In Disney’s The Lion King, there is a scene where Mufasa sits with his young son Simba as they look over the kingdom that he rules.

He then gives his little lion cub the inspirational ‘circle of life’ speech.  You know, the one where the lions hunt, kill, and eat the antelope.  Then eventually, the lions die, decay away, become dirt, grass grows in the dirt, then the antelope eats the grass.  Typical father-son talk that you probably had with your dad.  Anyhow, I am sure the talk made Simba feel a little better the next time he and the family threw their next antelope-mauling buffet extravaganza.   I am guessing though, that Andy the Antelope didn’t quite have the same take on the circle of life with his own offspring.  I think he wouldn’t have minded trading seats with Mufasa at that round table!  Needless to say, life is pretty good when you are in the headliner spot at the top of the food chain.

Baseball has many different elements to it that contribute to success and defeat. Defensively, turning the double play, hitting the cut-off man, catchers blocking wild pitches, and throwing first-pitch strikes are just some of the key ingredients to triumph.  On offense, heads up aggressive base running, timely hitting, working the count, and hitting behind the runner are also nice items to have on the victory menu.  And of course, to quote Major League Baseball’s catch-phrase of the steroid-filled 1990’s

Home runs sell tickets, but one of baseball’s 1^st commandments almost always rings true:  “Great Pitching beats great hitting”.  I would amend that to ‘great pitching eliminates great hitting”.  The Dover High School baseball team found that out Friday in their 2-0 loss to Bloom-Carroll in the Division II regional finals.  To be completely accurate, the story of this game was ‘Great pitching loses out to greater pitching”.    B-C pitcher Corey Stanley limited the Tornadoes to 3 hits with excellent location and great change of speed.  Keaton Lahmers and Kyle Abel did their best to keep the Tornadoes in the game, holding B-C to just 7 hits.  But in a pitcher’s duel, every walk and error is amplified, and the Bloom-Carroll Bulldogs were errorless in the field while surrendering just one base on balls.

Facing great pitching is demoralizing, even for the best of offenses.  Exhibit 1A is one of the most beloved teams in Northeast Ohio history, the 1995 Cleveland Indians.  The Tribe went 100-44 in a strike-shortened season with one of the most impressive offensive line-ups in MLB history.  Here is the role call:

1^st           CF          Kenny Lofton         .310 batting avg, 7 HR, 54 stolen bases

2^nd         SS           Omar Vizquel         .266, 6 HR, 29 SB

3^rd         2B          Carlos Baerga         .314, 15 HR, 90 RBI

4^th          LF          Albert Belle           .317, 50 HR, 126 RBI

5^th         DH          Eddie Murray         .323, 21 HR, 81 RBI

6^th           3B           Jim Thome              .314, 25 HR, 73 RBI

7^th          RF          Manny Ramirez         .308, 31 HR, 107 RBI

8^th          1B         Paul Sorrento         .235, 25 HR, 79 RBI

9^th         C         Sandy Alomar         .300, 10 HR

WOW!  How would you like to pitch against that line-up?  If your factor out steroids and Belle’s career-ending hip injury, you have 5 current or likely Hall of Famers in the line-up (Murray, Vizquel, Thome, Ramirez, and Belle) and 3 other perennial all-atars in Lofton, Baerga, and Alomar.  No wonder they cruised to the World Series!

And then came GREAT PITCHING in the form of the Atlanta Braves and their Hall of Fame trio of Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine, and Jon Smoltz.  In game 1, Maddox got the win, holding the Tribe to 2 runs on 2 hits.  Glavine won game 2, where the Tribe ‘pounded’ out 3 runs on 6 hits.  Cleveland only scored 2 runs on 6 hits in a game 4 loss to Steve Avery.  The closing argument on the merits of great pitching would be the series-clinching game 6.  Glavine eliminated  the Wahoo offense, winning a 1-0 pitcher’s duel and surrendering just one hit!  There would always be next year for the vaunted Indian offense.  Well, maybe not.

So Tornadoes, I know that you are greatly disappointed in falling one step short of a trip to the state tournament.  But take heart in the fact that you went as far as any team in Dover High School’s long history.  Congratulations on an outstanding season that you will always remember.

