Leaving It To Lebron

All bets are in, every question has been asked, all presentations and promises have been made. Now all we can do is wait. Lebron James has finally finished his meetings with the various teams interested in his signature this summer, as well as our beloved Cavaliers. That's right, he might choose to stay with us after all!

I realise the Lebron saga has been written about by practically every sports journalist in North America and beyond, but I felt I should weigh in with my opinion. Obviously I want Lebron to stay in Cleveland. There isn't another player in basketball like him, and he's easily the most gifted athlete to grace the NBA since his Airness Michael Jordan. Not only is he great for Cleveland from a sporting perspective, but he has done tremendous things for the city socially and economically. Losing him would be devastating for Cleveland, as Andrew over at Waiting For Next Year has explained in a brilliant article detailing just how important Lebron truly is.

I have been in a very fortunate position as a Cavaliers fan, as I have only ever experienced the Cavs in the Lebron era. I've been supporting the Wine & Gold since 2004, so I haven't experienced the team's darker days. Lebron and Cleveland together is all I know. The worst example of a Cleveland player leaving town that I have experienced was when V-Mart was shipped to Boston, and that stung for a quite some time. But Lebron leaving... well I don't really want to think about it, and have tried my best to ignore the possibility of him playing for somebody else for nearly 18 months now. I was naive to think it would all blow over, that Lebron would never consider leaving us. Our dismal playoff exit to the Boston Celtics a few months ago only made things worse; Lebron wants a ring, he needs a championship, and with another limp effort in the post-season gone by, it only stimulates the argument for him to leave for new pastures elsewhere. He has always made it clear how much he loves New York, and its widely known he grew up supporting the Bulls, and a certain Mr Jordan (his idol) especially. Don't forget his close friendship with Jay Z, part-owner of the Nets, who I'm sure would LOVE to have Lebron leading the way for his team. So there are plenty of suitors waiting for him to put pen to paper and become the new face of their franchise.

The Cavs front office, including new head coach Byron Scott, have made their final pitch to Lebron to stay with us, to keep striving for that illusive NBA title. I read that the presentation was short and to the point, and apparently the talks went well. The bit about Lebron being shown a Family Guy-like cartoon depicting himself and the city of Cleveland struck me as being a bit strange, but its supposed to be well known that number 23 is a big fan of cartoons, so I suppose this light hearted approach would appeal to him - if anybody in Cleveland knows Lebron well, surely its the organisation he works for. Lets just hope its worked, and Lebron realises that his best chance to win a much sought after championship is not in Miami, New York, New Jersey or Chicago, but right at home in Cleveland. If Lebron goes to any of those other cities, it'll take a considerable amount of time for those organisations to build a title contending team around him. Now he's still relatively young, only 25 years old, but he is coming off 2 straight MVP seasons and is in the prime of his career. How much longer is he willing to wait until he finally achieves his goal? If he stays with the Cavs, he has a significantly better chance of winning a ring than anywhere else, at least any of those teams that can afford him. Even if he does move to Chicago, who do have the talented Derrick Rose, Lebron wouldn't really be in a better position with the Bulls than he already is with the Cavaliers. Realistically only New York appear to be able to afford two of these premier free agents this summer, but then there is still the difficulty of promising Lebron and Dwyane Wade/Chris Bosh/ Joe Johnson etc, that the other has signed and committed. Even with two of them, its still not enough to make the Knicks a contender, not with the shambles that is their current roster.

Anyway, its out of our hands now. Actually, when was it ever in our hands? Its Lebron's decision to make, we just have to be patient and hope he chooses to stay in the city where he is worshipped, the place he calls home. There's nothing special in New York anyway... right?

Thanks for reading.

No Defence For Poor England

England's dreams of lifting the World Cup in South Africa 2010 have come to an end, as they were crushed 4-1 by Germany this afternoon in the round of 16 knockout stage. In what has been a terrible tournament for Fabio Capello's men, England's "golden generation" limp out of another major international competition. And we thought it couldn't get any worse than failing to qualify for Euro 2008...

