It’s kind of confusing what’s happening in Green Bay with Brett Favre. Not his teenage I won’t-I will stances toward football, mind you. But the Packers attitude toward Favre. 
A few months ago Favre had led the Packers to the NFC Championship Game and he was the greatest thing to happen to upper Wisconsin since the invention of the heater. Now he decides to unretire and the Packers tell him he’ll be a backup if he plays. Huh? How does that work? A guy is a Hall of Famer and has his best year in a long, long time and because he didn’t take part in offseason workouts he’s a backup? Apparently Favre made the Packers mad by changing his mind, so they’re going to show him and make him take second-string snaps in training camp behind Aaron Rodgers. Because he missed offseason workouts. You just can’t make this stuff up. I swear, the more you hear about the NFL way of thinking, the more it seems that sometimes their minds are affected by the fact they are so insulated from thinking about nothing but their sport 74 hours a day. Think about this: Brett Favre decides to unretire and he’s a backup to a guy who’s never played. Rocky and Bullwinkle made more sense.
The other day a story broke about the dwindling population in cities of Northern Ohio. Cleveland has taken a real hit; more people have left the city than any other city in the country except New Orleans – and that exodus was caused by a rather large natural disaster called Katrina. What did our governor, Ted Strickland, have to say? This: “Perhaps in the not too distant future, people are going to be leaving arid areas of this country, the New Mexicos and the Arizonas. They'll come running back to Ohio, because we have water, and they're going to be thirsty." Thirsty. There’s a slogan: “Want a drink? Come to Ohio.” And we wonder why our economy is in trouble?
Complaining about the Indians financial situation is kind of like complaining about gas prices. What good is it going to do? The Indians will never be a team that spends $150 million on salaries. It’s just not going to happen. Best to accept that reality and enjoy our lovely water. It’s not going to change. I took a look at the team’s finances in our Sunday paper; you can read that here if you like. But one thing that struck me was that during the halcyon glory days of the 1990s, the Indians were in fact among the highest in payroll. But they were at or about $60 million while the highest spending teams were at or about $70-$75 million. Now the highest spending team, the Yankees, is at $209 million, while they Indians are projected to be at $85 million. If that disparity does not illustrate what a big-market team can do and a mid-to-small market team cannot, then nothing will. Everybody wishes the Indians could just write blank checks to players. They can’t. Someday the folks in the dry, arid southwest will realize this.
Sheldon Ocker, our outstanding baseball writer, got in touch with his feminine side in this story about the CC Sabathia trade. And don’t tell him I said feminine side and Ocker in the same sentence, either.
I’m not so sure I’d trade Casey Blake. Yes, he’s in his 30s, but he’s hitting .282 with nine home runs and 52 RBI and has played third and first base. The guy has a lot of value for a non-superstar player with oodles of drinking water flowing from his spigot.
ESPN.com says the Cavs are out of the James Posey hunt. No word on the accuracy of that statement, or when or where Posey will sign. Or where he will find water if he’s not with the Cavs.
This is what new Browns receiver Donte Stallworth said in the Boston Globe: “I've been kind of joking with Randy [Moss] and some of the guys that the road to the Super Bowl goes through Cleveland."
Finally … back to Yellowstone …
Anyone out there know what kind of birds these are. They nested in the crook of a .. well … a bathroom in the Lamar Valley, one of the vast valleys where animals love to roam in this great national park. These birds flitted in and out like crazy, and seemed to enjoy peeking out to pose for the camera. Any wise birders out there know what kind they are?
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
they are cliff swallows.
I went to high school with Cliff Swallows.
I'm not convinced anyone understands the real bottom line for major league owners except the owners themselves.
Your column didn't really mention the way teams are routinely sold for several hundreds of millions of dollars profit after just five or ten years. You did imply Dolan overpaid when he bought the Tribe, but I have yet to see a team sale that wasn't characterized as a ridiculously overpriced transaction in the media. They are always 'astounding.'
We'll see when he sells, I guess.
I also don't know how player contracts that might run a decade into the future play into these deals and into each year's bottom line as far as tax purposes, etc.
In any case, I'm not too sympathetic to a team crying poor when it probably pays Hafner, Byrd, Delucci and Blake close to $30 million a year. That's just bad decision making no matter how greedy Sabathia's made out to be.
