Life at the top

No one can guarantee that the White Sox will win another World Series in the next few years, but they certainly are setting themselves up to dominate the AL Central for the foreseeable future.
While the rest of the division is standing pat or making marginal improvements, Chicago has gone out and bolstered their championship roster with big names.
Jim Thome was added in a trade with the Phillies last month. Today, the White Sox added Javier Vazquez to their starting rotation in a trade with Arizona.
The largest price they paid? Aaron Rowand to Philadelphia and Orlando Hernandez to Arizona.
Did I mention they kept free agent slugger Paul Konerko, too?
While the Tigers keep attempting to crawl out of the muck of previous regimes' bad management, and the Indians, Twins and Royals are handcuffed with extremely limited finances, the White Sox have gone out and made the few bold brushstrokes that will ensure "Chicago" will be the name at the top of the AL Central standing for most of 2006 and possibly 2007.
There is a catch. Sooner or later, Thome's contract will be an albatross as he gets older and more injury-prone. Sooner or later, all these big names and big contracts will take their toll, and toward the end of the decade, Chicago will likely have to do some payroll-trimming.
But heck, if they get another world championship or two out of this cast of characters and go down in history as the "team of the 2000s," they will have gotten their use out of them.
The good jobs Cleveland and Minnesota have done in building up their farm systems should keep some semblance of competitive balance in the division. In other words, Chicago probably won't be able to pencil themselves in as division champs on April 1, as the Indians did so often in the '90s.
But the White Sox have the most resources in the division, and they have the rings, which means a predictable bump in attendance and merchandise sales. So while the rest of the division, sans Detroit, is dealing in "Monopoly" money, the White Sox will consistently have the ammo to go out and make meaningful acquisitions. And that will probably be the difference maker come September and October.
If you are a fan of the Indians, Twins, Tigers or Royals, be thankful for the wild card. It might be your team's only chance at the postseason for the time being.

Cavs and Ron Artest

How times have changed. The Cavaliers used to be a black hole players tried their hardest to stay away from. Now, when a mercurial all star wants to be traded from his current team, he calls the Cavs by name.
Ron Artest recently told the Pacers he wants to be traded, and the reaction of the Indiana front office seems to be, "With pleasure."
The Pacers stuck by Artest through all his antics, his request to take time off to produce a rap album, and most notoriously, his 73-game suspension last season for igniting the worst fan-involved brawl in NBA history. I don't blame the Pacers, a class organization, for treating Artest's desire to defect as the last straw.
In making his trade request, Artest reportedly said he'd like to be traded to the Cavs, or to his hometown Knicks. The Pacers, meanwhile, might be exploring an Artest-for-Peja Stojakovic swap with Sacramento.
With regard to the Cavs, he reportedly said he'd "love to come off the bench behind LeBron James."
I admit, the prospect of Ron Artest on the Cavs is an intriguing one. The Cavs have been struggling defensively, and Artest was the 2004 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. With Artest in the lineup, Cleveland's league-worst defense against the three-point shot would be bound to improve.
Artest and Cavs coach Mike Brown have a working history. Artest was Brown's star pupil in Indiana, where Brown was the architect of one of the NBA's best defenses prior to landing the Cavs' head coaching job.
But selfish, mercurial sorts like Artest have a history of quickly wearing out their welcome in Cleveland. Albert Belle was gone by 1997 after the Indians made a half-hearted attempt to keep him in free agency. Milton Bradley was quickly traded in spring training 2004 after he was yanked out of a game for dogging it, then ditched the team via taxi.
Jeff McInnis wasn't even offered a contract by the Cavs after the way he finished last season.
Unlike Bradley or McInnis, Artest gives his game maximum effort every time he is on the floor. When he steps onto the court, winning matters to him more than just about anything. That, and his excellent skills at both ends of the floor, are the two most compelling reasons to want Artest on your team.
But Artest's horrible temper and sense of judgment that borders on batty are always simmering just below the surface. In a way, he is Milton Bradley with a large dose of Manny Ramirez mixed in. This season, he has by all accounts been a model citizen. But that didn't stop him from having the words "tru warier" carved into his hair for no apparent reason.
He is as unpredicatble as a mine field. One day, he is a good soldier. The next, he gets into a fight or decides he'd rather be P. Diddy than an NBA player. Those are the most compelling reasons to not want Artest on your team.
One has to wonder about the LeBron-Artest dynamic should Artest end up in Cleveland. If the No. 1 job of general manager Danny Ferry is to keep LeBron happy and do his best to ensure LeBron signs that big, fat contract extension the Cavs will likely slide under his nose next summer, Artest is a double-edged sword.
Winning is the staple ingredient to making sure LeBron stays a Cav for a long time. Right now, thanks to a lack of defense (the defense Artest could provide), the wins aren't coming.
But LeBron's happiness is also dependent on a healthy team environment, free of locker-room cancers and distractions from winning. That is the warning light pulsing when Artest walks into a room.
Artest could be the defensive yin to LeBron's offensive yang. He could raise the defensive bar for the Cavs and turn Cleveland into a team that prides itself on defense.
He could also be the selfish grenade that detonates the best team atmosphere the Cavs have had in quite some time. Buyer beware.
This could all be much ado about nothing. The Cavs would have to make it worth Indiana's while to trade Artest to a division rival. That probably couldn't be accomplished without getting a third team involved, like Sacramento.
We know LeBron, Larry Hughes, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Donyell Marshall are off limits in any trade. Damon Jones and Eric Snow would be tough to move because of their salaries. Trading Drew Gooden would open up a whole new hole in the front court. The Cavs are tapped out until 2009 with regard to trading first-roun draft picks.
There is one potential trump card the Cavs might have, however: Luke Jackson. Dangling Jackson as part of a three-team trade could entice the Pacers. Indiana team president Larry Bird likes Jackson. He even reportedly tried to move up on draft day 2004 to get Jackson, but he went to Cleveland with the 10th pick.
Jackson has been mired deep on Brown's bench for much of this season, and has provided limited production when he has played.

