http://www.ohio.com/sports/23745694.html?page=2&c=yLittle article I found. Of course none of this is confirmed, but if JJ is going to need microfracture surgery, his year will be over and most likely his career.
Tribe, Browns, Cavs? Oh, my
Published on Sunday, Jul 06, 2008
In February, my buddy, Dave from Westlake, asked a simple question: Which Cleveland team is closest to a championship?
Dave from Westlake (his official name) is well known to some as the guy who accurately predicted Browns drafts for years.
He asks questions like this one, and it was an interesting thought.
Mind you, the question did not imply that any team was close to winning a title; it just wondered which team was closest.
My answer at that time came down to performance and potential, so I said the Indians.
Stop snickering.
It was February.
The Indians were coming off a season when they came one victory short of reaching the World Series, when they won 96 games, tied with the Boston Red Sox for most in baseball, and when they had a Cy Young winner returning.
Clearly, that prediction was not accurate.
At least not this year.
How the Indians look for next year . . . well that's anyone's guess. Consider the pitching staff — an Indians strength when the season started. C.C. Sabathia could be gone via trade or free agency, Jake Westbrook had Tommy John elbow surgery and Paul Byrd is in the last year of his contract.
The ace of the staff has turned out to be Cliff Lee, and he was the subject of many trade talks in the offseason.
In the bullpen, there is no closer.
In the outfield, there are questions in right and left field. Casey Blake figures not to be back at third. Ryan Garko has not set the world afire at first.
In spring training, the Indians appeared to be a team built to succeed this year and in the next couple. Now they appear to be a team with growing questions.
Part of the unpredictability of baseball.
Which leaves the Cavaliers and Browns.
Most would knee-jerk and pick the Browns.
That's just the way things are with the Browns. It does not take much for the bandwagon of hype and excitement (officially known as the BHE) to get overcrowded when the Browns are concerned.
If folks hear a burp from Berea, fans figure it means three extra wins.
But I do not think the Browns are closest to a title.
Every time the Browns spun the roulette wheel last year, things came up the color they played. Everything went right. Until that game in Cincinnati late in the season.
This team deserved good things, mind you. After years of Jeff Garcia and Spergon Wynn, fans and the team deserved something positive.
The excitement level for this season is real and deserved. There's a lot to like.
But there also are questions. The team's cornerbacks are unproven, and NFL teams will pick at that scab all season if, indeed, it turns out to be a weakness.
Receiver Joe Jurevicius' health also is concerning. The team's latest release was pretty cryptic, but it did not sound good when it said there was no word on his availability for training camp after the latest procedure on his knee.
Rumors are flying that Jurevicius might need the dreaded microfracture surgery.
If Jurevicius cannot play or is limited, the Browns lose their third wide receiver and have one legitimate receiver in Braylon Edwards. Donte Stallworth? He might prove to be good, but a guy who has been with four teams in four years and who was not starting late in the season with the New England Patriots isn't star material just because he signed a big contract.
Too, the national frenzy over the Browns seems misplaced. Or at least too much too soon. The team has five prime-time games despite missing the playoffs last season.
Often in the NFL, a team will improve, then take a step back before settling into its real self.
The Browns can win this season and probably will. But they're not as close to a title, in my mind, as the last pro team left standing in Cleveland.
That's the Cavs.
And as of today, early July 2008, they are the local team closest to a title.
With the right offseason moves, they could move closer.
I say this because of two reasons.
First, and foremost, they have LeBron James.
Enough said. Because anytime he is on the floor, the Cavs have a chance.
Second is because they came the closest to beating the Boston Celtics, who won the title. A shot here or there in Game 7 in Boston and the Cavs advance to the Eastern Conference finals, and who knows what happens from there?
Of course, this is what happens with these Cleveland teams.
A shot here or there, a hit here or there, a pass or interception here or there, and things change. The closer they get, the farther away they seem to be.
James, though, seems to be the guy who might make a difference. There's no other player on any Cleveland team who can be mentioned in the same sentence as Michael Jordan.
Talent-wise, James is close.
If he wins championships, the comparison will be relevant.
So on the ''Personal Closest to a Title'' scale, the professional team that is closest in this area is the Cavaliers.
Random thoughts
That ''closest to a title'' idea seems like a fun thing to run down every few months.
• Memo to self: Buy Dave from Westlake a cold one.
• Just returned from a Yellowstone vacation with the kids.
Two words of advice on the National Park after a week there: Go visit. It's a fabulous, special, amazing place.
• For those interested, my daughters kept track of animals spotted. Final count yielded three bald eagles, 1,168 buffalo (this is not a joke), 411 elk, nine bears (eight grizzlies, one black), 30 wolves (seen from afar), 10 coyote, 10 bighorn sheep, 11 deer, three swans, 62 pronghorn antelope, three moose, five osprey, 118 geese, two snakes (one seen in Idaho en route), 21 pikas, three cranes and one ''fuzzy thing walking'' (so dubbed by my daughter), 47 ravens, one magpie, two beavers and one pelican.
The count is reputable, as done by two 12-year-old girls. No count was taken of ridiculous humans walking blindly through piles of buffalo poop.
• Time to welcome Clay Bennett to the Walter O'Malley Hall of Abandonment, where the Art Modell Welcome Center greets visitors.
Bennett moved the Sonics from Seattle to Oklahoma City by agreeing to pay the city of Seattle $45 million now and perhaps $30 million later.
The $30 million is dependent on a bunch of factors related to a new arena in Seattle and a commitment by the city to capitulate to NBA blackmail and build a new arena for a nonexistent team by the end of 2009 or forget about getting another team.
• Nice idea in a time when gas prices are $38.29 per gallon and schools are scrambling to succeed.
How do sports leagues get away with this? Because we let them.
