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Your 2016 Cleveland Sports Themed ESPY Awards

July 13, 2016 Mike Leave a comment

The ESPYS. ESPN’s fake awards show dedicated to sports during the most boring sports week of all year. I’ll be watching. You’ll be watching. We’ll all be begrudgingly watching. There’s not really any hot topics like last year’s show (Caitlyn Jenner) but hopefully something cool happens. I can just picture Steph and Klay being handed some arbitrary award and BAH GOD here comes LeBron in a suit leaping from the crowd and giving Steph one of his patented chasedown blocks as the presenter hands Steph an award. The trophy shatters into a thousand pieces. Klay Thompson leaves the stage without shaking anybody’s hand and then Bron gives everyone this look:

But anyways.

We wanted to add a little flavor and came up with our own Cleveland themed ESPYs

The… CLESPYs? (sorry)

Best Athlete (Besides LeBron)

Mike: Kyrie Irving

Kyrie droped 41 on the road in an elimination game and then in game 7 he hit the franchise’s/city’s/state’s biggest shot ever. He did things during this playoff run that almost made me break my DVR because I rewound my TV so much. He missed a good chunk of the season but is still my pick for best athlete (besides LeBron)

Austin: Francisco Lindor

Kyrie is the easy pick, and he’s certainly deserving. My take is, basically you have a very good point guard who missed 35% of his team’s regular season versus a guy who has been one of the best shortstops in all of baseball from the second he was called up to the big leagues a year ago. Definitely understand taking the guy who hit the biggest shot in Cleveland sports history, but I think there’s a solid argument for Lindor there.

~~Best Championship Performance~~ The LeBron James Award

Mike: LeBron obviously

Austin: LeBron

Best Breakthrough Athlete

Mike: Stipe Miocic

From being relatively unknown by the general public to winning the UFC Heavyweight championship in Brazil and being the first car in Cleveland’s championship parade. I’d say it was a pretty good year for Stipe.

Austin: Gary Barnidge

Gary Barnidge was a tight end who had 44 receptions and 38 total tackles in his NFL career heading into 2015. 79 catches, 1,043 yards and a Pro Bowl selection later, he’s one of the lone bright spots on the Browns and my Best Breakthrough Athlete.

Best Record Setting Performance

Austin: Indians 14 game winning streak

You play. To win. The game.

They won more consecutive games than any team in the history of the franchise.

No further questions, Your Honor.

Mike: When the Cavs buried and NBA record 25 three pointers vs the Atlanta Hawks.

They broke the record for 3s in a playoff game, 3s in a half (playoffs & regular season), and 3s in a game (playoffs or regular season) This also caused the grown men on the Hawks to cry because the Cavs made too many shots.

Best Upset

Austin: Cavs over the Warriors

Is doing something that only 32 teams in the history of professional basketball have tried to do, and something that exactly 0 teams in the history of professional basketball have succeeded in doing, good?

Mike: Cavs over Warriors

This is the obvious pick. I tried my hardest to think of something else but couldn’t. Stipe Miocic knocking out Fabricio Werdum in Brazil to win the heavyweight title is a worthy runner up so here’s a video of that:

https://twitter.com/BUCK15/status/731704423852965888

Best Game (Besides game 7 of the NBA Finals)

Austin: Game 4 of the Calder Cup Finals

The drought-ender after the initial drought-ender that led to the ultimate drought-ender. We’re from Cleveland, people. Beggars can’t be choosers. A ‘ship is a ‘ship is a ‘ship. And this one was won on a last-second game-winner in overtime.

Mike: Browns Monday Night Football vs the Ravens

Nationally televised game. The Browns are lining up for a last second field goal to win the game. The snap is down, the kick is up-

HOLY SHIT. This was just an unreal way to lose a football game. It also gave us this:

And brought back memories of one of my favorite blog posts of the past year

Best Play (other than The Shot)

Mike: Kevin Love’s defense on Steph Curry

I’m a Kevin Love apologist. With all the shit he went through during the Finals and all the criticism he faced, he stepped up in the biggest moment. 1 on 1 vs the back to back unanimous MVP with a city’s championship dreams on the line. A lot of people will probably forget about this routine defensive assignment in the long run, but this play will stick with me forever.

Austin: The Block

When your city wins its first major sports championship in 52 years, that team is a good bet to dominate a list of awards like this just like they dominated the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals ahthankyou. Although I’m not sure it would have mattered if this play was Game 7 of the finals or a January scrimmage against the Nets.

But we tend to (never) go above and beyond here at Bottlegate. So for fun, here’s my non-Cavs pick: Francisco Lindor dive and flip to Jose Ramirez

Best Moment

Austin: LeBron after the final buzzer of Game 7

That was about as close as it gets to seeing the actual weight of the Planet Earth lifted off of someone’s shoulders. It was pretty cool to watch when I got home from reacting the exact same way with thousands and thousands of friends in the streets of Downtown Cleveland.

Mike: Just one?

How about 100?

Most Underrated

Austin: Carlos Santana

Don’t look now, but seemingly one of the most popular scapegoats of Indians fans over the past couple years is putting together a monster year. Santana’s 20 first-half home runs are already more than his club-leading 19 from 2015 (the first Indians player to hit 20 before the All-Star break in 7 years). He’s also second on the team in RBI (49), OPS (.848) and third in runs (52). The RBI are even more impressive seeing as most of his at-bats have come from the lead-off spot. And oh yeah, his batting average is 18 points, OBP is 8 points, slugging percentage is 31 points, wOBA is 13 points and wRC+ is 10 points higher in the second half during his career.