The Morning After: Cincinnati

Bengals 23, Browns 20
Record: 4-9
Divisional record: 0-4

See how much more natural a quarterback transition can be when a team has nothing to play for?
Charlie Frye was poised, confident, alert and mostly impressive in his second NFL start. And all it took was to play a playoff-bound team on the road in a game nobody really expected the Browns to compete in, let alone win.
Frye couldn't pull off the latter, but the competitive part was alive and well. His stats were warm-but-not-hot (16-for-24 passes, 138 yards, 14 rushing yards) but his poise dwarfed that of Bengals QB Carson Palmer, a potential Pro Bowler of USC pedigree.
Frye led the Browns on two touchdown drives, scrambling for one of them and finding Steve Heiden for the other. He looked resourceful for a rookie, avoiding sacks to find Antonio Bryant downfield on two occasions.
He wasn't able to completely pull off the look of a seasoned veteran, getting sacked twice for 14 yards, a week after Jacksonville planted him in the Cleveland Browns Stadium turf five times. He forced one pass that was intercepted by Bengals corner Deltha O'Neal, and forced another that should have been.
O'Neal leads the NFL with nine interceptions, and the Browns coaches should have red-flagged him for Frye since Wednesday.
There are still three games remaining, and plenty of time for the luster to wear off, but based on the first half against Jacksonville and Sunday's effort against Cincinnati, the Browns might finally have a keeper at QB. Frye won't put up glossy stats, but seems to inspire confidence in his teammates. Making something out of nothing as Frye did on several occasions Sunday will do that.
Frye is heady and doesn't try to remedy difficult situations by throwing harder, as gunslinger Luke McCown did last year. Hopefully the rookie mistakes will be just that for Frye, something he'll outgrow.
With Frye and Reuben Droughns, the Browns might have found the cornerstone players they have lacked since re-entering the NFL. Foundation players are the first essential in building a winner. You only need one or two to get things going in the right direction.

Up next: at Oakland, Sunday, 4 p.m. ET.

No defense for defense

There is an old axiom in pro basketball:
"The distance between the assistant's chair and the head coach's chair is the longest journey a man can take."
Mike Brown is finding that out firsthand.
Brought in over the summer to give the Cavaliers a defensive rudder, he has not done that through nearly six weeks of the season. The Cavs are defenisvely improved at times, but at the end of the day are still a poor defensive team, prone to missing assignments, running toward the ballhandler like sheep, and being as soft as an Oreo cookie inside.
They also rank dead last in the NBA in defending the three-pointer.
The Cavs sprinted out to a 9-2 start thanks in large part to blistering teams with their offense. But then, they lost a blowout to the Pacers on Thanksgiving night. The offense has cooled considerably since then, and the defense hasn't been able to pick up the slack.
They looked as bad defensively as they have all season in back-to-back losses to New Jersey Friday night (109-100) and Milwaukee last night (111-106). LeBron James scored 52 last night, an alarming throwback to last season's loss at Toronto when LeBron scored 56 and his teammates stood around and watched him.
Since Thanksgiving, Cleveland has a 2-6 record, including a 1-2 record at home, where they started the season 6-0.
Before I get too carried away with a forecast of doom and gloom, let me say I don't think the recent slide is due to incompetence on the part of Brown, or indifference on the part of his players. This is not a team of Jeff McInnises (Damon Jones possibly withstanding).
I think, however, there is some kind of communication breakdown between Brown and his players. Somehow, the message Brown is trying to convey is being lost in translation. And part of it might be due to Brown treating defense like quantum physics.
The Cavaliers beat reporter at my newspaper told me Brown fills blackboards upon blackboards with diagrams and minutiae at practice. It makes the media's eyes cross, so imagine what it does to Drew Gooden.
Assistant coaches spend years building up knowledge about basketball, so much that, if a college offered it, a lot of NBA assistants could probably earn a PhD in basketball theory.
Then an assistant becomes a head coach, and suddenly it becomes all about taking complex concepts and distilling it into a simpler format your garden-variety NBA jock can get his head around. That might be the transition Brown has yet to make.
Stephen Hawking wouldn't explain astrophysics to a group of high schoolers the same way he would explain astrophysics to an MIT symposium, would he?
Brown has to reach his players, educate them, then crack the whip and make them carry out his orders on the floor. It is a system of constant maintenance until the idea of dominating defense takes root and the Cavs begint to pride themselves on it.
Until then, we are probably going to be witness to more 110-point outputs by opposing teams. Here's hoping Brown makes his breakthrough before the Cavs careen too far down the standings in the East.

Ridiculously-long droughts

It's more than just the 41 years and 114 seasons the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers have gone without delivering a championship to Cleveland. The city has also endured a lot of individual sports droughts that droned (and continue to drone) on for way too long.
Much of it is a testament to the lack of star power on Cleveland teams the past 40 years, which in turn is a poor reflection on the management of the teams. But some of it is just luck. Dumb luck. And luck is pretty dumb work around these parts.
Below is a look at the how-low-can-you-go achievement famine that we've had to endure, along with the lack of championship banners.

Browns: 20 years without a 1,000-yard rusher (1985-2005)
Considering that this franchise cut its teeth on the rushing of Marion Motley and rose to prominence on the superlative legs of Jim Brown, going 20 years without a 1,000 yard rusher is utterly disgraceful.
(OK, statheads, it was actually 17 years because the team didn't exist from 1996 to 1998.)
Reuben Droughns broke the 1,000 yard barrier last week before a meteor could hit him and extend the streak to 21 years. Droughns is the most complete running back the Browns have had since Kevin Mack, who last broke the 1,000-yard barrier along with Earnest Byner in 1985.
Since then, the list of three-digit rushers included Leroy Hoard, Tommy Vardell, Eric Metcalf, Lee Suggs, William Green and the forgettable Terry Kirby experiment.

