Listening to WKNR's Kenny Roda Monday... you know, in a lot of ways Roda has been spot on with regards to Cleveland sports that past few years. It didn't take him long to turn on Butch Davis and recognize him as the dishonest blow-hard that he was. He's the best, and perhaps only intelligent radio voice in Cleveland regarding the Cavs. And he's among the better critical voices on the Indians, particularly in seeking out interviews with out of town press and opposing players. So, kudos on all that.
But, overall, Roda seems unjustifiably negative on the Tribe. Yes, the team is in the midst of an unexpectedly poor season, but it's still not panic time. Yet here's Roda, day after day postitively grilling Eric Wedge and the front office for everything from not showing enough emotion to making some poor player evaluation decisions (in the midst of, generally, a few good years). Yesterday Roda kept revisiting Mike Hargrove's firing and asking why he was ever let go. Are you kidding me? How many years ago was that now? It seems a little irrelevant to the state of the team in 2006. Geez, any second now Roda will be grumbling how the Tribe should never have let go of Milton Bradley.
But the biggest thing that gets me is a caller on yesterday's show complaining that the Tribe has too many players who are "one dimensional." Roda eagerly agreed with this assessment and went on to state that Grady Sizemore is the whole real 4 or 5 tool player on the team. And beyond that the team is filled with guys who aren't very fast and aren't great fielders. OK Kenny... can you enlighten us why this is such a terrible thing? Can you explain how a little more athelticism would translate into wins? I bet you can't, not over a whole season. Go read Moneyball or something. Complaing that Travis Hafner is one-dimensional is a joke. Go check and tell me how many other teams have a DH better than Hafner. Prove to me how Jhonny Peralta's mere competency at shortstop is a signficant hindrance to this team. These were example cited by Roda -- with apparently little or no thought about it, and definitely no actual statistical evidence that these guys can't be important players on a winning ballclub.
I know this is the type of crap that sports talk radio thrives on. But it annoys me to no end, and is probably why I take my sports talk in small doses. We'll see in a couple years if Roda is right or wrong. But either way he seems premature. Heck, I think he's even a little bit premature for this season.
NBA Draft. Wow, it's tough to get excited or even very interested in the draft when your picking in the bottom third, isn't it? Everyone is saying the Cavs need a point guard and that is certainly the pick I'd expect them to make in the first round too. But in the second, I think Ferry will emulate the San Antonio approach and go with some unknown guys who'll probably play abroad in 2006. Yes, I think the Cavs could make a run to the NBA Finals in 2007 if they are healthy come playoff time. But they won't do it based on who they draft tonight -- these guys are for 2007-8 and beyond. Next season's fate will be determined by the development of Andy V, Sasha (where'd he go?) Pavolic, and Luke Jackson. And how much they can continue to get from Marshall, Jones and Snow.
Oh, and I'd love to get Dee Brown, who always seemed to play better than I expected at Illinois.
Roger Brown piles on the Browns by leading with ESPN's "Ultimate Depth Chart" where the Browns were ranked last at QB and generally low across the board. Whatever. "Ultimate Depth Chart" is not news. And anyone who really cares already watched ESPN or saw it on the internet. That means Roger Brown's target audience must be people who 1) don't watch ESPN, and 2) don't follow sports online. I think Mr. Brown's column would do better in the Metro section than the Sports pages.
And oh yeah, other parts of the column quote a press conference by Danny Ferry that was replayed on 1100 and 850 radio and covered elsewhere in the paper. So Roger's audience perhaps doesn't listen to radio or even read the Plain dealer. Roger, maybe you could get a blog instead!
Last week's trade of Ragone to the Rams signalled to me that Ragone's career might be winding down. You don't often get traded for a conditional draft pick and manage to climb a QB depth chart to be a starter. Ragone's fighting to be a backup and maybe a journeyman backup after that. Of course, that's great work if you can get it.
Indians: The season looks like it's not going to work out as so many people hoped. That's not too shocking considering the sky-high expectations. But don't get fooled into thinking the rest of the year will be a long march of death. This is still a pretty good team with an outside shot of getting back in the hunt. At the least, I think the Tribe has a few good runs in them and will finish the year with a winning record. Of course, I do admit to being an optimist with this team because I really do like the way it's constructed.
I keep telling myself that I'm ready for training camp, then I think -- screw that, it's summer, the best time of the year in Cleveland, just enjoy the heck out of it and training camp will be here when the time is right.
Very random notes:
- Living right near the Rocky River Reservation is a great thing.
- Of course, I've lived around it most of my life and didn't take advantage of it
- Credit running/jogging. It's replaced beer as my top hobby, at least on most days.
- Cleveland rocks in the summertime -- it's just too bad our city has so many areas where it could be better. Drive along the shoreway east to west right about sunset -- it's gorgeous, even if much of the land use looks like it wasn't very well thought out.
- I've been reading a sort of elementray U.S. history book lately. I've think I've always underestimated our own history. What a fascinating story.
- The founding of the country should be endlessly fertile ground for some fantastic movies. Then again, the way movies are made these days is pretty pathetic. We'd probably get movies about how George Washington was a deeply flawed man and shockingly harsh slave owner because, you know, the story of the man isn't interesting enough as it is.
- Deadliest Catch is the best TV viewing of 2006. I can't think of anything else even close. I guess House is pretty good, but Deadliest Catch is phenomenal. Can you imagine doing that job? Wow.
- Running down into the valley at 6 AM when there are plumes of fog rising out of the trees -- a pretty awesome way to start a workday.