Sorry for the break in blogging but made a family trip to Denver last weekend.
What a beautiful part of the country. We saw the four seasons in four days. Friday, 60s with more sun; Saturday 80 and sun; Sunday 30s with 4 inches of snow. Monday back in the 50s with sun. Did you know that Denver averages more than 300 days of sun per year. I am not sure if we average more than 300 hours of sun here with all the clouds rolling off Lake Erie.
Also did some interesting reading on the Rockies (hard not to like), Nuggets (easy to hate with Iverson and Anthony), Broncos (a .500 team in the making) and Avalanche (Cup-worthy?).
Back to sports …
– I leave for the weekend and the Indians go from being a game from the World Series to at least another season away. What a meltdown!
It seems to me that the suddenly scared pitching staff and the overpaid DH in Travis Hafner did in the Tribe. Hafner finished the season as he started it. Not hitting, at all.
I still think that any chance of the Indians signing C.C. Sabathia ended the day Hafner signed his deal. Now neither was good in the postseason, but C.C. got the Tribe there.
– The Browns could be tied for first place Monday. Who would have thought that sentence would be written this season?
– Ohio State is still the inside favorite to make the BCS title game. Another sentence I didn't expect to write this season, especially in October.
– The Cavaliers are in trouble. I agree with GM Danny Ferry not spending the Cavs into oblivion, but if he sticks to his priorities and doesn't overspend on Pavlovic or Varejao, then he needs to make a deal to support the starting five.
– Rockies in 7. Not sure why. Just a feeling.
– Rick Reilly from Sports Illustrated to ESPN. In his place at SI will be Dan Patrick, formerly of ESPN. Well, that is like trading Tom Brady for Ken Dorsey. Advantage, ESPN.
By the way, Reilly gets $10 million for five years to write one column per week (one week in the magazine, the next for the .com) plus some TV duties. Hopefully SI doesn't continue Patrick's Q/A interviews that used to be on the back page of ESPN Magazine.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
It has to be reiterated that there is absolutely no question that Hafner was on something last year, and was off of it this year. Perhaps his new wife gave the order, who knows. But it is simply impossible for a healthy guy who didn't turn 30 until June to naturally nosedive from a .659 slugging percentage to a .451 slugging percentage in a single season. Impossible. There is only one plausible explanation, and it's the one that nobody around Cleveland wants to hear. After all, we were treated to this nauseating Pluto sentence back in July: "Indians designated hitter Travis Hafner grew up on a North Dakota farm where his mother cut his hair until he left home to go to college." Yep, just a hard-working down-home blue-collar type of guy that made something of himself. The classic white athlete that's a hero to every white sportswriter within a 75-mile radius of town.
In fact, I'd love to know if the Elias Sports Bureau has any records in this regard. They must, they maintain records on everything else. I will bet that nobody in the history of baseball, at the age of 30 or younger and in good health, has ever dropped this much in slugging percentage in the span of one single season. Ever.
Maybe you're right about Hafner, Alan, I don't know.
But sports writers have always been disengenuous concerning steroids. They act shocked and self righteous about guys like Canseco and McGwire, when it was plain as day to any high schooler, even in the '80s.
Now, they're turning a blind eye again because it's easier that way. And that's not even taking pro football into consideration.