(stats from this Zack Meisel article)

Mike: Joe Thomas

He’s not underrated at all but I felt there was too much Cavs and Indians love in this blog post so I needed to recognize the best player on our dear football team.

Tell us what you agree or disagree with

Indians

Francisco Lindor Stood Up to Cancer for Adriana Aviles last night

July 13, 2016 Ai Leave a comment

Mike Aviles might be playing his ball in Detroit nowadays, but the impact him & his family had on Indians players, coaches and fans during his time here clearly isn’t going away any time soon.

14 months after she was diagnosed with children’s leukemia, 11 months after she threw out the first pitch at Progressive Field with her twin sister Maiya and 5 months after her dad gave everyone the great news that she is cancer free, Adriana Aviles made a fitting return to the baseball diamond last night – at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, when Francisco Lindor Stood Up to Cancer for her after the fifth inning.

It was an awesome moment, not just for Lindor and Aviles but for everyone involved in the game. Players, coaches, fans, announcers, concession workers, law enforcement, everyone has been affected by cancer. And for that minute or so, everybody in the ballpark is connected and united against a truly awful disease. It’s a really cool moment every time they do it.

The full video from last night can be found here, and info on Stand Up to Cancer and other programs Major League Baseball is involved in is available here.

Cleveland, Indians

Take a trip back to 1951, the last time the Indians won 13 games in a row

July 1, 2016 Ai Leave a comment

(Bob Lemon, Mike Garcia, Early Wynn)

The year was 1951. It was the second of August, and the Indians were sitting pretty with a record of 59-39-1. They had just split a doubleheader against the Washington Senators the day before, and had one game left in D.C. before shipping up to Philadelphia for four games against the Athletics. Steve Gromek took the mound that day for the Tribe, one of just eight starts he would make on the season. He went a full 9 innings, surrendering just one earned run on four hits to the Senators. Larry Doby hit a two run shot in the 3rd, and the Indians would go on to win the game 5-2.

They wouldn’t lose again for two weeks.

The Athletics went down easy enough. Cleveland took all four games in Philadelphia, the first two being two-run games, the final two (a doubleheader) by a three run margin. Early Wynn, who threw 7 innings just two days before and who would end the season tied for the team lead in games started, got the save in game 1, throwing a perfect inning and 1/3. Bob Lemon went the distance and Al Rosen left the yard in game 3, and that same Mr. Wynn who saved game 1 tossed a complete game in the series finale. Five in a row.

The Tribe then returned home for a couple against St. Louis. The Browns were easily dispatched thanks to a couple more complete games from Indians starters, one from Mike Garcia (he also hit a 3 run dinger in the game) and the other from the great Bob Feller. Seven in a row.

The homestand continued with three against the Chicago White Sox. The first two games were decided by a total of three runs, 6-4 and 2-1 victories for the good guys. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Bob Lemon went the distance in game 1, striking out 4. Rosen was 2-4 with a two run bomb. That bad man Early Wynn toed the rubber in game 2, and yep, his second consecutive complete game followed. That’s a stretch of 7 IP-1.1 IP save-CG-CG over 9 days for him. Wynn was also 2-3 with a solo homer, and Rosen drove in the other run for the Tribe. Game three was a 7-1 slaughter. Another complete game from Garcia and homers from Bobby Avila (2-run), Doby (solo) and Ray Boone (2-run) led the way. Ten in a row.

Two games against the Detroit Tigers would cap off the homestand before the Tribe headed out west to St. Louis. You could sense the boys were maybe running out of steam a bit, as both games were hard fought 1 run victories. Feller spun the Indians seventh consecutive complete game in game 1, and another homer from Rosen would prove to be the difference. Lemon gave up 5 in 5 innings in game 2, but three hits from Jim Hegan and a couple of RBI from Boone gave him a no-decision and gave the Indians yet another W. Twelve in a row.

There was a riot at the (away team’s) bat rack the next day in St. Louis. Rosen clobbered a grand slam, Doby was 3-3 with a triple and an RBI and Wynn got the…..win, 9-4 the final. Thirteen in a row.

And as we all know, this is where the ride ended. The Tribe’s 13 game winning streak was snapped the next day by the St. Louis Browns. Southpaw Tommy Byrne held the Indians to just 2 hits over 7 innings of work, and Duane Pillette allowed a single hit while going the final 2 for the Browns.

The Indians record was 60-39-1 at the start of the streak. Two weeks later, it was 72-39-1. They would finish the season at 93-61-1, good for second in the American League behind the eventual World Series champion New York Yankees.

(game summaries from Baseball Almanac box scores)

Other happenings in 1951 (Link):

The 22nd Amendment of the United States Constitution (limits a President to two terms) was ratified.
The first NBA All-Star Game was played in Boston.
Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland premiered in London.
J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was published.
The first Volkswagen Beetle was manufactured.
Bobby Thompson hit a walk-off home run to win the NL pennant, known as “The Shot Heard Round the World”

CBS “Eye” logo first appears on television
Rush Limbaugh, Phil Collins, Kurt Russell, Tommy Hilfiger, Tony Danza, Dale Earnhardt, Robin Williams, Mack Brown, Michael Keaton, Pete Carroll, Mark Hamill, Sting, Keb’ Mo’, John Mellencamp, Lou Ferrigno, Marc Summers, TOM HAMILTON (the bass player) were born.
Prices of things (Link):
- Milk – $0.92
- Gas – $0.20
- Bread – $0.16
- House – $16,000
- Avg. Income – $3,515

KEEP THE CHIEF