Welcome to Progressive Field

May I help you?

The Tribe in the Onion

Visa Calls Indians To Confirm They Actually Did Intend To Take On More Salary

Manager, Pitcher Go Through Entire Bottle Of Wine During Really Great Mound Visit

Andy's Favorite Teams

Figgs got the ball rolling nicely for us with his list of his favorite sports team-seasons, and since I was involved in the bar discussion that sparked it, I thought I'd chime in as well. I started with a list of 19, so we'll give out some honorable mentions and get to the Top 10.

Just for Fun
'95 Steelers
'10 Steelers
Ha! I've never been so proud to be fake fans of the Packers and Cowboys. OK, enough fooling around, let's focus.

Nope, still making jokes
'10-'11 Miami Heat
HA! OK, OK, I'll stop. Whew, good times. Go Mavs!

Honorable Mention
'99-00 Penguins
'05 Alkaline Drives
'87 Indians
'10-11 Bucks B-ball
'01 Indians

I'll talk more about my relationship to the Penguins around the turn of the millennium and the role they played in my larger interest in sports, but this '99-'00 club opened up hockey to me and gave me a great playoff run. I went to my first of many games at the Mellon the previous year (I just now discovered the actual date of 2/9/99, thanks to the magic of the Interwebs), a fantastic 3-2 win over Les Habs where Jaromir Jagr netted the game-tying goal late in the 3rd and the Pens won in OT. The '99-'00 team entered as the 7 seed and promptly dumped the 2nd-seeded Capitals because the Pens always beat the Capitals, then stormed to a 2-1 lead over top-seeded Philly. They dropped Game 4 in a heartbreaking FIVE OT game, a contest during which my buddies and I drove to the arena after the second OT but were denied entry. After Keith Primeau finally ended the game at 2 am, I didn't know what I should do next, and the Pens never recovered either.

The '05 Alkaline Drives was my summer league softball team, the one that finally broke through and took the title. Despite almost never getting more than 9 players on the field for a game, we breezed to a 14-1 regular-season mark (our one loss was an absolute wake-up-call mercy rule pummeling by a mediocre team that I still don't understand) and won three straight to take the league title. We dispatched our two top rivals (Heinz School of Public Policy and Management and the dreaded Chemical Engineers) to claim the cup. All of my softball theories on where to hide weak defenders and how to construct a lineup worked out perfectly, and I played at an unbelievably high level, crushing home runs, dominating left field, and pretty much never making outs. Pretty fantastic season.

The '87 Indians were the first team I ever really, really was into, though I'd gotten into the major sports the year before via the Mets' World Series win. I went to my first game that year at Municipal Stadium, a pasting of the Indians courtesy of the juggernaut Athletics highlighted by a home run from Reggie Jackson, and I still have the souvenir towel. I watched the games, read the box scores, and loved the Tribe. They won: 61 games.

This past year's Buckeye Basketball squad was my favorite since the one that cracked the Top 10, maybe because they had a good mix of new cats and veteran leadership. I dunno, the Finals team from a few years ago seemed a bit mercenary, but I loved the way this club played. Their defeat in the NCAA's to Kentucky still stings a bit.

The 2001 Tribe was the last of our Star Destroyer clubs, the last time we really had the wherewithal to field a high-dollar team and bring in free agents like Juan Gonzalez (who OPS'd .960 and drove in 140) and Roberto Alomar (.336/.415/.956 and a Gold Glove). That team memorably battled the Twins all season, trailing by five games in July before storming to the division title by six games. That was the season that featured The Impossible Return, the comical 15-14 win over Seattle (who won 116 games that year) after trailing 14-2 earlier. While I'm here, that was just one week after the Pirates were trailing the Astros 8-2 in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and nobody on base and still won. That's one of my favorite win probability graphs ever - Baseball Reference lists the Astros' win percentage after taking an 8-2 lead in the 9th as simply "100%." To me, that one might be the more amazing comeback, especially because that Pirate team was awful. The Indians nearly toppled the high-flying Mariners in the ALDS, taking a 1-0 series lead on a Bartolo Colon shutout and a 2-1 edge via a 17-2 clobbering of the M's before bowing out in 5.

Top 11
I know I said 10, but I didn't want to cut any of these clubs. You can have your money back if you'd like.

