, the Celtics 9-of-19. Neither team is going to keep up that kind of pace. The Cavaliers went 2-2 against the Celtics in the regular season, splitting two games in each team's building. The Cavs' win in Boston was a very convincing 108-88 victory on Feb. 25, in which our guys outscored theirs by 21 in the fourth quarter. And as Tim Legler pointed out on SportsCenter, the Cavs were the best defensive team in the NBA this year. Their lapses in this game were uncharacteristic, and there's no reason to believe they'll continue to play like that. They'll pick it up.

... I hope.

Some quick thoughts

I've been busy, but I want to share just a few thoughts on just a few things:

• I've heard some people call the Cavs' win on Saturday over the Celtics "troubling," or words to that effect. Like them, I didn't enjoy seeing our boys fall behind early, but I sure did enjoy watching them claw their way back into it and pull away at the end. These Celtics may not be quite as talented as they were when they won the title two years ago, but this is still a very good Celtics team. I would be delighted to see three more games against them go exactly the way this one did.

• Our man LeBron James has been named MVP for the second year in a row. Yawn. ... Don't get me wrong, LeBron had an outstanding season and certainly deserves the award. But I find it hard to care who gets the hardware. I'm interested in results on the court. And I'm far more interested in whether LeBron is still in Cleveland when he wins his third MVP.

• Speaking of LeBron, he says his elbow feels about the same as it did at the end of the series against the Bulls. Given that he shot his last free throw in that series left-handed but came back with 35/7/7 in Game 1 against the Celtics, I find that kind of hard to believe. But only LeBron knows what LeBron feels like.

• The Indians pulled out an exciting 11-inning win over the first-place Twins on Saturday, but came back with a lackluster effort yesterday that included the trifecta of poor clutch hitting, poor pitching and poor defense. The Indians gave up 20 hits in that 8-3 loss. Twenty freaking hits! The Twins stranded 16 runners, including at least one in every inning but the fifth. The 2010 Indians are not that bad a team, but they're clearly inferior to those Twins.

• A recent Wall Street Journal study found that the Indians are baseball's most hated team. How can this be? Local fans are obviously not impressed by the current crop of Indians, but they can't be more hated than the Yankees, can they? Well, according to Page 2's Jim Caple, the study was not intended the way it was taken:

But it turns out Cleveland ... [is] not hated ... The Journal simply misinterpreted the analysis. A Nielsen rep told the New York Daily News that its rankings were based merely on positive-and-negative feelings generated by teams from their performances the first three weeks of the season. They were not meant to show whether at team was most-hated or most-liked overall. Which explains why teams off to bad or disappointing starts ranked poorly, as well as the Yankees whose lofty standards require that anything short of a ticker-tape parade by May is considered disappointing by their fans.

Whew!