Summertime is an annual collections of lifelong memories marked by popsicles, roller coasters, fireworks, and haggling with someone over whether a nine-year old sweater is worth $1 or 50 cents.

Of course, I am talking about garage sales.  Where one person’s former treasure become someone else’s future trash.  I wrote two summers ago about our garage sale, so in honor of this year’s batch of mediocre summer movie sequels, let me present…

GARAGE SALE II: DEALS AND DUDS

My wife and I have slightly different mindsets.  She sees it as a way to get some monetary value for slightly used items that no longer serve a purpose in our homestead.  Maybe it would help if I gave you visual representation of her mindset from this short-lived Cleveland folk hero…

Time to start raining the dollars!

I, on the other hand, take a different philosophy that Browns tend to incorporate every couple of years:  CLEAN HOUSE!

2016 signaled a new era for the Aljancic Corporation’s annual tango with the free market system.  My wife had to work on Friday, so for the first time, I was in charge.  

Prices were slashed.   I had more sales than one of those cheesy car commercials.  I may have even honored these golden tickets…

I was consumed with an exhilarating joy as carloads of clutter drove off into the sunset. Unfortunately, that feeling dissipated at the end of the day when I had to report my sale prices to our CEO.

Time to take a look at a few pieces of our vintage collection…

EXHIBIT A:

This five-flick collection is the ultimate rainy day line-up.  Here is how I rank them…

#5:  Dirty Dancing:  C+. I never quite bought into this ‘no one puts baby in a corner’ lovefest.  But the great soundtrack makes it watchable for this dude.

#4:  The Cutting Edge:  B+.  One of my wife’s favorites from back in our dating days.   I enjoyed this chick flick with her a few times around.  The Olympic vibe spices it up.  I recently recorded it onto our DVR to show our daughter.  I don’t know if our boys would hang in there.

#3.  Sleepless in Seattle.  A.  One of my favorite romantic comedies.  Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are at their peak as a pair here.

#2.  Field of Dreams.  A.   I loved this quirky sports movie back in the day.   As the years have passed, it’s kinda lost it’s mojo, though.

#1:  The Shawshank Redemption.  A+.  Now this is the epitome of a re-watchable movie.   Probably my all-time favorite flick.

VERDICT:  no sales.  I guess that whole VCR fad might be on the downturn.

 

EXHIBIT B: 

Five years ago, the NCAA hammer came down on Jim Tressel and his Ohio State Buckeyes.  Star quarterback Terrelle Pryor was the center of the tattoo scandal.   His five-year ban from OSU just ended this past week.

VERDICT:  while his Buckeye ban is over, he is remains stuck in our sales bin

EXHIBIT C:  

This cassette tape of my wife’s was also the very first CD that I ever bought.  Milli Vanilli may have been exposed as frauds, but the music is still awesome, no matter who is singing.

VERDICT:  No sale.  I guess I’ll have to blame it on the rain.

EXHIBIT D: 

I LOVED batting helmets growing up.  Love, love, loved ’em…

 

My two sons, on the other hand, could care less.  They,instead, love $14 socks.  As in $14 for a ONE pair of Nike socks.  Give me $14 at Wal-Mart and I could get about 25 pair.

Stupid Millennials!  Go chase your Pokemon thingies!

Anyhow, just last week, my family stopped at a Columbus ice cream shop. Guess what they had on the menu?!?  Batting helmet ice cream sundaes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Back in the 1970s, that combo ranked right up their with Donny and Marie, Starsky and Hutch, or Pop Rocks and pop.

But not so exciting to my high-end sock wearers.

VERDICT:  no sale.  I might have to wear them around town some time to revive the fad and drum up some business.

EXHIBIT E:

 

I not only made mix tapes back in the day;  I classed them up!  Look at these professional graphics!

VERDICT:  sold my ‘Best of the Oldies’ tape!

EXHIBIT F:

As a teacher, I am always looking to mix a good polo shirt into my school rotation, especially when they are on clearance at the end of the summer.  Bonus points if I use that Kohl’s coupon!  This shirt may have been my best pick-up ever.  I got this from a store for $3.60!   My wife was never a big fan, but my students always gave it the thumbs up.

VERDICT:  Got $1 back on my $3.60 investment.