High school athletics has provided thrills for active teenagers through the decades.  I am sure that many of you can share your own stories of ‘the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat’.  By the way, does anyone under the age of 40 know where that phrase comes from? (Hint:  google ‘ABC’s Wide World of Sports’.  That’s a blog for another day.)  Beyond the wins and losses, we all can share memories of the arduous journey that is high school sports—bonding with teammates, surviving the rants of coaches, spending the ‘blood, sweat, and tears’ in practice in pursuit of game time W’s.

For most every high school athlete, though, there is sacred ground that most have dreamed of, but only a few have set foot on.  With their 7-1 victory over the state-ranked Steubenville Big Red, the Dover Tornado baseball team advanced to the regional finals, and are now one step away from athlete heaven—THE STATE TOURNAMENT!!!

For a few elite programs, it is commonplace to sit at the state tourney dinner table—Strasburg & Hoover softball, Hiland hoops, and Claymont & Perry wrestling are some local programs that come to mind.  But for most programs, making a tournament run in any sport is a special ride that creates memories for a lifetime for the players, their families, and the community.  I am guessing that Indian Valley followers, the 2013 football team has a special place in their heart right beside those legendary hoops teams of Coach Huggins.  And for just about every school, I could list the special teams  that took their fans on the wild wave that a tourney run creates.

Dover is living that right now, and many of their key contributors like Kyle Abel, Blake Blair, Corey Contini, Evan Snyder, and Merrick Mamarella, already have regional game experience on their resumes this school year in basketball and/or football.  I think a beautiful thing about high school sports (especially for the non-mega-sized Division I schools) is seeing young athletes excel in multiple sports.  (sounds like another interesting blog.  I better write these down!).  And these young men from Tornado Town are prime examples of this.  Hopefully they can make that one long last step to earn their ticket to Columbus.

While many have played one sport or another in high school, only a select few have seen the hollowed ‘promised land’.  I have been going down to the boys’ state tournament for the last two decades, and look on with a smidge of envy as the athletes perform on the ultimate stage.  While watching those games this spring with my brother-in-law, Brian Miller, I quizzed him on his experiences playing at St. John’s Arena as a member of the Dover ‘Bomb Squad’ of 1989.

The Dover baseball run of this May causes me to think back to the spring of 1988.  Def Leppard ruled the air waves with ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, and the Louisville Leopards’ baseball team ruled the Federal League.  I was a junior first baseman on the team.  Upon entering the tournament, we beat Jackson and McKinley to reach the district finals against the host team, the Hoover Vikings.  In the top of the 7^th inning with the game tied 1-1, I drove in the game-winning run.  That sounds like a pretty impressive feat that I am needlessly bragging about.  It’s been 26 years.  I might as well say it was a towering home run off the foul pole.  Or maybe at least a 2-out, 2-strike double in the gap.  But my mom and dad taught me to tell the truth, so I will spill the beans.  It was a little rinky-dink bunt.  Let me be more honest.  It was because I missed a sign and thought it was a squeeze play bunt.  For you baseball junkies, the coach didn’t give the indicator, which is needed to ‘turn the play on’.  Whoops!  Our senior co-captain, Tony Marko hustled in to score from 3rd, and we were off to beautiful Pemberton Park in Youngstown for the regionals!

Behind the arm of our other captain, pitching ace Chris Lingle, we then defeated Austintown Fitch 3-1 to reach the AAA regional finals vs. Brunswick.  We were up 5-4 in the bottom of the 7^th.  Only three outs away, knockin’ on heaven’s door!!!  Well, a blown call by the ump on a close play at 1^st base (which I was playing) got the lead-off batter aboard, the wheels came off, and like Moses, I only got to see the Promised Land from afar.

So good luck this weekend, Tornadoes.  I hear the promised land of Columbus flows with milk and honey and sweet dug-outs and awesome hotel rooms!  Keep walking the path that Coach DiDonato has laid out for you, take it one out and at-bat at a time, and I am sure that championship door will open for you!

Memorial Day was officially created to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in our nation’s military.  For many, the holiday is also a time to reflect back to close ones that have passed away.  On this day, I often reflect back to my grandpa, Andy Chlebeck.  I am sure many of you had a grandfather (or father or great-grandfather) like him:  a World War II veteran that was humble, hard-hard working, and of high character.  Tom Brokaw was right on the mark when he christened them “The Greatest Generation”.

