Nick Mileti was on the local radio this morning. I'd almost forgotten about him, but he was once King of Sports in Cleveland. He owned the Indians, Cavs, Barons, WTAM, and the Richfield Coliseum. Everything other than the Browns, in other words.
While it was obvious that he's getting up in years, Mileti still seemed to to be alert and have a sense of humor. He is clearly proud that the franchise he founded has made it into the NBA Finals.
One thing he said was valuable to hear - he talked about how the valuable part of working in the sports business is the community of fans and how sports pulls us all together.
Man, that's exactly right. It's really what fired me up back in 1995... how something that pulled this town together got ripped right out of our hands.
You deal with so many egos in this business - a lot of them truly out-of-control - that it's good to hear someone talk about community. That's what I still enjoy about this gig. It's a buzz to break stories and to see when someone has subscribed, but the fun part is still bringing people together. That's what it's about, really.
Right now, you can walk up to just about anyone in this area and strike up a conversation about the Cavs. Even people who don't like the NBA normally (I admit to being one of them) are interested in the exploits of LeBron and crew.
People coming together. Props to you, Nick.
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Speaking of the radio, I heard Phil Savage on the air this morning as well. The radio host didn't ask him a single Browns-oriented question, and didn't discuss LeCharles Bentley's decision to have surgery (or not). Dumb.
Everyone in the local sports media is so focused on gravy-training the Cavs that they forget all about the Browns.
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Folks who know me well know that I've been sick a lot over the last month or so. It's nothing life-threatening and I am told I'll be back to what passes for normal in a month. I'm just tired of feeling like crap all the time... so many things that need to be done, and I don't have the energy to do a lot of them. It's frustrating. Even my yard looks bad right now.
What's worse is I have some things to complain about. I generally enjoy complaining, but don't have the energy to get real fired up.
I thought we were supposed to have full-fledged avatars and robots we could use to get stuff done by now. If the military-industrial complex had actually come through on that, I'd be able to get more done. All those sci-fi novels I read when I was a kid were full of crap.
The movie "Network", though, was pretty much dead-on.
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When I read stuff like this, I make a mental note about how boring my suburban lifestyle is.
I'm OK with that.