I am not blaming Capello for the mess that is the England football team, not entirely. Sure he is stuck in his ways and seems reluctant to alter anything, but you can see on his face how passionate he is about his job; the guy is a winner, as his CV will show you. I honestly don't think he could have gotten any more out of the players than he did, but I do have issues with his squad selection and substitution choices. For a manager who constantly reiterated that he would only take players who were fit and on form, what on earth was he doing selecting King, Heskey, Carragher and Upson? The prime example of Fabio's failure here is Darren Bent, who had a very good season at Sunderland and was in the form of his life in the run up to this World Cup. Bent has 25 goals in all competitions this season, in 40 appearances for the Mackems. Yet poor Darren is left out of the final 23 man squad and Emile Heskey is taken instead. Now I have to give credit where it is due, and Heskey had a fine first half against the USA in the first game - but that was it. When Emile Heskey, the striker who doesn't score, is chosen over real centre forwards like Darren Bent, then you know England have problems. Fabio's odd decision to take off Defoe this afternoon in exchange for Heskey most likely bewildered every Englishman in the world. I don't understand Capello's thought process just after Germany broke away and scored a very simple but crucial third goal, why not bring Crouch on instead, who typically plays well for England and who does his job - scores goals - unlike Heskey.

I know most of the press and many fans will focus on Lampard's goal that was but wasn't. However this view completely ignores England's fundamental problem that they simply were not good enough. Germany were technically superior in every way, and their football is actually fun to watch, and effective too. When was the last time you said you had "fun" watching England? If Lampard's goal had been given, the game would definitely have swung in England's favour. At 2-2 the Three Lions would no doubt have carried that momentum on and pushed Germany right to the edge. Even when they got over the fact the goal wouldn't stand, England still bossed the last few minutes of the first half and looked very dangerous in attack. So it is easy to blame the linesmen for England's defeat, and there is no doubt tonnes of Facebook and Twitter updates have cried out WE WUZ ROBBED! But the reality is that Germany were better, a lot better, and probably would still have won even if the score was 2-2 at the beginning of the second half. England's poor defence would have ensured that. Johnson, Terry, Upson and Cole were torn to shreds by Germany's blitzkrieg attack, as Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Podolski and co had their way with England. I know Terry is good in the air, and gets his fair share of goals from set-pieces, but to leave just Ashley Cole in defence was suicidal, and the Germans made us pay dearly, as Bayern's wonderkid Thomas Muller put the game to bed with a brace with twenty minutes to go.

I didn't want to spend too long talking about this horror show of a game, so I'll leave it there. But rest assured England have a lot of work to do and I think it all starts at the lowest foundations of the English game: we simply do not produce the technically gifted players our opponents do. We have no playmakers like Xavi, Iniesta, Forlan, Ozil, Schweinsteiger, Kaka and Messi. Don't even get me started on the enigma that is Wayne Rooney. I already wasted far too much time on him in my last post. Argentina play Mexico tonight in which is surely going to be an entertaining game, so I'll continue enjoying the World Cup and start to forget dismal England. Be honest, you knew they wouldn't go far, so there's little surprise to see them exit so early. They'll be no tears from me this year, not for England's under-performers.

Thanks for reading.

Time To Get Bullish

With the 09/10 NBA season coming to a close yesterday, the playoff positions have been fixed and the number one seed Cavaliers have been drawn against Chicago, who have spent the last month fighting and clawing their way to secure the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference. Mike Brown's men have had another successful year (Andrew at WFNY has written a brilliant season recap), and Lebron has been as spectacular as ever. Cleveland finished with a 61-21 record, the best in the league for the second year running, but it all counts for nothing now as the finish line is within sight; it's NBA Championship or bust for the Cavaliers in 2010. However the Bulls are coming into the playoffs carrying a lot of momentum with them, although just managing to finish the season at .500. Understandably the Cavs have spent the last couple of weeks with the post season in mind, so key players have been rested down the stretch, and the rest of the team have clearly relaxed a bit, hence the recent losses. I just hope we don't come out rusty in Game 1, as we'd obviously like to kick off our playoff run with a quality performance and convincing victory.

It's not going to be an easy series by any means, and I'm certainly not expecting a first round sweep like last year against the Hawks. Chicago's Derrick Rose is freakishly talented at the point, and will be hoping to lead his team to an upset. They proved they have it in them after last year's incredible series against Boston (which the Bulls were unlucky to ultimately lose.) The rest of the Bulls supporting cast is good, but not great, and they certainly have it in them to give the Cavs a hard time. Lebron will have to rally the troops, but it's obvious this is the best group of players Cleveland have had in a long time, if not ever. The mid-season acquisition of Antawn Jamison has helped pushed the Cavs over the edge; they have never looked more ready (on paper anyway) for a run at the championship. Managing to bring back Ilgauskas was brilliant too, not to mention the emergence of JJ Hickson this season. Lebron's supporting cast has the tools to get it done - it just remains to be seen if they actually can. Fans can only watch and hope, as the Cavs take on the Bulls at the Q on Saturday. Good luck lads.