Grandpa’s days as a young man had several interesting twists and turns that had him cross paths with some significant figures and moments of the 20^th century.  Grandpa was not one to talk much about himself.  But as I entered my college days and beyond, I learned how to get him to open up and reflect back to his younger days.  He grew up as one of 16 children in St. Paul, Minnesota.  He was a very good all-around athlete.  And by ‘all-around’, I mean that sometimes between innings of a high school baseball game, he would run over to the track and do the high jump!  Landing in saw dust, no less!  Anyhow, he was fortunate to earn an athletic scholarship to play football and baseball at the University of Notre Dame.

In football, he was a career back-up playing under the legendary coach, Frank Leahy. One day after seeing an ESPN documentary about the coach, I asked grandpa his thoughts.

 

To my surprise, he said that Coach Leahy was not very popular with most of the team.  After further prodding, he told me about the end of a practice where the coach was addressing the team as they gathered around him.  The sun was setting behind the coach, causing Grandpa to squint as he listened to the coach..  Leahy thought that Grandpa was laughing and promptly kicked him off the team for the next week or so.  Not quite as inspirational as Rudy!  Well, at least Grandpa and his buds seem to be having a little fun bench-warming together (or more like bench-colding?).

After his passing over a decade ago, one artifact I came across was a football program from his senior year.  Even more interesting than the fact that it was from the ND-USC rivalry game was the date of it:  November 22, 1941.  Little did anyone know that two weeks later, the world would change forever with the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Baseball at South Bend was a completely different story for Andy.  He loved it, and eventually became a captain.  Gotta love this old-school yearbook pose!

Upon graduation, he joined the Marines.  His talents as a ball player gave him the opportunity to play on the diamond in Hawaii and other Pacific Islands to entertain troops.  And he got to play against some true legends of the game.  One guy was a Yankee.  I think he sold some coffee or something…

Joe DiMaggio!!!

His biggest highlight, though, when he got 4 hits against another Yankee, Hall-of-Fame pitcher Red Ruffing.

Grandpa shared very little of his time as a soldier.  All I really knew is that he got shot in the hip while fighting in the pivotal battle on the island of Iwo Jima.  Thankfully, I got a good idea of his experiences by reading James Bradley’s best-selling book, Flags of our Fathers.  The book details the lives of 5 Marines, climaxing with their own experiences fighting on that same Japanese Island.  A very poignant moment in the book describes a group of Marines slowly working their way up Mount Siribachi as thousands of troops were fighting all over the small island.  Eventually, the squad reached the top and raised the American flag.  At that moment, Iwo Jima, in the author’s own words, “was transformed, for a few moments, into Times Square on New Year’s Eve.  Infantrymen cheered, whistled, and waved their helmets.  Ships offshore opened up their deep, honking whistles.”   They even snapped a picture of the moment:

I remember being very emotional while reading about this, and asked my grandfather about it.  He matter-of-factly said, ‘yeah, I remember that.’

By the way, on Iwo Jima, they quickly took that flag down to preserve the moment.  They quickly replaced it with a smaller flag.  I think they might have got a picture of that one as well:

 

 

 

We often forget that extraordinary moments often include everyday men.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day, and take time to Thank God for the blessings and freedoms we have due to the sacrifices of so many brave individuals.  And thank a Military veteran as well.

Thank you, Grandpa.  I miss you!

 

As our calendars have flipped over to the month of May, baseball & softball are in full swing throughout the Tuscarawas Valley.  Almost all of us have picked up a glove at some point in our childhood and beyond—there is a reason why it is called “America’s Past Time”.  But the baseball experience can probably be described in the words of the legendary Chucky D: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.   (If you are confused, I am referring to the 1800’s author–Charles Dickens—and not the 1980’s Public Enemy rapper).  Let’s explore the highs and lows of the diamond experience.

 

1.  SPRINGTIME.  Yesterday, I ran into my old friend Bob, who recently moved back from San Diego.  One reason he gave for his return was that he missed the weather.  Let me repeat that:  HE MISSED THE WEATHER!!!  Many of you cringe at that thought, but I am on Bob’s side on this argument.  I love experiencing the four very different seasons that Ohio serves up.  I am also a teacher, so I have a greater appreciation for the snowflakes than most adults.

Anyhow, I love spring and the rebirth of nature in all of its splendor.  Each May, one tradition for my three kids and me is to point out the blooming azalea bushes as we cruise the streets of Dover.

