I used to be a very random writer.
The number of subjects I'd bounce around from was absurd. I was also probably more opinionated in the past as well, more likely to tell you just how stupid something was to me.
Well, today is your lucky day if you've missed those days. See, today, I have a few thinks to rant about, albeit mostly sports-related items, so I'm going to go on a little rant on things from the continued talk of LeBron James, Tim Tebow, the NBA lockout, Urban Meyer possibly coaching at OSU, the declining of Grady Sizemore's option year, and the Kardashians, since I had to have one non-sports related topic in here.
Of course I'm prone to thinking of more items, but the ones I wanted to hit on are written down already, so any additional topics would be bonuses.
And given the economy, that's probably the best bonus you're going to get.
Things I don't care about
LeBron James
This one irks me. The guy left over a year ago. He didn't win a championship, in fact, he failed in a more grand fashion than ever as he consistently came up short in the playoffs. In fact, if it weren't for Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the Heat would've flamed out before the Eastern Conference Finals. He consistently disappeared in the fourth quarter of games and was turnover-prone even more than usual.
So why do people in Cleveland still talk about him? I get that this town more than others holds grudges longer. Consider that many still were cold in regards to Jim Thome coming back to the Indians at the end of the last season. We just have a hard time letting go, and since James was perhaps the most gifted athlete since Jim Brown to come to Cleveland, it's made the resentment that much worse.
Maybe it's the fact that the Cavs were the best shot at a sports title with James, and if the best player in the league couldn't deliver a championship for the city, who can?
More likely, it's the fact that he went on national tv to announce where he was going after parading various team executives into Akron to try to convince him to sign with them (this ties in with the lockout that I could care less about later). It was bad enough he left, but he did so in an hour-long special that also managed to turn a large number of people away from ESPN in the process.
The media here hasn't been able to let go either. Almost weekly there is some kind of article on Cleveland.com documenting what he did, or what the Miami Heat are doing, or how the lockout affects his chance at a championship this year.
Personally, I don't care what he's doing. Sure, I rooted against the Heat in the playoffs, taking particular joy when they made it to the Finals only to lose, but ultimately, my world wasn't going to come to an end because they won a title. I actually have always liked Wade. The guy is fearless and clutch, which will be the reason why the Heat win a title in the future.
So let it go Cleveland, let it go.
Peyton Hillis
On the list of things that's been carried way too far, the drama with Peyton Hillis is near the top. Ever since he was held out of a game because of strep, he's been a topic of discussion, first because the Browns were going to give him a new contract, then because he didn't play, then because they couldn't reach an agreement, then because he was hardly playing in the games he was in, to the most recent bit of controversy.
Seems that Hillis skipped out on a charity function recently. In my true "I could care less" fashion, I have no idea what function or what the circumstances are. I don't care. Does it make him look bad? Maybe, but really until the details of why he skipped out are revealed, I'm not the type to judge.
I also don't think the team is "punishing" him by sitting him so much. I think the guy is legitimately hurt. Let's face it: the type of year he had last year was amazing, but by the end he was not nearly as effective due to injuries and teams loading up to stop him. And fact is, injuries happen to everyone, not just the smaller players. I think the Browns would love to use the guy, but he can't stay healthy and it's partly because of last year, and partly because of the lockout.
In the end, what he does in his personal time is none of my business or anyone else's. One radio host was actually taking Joe Haden to task today because Haden skipped a radio appearance to show up at a charity event, mostly because this host had been announcing all day the day before that Haden was going to be appearing somewhere. He was worried that it made him look bad, well too bad. Haden is allowed to do that. So deal with it.
In the meantime, everyone get off of Hillis's back. There are still 9 games to play this year. Let's see how it plays out.
That said, a year makes all the difference. A year ago, fans were fawning over Hillis. Now they're calling him names and hoping the team gets rid of him.
Tim Tebow
I never liked Tim Tebow. I'm gonna come clean with that right now. Therefore, I've cared very little for him since he took off while at the University of Florida. I never thought he would translate into a bonafide NFL quarterback and really was hoping that he would fail before he even started.
