Clevelander17

If Strickland's going to whine like that, he should be running. He would have a better chance than FitzGerald.

This story's been getting some play on national media outlets: http://www.ohio.com/news/browns-training-camp-run-by-5-year-old-ryan-encinas-of-cuyahoga-falls-highlights-sluggish-night-by-offense-1.418422 Nice job by the Browns to make that kid's day!

Hopefully we'll be able to say the same thing about the upcoming games this week!

Can't win them all. But they really need to leave Miami with 2 out of 3. That's not the type of team you want to be losing series to, particularly when you're trying to put together a nice run.

Nice photo set! You do the city justice every time. Tremont's really an awesome neighborhood.

Good point. By the way, I had never heard of Lundgren before. I had to look him up, that was a bit before my time (even though I was alive, I would have been too young to remember).

Masteron on the bump today, you've gotta like their chances to get the sweep!

Who the heck knows anymore. I guess I'm more worried about Roby, though, because the Buckeyes are deeper at RB. If Hyde hit her, give him the boot.

The interesting thing is that people often have the conception that serial killers tend to usually be white males, yet Cleveland's serial killers have all been minorities. Actually, does Castro even qualify as a "serial killer"?

Let's just call this for what it is: An Opportunity (for westsiders to get into and out of University Circle more quickly) Corridor. Nothing more and nothing less. Needless to say I believe that there is little reason why anyone not living in a very concentrated/limited area of Cuyahoga County to support this atrocity.

Reports I've read are that Roby caused "bodily injury," which sounds more serious than just pushing a bouncer. What the heck was he doing in Bloomington, Indiana on a random July weekend anyways? It's not like he's even from there.

Terrible. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. And this story is already making national news, which is not good for Cleveland...again.

Non-residents are causing a huge chunk of the problems at these events. The problem for SH--and to a lesser-extent CH--is that they're in close proximity to some very troubled areas. So what are the solutions?

I can't stand Fedor's act and I'm not thrilled that he's now on 92.3. Hopefully his role is limited to the update desk at that station.

In regards to this team's performance in the first half, I don't think we can really complain. This team is right where they need to be if they're going to battle for a playoff spot. I really wish they would have at least split with the Tigers last weekend to more forcefully announce their presence, but other than that I'm not sure that I can point to any specific games/series that I'm disappointed about. We'll see what happens as the trade deadline approaches, but I'm very optimistic about the Tribe and if things fall into place they could very well wind up winning the Central. Not incredibly likely, but they've put themselves in a good position.

I liked them too--but they look tacky with the regular batting helmets! What's the alternative? Batting helmets are on the more expensive side as far as baseball equipment goes, so I'm not sure it's feasible to create one just for this game. They could have simply gone fully authentic and not worn helmets, as was customary in 1902. ;)

Not a fan of Kiley and Booms. However I do like Baskin and Phelps and some of 92.3's younger on-and-off substitute hosts that mostly appear in the evenings (Bormann, Lull, Lima, etc.) can be knowledgeable and entertaining.

I heard on the radio that so far this year he's pitched almost as many innings as he did all of last year. They may want to continue to bring him along slowly and not increase his workload so much that it risks injury.

You created your username in the past few months, correct? That's the time period that was lost because of website server issues. Have you checked out the local park scene? Between Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Metroparks, there are a lot of really interesting areas to explore. Do you like history? Lots of hidden gems to discover in Cleveland. What are your interests? There's also the typical options of sporting events and, um, finding new/unique places to get drunk, if that's what you're into.

ESPN is ridiculous. Two weeks ago after Miami won the NBA title, ESPN had a projected 2014-2015 Cavaliers starting lineup (their exact wording) that list James as starting SF.

Part of me gets really excited at the notion of bringing in Bynum. And part of me is very worried about it. If he can stay healthy and get to at least 85-90% of what he was, the Cavaliers could be a pretty darn good team. Let's say they sign him to that two year deal and he misses most of the season due to injury this year with little hope for coming back strong in 2014-2015. Can they amnesty him next offseason to clear space to sign a big name free agent?

