Cleaning out the Inbox

      The inbox may ebb and flow, but it never stops, so it's time to clean and move some things out adequately!

Ryan sends this from the 13th Dimension on the greatness of Frank Gorshin's portrayal of the Riddler on the original Batman series.

Dan Greenfield's thoughts on the Gorshin Riddler are all similar to mine, and I've thought for years that if you were creating a Batman series or film and you could magically pluck anyone from any time that played a role in any Batman related vehicle, Frank Gorshin as the Riddler is the one slam dunk to retain that role above any challengers that was originally from the 1966 TV series.

Gorshin's Riddler is that good.

The Premier League is changing its game ball manufacturer.

Puma will provide the official league ball for the 2025-26 season.

Nike had been the provider of the official ball for twenty-five seasons and, along with Adidas, had been the top two companies involved with worldwide soccer, but Germany-based Puma has begun to make strides in an attempt to catch up.

Puma has been supplying the game balls for Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spain), but the English Premier League brings even more prestige and visibility as the most widely watched league in the world.

ABC News wonders about the ethics of bringing back extinct animals.

Recently, scientists announced the revival of the Dire Wolf, and the article questions (without judgment either way) if it is ethical to bring back animals that became extinct.

It's interesting to consider, although I'm more concerned with returning a dangerous predator that may not have a natural enemy to the modern environment!

The Athletic writes of one of the better shots that you will see by someone off the floor.

In 2013, photojournalist Gary Knox tweeted to keep an eye on sixth-grader Paige Bueckers, rating her as the best player of her age he had ever watched.

Twelve years later, the Dallas Wings selected Bueckers as the top overall pick in the WNBA draft.

Good call. 

KC Yesterday writes of the story behind the June 1979 roof collapse of Kansas City's Kemper Arena, which hosted the NBA's Kansas City Kings at the time of the incident.

The article discusses the engineering issues that led to the collapse and how equipment that could have been replaced might have avoided the problem.

Kemper would reopen within a year, and the Kings would play their games at their previous home, Municipal Auditorium, until the roof was fixed.

Kemper Arena is still around after being converted to a youth sports facility. It is now known as Hy-Vee Arena, and a local grocery chain owns the naming rights.

Cleveland Browns Draft Review

    The Cleveland Browns needed a great draft, and I'm not sure they got it, even though some picks will help the team.

Overall, I have to say I liked the trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but it's also disappointing to miss Travis Hunter as a standout with the Cleveland Browns.

I think Mason Graham was a top ten player, and I have no issues with his selection, although I'd love to hear how Andrew Berry has changed his philosophy on defensive tackles in just a few years, as in the past (pre-2023), Berry had given very little importance to the position.

Graham was the best defensive tackle in the draft, and while I don't think he will be an Aaron Donald type that dominates games, since he isn't an elite pass rusher up the middle, he will provide some pass rush and shut down the run.

As of now, the trade stands as the Jaguars with Travis Hunter and Bhayshaul Tuten (4th round pick acquired from the Browns, a running back from Virginia Tech) for Mason Graham, Quinshon Judkins, Dylan Sampson, and whomever the Browns select in next year's draft with the first rounder from Jacksonville.

I'm cautiously optimistic, but it's Andrew Berry making the selections, so I'm not guaranteeing success.

The Browns' selection of UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger to start the second round is polarizing.

In a weak linebacker group, the Browns are looking at the loss of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, and with a desperate need for an athletic linebacker who has similarities to JOK, I can see the need for the position.

And if the Browns had Schwesinger as the last linebacker who could make an impact, the pick makes sense.

However, there were superior players available, and Schwesinger only started for one season with the Bruins, although his season was incredibly productive, so there are reasons to wonder about the value of Schwesinger at this pick.

I did like the Browns' second-round choice that they acquired from Jacksonville, Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins.

I would have been happy with either Buckeye running back (Judkins or TreVeyon Henderson), and each has their strong points.

Henderson is the faster and more explosive of the two, Judkins the more powerful and might have the edge as far as an every-down back.

This is another hit, I think, and by the season's end, Judkins will be the Browns' top running back.

The first of their two third-rounders might not make an immediate impact, but could be the long-term tight end in Bowling Green's Harold Fannin.

Fannin never played tight end until reaching Bowling Green, and with his physical skills, could be a strong replacement when David Njoku moves on.

Fannin wasn't only a Group of Five destroyer, as he had big games in Bowling Green's close road losses to Texas A&M and Penn State.

It may not be this year, but I think Fannin will eventually become a starter.

The most controversial selection came near the end of round three with Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

Some like Gabriel's arm more than I do; he's older than most rookies (turns 25 before the end of the year), and at 5'11 is undersized.

