Indians select Will Benson

The Cleveland Indians had three picks on the first day of the baseball draft and picked a very interesting player-IF they can sign him....

In round one,the Indians selected Georgia high school outfielder Will Benson.
The 6'6 outfielder is reported to have the tools that remind some of Jason Heyward (also a Georgia high schooler).
Baseball America offers a good news bad news scouting report that touts him as having "the best bat speed in the class",yet questions his hit tool.
The lefthanded swinger has a commitment to Duke and will take a sizable bonus to land,but would add a large outfield talent to a system with Clint Frazier and Bradley Zimmer.

The Indians drafted a first round talent that fell to them in round two on signability issues as Pennsylvania third baseman Nolan Jones was taken as a wedge against Benson going to Duke.
Jones is committed to Virginia and his commitment to UVA is regarded as even stronger than that of Benson's.
Jones is looked as a power hitting third baseman that has the arm and size (6'5) to stay there,although he could move to first base.
Jones will be a very tough sign as he is likely to command more than his slot figure at a little over one million.
Cleveland could be forced into a position of either Benson or Jones....

The final pick was in the competitive balance portion and the Indians took a safe pick and a likely easy sign in Oregon State catcher Logan Ice.
Ice is reported to be a strong defensive catcher,who improved his bat over the term in Corvallis.
Ice likely was chosen there in order to save a little bit of pool money in order to make some sort of run at signing both Will Benson and Nolan Jones.

I will return when I can with the Pirates and Giants picks,but I have to do research for tomorrow's interview for the podcast...

Staying Alive-Cavaliers rebound over Warriors

The Cleveland Cavaliers needed to hold serve,if they were to have any chance of winning the NBA championship and they did just that as they rolled over the Golden State Warriors in game three 120-90 in Cleveland.
LeBron James scored 32 points with Kyrie Irving adding 30 with J.R.Smith tossing in 20 more.
Golden State leads the series two games to one with game four Friday night in Cleveland.

Swashbucklings

1) Cleveland had to have this game and they played like the team that needed it rather than wanted it.
The Cavaliers took the game to the Warriors and outhustled them.
Cleveland needs to play like this,they don't shoot as well as the Warriors and can't afford to come out flat...

2) The scene was set early when the Cavaliers scored the first nine points of the game and outscored the Warriors by 17 for the quartet.
Did Golden State make a run? Sure and trimmed the lead to eight at the half,but I never felt like the Warriors were ever really in this game.

3) Tristan Thompson was very valuable in the win with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
One cannot expect Thompson to post similar numbers every game,but in this one,he was explosive on the inside and he did one thing that he doesn't always do.
Often,Thompson will grab an offensive board and kick the ball out,in this one,Thompson was much more offensively aggressive and put the ball right back up...

4) Big elephant in the arena-How does Kevin Love fit back in,if he can return for game four?
Considering the way Richard Jefferson has played in this series,could Love benefit by coming off the bench and being the top option among the second unit?
I'm not positive that would work out,but it might and if so,the Cavaliers might see a huge payoff...

5) Nice to see some production from J.R.Smith,who had struggled in the Oakland games,but drilled five three pointers in this win.
Smith is usually only helpful on the offensive end,so when the shots aren't falling,Smith can be a drag on the team..

6) Klay Thompson said he thought the collision with Timofey Mozgov that sent him from the game was a dirty play.
I didn't see it that way.I certainly thought Mozgov committed a foul,but it looked like a pick to me-not a dirty play.

7) Stephen Curry had a big third quarter,but was otherwise quiet in scoring 19 points.
Combine that with Klay Thompson's ten in smaller minutes and Cleveland continues to control the Splash Brothers.
Curry finished the first half with just two points...

8) So,can Cleveland win game four and tie the series up to swing the pressure back to the Warriors?
Yes,Home court has meant and will continue to mean so much,but they are going to have to come up with another superlative effort.
It'll be interesting to see how Kevin Love is brought back into the offense and can the defense keep up its strong play?
See you Friday...

