The Cleveland Indians just might be on to something. As is recognizing your strengths and moving to improve your weaknesses. As it turns out, signing very good baseball players for reasonable terms is good for business also.

Last season, Cleveland started out well but couldn’t maintain their strong play through the long summer. A team which excelled at getting on base, the 2012 Indians lacked the power to drive those runners home. On May 21st, 2012, Cleveland found themselves in the exact spot they currently sit: first place in the American League Central division.

But this isn’t your slightly older twin brother’s Indians. The upgrades the team made over the off-season and the further development of their homegrown talent suggests this Cleveland team might be a little bit closer to “authentic contender.”

Maybe.

Read the rest of this entry »

After weeks of virtually nothing happening, the Bryan Colangelo saga and ensuing search for a possible replacement has really ramped up this long weekend. With today being the deadline for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to make a decision on Colangelo, we seem to be reaching a climax…

The MLSE had been negotiating with Raptors president Bryan Colangelo over weekend on a return in a “significant” capacity, sources tell Y!

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 20, 2013

The MLSE remains in full pursuit of Denver GM Masai Ujiri to assume full control of Raptors, sources tell Y!

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 20, 2013

Colangelo’s finalizing agreement to move over to business side, leaving basketball ops. Ownership preparing major financial offer for Ujiri.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 20, 2013

(My favourite part of this is Woj referring to MLSE as “The” MLSE like The Iron Sheik would)

Read the rest of this entry »

The craziest part about this play is that it absolutely works. Well, actually wait, that’s not true – the crazy part is having the presence of mind and the stones to try it from a scoring situation, which you don’t get a ton of in a game.

But it does make sense; it allows him to pull the puck back from the defender’s stick, and get his stick in a position to make the pass.

Again, that’s Max Domi, Tie Domi’s son. Apparently he plays a bit more of a skill game.

(S/t @DLDels, Sportsnet)

Just announced live by Florentino Perez on Real Madrid TV. So something everyone knew was happening is now official. The trick though is the mutual consent bit. As Rob Harris Tweeted (speculatively but this is a dirty business):

Mourinho leaving Real Madrid at the end of the season after mutual agreement struck. So Chelsea wouldn’t have to pay compensation

— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) May 20, 2013

And that smacks of a gentleman’s agreement. So Mou moves on! Now all eyes on Stamford Bridge. At the risk of editorializing (ha!), I really think Real Madrid are out of the frying pan and into the fire here, but it was clear that Mourinho’s position was untenable. Good luck finding a manager that will manage his achievements with the club in La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.

Remember earlier this morning when I wrote about the great Rob Gronkowski problem of 2013? Now that his fourth forearm surgery is officially scheduled for next week, there was optimism that he’ll be fine for your fantasy drafts in August. Even though there’s still significant risk that comes with a Gronk pick, it’s balanced by the far more significant reward.

Yeah, about that.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday’s episode of “The Fix” x “The Overdose,” The Jones preview and predict the Western Conference Finals before discussing George Hill’s injury, Woodson finally playing Chris Copeland, guys that have boosted their free agency stocks, whether Paul Pierce has played his last game in a Celtics uniform, the Kings staying in Sacramento, and the NBA’s best and worst mascots.

All that, plus swirling winds, “The Office,” tiny “Baby Birdman,” and more on crepes.

*********

Subscribe to The Basketball Jones show on iTunes | Download the .mp3 directly

It’s times like these when sports and social media come together to make something awesome happen. Pro Golfer, rapper and avid Twitter user Ben Crane is participating in the HP Byron Nelson Championship and decided to give his regular caddy a day off and look for a replacement on Twitter:

Thinking of giving my caddy @joelstock the day off tomorrow at the HP Byron Nelson Champ ProAm. Anyone want to carry my bag for the day?

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) May 14, 2013

He got some good responses, but in the end, Twitter user Morgan Johnson, a former ACU golfer who was celebrating his birthday won.

@bencranegolf former acu golfer. Just graduated from college and live in Rowlett. Oh and my birthday is tomorrow. #caddyforcrane

— Morgan Johnson (@MojoGolfNG360) May 14, 2013

The pic and the tweet to prove it.

New tagline for @twitter: “Instantly connect to what’s most important to you…& hire a ProAm caddy” @mojogolfng360 twitter.com/bencranegolf/s…

— Ben Crane (@bencranegolf) May 15, 2013

During my summers off while I was in university, I had a range of horrible jobs: laborer at a gun factory, framer for a residential development, junior member of a concrete cutting crew. During breaks from the often exhausting and always demoralizing duties, I would sit around with the other workers, and together, we’d remind ourselves of the virtues of working with our hands and being able to work toward a visible accomplishment on a day-to-day basis.

While there is certainly some merit to believing such traits to be beneficial, we mostly elevated the glory of our menial tasks for the purpose of justifying our current state and forgetting the bad decisions that led us to physical labor as a livelihood. In addition to fooling ourselves in this manner, we’d mock office workers, imagining their professions to be less honorable than our own.

“How can they feel any measure of self-worth?” we’d ask ourselves.

Ten years later, as part of my job, I would embed a YouTube clip of a Callaway Golf executive putting a golf ball down two sets of staggered stairs and into a cup. If my former co-workers could only see me now.

A seat at the 19th hole for Shane Bacon of the Devil Ball golf blog.