• With the move to Oklahoma City, the NBA's future figures to include Montgomery, Ala., Dayton and Cody, Wyo.
Montpelier, Vt., might want to draw up its application.
• Sports Illustrated did one of those ridiculous midseason baseball award stories at its Web site.
Does anyone really care, after all, if a guy had a good first half of a season?
Apparently, I do, because I'm writing about it.
Two Indians fared well — Lee was first in the Cy Young half-season list; Grady Sizemore, fourth in the MVP.
Which pretty much indicates just how far the bottom has dropped out of this team if it can have two of the best players in baseball and still be in (gulp) last place.
• Only four Indians pitchers have started a season 11-1: Johnny Allen in 1937, Perry in 1974, Charles Nagy in 1996 and Lee.
How many of us remember staying up late in 1974 to watch Perry try to win that game in Oakland that would have given him 16 in a row to start the season? Seems like George Hendrick ruined that game.
• Sheesh, are we getting up there or what?
• After a brutal start, Sabathia has pitched extremely well, with a 1.96 ERA in his past 13 starts.
This illustrates why Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro must be careful when he weighs trading Sabathia. Clearly the pitcher is going to earn a huge deal as a free agent, but if there is any real hope of re-signing him, it must be considered. Starting pitchers who lead the league in strikeouts and who throw more than 200 innings in consecutive seasons are pretty valuable.
• The Cavs' draft made sense for this reason: Joe Smith, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace are in their 30s. The only young ''big'' (why don't they call the guards ''smalls''?) is Anderson Varejao, and he might not be with the Cavs after this season.
So they had to get some tall guys.
• J.J. Hickson might not make the most immediate impact because he has had one year of college experience. Darnell Jackson could produce more immediately because he played four years at Kansas. Not that many great things should be expected of any of the picks in 2008-09. The 19th pick and second-rounder just don't seem to do that kind of thing right away.
• The team compares Hickson to a piece of fruit taken off the tree a little early. The Cavs want to make sure it gets as ripe as possible before . . . well . . . you get the picture.
• The Cavs have not given up on acquiring Michael Redd from the Milwaukee Bucks, but they are having a difficult time gauging whether the Bucks will trade Redd after they acquired Richard Jefferson from the New Jersey Nets.
• Most feel like that move makes the Bucks a win-now team, so Redd stays.
• Me, I wonder this . . . in a convoluted way: Varejao's agent is Daniel Fegan, who also represents Yi Jianlian, who was traded to the Nets for Jefferson. This might indicate the Bucks need another ''big,'' and if that's Varejao in a deal for Redd, it makes sense that Fegan was eager and pleased to get his Yi out of Milwaukee to make playing time and salary cap room for Varejao.
Pure guess, by the way. Take that as nothing more than conjecture.
• Jefferson has yet to be in touch with the Bucks.
Seems he doesn't like the idea of being traded.
• Really, now, I didn't like the idea of $70 fill-ups every time I stopped for gas in Yellowstone, but that didn't keep me from driving there.
• Noticed where James said New York was his favorite city and Brooklyn his favorite borough during a Team USA news conference.
Naturally, this started the palpitations that James will leave the Cavs as a free agent in 2010.
For crying out loud, this is two years away.
Can we at least get through the presidential election before worrying about this?
There are flowers to plant, yards to mow and bushes to trim this summer. . . .
• Have to give a shout out to Brian Windhorst, a colleague and friend who is recovering from an illness in an area hospital. This is one outstanding young man and reporter. A lot of people are thinking about you, Brian, including me.
• OK, this is the time in the movie where we all wipe the tear from the corner of our eye.
• Speaking of movies, my daughter convinced me to take her to the midnight showing of the new Batman movie this month. That's a night's entertainment, eh? Two-and-a-half hours of Batman starting at 12:01 in the morning.
• Which again makes a person wonder: How do these things happen?
• Until next time . . . there you have it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick McManamon can be reached at
pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at
http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/. Part of the unpredictability of baseball.
Which leaves the Cavaliers and Browns.
Most would knee-jerk and pick the Browns.
That's just the way things are with the Browns. It does not take much for the bandwagon of hype and excitement (officially known as the BHE) to get overcrowded when the Browns are concerned.
If folks hear a burp from Berea, fans figure it means three extra wins.
But I do not think the Browns are closest to a title.
Every time the Browns spun the roulette wheel last year, things came up the color they played. Everything went right. Until that game in Cincinnati late in the season.
This team deserved good things, mind you. After years of Jeff Garcia and Spergon Wynn, fans and the team deserved something positive.
The excitement level for this season is real and deserved. There's a lot to like.
But there also are questions. The team's cornerbacks are unproven, and NFL teams will pick at that scab all season if, indeed, it turns out to be a weakness.
Receiver Joe Jurevicius' health also is concerning. The team's latest release was pretty cryptic, but it did not sound good when it said there was no word on his availability for training camp after the latest procedure on his knee.
Rumors are flying that Jurevicius might need the dreaded microfracture surgery.
If Jurevicius cannot play or is limited, the Browns lose their third wide receiver and have one legitimate receiver in Braylon Edwards. Donte Stallworth? He might prove to be good, but a guy who has been with four teams in four years and who was not starting late in the season with the New England Patriots isn't star material just because he signed a big contract.
Too, the national frenzy over the Browns seems misplaced. Or at least too much too soon. The team has five prime-time games despite missing the playoffs last season.
Often in the NFL, a team will improve, then take a step back before settling into its real self.
The Browns can win this season and probably will. But they're not as close to a title, in my mind, as the last pro team left standing in Cleveland......
.....it's 6 pages long, but really only the 2nd page concerned the Browns and JJ.
Now go ask your DR for ANOTHER antibiotic for your cold 
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