Thanks for reading.

Opening Day Is Upon Us

The day has finally come. The Tribe are back and the 2010 MLB season is set to begin; we are only minutes away from Cleveland's matchup today with the Chicago White Sox. The Browns are unfortunately irrelevant until August, and the Cavaliers will not get my full attention until at least the Eastern Conference Finals. Arsenal are on the final stretch of an unlikely, but still possible title run. However, this is now the time for baseball.

The Indians are starting 2010 with very low expectations. After the disaster of a season that was 2009, hopes are not high in Cleveland; but I'm sure we are all glad to have the Tribe back nonetheless. The main goal for Manny Acta this season is obviously to regain some respectability, as the Indians were simply embarassing last year. To be fair it wasn't entirely the players fault as trades and injuries destroyed any chance of having a successful year; the young guys coming up from the minors were thrown in the deep end. On paper the 2010 squad looks like a AAA team lucky enough to play for a club in the Majors. This youthful bunch of ballplayers is what we have, like it or not, and they'll need all the support they can get.

It is not all doom and gloom though. Spring Training was very encouraging, particularly the return to form of Fausto Carmona. The offense as a whole looked lively, and the face of the franchise Grady Sizemore is healthy once again. In fact, the Indians emerged from the spring with relatively few bumps and bruises; apart from Russell Branyan (who we knew was recovering from injury when we got him anyway) the team are pretty much as strong as they can be. The only concern is Kerry Wood, who will miss some time. However Chris Perez,who will likely be groomed to become the closer for the future, will fill in until Wood can return. There are more causes for optimism. Our youthful pitching staff look promising, with Carlos Carrasco narrowly missing out on a spot in the Opening Day rotation. Mitch Talbot went one step better and showed Acta he is ready to become a starter. Brantley has made positive moves in his efforts to prove he can cut it as a major league outfielder. And last but not least the Pronk is fit once again, and looks ready for a 30 HR+ season.

Its set to be an interesting year, with plenty of ups and downs ahead. We just have to hope there is less of the latter, and some real signs that this ballclub is heading in the right direction.

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: As I finish typing this, the Indians are trailing 4-0 to the White Sox. Westbrook doesn't look as sharp as we'd obviously like...

Don't Call It A Comeback...

One of the many positives in the Cleveland Indians camp this spring (never thought I’d say that) has been the resurgence of once-upon-a-time 19 game winner, Mr Fausto Carmona. The fiery pitcher has had a tremendous spring so far, and looks a lot closer to the man who finished 4th in the 2007 Cy Young vote than the walking disaster fans have had to endure since. Nobody wants to see the Carmona of last year again, where his ERA ballooned to an incredible 6.32 and he literally fell apart; he was eventually sent to Arizona to recalibrate. Which is exactly why Fausto’s spring performances have got fans so excited about the big 26 year old from the Dominican Republic all over again.

As of today Carmona has a 0.69 ERA and has been hitting the strike zone consistently, not to mention his walks are way down. His performance against the Cubs recently has earned him some high praise indeed. Chicago manager Lou Piniella had this to say about Carmona’s exploits: “The best Spring Training start I’ve seen here of any of the Spring Training pitchers who’ve faced us... He made it look easy. He was impressive.” Mike Redmond, who is scheduled to be Fausto’s personal catcher this year, had even better things to say. “I can’t believe he was any better in ‘07 than he was today…Those last two innings, he took it to another level. He was phenomenal.” Phenomenal. That’s exactly the word to describe Mr Carmona this spring. He is 2-0, has six strikeouts, only two walks, and has allowed five hits in 13 innings. I don’t think anybody expected these kind of numbers, not after what we’ve become accustomed to over the last two years.

The 2010 rotation in Cleveland is set to experience its fair share of bumps and bruises; there is no doubt about that. However, if Carmona can re-discover some of his 2007 form (early signs are positive) then the situation at Progressive Field this year might be a little more bearable. Fans can only hope and pray, but what we’ve seen from Carmona so far indicates good things to come.

Thanks for reading.