Browns and Indians, Michael Vick, Big Ten Network, Mike and Mike, Chris Spielman and
Call it what you want - Sports Shorts, Quick Hits, Bits and Pieces, or whatever, but it's really all just about This, That and the Other.
The Cleveland Indians hitting woes since the All Star break (see Friday night's game at Kansas City for another prime example) are preventing them from running away with the American League Central division. That's no secret now, but early in the season, who could have imagined that so many of their most important and proven hitters would all be combining on a choke job big enough to gag Boog Powell. Especially now with Jake Westbrook rounding into form, and with C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona looking like a very strong 1-2 punch for the playoffs, and a very capable Paul Byrd to provide support deep in the rotation, the Tribe could be the team to come out of the American League playoffs, IF the hitters come around in September.
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On 1460 The Fan the other day, commenting on the fact that the Texas Rangers had just scored 30 runs against Baltimore (the first MLB team in 110 years to do so), Chris Spielman said that Dave Trembley, the Orioles manager that ironically had just signed a contract extension earlier in the day, should be "fired" for allowing that to happen to his team. Although I often agree with Spielman's takes, fortunately most people don't have such knee jerk reactions, or half the population in this country would be looking for a new job every week. (update: on Friday's radio show, Chris proved it wasn't a knee jerk reaction, stating again that it was a "fire-able offense" for a manager to get beat that bad)
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The squabble between the fledgling Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable over who should get more of our money makes me sick. Both sides claim to have the "fan's best interest" in their collective corporate hearts, but just like when a sports star and his agent and the team they're negotiating with both try to claim "it's not about the money", you can be sure it is about the money.
Seems to me that both sides have it wrong, and they should just tell us the truth ("we want as much of your money for ourselves as we feel we're entitled to") and then let each cable subscriber decide for him/herself whether they want to pay extra to have the Big Ten Network on their bill or not, and not "force" it on everyone. Although this is similar to Time Warner's stated position, they still want to include the Big Ten Network as part of a "sports package" that must be purchased separately. Imagine going into Kroger to buy a gallon of milk, but to be "allowed" access to it, you had to first agree to buy a bag of Cheetos and a six-pack of Pepsi, whether you wanted them or not.
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The news earlier this week that Jerome Bettis admittedly faked an injury in 2000 so he wouldn't get cut from the Steelers brought out two interesting, divergent opinions.
On the Mike and Mike show early in the morning, I heard the donut destroyer himself, Mike Golic, back up Bettis' decision and explain how one year he (Golic) was cut from the team literally within minutes after reluctantly telling the trainer that he was "ok" to try to practice that day. He said he immediately sprinted down to the locker room to tell the other players whose names he saw on the "to be cut" list, and warned them to not claim they were "ok" if they had any kind of injury at all. Our man Chris Spielman, however, had the opposite viewpoint, and said that anyone doing something like that was basically "dishonoring" themselves.
I'd draw the line at completely faking an injury to avoid being cut (Bettis claims he was injured, he just faked a different injury for that purpose), but both Golic's and Spielman's viewpoints are easy to relate to. But when it comes to potentially losing a relatively short career in the NFL vs. the greedy way (some would use a much stronger adjective) in which NFL teams often operate at the expense of a player's livelihood, it's hard to side against Golic and the circumstances he described.
It's also interesting to note how the NFL is often criticized for its practice (especially wide spread in the "old days") of forcing players to play with injuries by shooting them up with pain killers. This seems like the exact opposite situation of cutting non-critical players just so they don't have to be paid, except that both situations have a team's money on the line at the expense of the player.
Bettis may have only come out with this now to help promote a new book, but it nonetheless reminds us that in the ruthless world of the NFL, it's all about "just win, baby", and "cold, hard cash".
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As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, the Browns tough schedule out of the gate - Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore and New England for 4 out of the first 5 games - probably doesn't give them much of a chance to build any momentum for the kind of season that could prove the skeptics wrong. Throw in the massive amounts of injuries that seem to follow them around every year like PETA to a Michael Vick sighting, and it's likely that fans and the media will be calling for Romeo Crennel's head by the end of October.
At the same time, if he isn't starting already, the pressure to start Brady Quinn will grow tremendously, and Browns fans may have to suffer once again through another long, frustrating season. That will pale, however, to the pressure that Browns ownership will feel to find a way to bring Bill Cowher back to Cleveland as a head coach after his one year "vacation" from the league.
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Speaking of Michael Vick, does anyone believe the contention in his plea deal that he only watched the others kill those dogs, or that he didn't actually place bets or collect winnings, despite admitting to "bankrolling" the whole heinous affair? Believe that and you probably also believe that O.J. was actually at a Dodgers game on that fateful night in June, 1994.
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Agree or disagree with any of this? Let us know by sending an email to editor@columbussports.com and we'll consider it for our Talk Back page.