Chalupa

Last week we hit 103 3 times and this week we've received over 5.5 inches of rain in 4 days. That's more rain than we got in the past 74 days!

Now there's an intriguing alternate universe: Catfish Hunter & Reggie & Goose sign with Cleveland, and the Indians win a World Championship or two. Then of course since there's no revenue to support the spending, Steinbrenner bails out of the business ... and maybe the Yankees are working on a 45 year championship drought. I can dream can't I? Anyway, that's giving Steinbrenner far too much credit. In 1972 the Indians still had Chambliss, Nettles & Tidrow. Perhaps the trades don't happen. And the Indians had Gaylord Perry. You never know, maybe the alternate universe Indians coulda been a contender. Check it. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/100714_steinbrenner_indians&sportCat=mlb

Umpires perfect game goes completely unnoticed

For Chris..

Wow. Steinbrenner Family Won't Pay Estate Tax

I just read that the year before he bought the Yankees Steinbrenner unsuccessfully tried to buy his home town team - The Cleveland Indians.

The more I read about Gilbert the more I think LeBron did the right thing by getting out of Cleveland. Gilbert definitely has something wrong with him. Don't necessarily agree w/ the way LeBron did it but, I think people would have been pissed at him regardless. If he had texted something like Durant did he would have been called an insensitive bastard. Leaving Cleveland was a lose/lose situation for him in terms of PR.

He was 86. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/tuli-kupferberg-poet-and-singer-dies-at-86/?hp

CC Sabathia Involved In Bench-Clearing Nap

OK so in the history of high school jazz bands this might not rank up there w/ the talent in Captain Walter Dyett's DuSable High School bands or the I. M. Terrell High School Marching Band of Fort Worth, Texas but I thought this was pretty cool. Tweeted by Christian McBride early today.... "It floors me to think that my high school's jazz band* rhythm section was me, Questlove, Joey DeFrancesco & Kurt Rosenwinkel. Damn...." * The Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts Hey moderators can you fix my typo in the topic title? Thanks.

Was he still working @ 99??? edit: he worked until 2007. He was 96 when he retired. http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5371001

Yeah I guess 2008 was just an aberration. Well so here's how the 10th went for Lidge - lead off double, SF to pitcher, walk(stole 2nd), K, IBB, Fly out. End of inning. Can't believe the Reds didn't score off him. Oh and then Contreras retired the side in the 11 and the Phillies scored the winning run in the bottom half of the 11th. Phew. Man the Reds have lost 3 tough ones in a row in extra innings. Cliff Lee getting shellacked tonight by Baltimore. He's given up 3 taters tonight.

Shit we came 3 outs away from having another perfect game tonight in the majors this season. Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies hit a double in the 9th to break up Travis Wood's bid for a perfect game. Phew, that was close. Now on to the 10th, 0-0 w/ Lidge replacing Halladay. Not good. Lidge falling apart in the 10th. Man, in 2008 he was a perfect 44 for 44. He's just pitched like dog shit since then. WTF?

I think for the Cleveland folks, that's not a "quibbling" point but a major point of discontent. Abbott's trivializing how they feel about this by calling it quibbling. In Clevelander's eyes James betrayed them - they wanted him to be their Larry Bird, their Magic Johnson, their Tim Duncan - a star that is forever associated with one team. I think they also feel that their team did try to give him what it took to win it all, and he tanked it in the playoffs against the Celtics. HIM, not the team. Then for him to say something to the effect that there wasn't a possibility to win in Cleveland so he had to move on, when it was his failing that caused that, probably had to hurt. Especially in a city like Cleveland. I don't understand. How exactly did he betray the city of Cleveland?? Did he sleep w/ the Mayor's wife?? Did he steal from the city's payroll?? No, he gave 7 years of his basketball career to a team that never gave him the supporting cast that Bird, Magic, & Duncan had. Never. In the process he made the Cavaliers millions of dollars and made Cleveland matter again in the sports world. LeBron didn't screw them; the Cavaliers' owners did.

Nice come back by the Phillies tonight. Trailing 7-1 going into the bottom of the 9th vs. the Reds they scored 6 runs to tie the game. Then Ryan Howard went yard in the bottom of the 10th to get the win. 2nd night in row the Fightin's have won an extra inning game vs. the Reds w/ a walkoff homer! Now if then can just get Oswalt....

Lee to Rangers for Smoak Cliff Lee was going to a contender no matter what. Turns out it was the Texas Rangers, not the New York Yankees. After talks between the Seattle Mariners and Yanks fell apart Friday afternoon, the Rangers jumped in and reached agreement on a trade for the left-hander, sources confirmed to ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney. The New York Post reported that the M's sent Lee and reliever Mark Lowe to Texas for first baseman Justin Smoak and three minor-leaguers. The Mariners will also send $2.5 million to the Rangers to subsidize the $4 million still owed to Lee. Texas has financial limitations due to bankruptcy hearings associated with the sale of the team. There has been speculation that the Rangers would not be able to add weapons for the stretch run. http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/news/story?id=5367615 Dan, do you have a crystal ball???