Cavaliers: 34 years without a 50-point game (1971-2005)
LeBron James is the obvious answer behind door No. 2, pouring in 56 in a loss to the Raptors last season. But how many people know the name of the only other Cavalier to score 50 in a game?
Austin Carr? Good guess. Bingo Smith? Nope. Jim Chones? Not a chance.
The answer is center Walt Wesley, who dropped in 50 on Feb. 19, 1971 during the Cavs' inaugural season.
I might add that team was 15-67, meaning the Cavs dont have a 50-point game in a playoff season.

Indians: 25 years without hitting for the cycle (1978-2003)
When Travis Hafner broke the quarter-century drought on Aug. 14, 2003, it was within hours that the largest blackout in American history began. Coincidence, or this week's signs that the Apocalypse is nigh?
Andre Thornton was the last Indian to hit for the cycle on April 22, 1978. Between Thornton and Hafner, 80 times a player hit for the cycle (a single, double, triple and homer for the unindoctrinated).
the Indians didn't have the longest drought going at the time of Hafner's cycle, which is some small cause for relief. That honor goes to the Dodgers, who have gone 35 years (Wes Parker, May 7, 1970).
Other lengthy cycle droughts include the Orioles (Cal Ripken Jr., May 6, 1984), the Braves (Albert Hall, Sept. 23, 1987), the Twins (Kirby Puckett, Aug. 1, 1986), the Reds (Eric Davis, June 2, 1989) and the Royals (George Brett, July 25, 1990).

Indians: 24 years without a no-hitter (1981-present)
Len Barker is a legend in Cleveland. He isn't a legend anywhere else, but in Cleveland, everyone remembers May 15, 1981. Everyone remembers Rick Manning leaping up and down after catching the final out of Barker's perfect game against Toronto.
Every May 15, at least one sportscaster commemorates the occasion by saying, "If everyone who said they were there there that night actually were there, Cleveland Stadium would have held 300,000 people."
Since then, there have been a couple blips on the radar. Bartolo Colon took a no-no into the eighth inning against the Yankees in 2000, and Billy Traber one-hit the Yankees in 2003, but no cigar.
Prior to Barker's perfecto, the story was much different. Indians pitcher achieved three no-hitters between 1966 and 1977. Sonny Siebert blanked the Senators on June 10, 1966, Dick Bosman blanked the A's on July 19, 1974 and Dennis Eckersley goose-egged the Angels on May 30, 1977.
Since Barker's perfect game, the rest of Major League Baseball has combined to produce 53 no hitters, the most recent being Randy Johnson's perfect game in 2004.
The Indians were last the victims of a no-hitter in 1993, when they were handled by the Yankees' Jim Abbott.

What about Bob?

To quote a Richard Dreyfus line from the movie:
"Bob's not gone. Bob's NEVER gone!"
Despite the fact that, like Dreyfus to Bill Murray's skittish, obsessive-compulsive character, everybody in Cleveland seems to want Bob Wickman gone.
But he never is. We in Cleveland just don't know what's good for us. That includes the Indians front office, which is supposed to be the voice of reason when fans and the media get star-struck by the idea of stitching a big name across the back of an Indians jersey.
For the past two years, the Indians have neglected Wickman to chase after Armando Benitez, Dustin Hermanson, B.J. Ryan and Trevor Hoffman. But the sexy names keep turining them down. In Hoffman's case, he turned away a Cleveland offer that smacked of desperation: three years and $22 million to a 38-year-old closer.
Zach is right. Wickman has every right in the world to be humiliated. The Indians have done everything short of coming out and telling Wickman "we think we can do better than you."
But Wickman, who quickly re-signed for one year and $5 million after Hoffman spurned the Indians, keeps standing by, the trusty fallback. He's overweight, doesn't strike many hitters out, and has mastered the shaky save in ways Mitch Williams can only dream about. But when the game is on the line, he figures out ways to convert saves, to the tune of 45 last year.
When you get right down to it, what more can you want than what Wickman has delivered? He's hard to rattle, has an extensive knowledge about how to pitch (a rare quality in the rear-back-and-heave-it world of short relief) and can even resort to trickery (reference last year's intentional balk against the Angels).
But all Cleveland and the Indians can seem to muster is "oh, it's you again" when Wickman re-signs.
I can't help but think that if another pitcher notched 45 saves for the Indians, he'd be certified as a franchise player and fans would revolt if the Indians even considered not bringing him back.
But because Wickman is his usual, steady, non-glamorous self, we all somehow view him as second-rate.
The good news is, Wickman doesn't care what you think. He doesn't care what the media thinks. He might not even care what Mark Shapiro thinks. And, come summer, when we're all griping about how many runners he lets on base, Wickman will still be there, saving games for the Indians.