 

Spring and baseball arrive hand in hand.  As the weather breaks from the deadness of winter, we are usually breaking our gloves out for some catch in the back yard.  Chief Wahoo starts blooming on our attire along with the tulips and daffodils in our flowerbeds.  And is there any better way to savor a warm, sunny May afternoon than at a ball diamond?  I live right by Dover Park, and I love how it comes alive each spring evening as baseball games beckon the masses like moths to a flame.  (or maybe I should say, teenagers to a smart phone!).

But of course, springtime in Ohio is not all ‘shorts and sunshine’.  I am sure more than a few parents have muttered a few unpleasantries upon receiving a text from coach to say that the game is still on.   Time to bundle up and freeze though another cold, dreary 48˚ evening of baseball!  The only thing missing is a side order of a steady spring drizzle!  And if you want to get the professional four star spring shiver experience, you can spend about $150 to take your family to shiver through an Indians’ game alongside 30 thousand empty green seats!

2.  THE CRACK OF THE BAT:  Every sport has certain experiences that provide its participants with a special thrill unique to that sport.  I have seen 5 year olds and 55 years react with the same smile when they pick up a basketball and ‘swish’ it through the hoop.   I think everyone has their own patented dance when catching an imaginary touchdown pass in the yard.

Baseball provides its spark in a variety of ways, but for me, nothing is better than putting ‘good wood’ on the ball. (or maybe the more appropriate label is ‘better metal’).  That feeling when you make perfect contact with the bat on the ball—you can actually feel the ball cave in a little—and it takes off like a rocket to the outer reaches of the outfield and beyond.

Pre-schoolers get their first taste of it with a wiffle ball and a big red bat.  Many old men still continue to feed this lifetime addiction at the softball field each week.   Their wives might be looking to stage an ‘intervention’ for them!

What could be the negative flip side???  How about holding a bee’s nest inside your hands?  Don’t know what I am talking about?  Watch a kid’s face when he gets jammed hitting a ball on one of those cold, miserable evenings mentioned above.  It makes me cringe just thinking about it.  The only thing worse than that feeling is that rite of passage into adulthood—getting hit by a pitch.

Many a youngster has hidden in the far corner of the batter’s box, ready to leap out of harm’s way, as an oversized 10-year old Nolan Ryan blazes 100 mph fastballs at them.  I kept my ‘innocence’ all the way until 8^th grade until I got drilled at the North Nimishillen Elementary ball field.  Ironically, I actually kinda liked it, and usually led my team in HBP’s (hit by pitch) through high school.

3.  NO WATCHES NEEDED.  Baseball is unique to most other sports in that it has no time clock.  You can never run out of time, only outs.  No need to go into a two- minute offense or start ‘chucking up’ three-point shots.  All you need are some rally caps along with any combination of a wild opposing pitcher, timely hitting, and a gift or two from the umpires.  And since there is no clock, baseball has a leisurely pace to it provides a soothing contrast to the rat race of every day life.

Of course, with no clock, games can take FOREVER!!!  I have heard that the military and police blast Brittany Spears music to drive an enemy out of their position.  I am guessing that only the most evil of villains have toyed with the idea of torturing their enemies by making them sit through a 3-hour ‘walk-fest’ of a 9 year-old baseball game that many of us have survived. (shivering through the rain, no doubt!).  And other sports with clocks allow coaches to liberally substitute bench players in and try kids at new positions.  It’s a little trickier to do in baseball.  That whole rally cap thing can be a curse to any lead!

Luckily, Major League Baseball is being proactive in speeding up the game to keep the interest of the younger generations and their technologically driven short attention spans…NOT!  I once timed in between pitches for an Indians game one time.  It is almost 30 seconds per pitch, with about another 25 seconds added on for a foul ball.  Baseball gave up its crown to the NFL in the 2^st half of the last century.  I am guessing you will see even more empty green seats a few decades from now.

Baseball definitely has its pros and cons (besides the MLB players, of course).  I started by quoting a famous 19^th century author, and I will finish with the prose of a legendary writer/musician/balding reality show star (who knows what is under his bandana), Sir Bret Michaels:  “Every rose has it’s thorn!”

 

Since I am now on my second blog post, I have a confession to make:  last week-end, I turned into a ‘walker’.  No, I am not referring to the zombie ‘walkers’ of The Walking Dead. 

I do admit I am a fan of the show, though the last season waiting for the gang to get to ‘Terminus’ went about as slow as Willis McGahee hitting the holes as a Browns running back last year.