Henry Abbott's take... What is James' crime, exactly? I have been hashing out this issue with e-mailers over the last few hours. Most accept that he had the right to choose whatever team he wanted. Most accept that Cleveland was not the best team. Most accept that he played hard for the Cavaliers and -- this year's playoff disappointment notwithstanding -- got better results than could have been expected. Pretty much it boils down to the fact that he put himself on TV to make this decision, which sends the twin messages that he has an overblown view of his own role in the world, and that he's insensitive to how the whole thing would play in Ohio. And OK, fair enough. Quibble with his media philosophies if you'd like. But realize, if you're bitter, you're bitter about the format of his expression. Not the contents of his soul. And absent evidence he has done something actually wretched, it's a little extreme to call him nasty names on the Internet, isn't it? In this world of ours, you will find some truly terrible people. There are murderers. There are rapists. There are abusers, bullies, polluters, dictators and everything else. And this is the guy you need to single out? Even in the NBA's own pantheon, you will find Magic Johnson who once got a coach fired, Kobe Bryant who stood in a parking lot on hidden camera cursing his own team and coaches, Michael Jordan who fought with and bullied teammates. The list goes on and on. The point is, if you're in the mood to be charitable, you can love just about anybody. If you're in the mood to hate, you can hate just about anybody. Why is it that so many are in the mood to hate LeBron James? A theory: It's because he stepped out of place. Players play. That's how it was. They are quiet and sweaty craftsmen who ought not to be heard from except to call out plays and say "yessir" to the coach. The way sports used to be, owners did things like make billion-dollar decisions and general managers and agents did things like agonize over personnel. But that was always a myth. The owners, GMs and agents may have seemed like they held all the cards, but that's only because players weren't great at wielding the power they had. The players always drove the value, because they are what motivated the fans who paid for everything. It has taken decades, but eventually a player -- this player -- figured out how to really put himself in the driver's seat, with billionaire owners lining up, one by one, attempting to earn his valuable affections. He took the power of free agency and instead of just quietly using it to slip out the back door, he milked it. He played it out. He built his own roster. He played kingmaker. He went beyond exercising his rights. He demonstrated his might in the worlds of business, team management and media. It's not a role we're used to seeing athletes in, and it startled many. But I'm certain it's a role athletes belong in. People have analyzed how much a superstar like James is worth to a team. It's many times what he is paid every year, and has been throughout his career. It rivals what the whole team is worth. He has been paying the bills, in no small way, for the Cavaliers for years. That might not be appealing to think about, but it's true. James knows that, and -- even though it's not in the playbook of how athletes typically speak to the public -- he acted like it. Full article here

I don't care where he goes as long as it's not to the NL or the Bankees.

So LeBron should limit which team he should sign with by what he kind of sign/trade deal he can get for his old team?? Is that the standard by how we judge all FA signings now or just LeBron? I'm sorry but I seriously disagree w/ that. For the record he didn't leave Cleveland in shambles. They're still better than the Sixers. Besides, it's not like they didn't have ample warning that he might bolt this summer. The franchise should have had a backup plan (or 3) just in case this went down. If you want to blame someone for what happened take a good look at the owners. Why didn't they try to get him another marquee player during the 7 years he was a Cavalier?? Maybe if they had got another star he wouldn't have left. edit: for clarity.

Noj - I'm not just calling you out on this because I've read/heard other people say the same thing RE:Why no sign/trade w/ the Heat? Well that's probably because the Heat only have 2 players(actually now it's 1 because they are trading Beasley away) under contract. Do you want Mario Chalmers?? Cause that's all the Heat can send in a sign/trade deal. But I guess that's LeBron's fault too???

Wow. Some serious invective being thrown at LeBron right now. WTF? So he decided to leave town. He doesn't owe anyone any thing. Gilbert needs to issue an apology. Stat.

Typical made up BS from the NY sports media. Don't buy it. If the Phillies trade Werth it won't be to the Yankees. Amaro is already on the hot seat for the Lee trade. He would be lynched if he sent Werth to either NY team.

Excuse me while I puke.

Biggest loser - Cleveland, the Knicks, or the NBA?? My gut says Cleveland but the Knicks traded away half their team to clear cap space for LeBron and all they have to show for it is a center w/ bad knees who can't create his own shot. Then there is the NBA. You just know that Stern wanted LeBron in NYC badly. There's a school of thinking that says for the NBA to be successful they need to have their biggest stars in their biggest markets. That would be Kobe in LA and LeBron in either NYC or Chicago but not in south Florida. That didn't happen. But maybe they can still generate enough buzz by having the new Big Three in Miami that they can woo back the fans? Hmm... I don't know about that. Another question - is the Heat's fan base in Miami big enough/wealthy enough to sell out every game to pay these guys?

You're lucky. I tuned in for 20 minutes. So does Miami become the odds on favorite to win it all?? I guess it all depends on who they can entice to come to Miami for the league minimum. I think at the very least they are a lock for the Eastern Conference finals.