Podcast:Special Guest Louise Palanker

We welcome Louise Palanker to the podcast.
Louise was the director of Family Band-the story of the 1960's band the Cowsills.
Louise also discusses her work with young people and her on-line column for teenagers..

Hitting the Road-Erie

The weekend's final day and stadium saw Doug Hopkins and I travel to Erie Pa.for the AA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers-the Erie Seawolves as they hosted the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Doug and I got to Erie a bit earlier than expected and as a result had to find a place to eat and kill a little bit of time.
Erie wasn't quite what I expected and we had a rough time finding a place open to eat,but were excited to find the Plymouth Tavern nearby (within a few blocks walk of the park).
The Plymouth Tavern was rated as one of two places that we considered to eat before leaving Erie,so we were quite pleased to have the chance to eat at both places.
We walked through the Erie downtown and passed all of these closed places (Sunday) before hitting the Plymouth,which opened at 11:00 (11:30) only to be told that they weren't opening because "they needed to clean",
One would think that could have been finished before opening,but hey,it's not my business!

Finally,with few choices,we returned to Dominick's,which was a less than inviting place when we rode by earlier and was a reluctant choice this time.
A 24 hour place that brought to mind an old time small neighborhood watering hole,I was pleasantly surprised with the meal (Reuben on wheat and small fries) and the service was good too.
Dominick's had recently been closed (I found out why later) for smoke damage as the building next door had burned down and been bulldozed,which answered the questions we had when walking by,

Parking around Jerry Uht (pronounced Girry Uhhtt by the locals) park was less than plentiful and we pulled in across the street and showed the minor league pass to the fellow running the lot.
The pass has always been accepted by parking lots,so Doug didn't anticipate any issues and when he said "we're from minor league baseball" the attendant said "that's great,but the parking is still four dollars".
He was quite impressed....

Entered Jerry Uht and was quite impressed with the quirky twenty year old park.
The park resembles the stadiums of the early 20th century as it clearly was shoved into the city lot and not a more symmetrical field.
A homer to left smacks off the Erie arena where a arena league,junior hockey and minor league basketball team plays and right field has a huge net to knock down homers from hitting the street.
Upon entering the stadium,a very helpful Usher named Bob,welcomed me to the park,asked what I was there for and sat me right beside the dugout for autographs.
Later,Bob came back with a program and roster for me and thanked me for coming to Jerry Uht.
Contrast that with the Hagerstown Suns,who could care if I was there or not and it was clear that Seawolves fans are well taken care of by their employees...

The teams enter the field from a center field gate and can be difficult to graph as they come in on an angle.
Even in the prime position that I was in,I still didn't do that great,although I did get Christian Arroyo on his top 100 for my set.
Jerry Utt also has these incredible half upper deck seats on the first base side that are really a throwback to places like Tiger Stadium as they hang almost into the field of play-just terrific.

It's not perfect though,it reminds me of a nice New York/Penn league park,which it was originally built for and the remainder of the other seating was nothing special.
It didn't have a lot of food booths and the team shop was very small,although I did score a very neat Eastern League media guide that is small and compact enough to travel with me to games in the briefcase for the rest of the season.

We knew where we were going to eat,but we did take a while to find it,but once finding Sara's,it was well worth it!
Doug and I each ordered a delicious Chicago Beef sandwich and I skipped fries because the desserts looked so good.
Instead,I was so filled after the sandwich that I reluctantly did not order any dessert.
The place was packed and yet the service was blazing fast.
With Sara's,a water park a little up the road and Lake Erie right across a stone road, This might be a future stop for a weekend sometime!

Doug and I still had a five hour ride ahead of us and it went reasonably quickly.
I really had a great time on this road trip and thanks to Doug Hopkins for having me.
I have had two great trips this season and hopefully another one is on tap shortly!