11) 1990-91 Bucks B-ball
This, and possibly its sequel, was the most exciting college basketball season I've ever followed, and that includes some of Ohio State's recent tournament runs and the remarkable past decade of Pittsburgh Panthers basketball. This team had a bona fide superstar in the person of Jimmy Jackson, plus a remarkably deep lineup of Treg Lee, Mark Baker, Perry Carter, and Chris Jent (Lawrence Funderburke arrived the following year). Side note: I don't remember Mark Baker being "LaMark." Are we sure about this? Randy Ayers' 1991-92 club was just a loaded squad, rolling to a 27-4 mark and the NCAA Regional Semis. What makes this team still resonate with me today were the battles they had with the Indiana Hoosiers, who were still a national power then. OSU won both from the archrival Hoosiers, who had joined Jordan and his Bulls as my favorite basketball villains. With apologies to the rivalry with the school up north, Indiana was a more significant hoops foe back then, at least until um started paying its players. That's the Buckeye team that really got me into college hoops, though I've since settled into a more casual fandom.


10) 08-09 Penguins
This team won the Stanley Cup.

That should be enough, but I think it's worth detailing their playoff run, one of the most impressive and satisying postseason runs I've ever seen in any sport. It was the hockey version of The Bride in Kill Bill making the Death List and just taking them out one by one. It's as if the Browns lost the Super Bowl to the Dallas Cowboys, then came back the following season and dispatched the Broncos, Ravens, and Steelers in the AFC Playoffs before avenging the prevous year with a Super Bowl win over the Pokes.

The Pens entered the playoffs as the #4 seed and as the defending East Champions, having lost to the big-money Detroit Red Wings in the Cup Finals the previous spring. First up, the Philadelphia Flyers, who any self-respecting Penguins fan despises. 4-2, Pens. Next came the overhyped Washington Capitals and the obnoxious Alex Ovechkin; 4-3 Pens. Granted, the Carolina Hurricanes aren't a big rival, so the Pens wisely swept them before claiming the franchise's third Stanley Cup by defeating the heavily-favored Wings, in seven games, on Detroit's home ice. Nice work.


9) '97 Indians
I'm trying not to allow the single most disappointing end to a sporting season of a team that I like in my lifetime get in the way of the fact that my Cleveland Indians not only reached the World Series, but came within three outs of claiming their third World Championship. I mean, this team wasn't a juggernaut like the few before it - after a 100-44 campaign in '95 and 99 wins in '96, this club won a shaky AL Central with an 86-75 mark. They won the Central by six games - maybe "shaky" was too charitable.

In the ALDS, the Indians rallied from a 2-1 series deficit to take down the hated New York Yankees, thanks in part to Sandy Alomar's 8th-inning game-tying home run off of Yankee closer Mariano Rivera. The Tribe then avenged the previous year's ousting at the hands of Baltimore by ousting the Orioles in 6. This set up the infamous '97 Series, about which I will only say was one crazy ride. Win or lose, I want to do that again.


8) 91-92 Cavs
The best Cavaliers team of the pre-#6 era, Lenny Wilkens' squad won 57 regular-season games, most in the first 37 years of the franchise, and reached the Conference Finals for just the second time in history (they've since been there twice more). More importantly for the purposes of this writing, this team featured some of my all-time favorite basketball players. I can still remember going to Richfield Coliseum and seeing these guys play, hearing "The Final Countdown" imploring them to one last fourth-quarter push. The names on the club are a who's-who of Cavalier basketball: Daugherty, Nance, Ehlo, Kerr, Ferry, Williams. (Former FCF contributor Doug once referred to this as "The Winston Bennett Era.") Oh, and an undersized point guard with deadly shooting accuracy from Georgia named Mark Price, still my all-time favorite basketball player. Damn was Price ever good. It's hard enough to shoot 90% on foul shots over a span of 10; try doing it in games, over 2362 attempts, after battling dudes way taller than you all game (btw, Price career playoffs: .944).

But this isn't a Mark Price article. This Cavs team breezed through the league with 57 wins, earning them the three seed (thanks to the NBA's dumb division seeding rules), including a 148-80 waxing of Miami that still stands as the biggest blowout in league history. (Suck it, Heat.) The Cavs easily dispatched the Nets 3-1 in the opening round before outlasting Boston in 7 to reach the East Finals. Am I the only one getting tired of ending these fond memories badly? As usual, the Bulls stood between the Cavs and a shot at the title, and as usual, that sucked.


7) 06 Bucks Football
Simply the most explosive offensive Buckeye team I've ever seen, the '06 Ohio State footballers steamrolled everyone they faced in the regular season, averaging a 36-10 victory each of the 12 times they took the field in a season that saw them face the #2 team in the land twice (once Texas, once michigan). Led by Heisman winner Troy Smith and speedster Ted Ginn Jr, there was just no way to get the Buckeye offense off the field that year.