That one team

Why do offseasons in baseball seem to go the route of "The Posiedon Adventure?"
One money-engorged middle market team goes berserk and makes a couple of through-the-roof signings, and suddenly everybody panics.
In past years, it has been the Dodgers (Kevin Brown, Shawn Green, Darren Dreifort), the Rangers (Alex Rodriguez, Chan Ho Park) and Phillies (Jim Thome, David Bell) warping the free-agent market, overpaying for mediocre talent (or in the case of A-Rod, vastly overpaying for great talent), driving up the asking price for every other free agent.
This year, it's the Blue Jays. Dripping with cash for the first time in a few years and eager to create a fan-base buzz, the mediocre Jays have made B.J Ryan, a one-year closer who saved 36 games last year, the highest-paid reliever in baseball.
Ryan, at $47 million over five years, will make more than Mariano Rivera next year. More than Billy Wagner. More than Eric Gagne.
Tuesday, The Jays practically drowned in their own drool in shoving a five-year, $55 million contract under the nose of starting pitcher A.J. Burnett, which he promptly accepted.
Burnett is this year's Carl Pavano, a former Marlins pitcher with an inflated reputation who just nabbed a market-setting contract. Pavano has proven to be a good, but not great, starter for the Yankees. Here's believing the same will happen with Burnett in Toronto.
Now, I want the Indians to re-sign Kevin Millwood as much as the next Clevelander. But does it make sense that Burnett, a relatively young pitcher whose postseason experience is limited to one middle-rotation gig during the Marlins' World Series title in 2003, is slated to make more than Millwood, a veteran hurler who learned from pitching guru Leo Mazzone in Atlanta, was teammates with future hall of famers Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, and won an ERA title with the Indians this year?
This is the madness of offseason baseball. For some reason, Burnett and Ryan were considered fashionable in a weak market, and the Blue Jays were eager to flaunt some cash.
But there's a caveat, a conscience that should be whispering in the ear of Toronto management after vastly inflating their payroll while adding just two players.
Learn the lesson of the Dodgers, who couldn't wait to dump the reaminder of Brown's seven-year, $105 million contract on the Yankees two years ago after Brown's pitching elbow finally failed him. Learn the lesson of the Rangers, who woke up one morning and realized the record $252 million contract they gave A-Rod in 2000 was suffocating their team financially. They are now paying the Yankees $9 million a year for the favor of taking A-Rod off their hands in 2004.
Learn the lesson of the Phillies, who didn't want to pay Thome and his unraveling back anymore, and shipped him to the White Sox.
In three years, that could be you, Toronto. Don't say you weren't warned.

To remember -- December 7, 1941

Each year, fewer and fewer people remain who were alive when Japanese bombers struck Pearl Harbor, Hawaii early that Sunday morning 64 years ago. But it was such a tragic -- and important -- day in our nation's history.
Thousands of Americans died that day. We were slammed headlong into World War II, and suddenly became a major player on the worldwide stage.
One might argue that Dec. 7, 1941 caused the United States to become a world superpower.
If you are a 20-something like me, and you still have grandparents alive, talk to them about the war, about life during the war. Record your conversations with them as an oral history. Do it while you still can. They are a link to a time in our country's history which is quickly slipping away.

Byrd in hand

The Indians finally made their first free-agent splash. And guess what? It's a multi-year contract.
Paul Byrd won't turn many heads or many turnstiles. But Byrd is a solid signing, particularly if the Indians add another veteran arm.
Byrd is a meat-and-potatoes pitcher with the swinging-arms retro windup to boot. For $14.25 million over the next two years, he'll provide the Indians with a Dave Burba-esque ability to pound the strike zone with his fastball and take hitters off the fastball with decent off-speed stuff.
But he shouldn't give up runs like Burba did. Blessed with an ability to keep the ball in the yard without a devastating sinker, he finished last year 12-11 with a sub-4.00 ERA. He also won the only game the Angels took in the ALCS, Game 1 in Chicago.
Byrd has playoff experience, pitching for Atlanta in 2004 prior to to the Angels last year.
Byrd is a former Indians farmhand who has bounced around during his career, from the Mets to the Royals, then onto the Braves and Angels.
As baseball's winter meeting unfold this week, the focus of Indians' GM Mark Shapiro now likely shifts to Padres closer Trevor Hoffman and Cubs infielder Nomar Garciaparra, both rumored to be high on Shapiro's free-agent wish list.
Bob Wickman is the trusty fallback should Shapiro not be able to reel in Hoffman.
A trade is also possible. Devil Rays outfielder Aubrey Huff is a name to remember.

The Morning After: Jacksonville

Jaguars 20, Browns 14
Record: 4-8

Any scrap of glory the Browns can snatch at the moment seems to come with a heavy price.
Reuben Droughns broke a ridiculously-long two decade drought without a 1,000-yard rusher when he went over the mark late in the second quarter Sunday.
The price? Braylon Edwards tore a ligament in his knee in the fourth quarter. He left the field on a cart, will certainly miss the remainder of this season, and could miss a large chunk of next season.
It is another chapter in along spell of horrible luck to befall Browns first-round draft picks, one of whom is not currently in football (Tim Couch), two of whom are trying to reclaim their careers elsewhere (Courtney Brown, Gerard Warren), and two whom are now going to be watching from the sidelines with leg braces (Edwards, Kellen Winslow Jr.)
Charile Frye got the start yesterday, made some good plays in the first half, struggled in the second half, and all in all looked like a rookie who might blossom into a solid starting quarterback with the proper tutoring.
Frye showed the elements that made him an NFL prospect in the first half. He is good at leaving the pocket, scramibling along the line of scrimmage and buying time until he finds a pass opportunity downfield. His arm isn't the quickest or strongest, but he can lay the ball in the air for a tall receiver to jump and snag, as demonstrated in his second-quarter touchdown heave to Edwards.
I am finally willing to relent to the Frye guys. Now is the time to hand the offense to Frye for the remainder of the season. With a 4-8 record, no Edwards, and a remaining slate that includes Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the season can now be certified as dead and buried.
This lost-cause situation was what I was waiting for. Now is the time for coach Romeo Crennel to turn Frye loose and see what he can do. The landscape of this April's draft will depend greatly on what Frye shows between now and the end of the season, since the Browns could draft in the top five-to-seven and have a shot at a top college QB, like USC's Matt Leinart or Texas' Vince Young.