Somehow, someway, he managed to get drafted by the Denver Broncos, in the first round even. Then he struggled to make the team, yet by the end of the season, he was starting and playing semi-kinda-reasonably well. Then it was back to back-up status at the start of this season, even ending up third on the depth chart behind Kyle Orton (who always seems to get thrown under the bus) and Brady Quinn (we all know his story). Some thought he would get cut.
Last week was his second start this season. He was hit early, often, and hard. At the end, unnamed Detroit Lions players were laughing that he was the quarterback, saying that hitting him became boring in the third quarter. The polarizing quarterback was under scrutiny again.
Tebow, well, some don't like him because he is very upfront about his faith in God. That's the wrong reason to hate anyone. It's commendable in fact that someone in his position is willing to talk about his religious faith as openly as Tebow without linking it to his recent play on the field (which many athletes are guilty of doing; some only mention God after making a spectacular play).
Others, like me, just don't see how he cuts it as a quarterback. He doesn't throw the ball well and all he did in college really was quarterback sneaks, which somehow, someway, almost always managed to work. In fact, he was able to use that in his previous start against the Dolphins, who showed just how pathetic they really are in losing that game the way they did.
By all accounts, Tebow is a nice guy. But unless the Browns are playing the Broncos, I really don't care to hear all about him and what he did on the field.
The NBA Lockout
This saddens me to say, but I used to be a huge basketball fan. Back when I was a kid in the late 80's and early 90's, I was a HUGE Cleveland Cavaliers fan. My favorite player was Mark Price, but I could watch Brad Daugherty, Larry Nance, Craig Ehlo, and Hot Rod Williams all day as well. Those Cavalier teams played in the Richfield Coliseum, which was an eternity from Cleveland, but was a great home court advantage. If it weren't for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the Cavs could've easily won at least one championship in those years.
But they didn't. And until LeBron James, the Cavs were never a serious threat again. Then he left and they became the laughingstock of the league again.
In a way, I still do love basketball. I love getting on to the court to play, although it's been a while now. But watching it doesn't excite me as much, and Rachel knows why as we had a very lengthy discussion about basketball's problem.
The players are wimps.
The star players are the worst too. If they get tapped, they scream bloody murder if the referee doesn't blow their whistle. If they get called for a foul, they scream bloodier murder, even if the replay shows them slapping the guy across the face while tripping him while punching him in the kidney. The player with the ball is never getting the calls in his favor and the guys without the ball never committed a foul.
That's been the best part of the lockout. I don't have to see players prance around like little girls because the ref blew the whistle on them.
Basketball was at its best in the 80's and early 90's. Back then, you could slap a guy a few times, "accidentally" hip-check someone into the front row, or almost kill another player, and the ref will just say "play on" as if nothing happened. That's when the game was physical, rough, and it wasn't uncommon for players to bleed.
Now? Accidentally running into another player earns you a flagrant foul and potential ejection, even if you were going after the ball.
Don't get me wrong, I still want to be able to watch basketball, but I'll be more than content to watch college hoops once the season starts. The lockout has been so obnoxious (quit fighting over money when the average fan can't afford to go to your game!) that I'm almost oblivious. Most years, I knew when the opening game was. This year? I had no idea it was supposed to open tonight.
To that, I say "meh."
Urban Meyer
This is another example of fans wanting what they don't have.
Luke Fickell was announced as Ohio State's head football coach in the aftermath of Jim Tressel "resigning" and later Terrell Pryor defecting to the NFL. He was given a roster missing several players due to suspension. He was forced to decide between a veteran quarterback who had no idea where the ball was going when he threw it, or a freshman quarterback who would get a deer in headlights look.
In short, he never had a fair chance this year. Fans expected the Buckeyes to roll over everyone like they always have despite the turmoil, and when they didn't, fans lost it. Losing to the Hurricanes the way they did on national tv was an embarrassment. Losing to Michigan State was excruciating. Losing to Nebraska was heartbreaking. Fans went from thinking Big Ten Championship to talking about Urban Meyer being the next coach because Fickell didn't know what he was doing.