Only one team had the notion to not even try that tactic, but instead to attempt to simply outscore Ohio State, that being the hated wolverines of michigan, who entered the season's final game every bit as unbeaten as the Buckeyes and yet far smellier. As you all know, OSU prevailed 42-39, in an epic game I was lucky enough to attend. The win earned the Buckeyes a shot at their second BCS Title Game, and then Ted Ginn scored a TD on the opening kick, and then hey, look, it's #5 on my list!


6) 02 Browns
Kind of amazing that only one Browns team cracked my entire list, but, well, we haven't been so great, and I was pretty young during the late '80's AFC Championship Game days, so those memories aren't as vivid. This was one fun, weird-ass year for the Brownies. You really couldn't make this stuff up. All of these things happened in 2002:

- Losing the season-opener 40-39 on Dwayne Rudd's infamous helmet toss.
- Rallying from 2 TDs down in the 4th to beat the Titans.
- Beating the Texans in my first-ever Browns game as a paying customer.
- Absorbing a lifeless, hideous 13-6 loss to the punchless Panthers.
- Suffering two annoying losses to Pittsburgh.
- Rallying from down 21-3 in New Jersey to the Jets, including Tim Couch's comical hook pass two-pointer.
- A hail-mary win (Quincy Morgan) against Jacksonville.
- A 90-yard TD drive in 1:30 with no timeouts against the then-vaunted Ravens defense in Baltimore to eke out a 14-13 win.
- "Run, William, Run" and the goal-line stand against the Falcons in the final game of the season.

Even with all those improbable wins, the Browns were lucky to squeak in at 9-7 (the Football Gods rectified that by denying the 10-win 2007 edition a postseason berth), and, well, I kinda wish they hadn't, 429 yards from Kelly Holcomb notwithstanding.


5) 06-07 Cavs
I find myself far more invested in teams that don't necessarily seem like they're among the elite, but nonetheless manage to punch above their weight in the postseason. You couldn't describe the 2006-07 Cavaliers any better. I'm still a little amazed at them reaching the NBA Finals that year, having lucked into the 4th seed with just 50 wins thanks a late-season Nets collapse against the hapless Bulls. I know we all hate LeBron now, and I'm no exception, but in retrospect, how the fuck did he get this team to the Finals? I think we were starting Eric Snow, Larry Hughes, #6, Drew Gooden, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a lineup that looks increasingly absurd.

The Cavs collected their customary win over the Washington Bullets with a 4-0 sweep over Antawn Jamison and whatever four guys he could find to pick up with that night before knocking out Jason Kidd and the Nets 4-2 in a series that really could have gone either way, setting up a rematch of the previous year's 7-game epic against the big, bad Detroit Pistons. The Cavs lost the first two in the Palace, each by a score of 79-76, before roaring back with a pair of home wins to even up the series. That set up LeBron's ridiculous Game 5 in Detroit, a 109-107 double-overtime instant classic that still ranks as easily the greatest individual performance I've ever seen in team sports. It's still kind of hard to believe that happened, #6 racking up 29 of Cleveland's final 30 points against the league's best defense. The Cavaliers blew the Pistons the hell out of the Q in Game 6, but not before the Pistons put on an all-time douchebag clinic. The ragtag Cavs eventually fell to an excellent Spur team in the Finals, but that was a thrilling spring of basketball.


4) 95 Indians
Can I interest you in another devastating postseason loss?

My early years of Tribe fandom finally paid some dividends in '95, just one year after the dumb-ass players strike cost the Wahoos a great shot at their first postseason slot of my lifetime (and the lifetimes of anyone fewer than 25 years my senior). Everything lined up that year, making that team probably the most dominant Cleveland squad in my fan career (yes, even the 66-win late '00's Cavaliers). The Tribe just beat the stuffing out of everyone, winning 100 games in a 144-game season and posting a run differential of...wait for it...233 runs. Do you know how many games they won the division by?

Thirty.

Not over the last-place team, mind you, over the second-place team. I'm serious, look it up. They narrowly edged the basement-dwelling Twins by FOURTY-FOUR games. They scored 5.83 runs a game (best in the AL), allowed 4.22 a game (um...best in the AL), and won roughly 84 games in their final at-bat. Every way you slice that team's numbers is fun. Belle, Thome, Ramirez, Murray, Sorrento, Lofton, Baerga - how could you even pitch to this team?