Up next: at Cincinnati, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET

10-win month

For the first month of the season, the Cavaliers met LeBron James' goal of 10 wins per month.
Sustaining that will be the challenge, particularly as the Cavs embark on a three-game West Coast swing to Seattle, Sacramento and Los Angeles to start December.
Achieving 10 wins in November probably wasn't an abberation, but how the Cavs reached the mark was.
Cleveland needed an eight-game winning streak in the middle of the month to reach the 10-win plateau. They needed a furious come-from-behind victory at Philadelphia and overtime wins in Orlando and last night against the Clippers.
Last night's 112-105 overtime win allowed the Cavs to finish November 10-4, the third time in franchise history they have won 10 games in the season's first month. The Cavs finished November with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference behind Detroit (11-2).

Below, I tell you what I learned about the 2005-06 Cavaliers in the season's first month.

1. The Cavs still aren't a top-echelon team.
I don't think many people were expecting elite status out of the gates, but the Cavs still got a good barometer of how far they need to go to challenge for an NBA Finals berth.
Road games at San Antonio and Indiana were blowout losses as the Cavs had no way to defend the speedy guards of the Spurs and the pinpoint jump shooting of the Pacers. Indiana in particular showed how stingy defense can stifle and frustrate a loaded offensive team. The Cavs are at their best when LeBron and Larry Hughes are running the floor, and they kept both caged on Thanksgiving night.
The Cavs are going to have to learn to fight fire with fire, locking down on their defensive end when a good defensive opponent is clamping off scoring chances. An 80-75 win is still a win.

2. Having said that, this team is improved defensively.
You only need look at the fourth quarter last night to see how this team is buying into coach Mike Brown's defensive playbook. The Cavs coughed up the lead midway through the fourth quarter, but hung tough and tied the game on a Donyell Marshall three-point play with less than a minute remaining. Zydrunas Ilgauskas challenged Elton Brand at the buzzer without fouling, and the Cavs forced overtime.

3. Larry Hughes is a better fit than Michael Redd would have been.
Some perpetual skeptics bellyached that Hughes would just be a LeBron clone, that the Cavs didn't address their need for an outside shooter to compliment LeBron when they signed Hughes in July. But what is wrong with having two LeBrons?
Hughes is a heady player who gets his teammates involved and plays agile defense. In Cleveland's offense, Redd might have turned into a glorified Wesley Person, relegated to camping out on the three-point arc waiting for a kickout pass.
Hughes is a more dynamic and athletic player than Redd. He doesn't shoot it like Redd, but he does many other things better.

4. Brown will have to make sure it isn't all on LeBron.
For the most part, the Cavs have been playing as a team, sharing the ball, setting each other up, and doing all the minimal-ego cap-doffing that great teams are supposed to do. But during the Cavs' losses to Indiana and Minnesota, the same sandbagging alarms went off as at the end of last season, when LeBron's teammates did a lot of standing and watching of their prodigy teammate.
This team is a lot more veteran, and should be far more self-starting than previous editions of the Cavaliers. But Mike Brown must continue to emphasize team basketball. When you have a superstar for a teammate, it can be easy to view him as a safety net when the going gets tough. But only team effot is going to make this team elite.

5. This is fun.
I am sitting here trying to recount all the Browns free agent acquisitions worth a damn in the past seven years. I can't think of many. I am also sitting here with the knowledge that Bob Howry isn't coming back to the Indians, and Kevin Millwood probably isn't either.
Isn't it nice to have a Cleveland team reap the benefits of a spending spree for once, and not have to hear about blown chances or financial constraints?

On top of World

World B. Free might very well have saved basketball in Cleveland.
When Free arrived in a 1982 trade with Golden State, the Cavaliers were owned by Ted Stepien, who had turned the team into a laughing stock of sideshows and horrible basketball.
Stepien had allowed management to trade draft pick after draft pick away, many to the Dallas Mavericks. It got to the point that NBA Commissioner David Stern later implemented a rule to prevent other owners from jeopardizing their team's future they way Stepien did in Cleveland: no team can now trade first-round draft picks away in consecutive years.
Stepien tried to move the team to Toronto the year Free arrived. If not for an on-air tongue-lashing by legendary Cleveland sports yakker Pete Franklin, he might have succeeded.
Then Free arrived, George and Gordon Gund bought the team, and suddenly things looked up again.
Free was to the Cavs of the 1980s what LeBron James is to the current Cavs: a star, a drawing card, a franchise savior.
In four years with Cleveland, Free succeeded in returning the Cavs to respectability. Armed with a great outside shot and the cockiness to lead, he helped the Cavs rebound from a 2-19 start in 1984-85 to make the playoffs. His presence turned the vibe around the organization to a positive one, and helped make the Cavs an attractive place for accomplished NBA executive Wayne Embry and top-flight coach Lenny Wilkens to set up shop, paving the way for the successful Cleveland teams of the late '80s and early '90s.
Tonight at Quicken Loans Arena, Free will be there to feel the love during a halftime presentation, part of "World B. Free Night." It is something long overdue. Free will be the first to tell you that.
Free, now employed in the 76ers front office, has long felt slighted becaused his No. 21 doesn't hang from the arena rafters in Cleveland.
Free never won a championship for the Cavs. Heck, he never won a playoff series. But he has a point.
The Cavs have had a history of playing fast and loose with retiring numbers. A franchise that has never made it to the NBA Finals, and counts cups of coffee with past-prime stars Nate Thurmond and Walt Frazier as its only Hall of Famers, has retired six jersey numbers. All of them have little meaning outside Cleveland: Thurmond's No. 42, Austin Carr's No. 34, Bobby "Bingo" Smith's No. 7, Brad Daugherty's No.43, Mark Price's No. 25 and Larry Nance's No. 22.
Considering the precendent that has been set, Free has a right to be a bit miffed that his number isn't hanging from the rafters at The Q. Thurmond helped spur the Miracle of Richfield team of 1975-76, but he played only two seasons in Cleveland at the tail end of his career. Carr had terrible knees, was a good but not a great player, and is probably more valuable now as an organizational spokesman than he was as a player.
Smith was a dead-eye jump shooter right for his era. Price, Daugherty and Nance accomplished the most of any Cavs' trio, but they had each other.
Free was a one-man show who swooped in from the West Coast to make the Cavs legit again. He didn't have help at first. The help followed him.
For four years, Free was the Cleveland Cavaliers. Maybe retiring his number isn't a fitting enough tribute. Once a solid-gold statue of LeBron is erected outside The Q, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert should look into a nice bronze piece commemorating Free. To make it realistic, Free should be depicted crouched over like Atlas, carrying the entire Cavs organization on his back.