Reportedly, Gabriel won over the Browns in the interview process (The Ivies have been fooled by this before), and his excellent college record gives him the tag of "winner".

I think Gabriel's ceiling is a long-term backup, and I don't see him as a regular starter in the league.

I'm open to being wrong, but I don't believe so.

In round four, the Browns grabbed another running back, Tennessee's Dylan Sampson. Sampson is a speedy back who can break the big run at any time.

Sampson will hopefully team with Quinshon Judkins to give the Browns two different types of backs and allow the team to impose the running game as the focal point of the offense.

Sampson will supplant Jerome Ford, either this year or definitely in 2026, as the team's speed back who will hopefully emerge as a gamebreaker.

Then the controversy began as the Browns traded with Seattle to move up in the fifth round (they gave their sixth rounder to flip fifth rounders) to grab Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

I liked Sanders entering the draft, but not as an early first-round pick, and I wasn't in favor of a first-round quarterback at all, considering the state of the franchise.

Sanders takes a lot of sacks, and he throws better long than short, but I think he has a chance of being an NFL starter.

I'm not saying Sanders will be a franchise quarterback, but he was worth the low cost of a sixth-round pick to find out.

Overall, this is a draft that I'm pleased with, but a few questions remain.

Did the Browns reach for Carson Schewesinger because the linebackers are a weaker class and, with the likely loss of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, caused them to panic?

Did the Browns once again reach for a smallish quarterback because the Ivy Leagues loved his rap in the interview?

And if they did, how long will Dillon Gabriel receive, and how will their Gabriel obsession affect the chances of Shedeur Sanders?

Will Mason Graham be a destructive force or merely a very good player who excels against the run?

The answers to these questions will come on the field, but for now, my grade is a B+

Until then, it's a year filled with watching and rooting against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Magnificent Mitchell not enough in Game Two

     Donovan Mitchell's forty-eight points weren't enough to hold off the late run of the Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton's three-pointer with two seconds to play gave Indiana a shocking 120-119 win in game two of the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

The crippled Cavaliers played without Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and DeAndre Hunter, which handicapped them but they don't grade basketball games on a curve, and the Pacers return home to Indianapolis for games three and four with a two games to none lead.

Max Strus finished with twenty-three points and Jarrett Allen with twenty-two, supporting Cleveland.

Swashbucklings

1) Donovan Mitchell is a warrior.

He left everything he had on the floor, and I'm unsure of his game two status, considering the pounding he took during this game.

2) Mitchell wasn't perfect; he's still struggling from three, hitting only one of seven attempts.

It's hard to criticize Mitchell, considering the game he played, but his game becomes much more effective when more of those shots from the distances drop.

3) I wasn't sure whether to tip my cap or be angry at Tyrese Haliburton for his "marbles" strut after drilling the game-winner a la Tanaka in Major League 2.

4) Ty Jerome played twenty-eight minutes, shooting one for fourteen from the floor.

Jerome had a fine season, but he's not the type of player who flourishes with more than fifteen to eighteen minutes.

Currently, he's forced to log higher minutes, and his deficiencies are showing.

5) Speaking of forced, Cleveland was also forced to give too many minutes to players who are afraid/ineffective in shooting the ball.

Dean Wade did grab ten rebounds in his thirty minutes, but scored three points on three shots.

Isaac Okoro scored five points and took two shots.

Indiana knows these guys don't want to shoot and aren't worried about them.

6) If you circle one play, it's Tyrese Haliburton's missed free throw.

Haliburton misses, charges the boards, grabs his own rebound, and takes it back to prepare for his game-winner.

Grab that rebound, Cleveland wins.

7) Cleveland did receive 23 points from Max Strus, who had a good game until his lousy pass caused a late turnover, and was given 14 points from Sam Merrill, who hit four three-pointers.

8) What concerns me is how Indiana is beating up the Cavaliers.

I'm not blaming the referees, I'm blaming the team for not standing up to the Pacers, and it's too late to bring someone in.

Jarrett Allen might be too nice, and outside of the washed-up Tristan Thompson, there is no one on the bench to push someone around.

Koby Altman has created a fun team to watch and one that is filled with players who are fun to root for, but that may not be a championship team without someone to bang around and take no quarter from opponents.

I'm not sure how Cleveland adds a player of that type, but they need one in the worst way.

9) Cleveland trails two games to none, so they must split in Indiana to avoid a sweep and have hope for a series win.

Which of Garland, Mobley, and Hunter can play in game three?

They need at least two of the three, I think.

Win game three and hope is back, lose it and it will be a long off-season in Cleveland.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Passings

     Time for another recurring post of tributes to people who have recently left our Earth.