I normally eschew hyperbole, but you will never see another Indian Summer like '95 again. How Wayne Kirby managed 205 AB for this club is beyond me.

The good vibes continued into the postseason, as the Tribe swept the Red Socks (thanks to Tony Pena's 13th-inning game-winning HR in game 1) and beat the Mariners 4-2 in a crazy ALCS to reach their first World Series in 41 years. Then they lost. Game 6 (a 1-0 Series-deciding loss) was absolute torture. I hate this list.


3) 07 Indians
I don't know if I've ever followed a team as closely as this one, which is a bit ironic because I was living in upstate New York, deep in Yankee/Red Sock country. But I had my subscription to MLB Radio, and I used the hell out of it as the Indians surprised everyone and banged out a league-best 99 wins. Led by twin aces CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, an unstoppable Dual Rafael combination in the bullpen, a closer with no discernible pitching talent except for getting saves, and a lineup led by Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner, and Grady Sizemore, this solidly-built, well-rounded club just refused to crack no matter what challenges it was presented.

Those challenges included an ALDS showdown with the mighty Yankees, a series the Indians promptly won 3-1 over the objections of the TBS broadcasting crew, the single most biased national announcing team you or I have ever seen. The Indians quickly went up 3-1 on the also-hated Boston Red Socks, but unfortunately this one was a seven-gamer, and the Tribe ran out of gas as my hatred for Boston's sporting organizations moved up another level.


2) '00-'01 Penguins
As I pointed out when we talked about this last weekend, if it's not for this team, Forest City Fanatics probably doesn't exist. I went through a down period in sports in 1997. The Indians had just lost a devastating world series (see #9), the Browns were on hiatus, the Cavaliers sucks, and I had other interests, having just arrived in college (in Pittsburgh, of all places, removing me from my Ohio sports base). I got back into real sports (as opposed to WWF, which I was way into from '98-'00) thanks almost entirely to this Pens team and the copious amounts of free time I had as a senior.

The Penguins started off OK, but the return of the legendary Mario Lemieux in December really kicked it up another gear. I don't think I missed a game from then on out. I bought a jersey, went to games, loved it. The success factor, the novelty of the game to me, the buzz around Lemieux's dominating comeback, the PBR...it was a heady mix. The sixth-seeded Pens dispatched the Capitals (of course they did) in six games behind upstart goalie Johan "The Moose" Hedberg, including a 2-1 win where I asked Glover roughly 1000 times to check the score remotely because I went to a Fugazi show for part of it. They closed the series on an OT game-winner from Martin Straka that I watched with JHH in West Lafayette along with the zero other hockey fans in Indiana.

That was just an appetizer for the seven-game deathmatch with the Buffalo Hockey Buffaloes, a series where games 5, 6, and 7 all went to overtime. The Pens faced elimination in Game 6, down 3-2 in the series and trailing by a goal in the game with less than a minute to go, but Lemieux tied it and Straka closed it out in the extra period. Pittsburgh won a memorable Game 7 with an goal by unlikely hero defenseman Darius Kasparaitis, about whom a teammate remarked, "he doesn't make that shot in practice." The Pens eventually ran out of gas against a superior New Jersey club (very much like the Cavs finally outlasting the Pistons only to be outclassed by the Spurs), but wow, what a run.


1) '02 Bucks Football
Come on, who else was I going to pick?

Red Socks

Um...I don't like them. At all. Or their fans. You're not loveable underdogs anymore, sorry.

Tom Hamilton had some choice words for the socks last night:

"Much like the Yankees, the Red Sox are a ball club that never feels like they do anything wrong."

"The attitude in NY and Boston is that they should NEVER, EVER have the same strike zone as any other team that they face.”


h/t @letsgotribe

Favorite Teams

As Andy has frequently pointed out, he has really been carrying this blog as of late. [Editor's note: I've posted 27 of our last 30 articles; seems fair] So until [Editor's note: I had to insert the word "until" - see how hard-working I am?] he stops complaining [once Nick actually writes something], I thought I'd pitch in. There is an Ohio St preview in the works, but I'll wait until closer to the season for that. Instead, I'd like to elaborate on a brief discussion that took place during Tribe Weekend - your favorite all-time teams in a specific season. The things I took into consideration were obviously the success of the team and how much I liked the individual players, but also just how entertained I was by watching them throughout the year. This is what I came up with.