Well running dry

It's happening again, just like last off-season.
The Indians woo free agents with a bunch of pomp and circumstance to try and compensate for their lack of money. Then the free agents smile, nod and jump into the back of a Brinks truck that another team has prepared.
It happened last year with starting pitcher Matt Clement, who wasted no time accepting a lucrative offer from the Red Sox. Boston and their megabucks jumped into the fray after the Indians spent weeks painstakingly pursuing Clement.
The same thing happened this year with closer B.J. Ryan.
The Indians entertained Ryan and his wife Candi the week before Thanksgiving. They put his image on the Jacobs Field scoreboard wearing a digitally-placed Indians cap. General Manager Mark Shapiro wined and dined him.
Ryan accepted the hospitality with no reservation, then promptly went to Toronto and signed a five-year deal worth an estimated $47 million with the Blue Jays.
How much do you want to bet that on the plane ride out of Cleveland, Ryan and his agent were saying, "Cleveland? Hell, no. We know someone will offer more money."
Bob Howry certainly wasted no time in vacuuming up some of the big-market cash when he gobbled up a three-year, $12 million offer from the Cubs, leaving a hole in the Cleveland bullpen large enough to sink the Titanic again.
The Indians are quickly running out of options. Ryan and Howry, their best two closer options for next year, have now signed with other teams. Trevor Hoffman, in the sunset of a distinguished career, is probably the next-best available closer, but far from what he once was.
After him, the selection dulls dramatically, with Tom Gordon and Octavio Dotel as budget buys. Then there is the old, reliable standby Bob Wickman, who apparently hasn't made up his mind whether he even wants to return for another year.
Kevin Millwood is back home in Duluth, Ga. waiting to see who offers him what. In an article our paper ran today, he was quoted as saying "I guess it depends on what the owner does" when asked about his chances of returning to the Indians.
Translation: don't hold your breath. Millwood will likely go where the owner's pocketbook is greenest, which won't be Cleveland.
While pitcher after pitcher falls off the free agency board in rapid-fire succession, the Indians still haven't addressed the need to upgrade first base and/or right field. If Millwood, knowing he is the best or second-best starting pitcher on the market, forces teams to play a waiting game until January, all the decent first base and outfield options could be off the board.
If the Indians play along, saving their cash for Millwood, waiting on his decision even as all the other choice free agents find other homes, and Millwood leaves anyway, this off-season would be an unmitigated disaster. The Indians would be in serious danger of backsliding next year, plugging holes with more Casey Blakes.
No matter how much we, as fans, and the Indians front office, as negotiators, want to believe that smiles and handshakes matter, they don't in free agency. Money matters. Money is all that matters. Expensive dinners, video presentations, flower bouquets for the wife, it's all nice. But that all gets wadded up and thrown away at the negotiating table.
That's how a high-aspiring young team like the Indians always loses this time of year, and how the money-laden yet perennially-pathetic Mets land the likes of Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez and Billy Wagner.

The Morning After: Minnesota

Vikings 24, Browns 12
Record: 4-7

Let me relate two concerns I have about the Browns coaching staff:
I am concerned head coach Romeo Crennel is too passive, and offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon's mind grinds to a screeching halt whenever the Browns get in the red zone.
The Browns self-detonated a touchdown opportunity away at the end of the first half Sunday, and all we had to show for it was Crennel circling the wagons around his offensive coordinator after the game, employing selective memory about the half-ending flub when reporters asked him about it.
It is disturbingly Butch Davis-ish of Crennel, kind of like playing musical quarterbacks. Which is something else he did, yet again, on Sunday.
This time, it was even worse than the flip-flopping he showed in the Miami game. Trent Dilfer injured a leg, Charlie Frye came in, threw a pick, and Crennel decided Dilfer on one bad leg was better than Frye.
Which brings me back to the leadership issue.
I hope I am wrong about this, but Crennel and Carthon are starting to look like guys who don't want to have to make the tough choice. Crennel is wishy-washy and vague on committing to a QB, and Carthon, who looked so promising in the preseason, looks uncomfortable as the offensive shot-caller when a touchdown opportunity arises.
Carthon has looked terrified of making the wrong decision. It is something he hasn't had to do before. He was an offensive coordinator on a leash last year in Dallas. This year in Cleveland, he is the undisputed pilot of the offensive playbook.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel has his share of faults as a coach, but his cool head in tight, pressure-packed games is a big reason why he is 4-1 against Michigan and 3-1 in bowls. Tressel is a beacon of stability for his team because he exudes strong leadership without being a human volcano.
Former Cavaliers coach Lenny Wilkens is another example of strong-yet-stoic leadership.
Crennel's leadership looks stoic without the strong. Again, I hope I'm wrong about that.
It doesn't all fall on the shoulders of Crennel and Carthon, or defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. As I have said, as is blatantly obvious, this team has a lot of ground to make up on the NFL's contenders talentwise. But when a team with a veteran QB, 1,000-yard rusher-to-be and a supposedly-talented receiver corps is as dismal as the Browns are in the red zone, some off the heat should find its way to the sideline. The team reflects the leadership, after all.
Some coaches are practice masterminds. In an environment where the coach can control just about everything, they can sand and polish their rosters and playbooks to meet the spectacular visions in their minds. Judging by the reports of increased professionalism in the Browns' locker room and the fact that the Browns are still trying despite being two losses away from a losing season, I'd say Crennel is solid practice coach.
But put the finely-tuned concepts into a game environment, with 80,000 screaming fans, an opposing team and referees with glaucoma, and the luster can wear away quickly.
That's the jump Crennel is still in the process of making, and Carthon too. Being the head honcho at team headquarters is one thing, being the head honcho when thousands of pairs of eyes are boring holes in your skull is quite another.
I hope Crennel grows into someone who is up to the task.