EXHIBIT G:

Ever heard of ESPN?  Back in the early 1990s, their daytime programming wasn’t wall-to-wall Sportscenters and sports debate shows.   They actually had a group of fitness shows run for a few hours around lunch time.  I only know this Gilad guy (important clarification:  this is my wife’s tape) from the last minute or so of his show.  That is because my college buddies and I usually tuned in for what followed…

I remember walking down my college dorm hall one day past five rooms.  I think four of them were tuned into Bodyshaping.  I guess guys were really into physical fitness back then.

Now in defense of my buddies and me, I will say that the Bodyshaping cast wasn’t the only group of girls that we tuned into around lunch time.  We also made room for these hotties…

VERDICT:  Gilad is still available for next year’s blog.

The author is a contributor for The Times Reporter, as well as clesportstalk.com.  You can follow him on twitter:  @macaljancic

The Major League trade deadline is less than a week away.  The MLB playoffs start two months later. How the Cleveland front office handles the trade opportunities over the next few days will have a big impact on the Wahoos’ title opportunities come October.

The big dilemma for Indians’ team president Chris Antonetti is how much of his club’s future should he risk to improve the chances for a run at the title.

A great deadline deal can bring that key piece to push a club to greatness.  A bad trade can gut the farm system and eventually leave the major league club as a barren wasteland void of cornerstone players.

Every major league front office values it’s prized minor league prospects.  The successful front offices know the true value of those prospects for now and the future.

Cleveland has had a long history of valuing prospects  over opportunity.  We have traded away plenty of stars (Bartolo Colon, Cliff Lee, C.C. Sabathia, Victor Martinez) to get prospects good (Lee, Carlos Carrasco, Justin Masterson, Grady Sizemore, Michael Brantley) and bad (Matt LaPorta, Andy Marte, Jason Knapp).  Cleveland has also tended to pass on opportunities to trade sexy prospects for star MLB’ers (not giving up Jared Wright for Pedro Martinez).

Here is a look back at 35 years of Cleveland 1st round picks:

2015  Brady Aiken LHP– 2016 Arizona Rookie League 0-3, 6.38 ERA

2014  Bradley Zimmer OF–2016 Double A Akron:  .253 BA, 14 HR, 33 SB

2013  Clint Frazier OF– 2016 Double A Akron:  .276 BA, 13 HR

2012  Tyler Naquin OF– 2016 Indians: .321 BA, 12 HR

2011  Francisco Lindor SS– 2016 Indians: .303 BA, 12 HR

2010  Drew Pomeranz  LHP– with Red Sox;  MLB career (6 years):  22-32, 3.73 ERA

2009  Alex White RHP– out of baseball after 2012; MLB career (2 years):  5-13, 6.03 ERA

2008  Lonnie Chisenhall  3B–2016 Indians:  .303 BA, 6 HR; MLB career (6 years) .263 BA, 49 HR

2007  Beau Mills  3B–out of baseball after 2012, no MLB

2005  Trevor Crowe  CF– out of baseball after 2013; MLB career (4 years): 818 AB, .240 BA, 4 HR

2004 Jeremy Sowers  LHP– out of baseball after 2009; MLB career (4 years):  18-30, 5.18 ERA

2003  Michael Aubrey  1B– out of baseball after 2011; MLB career (2 years):  135 AB, .259 BA, 6  HR

2003 Bradley Snyder  OF– MLB career (3 years):  66 AB, .167 BA, 2 HR

2002 Jeremy Guthrie RHP– MLB career (12 seasons); 91-108, 4.37 ERA

2001  Alan Horne RHP– no MLB

2000 Corey Smith SS– no MLB

Here is how the first rounders from 1980-1999 panned out:

3 All-Stars:  C.C. Sabathia, Manny Ramirez, Charles Nagy

3 solid major leaguers: Greg Swindell, Paul Shuey, Kelly Gruber

2 super-hyped MLB rookies whose potential eventually faded away:  Jared Wright, Corey Snyder

2 MLB contributors: Dave Clark, Mark Lewis, Kelly Gruber

2 short MLB careers:  Tim Drew, Calvin Murray

7  had little or no MLB time.

That list shows that the odds of a 1st rounder paying off is a coin toss.  Is the risk possibly losing a future star worth bumping up your title chances a few percentages?

Consider these numbers:

1:  the number of Tribe play-off games since 2007

68:  the number of years since our last World Series Championship

1,300,000:  the number of fans at the recent Cavs championship parade

Memo to Chris Antonetti:

LET IT RIDE!

