Shut Up, Mel

I'm hesitant to watch Sportscenter these days. Anybody who tells you there isn't an East Coast media bias is either lying or roots for the Yanks or the Sox. I’m not saying that Alex Rodriguez doesn’t deserve the coverage or the praise at the moment because he certainly does. What he’s doing is historic and basically just freaking loco. I just don’t need to see it 24/7 while there are plenty of other fine games being played by actual baseball players (there is more than one you know). My point is, showing five yankee games in six days on national television is just disgusting. Oh well, there’s always hockey…oh wait, no there isn’t. Great.

The NHL playoffs are on and all ESPN wants to talk about is count how many times they’ll be wrong about the draft this year. And no Mel Kiper, I don't care if the Houston “didn’t draft Vince Young” Texans are on the clock. No one ever calls that junk correctly, why not just watch? I’ve seen almost as much football analysis published the week before the draft as there was for the freaking Super Bowl.

On a side note, Joe Thomas is officially one of my favorite players entering the league this year. Rather than sitting around waiting for his number to get called in New York he's going fishing with his dad instead; good for him. Since when does baseball take a back seat to a sport that doesn’t even start its season for another four months? More on that another time…

I’m always curious what goes on in the locker room after an epic loss like the one Cleveland suffered in New York (yeah, that one). Do the players just shuffle back to their lockers quietly? Does Blake lock himself in the video room with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and his Bill Emanski videos? Does Slider throw a chair through the wall? Who knows, but I bet it’d be interesting to listen in.

I don’t know what’s gotten into the Indians lately though, but it looks like the offense is finally starting to shake off the rust. Cleveland (12-7) has won five in a row and six of their last seven after getting their ass kicked in the Bronx. They are currently 6-1 in series so far and currently sit atop the toughest division in baseball. Cleveland has averaged over 6 runs a game during that stretch, including their most impressive win this season against Johan Santana, at Minnesota. The defense is still a major concern, but the pitching has looked pretty sharp as of late. I think the fact that Joe Borowski shares the league lead in saves (8), with a 9.90 ERA pretty much sums up the season so far.

It’s been ugly, but the team is still finding ways to win. It's difficult to say what this precludes at this point; hard to imagine how good this team could be once the offense, defense, and pitching start running in sync.