Up next: Jacksonville, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET.

Sports on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the one day a year when being a couch potato is high art.
Other days of the year, couch potatoes are lazy and loathsome creatures (I know firsthand how it feels to be persecuted for enjoying a good movie on a beautiful Saturday afternoon).
But on Thanksgiving, stuffing your gut full of food and laying around like a beached whale is admirable. And, boy, did I reach for the summit yesterday.
It was a particularly appealing proposition because yesterday's Thanksgiving programming included 10 straight hours of marquee sporting events.
Well, sort of.
The early-afternoon football game featured the Lions hosting the Falcons. The late-afternoon football game featured the Cowboys and the Broncos. And the piece de resistance nightcap was on the hardcourt, with the Cavaliers in a nationally-televised game at Indiana.
Unfortunately, the watchability of the games varied. Below, I assign grades to the viewing experience yesterday's Thanksgiving sports selection gave me.
And, yes, the final one is a bit subjective. Just a bit.

12:30 p.m. ET
NFL -- Atlanta at Detroit: D
Why doesn't the NFL spread these Thanksgiving games around? Why do they subject us to watching the Lions, year after year?
I realize the Lions were 9-5 in their previous 14 Thanksgiving games heading into yesterday. But these 2005 Lions don't have Barry Sanders. Or a quarterback. Or much of anything, for that matter.
The Falcons came in and did what you'd expect a playoff contender to do to a perennial dreg: stomped them flat, 27-7.
And it wasn't even that close.
Joey Harrington was really, really bad (6-of-13 passing, 61 yards, 1 INT). He was so bad, Lions coach Steve Mariucci couldn't resist his itchy trigger finger and pulled Harrington in the second quarter for Jeff Garcia. Garcia fared little better, and the Lions stayed off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter when the game had been decided.
Third-string Detroit quarterback Dan Orlovsky relieved Garcia and and coughed up the ball with 15 seconds to play.
This game should have been buried deep on the Sunday slate with 10 percent of the country tuning in, not on national television with every male-dominated TV set in America tuned in.

4 p.m. ET
NFL -- Denver at Dallas: A
Everything that the Lions and Falcons couldn't deliver, the Broncos and Cowboys did. Two conference contenders in a hotly-contested game that went into overtime. Denver won, 24-21.
This game should have aired first while dinner was still in the oven. Instead, it aired just in time for moms across the Eastern time zone to say "Turn that TV off. Dinner's ready."
While you were eating, Ron Dayne was reclaiming his career. The Heisman Trophy winner was stuck with an underachiever stigma during his lackluster stay with the Giants. Now a member of the Broncos, he used a chest injury to starting running back Tatum Bell to his advantage, piling up 98 yards rushing, including a 55-yard run on the second play of overtime that set up Jason Elam's game-winning field goal.
The surprising Broncos improved to 9-2, winners of four straight.

8 p.m. ET
NBA -- Cleveland at Indiana: C
If you are a Pacers fan, this was a beautiful game and worthy of an "A". But I'm not.
The Pacers ... well ... paced the game. Using a stifling defense featuring Ron Artest, Indiana held LeBron James to four first-half points en route to a comfortable 98-76 win.
The Pacers were at their fundamental best at the defensive end, clogging passing lanes, closing quickly on the Cavs' open shots, harrassing Cleveland into poor shot selection, and all the while taking methodical and well-selected jump shots on the offensive end, making many of them.
The Pacers survived early foul trouble for Scot Pollard and Jermaine O'Neal, and showed how deep and solid their bench is.
The Cavs are a good team, but they have yet to arrive in the elite class occupied by Indiana, Detroit and San Antonio. I used much of the second half for post-turkey dozing off.

Thome to White Sox

If you didn't get a chance to cheer/boo Jim Thome in Cleveland, it looks like you will now.
FoxSports.com is reporting that the Phillies have agreed in principle to send Thome to the White Sox for a package that includes outfielder Aaron Rowand.
The deal would send Thome back to the AL Central and guarantee 19 meetings a year between Thome and his old buds in Tribetown.
The only caveat for the White Sox is that Thome appears to be heading down the same injury-plagued road that caused Chicago to cut ties with Frank Thomas after the World Series. He missed a huge chunk of last season, and has chronic back problems.
But if the White Sox re-sign Paul Konerko, the first base-DH combo of Thome and Konerko in the heart of the Chicago lineup ... well, it's unsettling for the other four teams in the Central.