I am also not referring to those walkers racing around the New Towne Mall every morning with their fanny packed stocked like Batman’s utility belt.

Before I clear this up, I have to make another, even bigger confession:  I left my wife.

WHOA!

WHOA!

Brady Quinn, put down you your cell phone!  Beth is not on the market!  I am still happily married to the most beautiful cheerleader in Dover High School history!  Full disclosure, though: my faithful bride does think the former Browns’ QB is the cat’s meow!

I don’t get it.  I never understood why Brandon Weeden never made her heart skip.

Well, maybe not.

Let me clarify both of these startling confessions.  Last Saturday, my lovely wife and I were able to have a rare date night.  All of you parents with kids understand the insertion of ‘rare’ in that last sentence.  Anyhow, we went and saw the movie, Monuments Men.

World War II has been the backdrop for many a great movie.  As a math teacher, let me throw a couple equations at you:

NAZIS + ARK OF COVENANT x HARRISON FORD + snakes x 1000 = CINEMATIC GOLD

NAZIS + BEACHES OF NORMANDY x TOM HANKS + SPIELBERG TOUCH = TIMELESS CLASSIC

NAZIS + PAINTINGS x GEORGE CLOONEY – PLOT = 110 LOOOONNNNNGGG MINUTES.

Let me try to summarize the intricate plot.  Nazis are stealing paintings all over Europe for their own Hitler museum.  Clooney & pals go to some village to save a priceless collection.  As they get there, the Nazis are just pulling out with a truckload of art.  A few shots are fired.  Now, take that scenario and ‘rinse and repeat’ another 10 times with a few George Clooney ‘save the art’ sermons mixed in.

Needless to say, about 10 minutes in, I sensed I might be in trouble.  15 minutes later, I made the decision that if I ever found out that I had only two hours to live, I would watch this movie, because that time WOULD LAST FOREVER!!!!

As I started squirming more and making snide remarks to my bride, the thought of walking out started to bounce around my skull.  I had heard tales of other adventurous souls walking out of movies in disgust, but I personally never considered it.  Well, I mustered up the courage to propose switching to another movie to Beth, who immediately did her best Dikembe Mutombo imitation in swatting my ‘indecent proposal’ away.

Oh well.  I figured I would just take one for the team. After a couple more painful Clooney monologues (for all the movies he has been in, I think the only character George Clooney has ever played is George Clooney), I decided to follow the words of the legendary man of the sea, Popeye:

“I CANS STANDS SO MUCH, AND I CAN’TS STANDS NO MORE!!!”

I didn’t have a can of spinach handy, so I told Beth I was heading to the restroom.  As I trudged down the theater hallway, I saw that the most recent Liam Neeson movie was playing.

 I didn’t know much about it, but I would bet the house that Liam would get angry, start talking in that Liam Neeson voice, and then proceed to kick butt and take names.  There is a reason why NBA studio host/ESPN writer Bill Simmons recently wrote that Liam has been the holder of the ‘Action Hero Championship Belt’ since 2011.

I should note that my only other personal experience with walking into another theater was when I went to see The Apple Dumpling Gang when I was 5.

My six-year old sister, Andrea, when out to the lobby with an older neighbor for candy or something, then accidentally walked back into the wrong movie.  I think it was a sea adventure of some sort that she watched for a few minutes.

Needless to say, seeing a shark attack was a bit more memorable than watching the hijinks of Don Knotts and Tim Conway.  She eventually got over that traumatic experience (though I still don’t think she goes in the water when we vacation Myrtle Beach together), but her lil’ bro remembered that lesson for himself.

I guess 38 years finally healed that wound.  What the heck.  I headed in.  Took about 20 seconds to catch on to what I missed.  Liam was an air marshall on some flight and kept getting texts from some guy threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes.  I might not call it Shakespeare, but it definitely wouldn’t call it boredom.  I watched about a half hour.  Liam was getting the framed for the murders, so his aggravation/agitation level was at about a 9.5.  Things were about to get GOOD!!!  I checked my watch.  Hmmm.  She would figure it out, right?  I have the keys to the car.  How mad would she be?  Hmmm.  What should I do?  What’s the worst that could happen?

