Well, this is the time of the year when baseball becomes the focus.

The NBA and NHL are over. The draft looks to be pretty quiet on the home fronts.

Golf doesn't get back on the radar scene until the British Open and Bridgestone until later in July.

NASCAR has had the Dale Jr. saga end. Only the Pepsi 400 is a big race in July.

The Browns and the NFL are on vacation until the end of July.

So really, it is baseball time. Time to talk Tribe chances of trade, who makes the all-star game and, as always, Barry Bonds.

Enjoy the lull in the schedule.

Any worries with the play of the Browns quarterbacks?

Patrick McManamon wrote in his story for Friday that only Derek Anderson seems to have a grasp on the offense. Brady Quinn and Charlie Frye remain off target.

Look for an indepth piece on new offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski on Sunday on Ohio.com and in the Beacon Journal.

Despite the recent struggles of the Indians (The Tigers have tied them for the AL Central lead), they will make the playoffs, their starting pitching with C.C. and Carmona and Byrd is just too good.

Right now, the Tribe is in first and if you consider the wild card it is in first place with a 1 game lead on the Mariners and 3 games on the A's.

So where does this leave the Tribe? I think as long as the White Sox and Royals continue to struggle that plays in the Indians' favor. It also would help if the Devil Rays, Orioles and Rangers would play better to give the Yankees, Mariners and A's trouble in their divisions.

The TV ratings aren't out for Game 3 of the NBA Finals, but don't expect them to be good.

The surprising number to me is that in the first two games more folks are watching the finals in San Antonio than Cleveland. The ratings for the Cavs in Cleveland still don't touch what a regular-season game for the Browns gets. That for title starved Northeast Ohio is shocking.

It looks like Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be joining forces with Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports.

This is like Pepsi and Coke merging. Expect things to fizz over.

My first thought that this is not a good thing for Nextel Cup. Rivalries are good for sports, although the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is choking most of the oxygen out of the rest of baseball.

The positive for Nextel Cup is that Junior actually might add some wins or even be a factor in the Chase to go with this high profile. Budweiser and Chevrolet also have to be happy.

No one outside Cleveland and San Antonio is watching the NBA Finals.

Nearly everyone outside of Cleveland that is watching is saying the Cavaliers are the worst team to ever make the NBA Finals.

LeBron James hasn't played anywhere near a good game, let alone a great one.

It has taken four days for nearly all of the good feelings about this season to get wiped away.

Where is this leading?

The Cavs have to win one game in this series. They need something to build on this offseason, something to build on for next season, something to think about in the playoffs next year.

Brian Windhorst, the Beacon Journal's Cavs beat writer, started this postseason with a column about the intermediate steps that teams have taken on their path to eventually winning a title. And he is right.

But the Cavs can't afford to trip over their feet at home this week.

Shouldn't the NBA Finals have the elite of the elite as the referees?

There is no bigger stage, yet all of the referees in this final look like they knew Dr. Naismith personally.

If the best the NBA can do is have three men pushing retirement calling their elite games, then the poor calls that they get is what they deserve.

TNT started its six race broadcast run for NASCAR on Sunday, and despite the rain, the broadcast shined.

Turner Sports had plenty of features set up for the more than 3 hours of rain delay, including one with Kyle Petty interviewing the great David Pearson. It was fun and well done by the novice announcer in Petty.

After that, TNT put Richard Petty on talking with his son, and the King put nice touches on the finish of the feature. It shows the great history that NASCAR has.

Fox Sports makes itself a tough act to follow, but TNT did well in its first time out, hiring Larry McReynolds as an analyst was a good call, too.

Can ESPN/ABC take the handoff and run with it in seven weeks? It won't be easy.

Steve Latarte took over as Jeff Gordon's crew chief in somewhat of a surprise after Robbie Loomis left Hendrick Motorsports a couple of seasons ago.

How could Rick Hendrick put such an inexperienced crew member in charge of Gordon's car?

Well, Letarte is proving his worth this season.

Gordon, who is in the points lead for the Nextel Cup this season, benefited from a great call by Letarte on Sunday.

Letarte pitted Gordon's car out of sequence, and when the rain returned to the Long Pond, Pa., track, Gordon was able to remain out front to win his fourth race of the season.

Letarte's calls helped Gordon win the race in Phoenix earlier this season, too.

The two are bringing back memories of Gordon and Ray Evernham dominating at the end of the 90s.

And Letarte has quickly joined Chad Knaus as the top crew chiefs in Nextel Cup.

So much for LeBron James having the drawing power to lift the NBA.

According to publish reports, Game 1 of the NBA Finals drew the lowest rating for an opening-game in prime time, dropping 19 percent from last year.

The San Antonio Spurs' 85-76 victory over the Cavaliers on Thursday night earned a 6.3 rating and 11 share on ABC. The previous low was a 6.4/11 in 2003.

Last year's Game 1 between Miami and Dallas earned a 7.8 rating and 14 share.