Look, Meyer was a great coach at Florida, but his coaching career shows he hangs around for a while, then abrubtly leaves. He may bring something extra to recruiting, but from listening to him in the broadcast booth, he doesn't seem all that interested in coaching at this point in time. If the Buckeyes hired Fickell to "get them through" the sanctions and suspensions, then they've done Fickell a great disservice, especially given him being a former player with the Buckeyes.
In short, I don't want to hear about Meyer. He's not the coach of the Buckeyes. Fickell is until he's fired or quits. There seems to be an obsession with fans over who isn't with a team as opposed to who's actually on it.
In short, I could care less about Meyer.
The Kardashians
I'm not a fan of reality tv. I'm not a fan of pseudo-celebrity reality tv. So seeing reports on ESPN Cleveland and ESPN about the divorce of Kim Kardashian and Chris Humphreys (granted, an NBA player; a low-end NBA player, but still), I lost interest immediately. Granted, I read enough to see that it ended after only 72 days (really?), but that was the only thing that made it noteworthy to me.
In general, I'm not a celebrity follower. I don't care where people go, what they eat, who they're seen with, or how they ended up in jail. I don't care about their personal lives one bit. I've watched maybe a grand total of 15 minutes of the Kardashian show on E!. I can't justify spending a lot of time on a show like that.
I know I go against a majority of people in saying that though and really, there isn't anything wrong with anyone who likes watching shows like that. I just don't care for them. The things people on those shows complain about would be great problems for me to have if you ask me.
Parenting
This is one I just thought of, mostly because of a conversation I had with Rachel last night.
I could care less how someone else is doing something.
Let's say you were raising a child and you wanted your child to no longer use a bottle and told everyone involved with watching the child that they aren't to be given bottles anymore. Now let's assume everyone goes along with it (as they should, since you are the parent and it's your call). You think everything's fine and dandy until one day you find out that someone is still giving your child a bottle.
So you go and you ask them about this and they say they have been. You then explain why you don't want your child using a bottle and to stop it. Want to know how NOT to answer?
"Well so and so's pediatrician says it's fine for their child."
You'd be able to see the steam coming from my ears if that happened to me. As I stated last night, I don't care what pediatrician said to what person about any child. I'm not that person, that isn't my child's pediatrician, and it's a different child. I do NOT care what someone else is doing. This is what I desire for my child and I suggest you follow it.
This applies to a number of situations though. I've always hated when someone says something is fine for them or someone else when I'm having an issue or don't agree with it.
The main point though is when it comes to a parent and the child, what the parent desires should be followed. If someone doesn't like it, well, tough.
Grady Sizemore
This isn't so much a rant about not caring about Grady Sizemore as it is a reflection on what could've been a great career.
Let's start by saying Sizemore is not as good as some have portrayed him to be, but he also wasn't as bad as some wanted to say he was either. In short, he was a player that a lot of people liked because he always went all out, whether it be crashing into the wall, diving at will, sliding hard to break-up a double play, or even leg-out a double-play grounder.
He was a guy who could hit for power, steal bases, and take hits away in the outfield. He never took a play off and when he was hitting well, he was a doubles machine. Unfortunately, he had a tendency to strikeout a lot and never had a strong arm in the outfield. He was most comfortable leading off even though he should've been hitting in the middle of the order.
From 2005 through 2008, he was durable. In that time, he missed a grand total of 9 games. He didn't get hurt and you had to tear him off the playing field if you wanted to rest him. He was the heart and soul of a young team.
It caught up to him though.
In the next three seasons, he missed 276 games due to various injuries, leading to the Indians to decline his $9 million option for next season. Some are lamenting it, saying he has a chance at returning to form. They could be right, but given that he's had microfracture surgery, he likely will never recover the burst that made him such a dangerous player. When he wasn't hitting for average and walking much, he made up for it with home runs, doubles, and stolen bases. The power may still be there, but the doubles and steals won't be, making him less valuable.
The Indians, if you ask me, made the right decision. They can now try to resign him for less money and give him a chance to show that he can return to health, or he'll latch on with another team thinking the same thing. He may even come back to haunt the Indians some day.
That doesn't seem likely.
In the end, Grady wasn't a great player, but he wasn't terrible either.
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