Posted on Monday 16 October 2006 by Kenny Roda @ 12:40 pm
Kenny Roda from WKNR SportsTalk 850 will be writing a weekly blog on Cleveland Scores covering the sports world both locally and nationally. Check back often for his updates!
Memo to Dolan: Look at Leyland
While the Indians continue to believe (why I have no idea) that Eric Wedge is the right guy for their team, the Tigers went out and hired a proven manager this off-season in Jim Leyland, and I think it’s safe to say that a manager can make a difference. Leyland has taken a Tigers team that lost 91 games a year ago to the World Series in one season. In the previous three years “BL” (before Leyland), Detroit posted a combined 186-300 record, for a winning percentage of (.383). In one year “WL” (with Leyland) calling the shots, the Tigers went 95-67, for a winning percentage of (.586). Now try and tell me a manager or a coach can’t make a difference with professional athletes!
Leyland has now taken three different teams (Pirates, Marlins & Tigers) to the League Championship Series and two of those teams (Marlins & Tigers) have moved on to the World Series. Of course, we all know how the Marlins did in 1997 and who they beat.
We’ll see if Leyland and the “Cats” can get it done this year. If they do, and I hope Tribe owner Larry Dolan is paying attention, it’ll be the second straight year that a team not named the Indians has won the World Series coming out of the American League’s Central Division!
Buckeyes #1 in BCS
A good weekend for Northeast Ohio football fans. The Ohio State Buckeyes went into
East Lansing, Michigan and kicked the crap out of Michigan State 38-7 and the
Cleveland Browns didn’t lose. What a perfect weekend!
Speaking of the Buckeyes. The first BCS Poll is out and Ohio State is ranked #1 in the standings. USC is 2nd, while Michigan is 3rd. Should both the Buckeyes and Wolverines run the table and have identical (11-0) records, then the winner of that game on November 18th down in Columbus would mean a trip to Glendale, Arizona to play for the National Championship.
By the way, if you’re wondering, has it ever happened before that the Buckeyes and Wolverines have played a game where they were ranked #1 and #2 in the nation? The answer is no. While the Wolverines are 3rd in the BCS poll this week, they are ranked #2 in the AP Poll. The last time these two teams met as undefeateds was back in 1973 in Ann Arbor. The last time they met with perfect records in Columbus was back in 1970. In 1973 the two teams tied 10-10, while in 1970 the Buckeyes won 20-9.
Peterson lands on collarbone, season done
Hopefully all pro, college and high school football players learned a lesson this weekend thanks to Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma. Peterson broke his collarbone at the end of a 53-yard touchdown run. No, he wasn’t blindsided at the goaline. Nobody dragged him down from behind to force him to land awkwardly. He broke his collarbone because he decided to dive into the endzone unnecessarily so he would look good and make all the highlight shows that day. Now his season is probably over, unless he can recover and play in a bowl game. And instead of maybe making history, his chance to win the Heisman Trophy is definitely history. The lesson is learned here, hopefully. If you’re going in for the touchdown, and it is not necessary to dive…DON”T! Act like you’ve been there before.
Miami/FIU brawl
And last but not least. The brawl that happened in the Miami and Florida International game was a disgrace to college football. Players using helmets as weapons, another injured player who wasn’t even dressed for the game swinging his crutch at players and players kicking and stomping on defenseless players laying on the ground. While 31 players were suspended, it sounds like they will be out for only one game. If that’s the penalty issued by the teams and conferences involved, it’s a joke. The NCAA, who doesn’t want a playoff system in part because they are worried about the health of their student athletes, needs to step in and send a message here if they really are concerned about their student athletes’ health. Suspend all the players involved for the rest of the season and let it be known throughout college football that this type of behavior will not be tolerated at any level. Anything short of that tells me the NCAA is full of it!
Also listed under: Cleveland Indians, OSU Football
the ncaa should suspend the miami/fiu football programs for a minimum of 2 games. make them forfiet their next 2 games at minimum. the punishment doled out is lame and pathetic. i can only imagine the heyday the national media would have with this if something like this took place with the buckeyes. they’d be calling for the enire school to shut down and closed permanently and they wouldn’t be talking about anything else for the next 2 weeks.
also, are we still having the “coaches make a difference” conversation? it is obvious as can be in every sport.
if the buckeyes go into the michigan game with both teams undeafeted and ranked #1 and #2, it will be like playing 2 national championship games in a row for the buckeyes! i’m confidant the can do it though!
and lastly, reposting this message about the browns from another topic –
okay - i’ll drop any complaining about carthon if this team can find a way to beat the broncos this upcoming sunday.
i currently live in denver, and i hate the broncos more than i can explain. the media is already on the air this monday morning talking about cleveland being lucky if they put up 3 points against the broncos. i’ve already had to listen to the starting defensive linemen (all from cleveland) talk about how they are coming back to cleveland with something to ‘prove’ because of how they were treated and let go in cleveland, which ‘left a bad taste in their mouth’.
