Cleveland is a very strong city when it comes to supporting professional sports, but even the die hard cities have some issues with how teams are managed. The Cleveland Indians and their ownership are still attempting to renew the fan base they had in the mid 90’s. The Tribe was averaging around 3 million fans a year.
Terry Pluto gives an interesting perspective on why Cleveland is still struggling to raise the attendance numbers. I personally think the Dolan’s are still too “cheap” on the salaries and Mark Shapiro has done an excellent PR job with the fans and players. The Indians organization needs to understand that big money players bring fans. We recently signed some young talented players to long term deals. The benefits to this won’t be seen for at least a couple years.
Month: April 2006 (Page 12 of 17)
In Marc Stein’s latest power rankings, the Cavaliers moved into the top five, sandwiched in between the Spurs and Suns.
“Yet there’s no denying that LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, who halted New Jersey’s 14-game win streak Saturday and have a 10-1 record since March 14, deserve their promotion into the top five of ESPN.com’s NBA Power Rankings. It remains to be seen if James’ inexperienced gang is ready to win a playoff series, but the Cavs’ surge — coupled with the return of Larry Hughes — edges them past the Suns and Heat to account for one significant shift in the upper reaches of the rankings.”
With Miami struggling as of late and the Cavs proving they can beat New Jersey, home or away, a strong case can be made that Cleveland could be the second best team in the East going into the playoffs.
He did it again. With the game tied and the Cavaliers needing a bucket, LeBron delivered a jumper from outside the key in the closing seconds to win it, 103-101. After a rather lackadaisical first half, the Cavs fought back in the third quarter, outscoring the Hornets by 17. Flip Murray scored 25 in the game and Donyell Marshall was strong off the bench, finishing with 16. The Cavaliers displayed one of their best three-point shooting performances of the season, connecting on 11 of 18. I think Mike Brown can echo what just about every other Cavs fan is thinking about LBJ.
“He is absolutely amazing,” Brown said. “He is the MVP in my opinion.”
Before the Cavs ran the final play, LeBron had a little smile on his face on the bench and as he was walking onto the court. It’s almost as if he knew he was going to come through and win it. LeBron’s getting more and more comfortable at the end of games and has all the confidence in the world at this point.
Jake Westbrook pitched another fantastic ballgame, allowing only one run on two hits in 7 1/3 innings as the Indians won their fifth straight, beating the Twins 3-2. The Tribe earned their first sweep of the season and beat one of the game’s best pitchers, Johan Santana, in the process. Eduardo Perez took Santana deep in the fourth and Aaron Boone delivered a two-run double in the sixth.
“We’re six games into the season,” cautioned Perez. “But we’re getting good pitching, good fielding and guys like Travis Hafner are really hitting well.”
The Indians sure are doing a good job of putting the past behind them. They know they can’t have a repeat of the last two Aprils when they struggled out of the gate. They are really clicking in every facet of the game, it’s just too bad they have a day off. Hopefully that won’t affect our momentum going into the Seattle series.
LeBron James is moving up the charts on many writers’ lists for MVP. I believe the last two weeks of the season are going to be critical for James to win the covenant award. The Cavaliers will have to decide on whether to rest James to prepare for the first round of the playoffs or let his young legs carry him to his first of many MVP’s.
I believe it’s important for Mike Brown and the Cavaliers to close out the season strong and play every game to the end. This is a young team that is not playoff tested. LeBron and company will need all the confidence they have now for their playoff run.
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