I agree with the above that strikeouts don't concern me much. Bourn had an OPS of .739 last year, which is good, but not great (his OBP of .348 is more than adequate for a lead-off hitter). However his ability on the base paths and in center field more than makes up for it. Swisher's OPS of .837 will be a big boost to the lineup. No complaints here. Reynolds' OPS of .763 is a bit below what I'd like to see from a guy who plays one of the power-hitting positions, but assuming the Tribe will get power from elsewhere and he'll be near the bottom of the lineup, this, too, is not an issue. Overall this is going to be a very solid lineup. Certainly not murderer's row, but it's a lineup that will put some runs on the board, provided they key parts stay healthy. As others have noted, the rotation is where the biggest problems will be. I'm bullish on Masterson and Carrasco as solid 3/4 starters. I have low expectations for Ubaldo. Trevor Bauer could be the key, though. Hopefully he will grow and develop into a top-end rotation guy. It's probably ridiculous and unfair to expect that of him now, but he certainly has the tools and maybe a change of scenery will get him refocused and he can develop into reaching his potential. Either way, I'm infinitely more excited about this team than I was just a month ago. If things fall into place, they will have a shot to compete for one of the Wild Card spots. I always go to games and follow the Tribe, but perhaps this will be one of those rare summers (in recent years) where the entire city really gets behind the team again.

There are costs to taking the potential high achievers out of traditional failing urban public schools, true. But there are costs to leaving those potential high achievers in those unconscionably hostile learning environments, too--namely, that that potential will never actually be realized, because critical learning years of youth will be lost. They will be held back by the need to teach to the median (or below it) when that median is unacceptably low; many of these schools do not have the resources for gifted programs (as you note, what resources they do have are often required to go to special education first, and they can't even cover those needs). In addition, in some of those schools, the academic culture is so hostile that enrolling in a gifted program might as well paint a target on one's back. Akron Buchtel high school, at least as of a couple of years ago, offered all of one AP exam. AP tests are huge for talented but poor children because they can shorten the amount of quarters or semesters that one actually needs to be in college, significantly reducing both the expenses of higher education and the time before one can start earning a paycheck with a college degree. If leaving the potential high achievers in the traditional public school environment meant only a small loss of performance for the gifted but serious gains in performance for median-level students, then I'd be more supportive. The hard evidence for that is extremely thin, however; as best I can tell, the exhortations to leave these students where they are because others will benefit from their presence seems to be mostly wishful thinking. More accurately, the gifted are neglected and unchallenged while the school's resources and attention are focused on the problem populations; the school's administration in many cases simply has no choice. That means that the status quo is unacceptable and promises of internal reform are meaningless because they come from administrations that could not deliver such internal reforms even if they wanted. Refusing to allow high performers a way out of that system does a tremendous disservice to both the students and to the community. Just about everything you said is absolutely true. The high achievers in this country are definitely marginalized, but this is a policy situation that starts at the Federal level and goes beyond any decisions being made at the local level. Local administrators, particularly in urban districts, have their hands tied because their performance is rarely judged on how well their high achievers do, but instead on how much their low achievers make annual improvements. That's where the focus of the money goes, and as such educational mediocrity is emphasized in this country by political leaders in far away offices. Local educators are simply adapting to what they've been incentivized to do. The solution for the high achievers is not necessarily more school choice (or more choice beyond public schools). Charter schools and even most parochial schools aren't usually outperforming public schools with similar demographics, so I'm not sure why expanding access to these types of schools is necessary. Why is the government's solution to the mess it has created to create another convoluted mess? Why not loosen special education mandates and encourage tiered levels of public schools (i.e. gifted, average, remedial, special education, etc.) within the public schools system? There's no reason why the best and brightest should need to leave the public school system to find a superior education. If the Federal government stopped forcing districts to focus so much of their resources on such a small portion of their enrollment, districts might be able to do some more innovative things to help their high achievers flourish. Instead of one John Hay type of a school, CMSD should have at least half a dozen, all of which would be a privilege to attend.

This is becoming hilarious. It's like they're putting together a roster of washed-up stars from the late 2000s Yankees and Red Sox.

Seriously? Of the Facebook friends I have in the education sector (only one of which works for a for-profit charter), all of them looked genuinely relieved when the budget proposal came out. NPR has a decent rundown of the changes; the budget obviously supports vouchers more than you're comfortable with because you wouldn't be comfortable with anything short of completely eliminating them, and tries to give districts more labor flexibility, which I'm sure you also oppose. That said, I really don't see any dramatic changes to the status quo here: http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2013/02/04/whats-gov-kasichs-2013-budget-does-for-education/ While I'm not a huge fan of vouchers at least the organizations that get the money tend to be trustworthy. The problem is any expansion of charter school funding, particularly those run by for-profit companies. That's where Kasich's ties to folks like Brennan are an issue certainly worth discussing. At the end of the day, however, the problem with both charter schools and vouchers is that they'll only improve educational outcomes marginally while leaving behind the most troubled students in public schools with even less funding. The math is a bit complicated, but a big part of what it comes down to is that funding for special education services is rarely enough to cover the costs of the mandates imposed by state and local governments, and these are the kids that are generally denied access to parochial and charter schools. There are other issues, such as who actually has the time and resources to access schools of choice, too.