All posts by Ai

VICE Sports Ride Along with JR Smith

“Hold on. Sorry. This is Bron, excuse me one second. If I don’t answer, he’ll kill me.”

Remember earlier this year when people were questioning LeBron’s leadership abilities? That was fun.

  • Had no clue JR grew up with basically a full NBA roster of siblings. But I do have a pretty good idea which kid would have no problem reaching for that last piece of pizza
  • Guess he used up all his bricks as a kid working for his dad’s construction business
  • 30 for 30 on JR’s time in China? That, I’d watch.
  • “My first tattoo was a picture of me dunking. Well, it was a picture of Vince Carter dunking and I just changed the number and put my name on the back.”

  • He wasn’t kidding about them offering him a shitload of money to play in China. $3 million for 4 months. He only ended up pocketing $1.82 million though, after skipping close to 80 practices and leaving country on occasion without telling the team. Classic JR.
  • Add “drinking cups of plain hot water” to the legend of JR Smith
  • Can’t even be mad about him admitting he was pissed when the Knicks traded him to Cleveland. You can just hear how much he loves New York, and he talks about Melo like LeBron talks about Wade.
  • Appreciate the sentiment at the end about not having to score and only caring about winning, but I think we all prefer fading-away-in-the-corner-hushing-opposing-fans JR.

Oh and PLEASE GOD DO SPACE JAM 2 WITH LEBRON thnx

Cleveland.com Comments of the Week: 5/9/16

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During my daily peruse for content on Cleveland.com, I sift through some of the comments and save a handful to share with you all once a week. So when you’re hungover and clinging to life on a Sunday morning, come on over to Bottlegate and let us talk you off the ledge.

COTW Archives


Pennsylvania girl thrown out of prom for wearing suit

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California high school misidentifies Muslim student as ‘Isis’ in yearbook

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Six Northeast Ohio flower shops picked as official RNC florists

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A hungry Donald Trump wishes Twitter a happy Cinco de Mayo: #Retweet

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Cleveland seeks to buy laser sights, binoculars, duct tape and more for Republican National Convention

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Source: Jeff Teague won’t face further discipline for shoving LeBron James in Game 3

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Terry Francona explains demotion of Tyler Naquin and who will play center field for Indians

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If you see a comment that needs to be shared with the world, tweet those over to @Bottlegate or shoot us an email at bottlegatecle@gmail.com.

A minor league first baseman struck out Nick Swisher last night

From lehighvalleylive.com:

Lehigh Valley IronPigs manager Dave Brundage came to Brock Stassi in the dugout in the seventh inning of Thursday night’s game at Coca-Cola Park. The IronPigs were trailing Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 10-1, and after having to use the bullpen for 13 of the last 18 innings of baseball, Brundage was looking for help.

Brundage called on Stassi to toe the rubber in the ninth inning, with the RailRiders’ 4-5-6 batters due up.

Stassi punched out Slade Heathcott on six pitches to begin his outing. Then, Swisher walked to the plate.

The first pitch was a strike, low in the zone. The second and third were balls, one high and the other outside. Swisher fouled the fourth pitch, before the fifth came in low and inside for ball three.

Stassi had seen Swisher mash plenty of baseballs before. On a 3-2 count, he wasn’t serving up a fastball.

“That’s why I threw him a 3-2 curveball,” Stassi said, “cause if I threw him a fastball, I figured it was coming back at me.”

The looping breaking ball dropped into the bottom of strike zone at a slow-motion 69 mph. Swisher watched it go by. Umpire Ryan Additon called strike three.”


I was gonna start out the blog with “oh, how the mighty have fallen” but this is more of the mighty’s outstretched hand falling to the ground from one last grasp at hope after lying down helplessly since 2013.

Do yourself a favor and read the full article from Greg Joyce (@GJoyce9). He had me on the edge of my seat, feeling like I was watching this clash of the titans unfold with my own two eyeballs.

“Then, Swisher walked to the plate.

This was the former major league All-Star Nick Swisher, the World Series-champion Nick Swisher, the one who has hit 245 homers in 1,527 big-league games and is now trying to get back there while playing for the Yankees’ Triple-A club.

“Just don’t leave the ball up and get yourself hurt,” Stassi thought to himself.

Just beautiful storytelling.

That face you make when you just struck out looking against a first baseman that was drafted in the 33rd round and hasn’t gotten a big league at-bat in 5 professional seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies but you’re still making $15 million this season

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“I guess that’s a feather I can put in my cap,” Stassi said with a chuckle.

KEEP THE CHIEF, BROCK