Honorable Mention:
1996 Cleveland Indians
1998 Cleveland Indians
1999 Cleveland Indians
1998 Ohio St Buckeyes (football)
1998-99 San Antonio Spurs
1998-99 Duke Blue Devils (basketball)
2007 Cleveland Browns
2006-07 Ohio St Buckeyes (basketball)

The Tribe in the 90's was just an incredible thing. These three squads didn't get as far in the postseason as the '95 and '97 ones - that's why they're bumped to honorable mention. The '98 Bucks finished #2 after defeating Texas A&M in the Sugar Bowl. They were ranked #1 for most of the season, and if not for blowing a 15-point fourth quarter lead to Michigan St, would have played Peyton Manning and Tennessee in the championship game. The two basketball choices may seem odd, but as you'll see in #8, when I was younger I would fall in love with one particular player then follow that team along with their Cleveland counterpart. David Robinson was that player in basketball. He was the best big man defender I have ever seen (yeah Dwight Howard/Hakeem Olajuwon, I said it). Then San An added Tim Duncan and dominated the strike-shortened '98-'99 season. As for Duke, my Dad and brother followed them so they were my inherited team as a youth. If not for their loss to Rip Hamilton and UConn in the title game (we'll unfortunately see them again later), this '98-'99 team would have gone down as one of the greatest NCAA teams ever. The '07 Browns were...well, the best of very limited Browns options. If the Colts don't sit Peyton Manning that Sunday night against the Titans they make the playoffs. Mike Conley, Greg Oden and Daequan Cook made up one of the most talented freshman classes in NCAA history and led the '06-'07 Bucks to the title game, only to lose to Florida. Now on to the Top 15. (I realize the normal thing to do would be a Top 10, but these first five teams were too beloved to be honorable mention.)

15) 2009-10 Ohio St Buckeyes (basketball)
Evan Turner is my favorite college basketball player ever, and Dallas Lauderdale, David Lighty, and Jon Diebler are all high on that list as well, so it's easy to see why I regard them so highly. Their season was cut short by Tennessee in the Sweet 16 when J.P. Prince blocked ET's buzzer-beater attempt.

14) 2006-07 Cleveland Cavaliers
There is a drastic drop-off from how much I love the Buckeyes/Browns/Indians to the Cavs, so this is the lone NBA team on the list. This team may not have been as good as the 60+ win teams of '08 and '09, but are at the top because of their epic series with Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals. After dropping the first two, very winnable, games at The Palace, Cleveland took the next four to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. Game 5 saw one of the greatest individual performances in league history, when LeBron James scored 48 points, including the team's final 25, in a double overtime thriller. Daniel Gibson's 31 led the way for the clincher in Game 6. The Cavs were overmatched in the Finals and swept by the Spurs.

13) 2001 Cleveland Indians
Two moments really stand out about the Tribe's 2001 campaign, and they both came at the expense of the Seattle Mariners. On August 5, Cleveland completed The Impossible Return, erasing a 12-run deficit to beat the Mariners. I was in attendance for Game 3 of the Divisional Playoff Series when the Tribe put a 17-2 beatdown on the M's. Seattle got the last laugh, however, winning the series and knocking Cleveland from the postseason.

12) 1998-99 Ohio St Buckeyes (basketball)
As I mentioned earlier, I was more of a fan of Duke when I was younger, but I was really into this OSU team. Led by Scoonie Penn, Michael Redd, and Ken Johnson, the Bucks made it to the Final Four but lost to eventual champs UConn. Due to recruiting violations by then-coach Jim O'Brien, the NCAA would later vacate all of this team's wins.

11) 2002 Cleveland Browns
From 'The Helmet Toss' in the opener to the playoff-clinching goal line stand against Atlanta in Week 17, the Browns' 2002 campaign kept fans on the edge of their seats. It was such an entertaining year, only to end in heartbreaking fashion when the Browns let a 24-7 second half lead slip away against the Steelers in the playoffs.

10) 2007 Ohio St Buckeyes (football)
I already wrote a recap of this squad for the Buckeyes through the 2000s article, so I'll just recycle that.

Todd Boeckman stepped in at the quarterback position, attempting to fill the shoes of departed signal-caller and Heisman trophy-winner Troy Smith. He did an admirable job, earning a spot on the All-Conference team and bringing his team to the National Title game. Beanie Wells was the feature of the offense, and was named team MVP for the first of what would be two consecutive years. Brians Robiskie and Hartline had big seasons before becoming afterthoughts as seniors. The defense was devastating, with DE Vernon Gholston breaking Mike Vrabel's single-season sack record, and linebackers James Laurinaitis and Marcus Freeman and corner Malcolm Jenkins becoming household names.