The author is a contributor for timesreporter.com as well as clesports.com

Follow on twitter:  @macaljancic

The four-day circus known as the Republican National Convention winds down tonight at Quicken Loans Arena, site of the NBA finals just a month ago.  That connection between politics and sports made me think of who might be considered the Donald Trump of the jock world.

Considering that ‘The Donald’ is so HUUUUUUUUGE, it definitely takes more than one person to fill his custom-tailored suit.  So allow me to play Dr. Frankenstein and assemble this powerful monster of a presidential candidate in three categories:

First: THE ‘FISH OUT OF WATER’ SUCCESS

This successful businessman and reality TV star ran roughshod through the GOP primaries in spite of having absolutely no political experience.  Thus, I considered those who tried to transition their success from one sport to to a completely new athletic field  (two-sport stars like Bo Jackson don’t count, since they had previous experience in both sports).

The greatest basketball player of all time batted .202 in his one year as a minor league baseball player.

Heisman trophy winner and NFL star Herschel Walker actually placed 7th in the 1992 Olympics in the two-man bobsled.

Then there is Paul DePodesta, who recently became the Browns’ new Chief Strategy Officer after two decades of working his ‘Moneyball’ magic in Major League Baseball.

But the biggest fish out of water has to go to a coach that could easily put ‘The Donald’ in his place…

The same year that he retired from the sidelines, legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler actually spent three years as team president of the Detroit Tigers.

II.  THE SWAGGER

Trump’s mouth is unparalleled in politics.  Even in the macho, competitive bravado of sports, he is hard to match.  Most sports figures have some sort of muffler installed between their brain and their mouth to minimize the verbal damage that they might do to the image of themselves and their team.  But one NFL coach comes to mind whose unfiltered words are heavy on arrogance and grand declarations…

Rex Ryan has never been afraid to supply bulletin board material for his opponents.  If only he had his twin brother Rob’s hair…

Speaking of which:

III.  THE HAIR

That hair provides better coverage than the Darelle Revis!  It defies the laws of physics.  Kinda reminds me of this Cavalier…

They could probably do an entire Mythbusters episode testing the supernatural qualities of these two hairdos.

I do theorize that if Trump hadn’t maintained his wealthy status, his dome might look a bit more like these dueling sports icons…

The options might not be very appealing to many voters, but Donald vs. Hillary is gonna be one wild ride!

Follow the author on twitter:  @macaljancic

 

photos:  espn.go.com, nykdailynews.com, foxsports.com, nba.com

As the Cleveland Indians’ franchise-record win 14-game win streak ended last week, I wrote this article looking back at the 12 biggest Tribe hot stretches over the last 40 years:

History Tells What The Tribe Streak Means For This Season

So which category will this 2016 version of the Wahoos gravitate to?

CONTENDERS or PRETENDERS?

A strong indicator would be the common thread of those five successful Tribe teams:  a balance of solid hitting, pitching and fielding, usually excelling in at least one of those categories.

Does this year’s Indians fit that bill?

Pitching-wise, they lead the A.L. with a 3.61 ERA  (Toronto is a distant second at 3.82).  Danny Salazar (2.36 ERA), Carlos Carrasco (2.47), Trevor Bauer (3.30), Josh Tomlin (3.51),  and Corey Kluber (3.79) comprise the best starting rotation in baseball.   The luxury of always having an ace starter in the lineup does more that just put the team in a good position to win each day.  It minimizes the potential for long losing stretches, since there is always a good chance one of those guys will put goose eggs on the scoreboard.

This season, Cleveland has not lost more than three games in a row.  They have never been worse than 4-6 over any 10-game stretch.  On the other hand, the team has also had earlier win streaks of 4, 4, 5, and 6 games. The long 162-game baseball season lends itself to hot and cold stretches.  The Tribe’s ‘Fearsome Fivesome’ have kept their hands on the hot knob.

Defensively, Cleveland has more than held its own.  Shortstop Francisco Lindor is the cover boy of the defense, with his defensive gems littering the ESPN highlights on a nightly basis.   But he is not alone.  Fangraphs.com, a website that does advanced breakdowns of defensive performance, has most of the infield ranked high among American Leaguers:   Catcher Yan Gomes (2nd), 2B Jason Kipnis (1st), SS  Lindor (1st), and 3B Juan Uribe (2nd).