Destroyed-Cavaliers lose game two

Face it-sports has a way of humbling you.
It sure humbled me as I thought the Cleveland Cavaliers were sitting on a win in game two of the NBA Finals and instead came up with one of the most pathetic performances that you could find as the Golden State Warriors crushed the Cavaliers 110-77 to take a two games to none lead.
LeBron James led Cleveland with 19 points with Richard Jefferson adding 12 off the bench to "Lead" Cleveland.
Game three is in Cleveland Wednesday night and the season might be on the line as no team maybe in the history of the game is beating the Golden State Warriors four games in a row....

Swashbucklings

1) I am so mad right now.
Not because the Cavaliers lost and not because I was wrong,but because the effort was so bad..
I hate to use the word quit very often in sports because it's an easy word to use and a hard word to prove.
However,that's how I see it.
Roll over,Beethoven and....Never mind...

2) In no way,shape or form am I blaming the referees for this loss.
However,the Warriors were getting away with a lot of physical play that just wasn't getting called.
I would guess that changes in Cleveland.

3) Five of twenty three from three point range?
That isn't going to win in November against Brooklyn,let alone Golden State in June.

4) Kevin Love elbowed in the back of the head like Dusty Rhodes used to hit Ric Flair with and no call?
Love might not be available for game three,but he wasn't playing that well before the injury with a two for seven for the floor for 5 points.

5) Kyrie Irving finished with just ten points,clanking jumpers and recklessly pumping up shots.
I stand by with nights like this-Irving is a shooting guard playing point guard.

6) Richard Jefferson played well off the bench and showed some energy to deserve more PT in game three,but where was Channing Frye?
Frye played just four minutes.

7) Sam Amico in the Amico Report is starting to question this version of the big three remaining together at this rate.
Would you trade 10 years of Kyrie Irving for 4 of Chris Paul,if it meant a title?
Think about it...

Podcast;Ramon Malpica and I on Muhammad Ali

Ramon Malpica of PrizeFighter podcast joins me for a collaborative effort to discuss the career of Muhammad Ali....

Fight of the year-Boxing Challenge

The boxing challenge continued with the clubhouse leader for fight of the year and the dreck that you would expect from PBC.
I added five points to R.L.Malpica's four and extended my lead to 67-56.

Let's start with the good as Francisco Vargas defended his WBC Jr.Lightweight title against Orlando Salido with a majority decision draw.
The action was strong and consistent and is certainly the leader for fight of the year.
Anything will have to go a long way to beat this as despite no knockdowns being scored,the action was quite dramatic as both fighters ere stung several times.
I had Salido a narrow 115-113 winner,but had no quibble with the two scores of draws at 114 or even the Vargas card of 115-113.
I'd love to see these two hook it up again as neither are ever in dull fights.
Check it out,if you have HBO and for their tremendous ten minute tribute to Muhammad Ali....
Since the fight was a draw,neither Ramon nor I added points.

Earlier in the day,Liam Smith retained his WBO Jr.Middleweight crown with a second round blowout of Pedrag Radosevic in the UK.
Smith,who is rumored to be the next opponent of Canelo Alvarez,didn't seem to prove anything other than being able to pick up a paycheck for mopping up an overmatched opponent.
Smith's knockout gave me two points and Ramon for one for picking Smith...

The PBC gave us two "main events" over the weekend that were that in name only.
Saturday night was ESPN show the Montreal wrecking ball Artur Beterbiev steamroller Ezequiel Maderna over four rounds in Beterbiev's return to the ring after injury.
Beterbiev was returning from shoulder surgery,so an easy touch could be acceptable this time,but the time is here for PBC to put him in the ring with their 175 pound stars Adonis Stevenson or Andrezj Fonfara.
Both Ramon and I added two points for this win....

Friday saw about was expected as Rances Barthelemy retained his IBF 135 pound belt with a snoozer of a split decision Mickey Bey in Las Vegas.
The less said about this dullsville bout the better as Ramon and I each earned one point for the Barthelemy win....