I'm not sure I need to be encouraged to visualize a "non-superstar player with oodles of drinking water flowing from his spigot."
#1: I agree with Larry about the Tribe's bad decision-making, when it comes to dishing out money. No matter how he spins it, Hafner knew he was done and ripped off the team. They should be suing him for fraud (misrepresenting his ability and/or health status) right now. He just told Greg Brinda that he "was not" hurt last year…meaning he's either lying to cover his fraudulent contract butt, or he will never, ever be the guy Cleveland "thought" they were getting. Couple these poor signings with the Matt Lawton, Ricky Gutierrez, Roberto Hernandez, et al…and you see some severe mismanagement of limited funds. I don't believe in huge payrolls; they guarantee NOTHING. I believe in proper talent evaluation, rapid farmhand development and savvy moves, like Oakland always seems to make.
#2: Stop defending Brett Favre!!! This egomaniac craves the spotlight year after freakin year, pulling this "maybe I'll come back" crap just to get his face on the tube and people buzzing about him! Can't you see thru this schtick? I've never seen ANY athlete "play" the media like this guy, and he was WASHED UP four years ago. How they won last year is a mystery. I don't blame Green Bay at all for sticking it to him, just like he's done to them so many countless times. Folks, Favre will be playing/retiring/unretiring until someone stands up to him and says, "GO AWAY. YOU'RE NOT A WINNER ANYMORE. YOU'VE WON EXACTLY ONE SUPER BOWL 15 YEARS AGO AND PLAYED LIKE MIKE PHIPPS SINCE THEN. SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP."
Common Sense shows no common sense when he comments about Favre. "How they won last year is a mystery"–only to him. Take a look at his stats for last year. He won a superbowl 15 years ago is true and his 1 superbowl win is more than any Cleveland team has ever won. He has QB'd the Packers to the playoffs in almost every year he has played there—not too many QBs can tout that. Fairly obvious that Common Sense doesn't watch the game or know much about it to claim he was washed up 4 years ago. A sub-par season doesn't mean anyone is washed up–far too much is dependent on others (recievers, RBs, line). by the way, it isn't favre that put this out–he merely let the team know that he was interested in coming back. Then ESPN goes in to their "create and drag out" a story mode. Most of the info they report isn't accurate on this anyway.
Vince, the Packers had a terribly weak sked last year, and your boy Brett has QB'd his team to seven losses in their last 10 playoff games since '98. He is HARDLY worth all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth! Sheesh, you can't open the ABJ without reading about his "hundred" fans' weekly protest to bring back the loser, or flick on the TV w/o seeing Bretty's tearful "I don't feel like playing anymore" speech for the fifth straight year, or turning on the radio w/o hearing the sportstalkers estolling FARV like he's some godlike player. GET A GRIP! The guy is a conceited media-hound who's not worth the time of day.
Four 9-7 records, two 8-8 marks and a 4-12 season under Favre's leadership hardly qualifies him as any kind of legend. His most-memorable pass of last season was his cocky interception that cost GB their entire year. And he's been randomly and routinely throwing more passes to the opposition at crucial times for y.e.a.r.s. I, too, am just sick of Brett Favre and his annual pity-party parade. If I were Aaron Rodgers, I'd demand a trade from this insane franchise pronto. Favre is in love with himself and the attention and will never, I repeat, never, leave on his own terms.
Hey, stop making fun of my name.
When is someone in the Cleveland media going to verbally punch Danny Ferry in the face over the story that he tried to trade Dimples Szczerbiak for Vince Carter on draft night? How has this near-catastrophic incompetence not been a story?
Carter for Clangy McBRICKson? I would've made that deal and dealt with the fallout later. Szerbiack is completely worthless.
James, you'd trade Szczerbiak's expiring 13m contract for Vince Carter, who's cap-killing contract runs through 2010/11 at something like 17m per year?
Uh, is your last name "Paxson" by chance?
Hey Cliff … welcome back from Yellowstone! (very clever, whoever adopted that name … chuckled out loud at that one)
Good Morning,
Your mystery bird is a Cliff Swallow.
Take care.
Norm Siegfried