YOU NEED MORE PROOF COACHING MATTERS? LOOK AT THE DENVER STARTING D-LINE.
additionally, the denver offense is the second worst in scoring in the nfl. second worst only to the raiders.
but, their defense has only allowed 1 touchdown in 5 games. which hasn’t happened since detroit did it in 1940 or something.
the browns are treated like a complete joke in the nfl by other cities. not living in cleveland at the moment i see it very clearly. even national media like espn and fox often skip right over browns game highlights. not that there are many, but i’ve seen them completely ignore games the browns are involved in.
so, as i said at the start of this post, if this team can find a way to score some points and win, i’ll shut up regarding carthon. the denver offense should be no problem to stop. they managed only 13 against oakland and 9 against baltimore. it should be a game where if we can find a way to get past their defense, there is no reason we can’t win it.
in fact, i hate the broncos and their fans so much, i am flying into cleveland this upcoming weekend to go to the game and to get the hell out of this city (denver - the city of hypee, but thats another rant) so i don’t have to hear it from anyone here about the browns getting destroyed by the broncos.
Seriously, did Wedge spit at you or something? Leyland was a real genius in Colorado and so was Joe Torre in St. Louis and with the Mets. Yes, Leyland is an upbeat guy who knows when to get tough, but getting Rogers and Verlander in the rotation made the Tigers contenders. Without them, the Tigers aren’t in the Series.
Kenny,
Totally agree with you on the joke of the player suspensions for the mugging at the Miami-FIU game. One game for most of the Miami players…and it’s the Duke game no less!
I will take issue with you on the Peterson injury though. At first I thought that it was an unnecessary dive into the endzone, but if you have a chance to see that video again, you can see that he was hit on the one or two yard line, and he had a tackler around his ankles when he went horizontal toward the endzone. It’s hard to fault a guy for launching his body to the endzone when he’s being hit low inside the five yard line. Just sayin’.
And on the Indians….the fact is that everytime this team has had a pivotal or important or defining series under Wedge, they have folded like a lawn chair. Yes, it’s possible that we overestimated our talent after 2005, but how many of Detroit’s starting nine position players would you take over our starters, hands down?
The fact is we had good players putting up good if not great individual numbers (Sizemore, Blake, Hafner, Martinez) but as a team, we played lousy baseball. The manager’s job is to get the most out of the talent he has. He is THE man responsible for the brand of baseball that gets taken out onto the field day in and day out. He is responsible for the emotional and mental condition of the team every game day.
By any measure, Eric Wedge hasn’t done good job managing. And who has a lot of confidence that he’s going to improve? Not many people I talk to, and I’m afraid, not me either.
Roadman,
Off topic, but i got a chance to listen to fred mcloud commentate a couple nights ago and he sounds terrible. I mean I feel bad for Austin Carr who has to work with this guy. You can almost sense the awkwardness between them. What a joke that they had to fire Reghai. I like how fox sports is playing the best games of last year so we can listen to a real commentator. Mcloud is a joke and its going to ruin cavs games for me. Why Gilbert!? Why?!
Yall may call me crazy, but I think that the Browns have a chance to win against the Broncos, and I’ll tell you why. Jake Plummer has a history of throwing interceptions and not holding on to the ball. While the Raiders did not run the ball well, they did have some success throwing.
If the Browns defense can create turnovers and get a defensive score, then the game can be close and won with a field goal late in the game. But charlie cannot stay in the pocket and get killed. He will have to roll out and also not throw the fourth quarter interception.
Kenny,
Wedge needs to go!! We all sit and complain about the Browns offensive play calling, We hear Crennel saying it’s the fundemental consistancy holding us back. It’s the fundemental consistancy on the Indians that kept them playing like crap this year. Wedge tought the fundementals in the minors and now complains about them in the majors. Look in the mirror Wedge, you have no one to blame but yourself.
That team up north looks scary, Kenny. I saw their front four against Penn State and it was simply a missmatch, much like the Browns offensive line going up against any defense, boys vs men. That Deffense is simply dominating, I hope Tressel gets some quick screens, draws, and counters called to slow them down. If he doesn’t, OSU could get behind early. We all know in the end Tressel will adjust and Carr will screw up, so welcome to the national championship game OSU!!!
The Cavs need to replace Snow with the kids as much as possible, he simply is too slow, PERIOD. It’s preseason for god sake!!! Z has his good points and bad points Kenny. He’s fine when the Cavs are ahead, but lets get more speed in there when behind. What is Newble still doing on this team?
The Browns are looking at their last chance with Carthon. Crennel has taken veto power of all Carthon’s plays. Is it a total solution, NO, but it is a step in the right direction.
Finally, Miami has a new mascott name, THE MIAMI THUGS. And there colors are being changed to black and white horizontal stripes. That color commentator needs to get a huge fine as well for his idiotic comments.
Roadman,
I have an idea for the Browns that goes back to last year’s Fiesta Bowl with the Buckeyes. At the beginning of the game, the Buckeyes added an extra offensive lineman in the tight end position. What if the Browns would throw one of their back-up offensive linemen into the tight end position to bolster the protection of Charlie Frye. I am not suggesting taking K2 or Heiden out of the game totally, maybe line K2 up at wideout or even H-back and put him into motion. This would help with pass protection as well as with run blocking, as this isn’t K2’s forte yet. What do you think??