The big question for the long term is if the offense can hold up its end of the bargain.  Cleveland bats rank in the middle of the A.L. in home runs (8th), batting average (8th),  runs (7th) and on-base-plus slugging percentage (7th).   On the plus side, Lindor is proving to be an all-star offensively, while Carlos Santana has lifted his batting average up to .248 to go with 19 HRs.   MIke Napoli has provided a big bat in the middle of the lineup (17 HRs, 57 RBI).  Jose Ramirez (.296), Lonnie Chisenhall (.302), and Tyler Naquin (.325) all have been pleasant surprises.

Gomes is the glaring red flag, batting .175.  But overall, the offense has done its job of not dragging the team into mediocrity.  And this is all with its star, Michael Brantley, on the sidelines.  If he can get healthy, look out.

This 2016 squad also has a trump card unmatched by previous Indian clubs:  manager Terry Francona, a two-time world champion.

Better keep those championship parade route maps handy!

Follow on twitter:  @macaljancic

What a ride the last two weeks have been.  As the Cavaliers bring home the long lost holy grail, the Indians go on a 14-game win streak, the longest in this franchise’s 116-year history.  The wild run brought a revival of Indian Fever in Northeast Ohio and put the team into the national spotlight.

Baseball’s lengthy 162-game schedule lends itself to hot (and cold) streaks for teams, but getting to double digits is a rare occurrence. Does a long win streak equate to long-term success?  Here’s a look at the hottest stretches by the Wahoos over the last 40 years:

11 GAMES:

Started May 23, 1982 (78-84 final record):  Lost seven of their next eight games.  Andre Thornton (my childhood hero), Toby Harrah, Len Barker, and Rick Sutcliffe were the pillars of this club.

10 GAMES:

June 23, 1979 (81-80):  This streak started the day that Dave Garcia was named manager.  Bobby Bonds (Barry’s dad) starred with Thornton, Harrah and Mike Hargrove.

April 26, 1986 (84-78):  They lost nine of the next 10 games, but a strong season full of young offensive stars (Cory Snyder, Joe Carter, Julio Franco) led to this fateful prediction…

That 1987 team was league worst 61-101.

June 11, 1994 (66-47): 2nd place when a players strike ended the season

April 28, 2001 (91-71): Division champions

April 3, 2002 (74-88): Followed streak by losing six-straight and 15 of 17

August 17, 2008 (81-81):  The Eric Wedge era began its decline

OTHER LENGTHY HOT STREAKS:

April 6, 1988 (won 11 of 12 and 16 of 19):  finished 78-84  

June 3, 1995 (12 of 13 and 16 of 18) and August 18 (16 of 18):  100-44 (MLB best)

September 5, 2005 (13 of 14):  93-69 (lost of six of  last seven to miss playoffs)

August 25, 2007 (11 of 12): 96-66 (American League best)

April 28, 2013 (18 of 22):  92-70 (wild card)

That list shows that hot streaks don’t always grow into great seasons. But the successful squads have a common ingredient:  a balance of solid hitting, pitching and fielding, usually excelling in at least one of those categories.

The offenses of  the ’94 and ’95 clubs were legendary, with names like Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Eddie Murray, Carlos Baerga, and Jim Thome on the line up card.  They also had gold glove winners in Omar Vizquel and Kenny Lofton taking away hits from the opposition, as well as a strong pitching staff that included Dennis Martinez, Orel Hershiser, Charles Nagy and Jose Mesa.

In 2001, Lofton and Vizquel were joined by gold glover Roberto Alomar.  Alomar and Vizquel dazzled on a daily basis, making for arguably the best middle infield pairing in MLB history.  Alomar also led a powerful offense alongside Thome and Juan Gonzalez. Bartolo Colon, C.C. Sabathia and Bob Wickman solidified the pitching staff.

The ’05 and ’07 squads had power bats of Travis Hafner, Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore (who was a gold glover). In ’05, Sabathia, Cliff Lee and Jake Westbrook combined for 48 wins.  In ’07, Sabathia and Fausto Carmona each won 19 games, while Joe Borowski had 45 saves.

So does the 2016 Indians have the streak and balance of these successful streakers of years past, or was this hot run just a high point in a rollercoaster ride to mediocrity?

Click here to read part 2.

follow on twitter:  @macaljancic