OSU won the first 10 games of the season, but suffered what appeared to be a season-ruining defeat at home against Illinois. After disposing of michigan (again), the college football gods were wearing scarlet and gray, as every team ahead of the Bucks lost in the final weeks of the season and the one-loss Buckeyes found themselves in the National Championship. This turned out to be a bad thing, as they were stomped by LSU.

9) 1994 Cleveland Browns
I was only seven years old during the Browns' '94 campaign, so I don't remember a whole lot of details from this season, but it's the first team I really remember watching and getting into. I absolutely loved Eric Metcalf, and that defense was something special with Pro Bowlers Michael Dean Perry, Eric Turner, and Pepper Johnson. They finished the season 11-5 and won their Wild Card Playoff game with the Patriots, but as it goes with Cleveland sports, the season ended in bitter defeat as Pittsburgh beat the Browns for the third time that season in the Divisional Playoff round.

8) 1998 Minnesota Vikings
This being a Cleveland sports blog, this probably looks like a curious choice. Like I said previously, when I was younger I would attach to a certain player and cheer for his team. In football, that was Cris Carter. Hands down, he had the greatest hands I've ever seen (unintentional pun). If he would have played with Joe Montana and Steve Young his whole career he would have had Jerry Rice numbers. So when Art Modell moved the Browns in 1996, I became a full-fledged Viking fan for a few years. In '98, the Vikes drafted Randy Moss to play with Carter, Jake Reed, Robert Smith, and Randall Cunningham and created one of the greatest offenses the NFL has ever seen. But of course, their 15-1 season ended in Cleveland-like fashion after blowing a late lead and losing in overtime to an inferior Atlanta team in the NFC Championship.

7) 2006 Ohio St Buckeyes (football)
Again, taken from the 2000s post:

This was the most talented team of the 2000's. Troy Smith won the Heisman trophy, Ted Ginn was, well, Ted Ginn, Anthony Gonzalez was as good of a #2 receiver as you will ever see, RB Antonio Pittman had a stellar season sharing carries with freshman Chris Wells, Quinn Pitcock was an All-American defensive tackle, and sophomores Vernon Gholston, Malcolm Jenkins, James Laurinaitis, and Marcus Freeman burst onto the defensive scene.

Ohio St ran the table in the regular season, going 12-0. The highlights came in Austin, Texas as the Bucks avenged the previous year's loss against the Longhorns by routing them 24-7, and in The Shoe when Ohio St edged michigan in what was being called "The Game of the Century." OSU and scUM entered the game as the top two ranked teams in the nation, and Ohio St's late interception sealed a 42-39 Ohio St victory.

Much controversy surrounded who the Buckeyes' opponent would be in the title game, as OSU was the only unbeaten team in the power conferences. Should we be forced to beat michigan again? Give undefeated, untested Boise St a shot? The BCS decided that Florida was the most deserving, and Ohio St went in as heavy favorites. The Buckeyes started the game the best way possible, as the human-highlight reel Ted Ginn took back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Everything went downhill from there, hard and fast. Ginn was injured during the touchdown's celebration, and spent the conclusion of his college career on crutches. Florida went on a 41-7 run, embarrassing Ohio St and the Big Ten, and marking the beginning of my unbelievable hatred for Tim Tebow, which has grown every single day since.

6) 1995 Cleveland Indians
This is where the list became difficult for me, because all six of these top teams were something special. The '95 Wahoos were just stacked with bats, including an absurd Albert Belle/Manny Ramirez/Jim Thome heart of the order. Alas, the Tribe were defeated by the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

5) 1995 Ohio St Buckeyes (football)
Two words can sum up why I ranked this squad so high - EDD-IE! EDD-IE! Eddie George is my all-time favorite athlete, and in 1995 he ran his way to the Heisman Trophy. The team also featured Biletnikoff winner Terry Glenn, Bobby Hoying, Orlando Pace, Mike Vrabel, and Shawn Springs. Talented enough to win the title, the '95 Bucks were the epitome of the John Cooper era, winning their first 11 games before losing to michigan and then Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl. Interesting side note - Luke Fickell was apparently on this team.