Goodbye to Mike Patrick at the age of 80. 

Patrick is best known for his work on college football, the NFL, and college basketball for ESPN, but to me, Patrick will always be the voice of ACC basketball in the eighties on the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot network.

Patrick called the famous "Len Bias" game when Maryland upset North Carolina in overtime to hand the Tar Heels their first-ever defeat in the "Dean Dome", among many outstanding ACC clashes.

Patrick was also the sports anchor at WJLA in Washington as one of arguably the three best sports anchors in one market with WUSA's Glenn Brenner and WRC's George Michael.

Before moving to Washington, Patrick worked in Jacksonville with one of his jobs as the play-by-play voice of the WFL's Jacksonville Sharks.

Goodbye to Tommy Helms at the age of 83.

The 1966 National League Rookie of the Year, Helms was named to two All-Star teams (1967 and 1968) and won two Gold Gloves at second base in 1970 and 71 for the Cincinnati Reds.

Helms's best seasons were with the Reds, but he (along with Lee May) was the key players who were traded to the Houston Astros in 1972 in the famous trade that saw Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, and Jack Billingham join the Reds.

Helms had four solid seasons with Houston before finishing his career with Pittsburgh and Boston in 1977.

Goodbye to Joey Archer at the age of 87.

The slick-boxing middleweight contender in the 1960s, Archer, overcame his lack of power (only eight knockouts in his 45 wins) to defeat fighters such as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, middleweight and light heavyweight champion Dick Tiger, and defeated the great Sugar Ray Robinson in what would be the final fight of Robinson's career.

The Robinson win would be the last of Archer's career; he would lose a split decision to contender Don Fullmer and two close decisions to middleweight champion Emile Griffith before announcing his retirement.

Archer was named to the Boxing Hall of Fame despite never winning a championship in 2005.

Goodbye to Lupe Sanchez at the age of 63.

Sanchez was a standout defensive back for UCLA before signing with the USFL's Arizona Wranglers in 1984 and moving to the Orlando Renegades in 1985.

Sanchez would play for the Pittsburgh Steelers for three seasons as a defensive back and special-teams standout, intercepting four passes as a Steeler.

Goodbye to Stan Love at the age of 76.

The father of Kevin Love, Stan Love was the first round pick (ninth overall) of the then-Baltimore Bullets and signed with the Bullets over the ABA's Dallas Chapparals.

Love would play four years of pro basketball with the Bullets, Lakers, and the then-ABA's San Antonio Spurs, averaging six points per game for his career.

Love, the brother of the Beach Boys' Mike Love, would serve as a bodyguard and caretaker for another member of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, after his basketball career.

 

Boxing Challenge: Inoue saves the weekend

   In the original Star Wars film, Princess Leia appeared as a damaged hologram in an attempt to contact Obi-Wan Kenobi, repeatedly commenting, "Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are our only hope."

That scene came to mind after the two dreary events previously over the weekend with a paraphrase "Naoya Inoue you are our only hope".

Naoya Inoue came through, but the mild surprise came from Ramon Cardenas, who didn't read the script and floored Inoue in the second round.

Inoue wasn't seriously hurt from the left hand that knocked him down, but he began to turn the tide in the fourth, and after round four, Inoue controlled the action despite Cardenas having his share of success in exchanges.

In the seventh, the Monster stung Cardenas, and it became clear the end was near, which Inoue's inner radar realized, jumping on Cardenas to start the eighth round, driving him into the ropes with authority with a series of punches that forced referee Harvey Dock to stop the fight.

I had Inoue slightly ahead at the time of the stoppage 67-66.

For Inoue, he'll be facing the top challenger in the division, former WBA and IBF champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev this September in what should be an interesting fight.

Inoue has now been dropped twice in his last three fights (Cardenas and Luis Nery) by similar punches, a counter left, and Akhmadaliev is a skilled counterpuncher, so it will be interesting to see if Inoue works on fixing a flaw before that match.

As for Cardenas, he has made a name for himself after an energetic and valiant attempt to dethrone Inoue and he's earned the chance for high-visibility fights in the future.

In the co-feature, Rafael Espinoza retained his WBO featherweight title over Edward Vazquez in a strong outing for the champion.

Vazquez tried hard but his light punching power wasn't enough to stun Espinoza and with the physical advantages held by the 6'1 champion, Vazquez couldn't use his usual game to outbox him from a distance.

Vazquez was dead game and tried to win but this was a bad style match for him, and the fight ended similarly as the main event with Espinoza pouring it onto a battering challenger along the ropes in round seven.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 68 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 65 Pts (3)

Vince Samano:30 Pts  (2)

Cavaliers surprised by Pacers in Game One

     The Indiana Pacers started fast and finished strong. 

