The Cleveland Indians have dropped nine of their last 10 games . . . after firing hitting coach Eddie Murray, at the beginning of June, the Tribe’s bats heated up and The Plain Dealer began insinuating that Murray may have been the cause for Cleveland’s slump at the plate . . . well, in their last 10 games, the bats have cooled down . . . the Chicago White Sox swept the Tribe four in a row since the All-Star break . . . In fact, the White Sox never trailed in any of the games and shut out the Indians in two of the four games . . . how come The Plain Dealer is not responding about that? . . . somewhere a rare event is happening – Eddie Murray smiling . . .
The Plain Dealer’s Roger Brown reported in Sunday’s paper that the Cincinnati Reds may trade outfield slugger Adam Dunn to Cleveland for Chi Chi Sabathia . . . if the Indians brass had any brains, they would make the deal . . . Sabathia has brought nothing to help the team this year . . . In my weekly Chi Chi watch, Sabathia got rocked on Friday night to bring his season record to 6-6 with a 4.63 ERA . . . he is 1-2 since opening his mouth and stating that he "is back and ready to dominate the rest of the season" . . .
Don’t be surprised if the Indians unload catcher Victor Martinez in the off-season in order to get a true starter . . . after his All-Star season last year and new long-term contract, Martinez has dropped off considerable as he is batting .243 and has not been effective behind the plate . . . he has been the Indians biggest disappointment . . .
The Yankees pitching staff is depleted . . . rookie Chien Meng Wang has been lost for the season with a rotator cuff injury . . . that has forced New York to trade for 39-year-old Al Leiter . . . besides starting pitching, the Yankees need to reinforce its middle relieves being that the starting pitchers are very old and can no longer pitch seven innings . . . the Yankees should consider acquiring 37-year-old Hideo Nomo who was released this weekend by Tampa Bay . . . Nomo is done as a starter, but he may prove effective as a middle reliever who can pitch one inning . . . its something the Yankees should consider . . .
I think it is safe to say "Tiger is Back!!" . . .
Watch out! . . .NFL training camps will be opening next week . . .
I already saw the first "Back to School" commercial . . .
A nice article appeared in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post about the Big 33 Football Classic that is played every summer between the Ohio and Pennsylvania All-Stars . . .
It is amazing that every Super Bowl had at least one player who participated in the Big 33 game . . . here is the link to learn more about the game:
On a personal note, Friday I had a meeting in Boardman near the Southern Park Mall . . . so I stopped in the mall’s food court to have lunch – first big mistake!!! . . . first off it was like a daycare/pre-school . . . there were more double seated baby strollers than there are taxi cabs in Manhattan . . . there were so many kids and young mothers . . . with all the noise, I decided to get something quick, so I decided to get a Big Mac at McDonald’s – second big mistake!!! . . . for being a "fast food" place, I waited a good 5 minutes for my food along with a mother and her screaming child in a stroller . . . the entire time waiting, this kid kept screaming while the mother did nothing . . . after finally getting my meal, I barely found a table where there were less populated kids . . . through all this chaos, I noticed an elderly woman sitting peacefully eating ice cream from Dairy Queen . . . my only thought was that this woman had to be hard of hearing . . . overall, I learned never to eat a mall food court . . .
I went grocery shopping this past week and picked up a bag of Doritos . . . before tossing it in the cart, I noticed written on the front of the bag was "improved taste" . . . does that mean for the last 20 years I was eating not good tasting Doritos . . .
Speaking of Doritos, the last issue of Vanity Fair had a story of the U.S. soldiers who had to guard Saddam Hussein . . . the soldiers stated that Saddam loved Doritos . . . in fact they said he could eat a family bag of Doritos in about 15 minutes . . . I could just picture what Saddam looked like after that – he probably had cheese stains, from the chips, all over his face and mustache . . .
Until next time . . . the beat goes on . . .