4) 2007 Cleveland Indians
The '07 Indians weren't as talented as the '90s versions, but because I was older I feel I was able to appreciate them more. Another reason I ranked them higher than the '95 team was because their ALDS series against the Yankees was my second favorite victory of any of my teams (we'll get to the first soon enough, but I think you already have an idea). But continuing with the trend, they met the same fate as all the others on this list when they were beaten by the Red Sox after holding a 3-1 series lead in the ALCS.

3) 1996 Ohio St Buckeyes (football)
In 1996, the Buckeyes outscored their opponents 455-131. Let that sink in for a second. OSU was the best team in college football that year, but didn't win a National Title because of another Cooper loss to that school up north in the season's final week. But the loss wasn't all bad, as it set up one of the most thrilling wins in the Buckeyes' history, the 1997 Rose Bowl. After Jake Plummer led Arizona St to what appeared to be yet another comeback victory, Joe Germaine hit David Boston for a game-winning touchdown with 19 seconds left to play.

2) 1997 Cleveland Indians
The decision to rank the '97 team as my top Indians squad was not an easy one. Ultimately I chose them because I liked their pitching better. I was a big fan of Bartolo Colon and Jaret Wright. The Tribe won an exciting five-game series with the heavily favored Yankees in the ALDS, thanks in part to a brilliant performance from the rookie Wright in game 5, then disposed of the Orioles in six game in the ALCS. I'll stop typing there.

1) 2002 Ohio St Buckeyes (football)
This one was a no-brainer for me. You could not make up a more thrilling season than the one had by the '02 Buckeyes. There were so many games coming down to the wire, fantastic finishes, unbelievable plays, unlikely heroes, and of course the epic upset of Miami in the BCS title game. Hopefully I have many great Cleveland/Ohio St seasons ahead of me, but it is going to be tough for anyone to unseat this team at the top of the list.

Browns Sporcles!

With literally nothing going on with regards to the Cleveland Browns until August, and flat-out nothing happening on FCF, I thought now was an ideal time to tide sports fans over with a collection of Cleveland Browns-themed Sporcle quizzes. Good luck!

Can you name the Cleveland Browns starting QBs since 1999?
I missed one, and I suspect I'll be the only member of the site who does so.

Can you name the Cleveland Browns Draft Picks since 1999?
I sure can't. I only put up 44 in this one. Drafts are not my bag, baby. Warning: taking this quiz might make you depressed.

Can you name the Cleveland Browns head coaches?
I posted an 11/15. Can you believe we've had THREE interim coaches?

Can you name the Cleveland Browns in the Hall of Fame?
9/16. Do I even follow this team?

Can you name the Players who 'contributed' in 2010 for the Browns?
A more recent one for you. I got 71/101. Strangely, there are a few guys on that list of whom I've never heard.

Can you name the Cleveland Browns who wore each uniform number for the most regular-season games?
Wow. Just wow. I guarantee you get fewer of these than you expect.

Can you name the career leaders for the Cleveland Browns in the following categories?
A good one to finish up on - I got 55 of these.

AT&T Park

Chief Wahoo and I in San Fran, representin'. If this were a video, you'd be able to see my teeth chattering.

Yankees Suck! Yankees Suck!

What a game! I just saw the Indians defeat the yankees 6-3 at Progressive Field, in a terrific come-from-behind victory on Independence Day. Winning is always fun - winning against the yankees is extra-fun. It's so refreshing that this year, the Tribe is good enough to draw enough fans to drown out their "let's go yankees" nonsense and start our own solid "yankees suck" chants. None of this nonsense where we have 8 000 fans and so do the visitors. Also: the Indians were good enough to beat them 6-3.

Against my better judgement, I logged on to espn.com after the game - check out the screenshot I took of the espn.com homepage shortly after the game. Yeah, that's about right. Nothing about the FIRST PLACE INDIANS' big win, just a picture of and accompanying story about Derek Jeter, a complete nonfactor in the game and a completely undeserving starting shortstop in next week's all-star game. Great coverage!



Well done. BTW, there were plenty of post-game fireworks, ESPN.

Can you see the headlines at the side of the frame? Here's the topics regarding tonight's game:

Jeter hitless in return | Indians edge yanks

Which one of those things is more important? Jeter's meaningless ohfer, or Cleveland's big win? How badly have we lost the plot here? Chases for arbitrary numbers of hits are now this much more important than the results of games between first-place teams? And just fyi, Cleveland didn't "edge" New York - the final score was 6-3. No amount of ESPN New York-loving can change that. Embarrassing. Why do I even go to this site anymore?

