Urban legends. There are books, magazine articles, and people who speak around the country debunking these stories. Well, sports are no different. There are myths and stories regarding sports, including teams in our own city of Cleveland, Ohio. Here is one for each team that I would like to expose…
Cavaliers. One myth going around right now is the strength of the Cavs’ bench. In reality, Mike Brown’s bench is productive because he starts the wrong people. If he would start Anderson Varajao, Daniel Gibson, and Devin Brown instead of Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, and Sasha Pavlovic, then how good would the non-starters be? We would then be discussed the deplorable play of the bench.
I understand the theory here. Heck, San Antonio brings one of their best players off the bench in Manu Ginobili to give the rotation some balance. But, let’s not kid ourselves here. The Cavaliers bench isn’t good because the team is so deep; it makes a difference because the coach has three of the team’s best players not starting. With Pavlovic out for 4-6 weeks with a foot sprain, don’t be surprised if Mike Brown puts Shannon Brown in the starting lineup to keep the bench bunch intact.
Indians. The myth involving the Tribe is that the cheapness of the ownership is the reason they don’t sign free agents. The trend around major league baseball is for organizations to take care of their players before they get to that point. Look at this year’s free agent class. Who would you really have broken the bank for? 32-year-old Torii Hunter? Mike Cameron? Francisco Cordero? There were no real impact players on the market this off-season.
The Indians kept two players who would have been free agents in Jake Westbrook and Travis Hafner and are now trying to keep C.C. Sabathia in the fold for the foreseeable future. Even a guy like Johan Santana will likely be traded and signed before they can reach free agency. The Indians don’t need to go out and pay megabucks to a player on the downside of his career. They need to continue to produce young talent and keep it.
Browns. You always hear that owner Randy Lerner doesn’t want to win. Of course, he does. Does anyone really think he likes hearing about how his team stinks? Let’s face it; it was a much better year for Lerner in 2007 because the Cleveland Browns were a competitive team. They are on the way up. The problem might be that Lerner doesn’t know how to win. The whole John Collins vs. Phil Savage thing showed that sometimes the owner puts his trust in the wrong people.
It appears Lerner has learned from his mistakes and from those of the man who moved the team away, and has put his trust in football people. Letting Phil Savage make the personnel decisions is the right move. The future of this franchise could have turned when Collins was let go. However, make no mistake. Randy Lerner wants the Cleveland Browns to win a Super Bowl for this city.
MW/JD/JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 