Land of the CLE is our Cleveland-focused sports blog maintained by both Bob and Chris. We use this area to expand upon topics that we can't fully cover in our CLE Talk podcast.
My brother had to stop me from listing off more Heisman candidates on our last episode. So I decided to toss the rest of my candidates onto a nice blog post. Projecting Heisman winners is a difficult task. The candidate needs some combination of statistics and big-game heroics while leading a successful team (nine of the last twelve Heisman winners played in the championship game).
Read MorePreseason polls are a necessary evil. They help hype the upcoming college football season and are a guide for both fans and the television networks to circle what games are important.
Read MoreThe first Coaches' Poll of the 2015 college football season dropped last week, and there is plenty to talk about and discuss. Most will say the rankings are pretty meaningless, with the path to the College Football Playoff pretty clear: go undefeated or lose once early in the season and then win your conference championship. But here were the top four teams in last year's coaches' poll heading into the 2014 season: Florida State, Alabama, Oklahoma and Oregon.
Read MoreLess is usually more, but there are always exceptions. And expansion could solve some of Major League Baseball’s problems. Commissioner Rob Manfred said at a luncheon with the Baseball Writers of America in Cincinnati during All-Star week that he was open to expanding the league in the future.
Read MoreI don’t like All-Star Games. Despite baseball being the closest to an actual game, I can’t get around the pitching. Tons of relievers get to be named All-Stars because no team wants to stress out its starter in an exhibition game (and rightfully so). Which is why the All-Star Game should not decide what team gets home field advantage in the World Series.
Read MoreSerena Williams can’t carry the torch forever. Right now she is the only relevant name in U.S. tennis — men’s or women’s. And as impressive as her career has been, with 20 Grand Slam singles championships and a shot at a Grand Slam in 2015, at 33-years-old it is in the twilight. Soon she will fall from the rankings and head into retirement.
Read MoreGood news for everyone, Jalen Rose gave me some other great NBA Player comparisons that just didn't get a chance to air live on Thursday's NBA Draft. Much like LeBron making his teammates better, Rose seems to have benefited mightily from the partnership with Bill Simmons. And now that Simmons is gone, Rose seems to be as desperate and confused as the 2010-11 Cavs.
Read MoreNote: This post has been updated with post-draft comments for each sleeper.
The NBA Draft is usually pretty boring. By and large, the top five picks come and go without many surprises. Especially in a draft like this one with four clear-cut Top 5 guys — Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay.
Read MoreThe success and grit of the Cavaliers in these playoffs, so it seemed, caused us to believe that the Cavs and Warriors were two perfectly equal teams, and this finale was just as it should be. We became comfortable with the Cavs missing both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. It is not normal for a team to lose two of its three best players and to continue winning.
Read MoreEvery year, in every sport, there are inevitably two kinds of MVP contenders — the best player on the best team, and the player who is most valuable to his team. Most of the time, the MVP goes to the best player on the best team as long as that player had a great season.
It all comes down to how one defines “value.”
Read MoreNow that the Bulls have predictably fired Tom Thibodeau, the NBA’s coaching carousel is going to spin a lot faster. The best job on the market — Oklahoma City — already filled its vacancy, but there are others out there with a lot of upside. I break the remaining openings down and rank them.
Read MoreAt least I’m not alone in picking the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series. Then again, perhaps I should have seen the writing on the wall when Sports Illustrated anointed them as the 2015 champions. And while things look bleak in Tribe Town, the silver lining is there are five more months left in the baseball seasons.
Read MoreI love the NFL Draft. It's the Hall Pass of sports talk. No one holds you accountable for your predictions and thoughts because everyone is wrong about something during the draft. You can hit on your mock draft, but totally miss on first round talents actually becoming star players. Head over to our NFL Draft Preview to hear Chris and I get a lot of things wrong, and to our new CLETalk podcast to hear what we predicted for our hometown team. Anyway, it's an exciting time for a football fan, and there are always interesting storylines to talk about. Here are a few of my favorites:
Read MoreThe NBA had it perfect in 1983. Back then, only six teams from each conference qualified for the NBA Playoffs. The top two seeds earned byes while the remaining four were locked into a best-of-three series. The next three rounds were best-of-seven.
Read MoreI love seeing the dumb catch phrases NBA Playoff teams give their ticket-buying fans during home playoff games. And the phrases seem to be getting dumber. It's now a requirement for every team to give their fans a shirt for every playoff game. So here are some of my favorites from the first week of the NBA Playoffs. My brother and I picked the series on our preview podcast.
Read MoreTruth be told, I love Tim Tebow. I hated him as a Florida Gator, because, well, he was a Florida Gator. And in college he was actually the best player in the NCAA, which is hilarious and shameful. But in the NFL, he was an honest underdog, who's greatest fault was he was too nice and generous with his faith. The funniest thing is that he actually took a team to the playoffs and won a game.
Read MoreThe inconsistent logic applied to coaches is often times worse than that used to evaluate player’s greatness, especially in the NBA. Coaches are often in a no-win scenario — they can’t win without elite talent, but once they’re surrounded with elite talent receive little to no credit for winning and are often the first to be blamed when a team goes south.
Read MoreOpening Day, like the Super Bowl, should be a national holiday. It’s one of my favorite days on the sports calendar and signals the changing of the seasons, from winter to spring. Bob and I broke down the two leagues in our podcasts, starting with the National League and finishing with the American League. Here is who I think will win it all, you can check out Bob's picks here and let me know what you think in the comments below.
Read MoreThe All-Star break may not be the true midpoint of the NBA, but it's a good time to reflect on the season so far. So I decided to hand out some awards for the unofficial first half of the season. Some of these races will be very tight down the stretch, but if the season ended today here is who I would honor.
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