I decided that waiting two years to watch Liam’s clean up this mess on basic cable would probably be the wise choice.  I slinked back into my seat beside Beth, who gave me a standard-issue wife eye roll.  Surprisingly, she really hadn’t missed me and my running Siskel & Ebert movie critique. I toughened out the last 15 minutes (spoiler alert:  they saved a bunch of paintings!!!), and with the help of the endless salad and breadsticks courtesy of The Olive Garden, I am happy to say that my 19-year marriage is still on solid ground.

The next day, I confronted my in-laws, who strongly recommended the movie.  Beth defended her parents.  The three added that Beth’s brother, Brian, also liked the movie.  It eventually got out, however, that Brian’s wife, Angel,  shared my opinion, so I sent her a text telling of my dislike of the movie.  Her response:  “How funny!!  I was so bored—I kept thinking ‘just be done already’!!”  I guess you can’t marry into movie tastes–they must be genetically inherited!

So, what movie has been so terrible that you too had to play the ‘walker’ card at a movie theater?  Or maybe at home, you shut a DVD off  or watched it ‘fast forward’ mode.  Let us know in the comments below:

The National Football League has two big ‘parties’ every year where it gets to show off for the world.  One, of course, is that American holiday known as the Super Bowl.  Sure, it’s super, but in a way,  it reminds me of that MTV show, My Super Sweet 16.  (If you have never seen it, DON’T!)  Basically, it’s a half hour of watching a rich, bratty, teen complain about her lavish birthday party—one that likely costs more than your home.  Nothing ruins a birthday like getting a new convertible the wrong shade of pink!  Anyhow, the Super Bowl’s similarity is that the ‘attention hogs’ for this party are the two participating teams.  No love for the fans of the other 30 NFL teams–we don’t have a ‘horse in the race’.  Speaking of the equine family, Browns fans like me are still waiting for an upgrade from the donkey the NFL gave us to follow back in 1999.   For us, making the Super Bowl seems like some mythical adventure like The Matrix where we are waiting for a ‘chosen one’ to lead us out of our misery and into the promised land.

That leads us to the NFL’s other big shindig:  DRAFT NIGHT.  This is more like a Chuck E. Cheese birthday bash.  Sure, the birthday boy gets all the presents, but everyone gets to have fun and play!  Just stay away from the mediocre pizza.  For the draft, every fan is into it because every team is involved.  And every 1^st round pick tends to yield a roar of delight or a groan of disgust from the fans.

The Browns draft this year was an extra special one due to an extra 1^st round pick, the rare positive contribution of the short-lived Banner/Lombardi regime.  Those two picks illustrated both the ‘broccoli’ & the ‘birthday cake’ that most teams serve up for their fans.

Vegetables.  Some of you just got a scowl on your face just reading the word.  But we eat them (or should eat them) because, as your momma says, ‘they’re good for you.’  The broccoli pick for the Browns was cornerback Justin Gilbert from Oklahoma State.  ‘Who?’ is the reaction from 90% of us.  Picking corners or linemen aren’t really exciting—how many Joe Thomas or Joe Haden jerseys do you see around the mall?—but ‘they’re good for you.’  You need good ones as a foundation for a winning team.  But they make for pretty bland draft nights.

A few NFL teams serve their fans some birthday cake on draft night:  picks that are delicious, but not always nutritious.  Sammy Wadkins & Mike Evans were the sugary-sweet receivers that fans were hungry for after watching months of ESPN highlights.  A trio of QB’s were also on the appetizer menu.  But the Browns traded down their #4 slot for a future 1^st round pick—kind of like getting a savings bond from grandpa as a birthday gift.  Nice when your turn 18 and have bills to pay, but not a lot of fun to play with when you are 10 years old!

Thankfully, the Browns had an old savings bond to redeem from last September (thank you Trent Richardson!), and cash in they did:  JOHNNY FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!! 

That pick was some Litty’s Birthday Cake (and it’s amazing frosting) with 3 scoops of vanilla, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and a cherry on top!  I am not quite sold that Johnny Manziel will be a successful NFL QB, but he’s definitely not broccoli!

And so it was…the Cleveland Browns became the talk of the NFL.  #2 Manziel jerseys were flying off the shelves (does eBay even have shelves?).  Local and national sports talk shows were abuzz with the Brownies.  Fans were putting on their Browns’ apparel for an early spring fashion show.  And then….Josh Gordon.  As the late, great Dandy Don Meredith used to sing on Monday Night Football, ‘Turn out the lights, the party’s over…”  OIC—Only In Cleveland!