And for the first time, the Cleveland Cavaliers missed the injured Darius Garland as the Pacers upset the Cavaliers in game one of the Eastern Conference semi-finals 121-112 in Cleveland.

Donovan Mitchell led the Cavaliers with thirty-three points, and Evan Mobley scored twenty points with ten rebounds.

Game two will be in Cleveland on Tuesday as Cleveland will attempt to tie the series at one game apiece.

Swashbucklings

1) Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points, but he shot the ball thirty times (13 of 30) and hit only one of his eleven shots from three-point land.

2) I know Mitchell is the focus of the offense with Darius Garland injured, but Cleveland works best when Mitchell takes fewer shots, not more.

It's not Mitchell's fault that the shots from Garland need to be replaced somewhere, but it showed that Mitchell cannot be the be-all and end-all for the Cavaliers to be effective.

3) Indiana likes to force a faster pace, and it seemed the Cavaliers wore down as the evening progressed.

It's fair to wonder if the pace will be a factor if the series goes six or seven games.

4) Indiana shot 53 percent from the floor and 52 percent from three-point distance while Cleveland shot 45 percent overall and a pitiful 23 percent from three.

5) A scary point came when DeAndre Hunter took a huge bump on the floor and appeared fortunate to avoid injury.

Hunter continued to play, but for a minute, it looked very ugly.

6) It's one loss, and even though the loss of home-court advantage (for now) is concerning, the bigger concern is Darius Garland.

When will Garland return, and how effective will he be when that happens?

For all that Ty Jerome has delivered this season, he isn't quick defensively (making Tyrese Haliburton even more effective for Indiana), and Indiana took advantage of Jerome's defense.

7) Cleveland didn't look sharp off a week's layoff, but Indiana wasn't active either, and it didn't affect them.

Game two at home is now a must-have.

Boxing Challenge: Wake me when it's over

     Riyadh Season Promotions have made some things happen in boxing that wouldn't have happened without them, which is good.

However, their back-to-back cards this weekend, Times Square and Riyadh, were an absolute disaster with boring fights, the defeat of Ryan Garcia, and it was the first setback for the promotion.

Throwing money at stars isn't always the answer; hopefully, they will learn their lesson.

In the main event, Canelo Alvarez regained the IBF super middleweight title that he never lost with a unanimous decision over the stuck-in-reverse William Scull.

Once again, Alvarez holds all four titles in the division. After the win, a fall fight with Terence Crawford was announced in the ring, and that was the only good thing from the main event.

Scull ran (I tweeted this during the fight), Canelo plodded after him, few punches landed, none of those significant, and it was dreadful to watch.

As bad as this was, and it was bad, I'm not going to rip Scull as many are currently.

This was his best chance to win- stink the joint out and hope the judges value his "work".

Scull won a few rounds on my card (117-111 for Canelo), and you might say that if he were more active and took more chances, he might have won ( official cards 119-109, 116-112, and 115-113) against the cement shoes of Canelo.

I'd disagree, as taking those chances would have placed him in front and gotten him knocked out.

It made an awful match, and you can blame Scull for the tedium, but he took his only chance to win, as slim as that was.

The best fight of the weekend wasn't Holyfield-Qawi I, but it was a solid cruiserweight fight as Badou Jack retained his WBC cruiserweight title with a majority decision over Noel Mikeaelin.

Both fighters did their share of good work, and it was entertaining in its own way.

Jack earned the decision by scores of 115-113 times two and 114-114.

I had Mikaelin winning 115-113, but this was a very close fight, and I'd like to see a rematch.

Jaime Munguia won his rematch with Bruno Surace by unanimous decision and regained some of his stature in the super middleweight division that he lost when Surace knocked him out with one punch in December.

However, it was a more reticent Munguia that boxed more and didn't get hit as much, although less entertaining, You could see the changes in Munguia from his change in trainers to Eddy Reynoso.

Munguia mentioned the names Caleb Plant and Edgar Berlanga after the fight; either would be welcomed as potential foes.

Munguia won by scores of 117-111 times two and 116-112, with my score agreeing with the latter.

Efe Ajagba and Martin Bakole batted to a majority draw in their heavyweight opener.

Ajagba controlled the fight from a distance for most of the early fight, Bakole rallied late, hurting Ajagba in the seventh, and I think if the fight was a twelve-rounder, Bakole would have gotten the nod.

Official scores of 96-94 for Ajagba and two of 95-95, I scored Ajagba a 96-94 winner.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 65 Pts (2)

Ramon Malpica: 62 Pts (4)

Vince Samano: 28 Pts (3)