Having not learned this lesson and having arrived too late to catch the highlights on STO, I dumbly flipped on...ESPN, to see the postgame highlights. Instead, I was treated to John Kruk and Barry Larkin chattering about...Derek Jeter. Of course. Nothing about the Indians, nothing at all. Just Larkin and Kruk trying to out-cliche one another, and Kruk mindlessly saying how Jeter's "veteran presence" will help the club, without much discussion about how much his .649 OPS (77 OPS+) and -0.3 dWAR will help New York win games.

Also: baseball does not have captains.

For the record, CNNSI's front page is a photo of the Pirates' Andrew McCutchen and a story from Joe Posnanski that is, get ready, ESPN, actually about baseball. Their Tribe headline could be better ("Jeter hitless in return; Kearns homer lifts Indians") - we're still second-class citizens, but not in a second, separate article, and not totally misrepresenting the game itself.

Go Tribe.

JJ

I'm not sold on this Hickson trade. I know management questioned his focus and defensive commitment, but the guy is only 23 and had an obviously high ceiling. He was already a 16/10 guy, clearly developing skills and a greater awareness of rebounding, even if he was prone to defensive lapses on an already-poor defensive club.

Clearly he didn't see eye to eye with Coach Byron Scott, and that certainly hastened his exit. It's just frustrating to watch such potential only net Omri Casspi and a low first-round pick, thanks to the extensive protections on the pick.

As for the Cavs' other recent roster moves, via the NBA Draft, the same is true as usual - we'll just have to wait and see. Bill Simmons had this to say in his NBA Draft diary:

You know, because any time you can grab a freshman point guard who missed two-thirds of the season when you have $20 million of point guards on your roster, you have to do it.

This is purposely misleading. Almost all of that $20 million is Baron Davis' $13.9 million, and neither he nor Ramon Sessions nor Daniel Gibson are the Cavs' long-term answer at point guard. The Cavs are clearly just waiting out Davis' deal, and only made the trade to get the #1 from the Clippers, a deal that netted them the pick they used to select...Kyrie Irving. Simmons knows all this. Now, if you think Derrick Williams has a better NBA future, fine, say so, but this analysis is way off-base.

As for Tristan Thompson...I couldn't possibly know less about the guy. I do like the reports that defense is his strength, because the Cavs were an absolutely terrible defensive team in 2010-11.

Also: there's probably not going to be a season.

Halfway Home for the Wahoos

This Saturday's game in Cincinnati with the Reds (Ohio Cup!) will mark the halfway point of the season for the Wahoos, and they'll find themselves no more than 2.5 games out of the top spot in the AL Central once that game ends. I think we all would have signed up for that at the beginning of the campaign, despite the club's recent struggles.

It remains to be seen how well the Indians will be able to hang in the race. Many other interested parties, from Paul Cousineau to Paul Hoynes to Manny "Paul" Acta have freely stated that the Indians' pitching has been their team strength so far and will need to continue to be so, and have the bats start contributing as well for them to contend through September.

Unfortunately, this is not correct. There's a tendency to overvalue pitching over batting when analyzing a team's prospects for success, or breaking down success already experienced. I don't understand this - pitching and hitting are equally valuable, and it seems to me folly to suggest that one has more to do with a club's record than the other. Am I missing something?

Consider the Indians, whom everyone curiously seems to agree has been carried by their pitching so far. Their team OPS+ is 102, slightly above average. Their ERA+ is 99, ever so slightly below average. Unless I'm missing something, this suggests that they're a somewhat better batting club than a defensive team. Their team offensive WAR is 9.8, while the sum of their pitching (6.5) and defensive (2.3) WAR is 8.8, again suggesting a team that's had more success at the plate than in the field. As for the defensive component of baseball - the Tribe's defensive efficiency is .700 and its fielding percentage .983, both of which are exactly AL-average to three decimal places. (Seriously.) Regardless of how much you trust defensive stats, I think it's telling that we're right on the mean no matter how you look at it.

Not a fan of advanced metrics? Prefer the more classic "runs"? OK, then. The Tribe's runs per game is 4.30, bettering the AL average of 4.26 by 0.04, or a run every 25 contests. The Indians allow 4.18 runs a game, also 0.04 better than the league average of 4.22. These numbers have been compiled while playing home games in the confines of Progressive Field, historically a slight pitcher's park.

My point is simply that the Indians are almost exactly balanced, and perched at the league average in all three facets of the game; pitching, defense, and hitting. I'm not sure how this notion of us being a pitching-dominated team started, but it certainly isn't backed up by any numbers, so let's stop saying that it is.