Cavs on fire

Last spring's collapse for the Cavaliers still has me a bit guarded about getting totally swept up in their 9-2 start. It's only November, after all.
But there is no denying this is a vastly different team than the one that ended last season. It's not just the additions of Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones to the core of LeBron James annd Zydrunas Ilgauskas. It's the way coach Mike Brown is making it all come together.
To qualify as a better strategic coach than Paul Silas, Brown merely needed a clue as to how to use his players beyond LeBron. But Brown has more than a clue.
Brown has spent the first month of the season showing that the presence of Gregg Popovich and Rick Carlisle on his resume is more than window dressing.
Crisp rotations and aggressive play on defense has been the norm. Brown has also found a way to harness the wealth of offensive talent on the roster so that players are using their talent to make each other better.
Pass first, dribble second, shoot third seems to be Brown's offensive mantra. But he doesn't place paint-by-number restrictions on his players, particularly the multi-talented one-two punch of LeBron and Hughes.
If either player senses a mismatch or thinks he can penetrate, Brown lets them have at it. It worked like a charm Saturday in Philadelphia, when the pair rallied Cleveland from a 16-point deficit in the third quarter to a 123-120 win. Hughes finised with 37 points, LeBron with 36.
This is the system, the template for success I was soapboxing about last spring.
Having some cornerstones to hang your hat on gives a team multiple ways to win games. That wasn't the case last year, where the fortunes of the whole team rested almost totally on the play of LeBron and Z.
In Sautrday's win, and last night's 115-93 win over the Celtics, the Cavs were challenged. Last night, Boston used the shooting of Paul Pierce and Ricky Davis to stay hot on Cleveland's tail for most of the night. Brown's defensive schemes weren't stopping Boston's scorching duo.
In years past, the Cavs probably would have wilted and lost the game. This year, however, LeBron can pick and choose when he wants and needs to dominate, and opposing defenses can't focus solely on him.
LeBron beat back the Celtics by scoring the last 10 Cleveland points of the third quarter. Boston, within 10 poins for most of the night, were the ones that eventually wilted, and Cleveland notched its sixth straight blowout win at home.
Cleveland is winning games by an average of 20 points at home. Call it "Q-Juice."
We knew this team was going to be different even before the season started. Now, we are seeing just how different.
In the first two years of LeBron, the Cavs had the potential of being kind of good. Now, they have to potential to be really good.

I fell asleep

I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonably large size of the crowd at Tuesday night's Bowling Green-Toledo game. Much of it probably had to do with UT fans trekking down to corn country on Interstate 75.
Unfortunately, they are the ones that skipped town smiling. I, on the other hand, missed the end of Toledo's 44-41 double overtime victory because I had dozed off.
Hey, don't blame me. Blame the 7 p.m. work week start time.
Bowling Green must now await the result of Thursday's Akron-Kent game to see if they can still pull off a MAC Eastern Division title.
You think BG and Toledo fans had it bad? The Akron-Kent game has a 10 a.m. kickoff time. Coffee and hash browns at the concession stands, anyone?

Tuesday night football

Bowling Green, my hallowed alma mater, and the University of Toledo, are arch-rivals.
(So I'm dating a Toledo girl. Go figure. But I digress.)
When are hated college rivals supposed to lock horns on the football field? Saturday afternoon, as God intended, right?
Not if you're in the pressure cooker called Northwest Ohio MAC football.
Tonight, in the middle of the freakin' week, Bowling Green and Toledo will slam heads in the annual "It's-two-days-before-Thanksgiving-who's-going-to-be-watching Bowl."
They do this to us every year, playing the biggest game of the season during Thanksgiving break. I'm sure the schools would love to play on Saturday afternoon, but The Network (ESPN, if you had to ask) sent down an edict that this mid-major rivalry would be played at the most inopportune time, when ESPN2 could fit it into their diverse schedule of poker, rednecks sawing tree trunks and celebrity tortoise wrestling.
Now, I am one of the biggest football fans I know. I'll put up with a lot to watch a game. But when Thanksgiving break hit during my college years, I was on the turnpike back to Cleveland, where I could sleep in my own bed, eat for free, and do laundry with clothes dryers that actually dried clothes.
I think a lot of college students feel the same way. Which is why, on this first night of Thanksgiving break at Bowling Green, I will not be surprised to flick on my TV and see half-empty stands at Doyt Perry Stadium.
At Bowling Green, where primary college loyalties are divided between Ohio State and Michigan, this rivalry would take enough of a backseat without the start time conflicting with many students' rides home. ESPN doesn't need to rub our mid-majorness in our faces with the we'll-fit-you-in-when-we-can start. If it means that little to ESPN, they should just pass off the game rights to Fox Sports Net.
I''d actually prefer the game be televised by Fox Sports Net, if it means no commercials pimping "Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith."
Next year, when ESPN lands the World Mud Foosball Championships, maybe the BG-Toledo game can be moved to 5 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. Maybe they can move the game to Japan. It will be just like opening weekend in baseball.

Revenge of the dregs

Are pigs flying? The Los Angeles Clippers are in first place. And it's not just a fluke of a weak division.
The Clippers enter Tuesday with an 8-2 record, the franchise's best ever after 10 games.
Forgettables like Terry Dehere and Joe Wolf used to roam here. Now, the roster is laden with young talent and recognizable names. Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley bring veteran stability to a roster that includes young stars Corey Maggette and Elton Brand and developing center Chris Kaman.
Suddenly, beating the Clippers isn't just a notch in your walking stick. It might take some work.
As Mike Kahn of FoxSports.com points out, the Clips might lack the depth to sustain this pace all season. But for the first time in a long time, they have a roster capable of making the playoffs, maybe even reaching 50 wins.
As the Clippers run off to a fast start, the "real" team in Los Angeles remains dazed and confused.
Kobe Bryant leads the league in scoring at 33 points per game, but the Lakers are a lackluster 4-6 throught 10 games. It means either the Lakers' supporting cast is simply awful (remember, they traded Caron Butler to Washington for Kwame Brown, who is really a fatter, less talented version of Darius Miles) or Kobe is up to his old, ball-hogging tricks again.
Whatever the case, the Zen-master status of Phil Jackson is losing its luster without the presence of Shaq. And Kobe is being exposed as the glorified sidekick he is, capable of stuffing a stat sheet but incapable of lifting his team to greatness.
Meanwhile, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy, who professes to be a master of no religion or Eastern philosophy, is plugging in the right players and watching the wins pile up.
The audio-visual club geek is beating out the captain of the football team for homecoming king. It's good to see, for once.