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Go, Cavs, And Pass The Confetti

Go, Cavs, And Pass The Confetti

Now listen. We’re not going to work ourselves into a tizzy here in Cleveland because a columnist in Boston decided to launch his fiction writing career with a hit job on us.

OK, maybe we are, but let’s keep this meltdown brief, shall we? I love Boston and a few Boston sports fans, too, especially the one who is the father to two of our beautiful grandchildren. I’ve got the family peace to keep here. So go, Celtics — any time except right now.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics in Game One of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy made fun of us. A lot.

Our confetti-drop at the end of the game struck him as “a little needy.” We do this after every game, which I guess makes us really, really needy. To someone who thinks confetti is a window into the soul, I mean. That’s deep, man.

Shaughnessy also called us “a hungry place, peppered with people with hungry faces.” I’m trying to imagine what a hungry face looks like. I keep seeing Joe McKenzie’s hound dog eyes as he tried to talk me into a kiss in the summer between sixth and seventh grades. I’m going with that one.

On and on Shaughnessy went, describing us as a “sad” and “quiet” town that is either “dead or dying.” Remind me never to count on him to call 911.

The “quiet” thing I don’t get. My husband and I are still popping our ears after Saturday’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions. The partying was so raucous and loud that we kept misunderstanding each other. During Green Day’s performance, for example, I thought he turned to me and yelled, “Ice your fat hair.” Turns out he said, “This is so great.” If we were a quiet people, I would have known that.

Now, I imagine some of you readers who don’t live in Cleveland might wonder why you should care about yet another out-of-town journalist’s trash-talking our town.

This isn’t just about Cleveland. This is about every misunderstood city in America that’s had three professional sports teams without a national championship for more than 50 years.

Granted, that narrows the pool somewhat — to exactly one, maybe — but we’re Midwesterners, and to make it all about us would suggest we’re sports fans in Boston.

OK, I winced as I wrote that because I’m breaking rule No. 1 of the Manual of Midwestern Manners, which instructs us to smile on the outside even when our hearts are curdling with revenge fantasies on the inside. To assuage my guilt, I’m going to go bake a casserole for a potluck somewhere.

On Tuesday, Shaughnessy told Cleveland’s WKYC-TV that he was sorry if we were offended. “There’s no new ground in there,” he said, referring to his column. “Nothing that hasn’t been said before.”

That’s some standard you got going there, Dan.

What this is really about is what it means to be a columnist these days. We are so needy.

There was a time when we wrote our opinions and they were published for a single day in the print newspaper and that was that. We’d get some angry calls and maybe some mean mail, but no one posted the worst picture of us ever online for a caption contest.

And we’re just not special anymore. These days, anyone with an opinion and a keyboard is a “columnist.” Our job performance is now measured not by the depth of our intellect or the breadth of our brilliance but by the number of online clicks, comments, and “unique visitors.”

By the way, dear readers, I want you to know I have always thought that each and every one of you is unique.

For most editors, any attention is better than being ignored. So we’re supposed to celebrate whenever the comments sections under our columns explode with stuff you wouldn’t say to a dog that has just lifted his leg over the toe of your Uggs. The new boots, the ones without the salt stains.

That stuff can play with your head. You might start to wonder: Maybe I do resemble my pug when I write about workers’ rights. Maybe my politics really have earned me the nickname Commie Connie. Maybe it’s true that I am a man-hating broom-flier with a closetful of sensible shoes.

Or not. Maybe you only worry about that if you’re a columnist in Boston.

Which brings us back to Shaughnessy for the most fleeting of moments. How time flies. As I write, the Cavs are now up 2-0 against Boston and are headed to the fine city that spawned our just-this-side-of-perfect son-in-law.

Grandma’s got her game on.

Go, Cavs.

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and an essayist for Parade magazine. She is the author of two books, including …and His Lovely Wife, which chronicled the successful race of her husband, Sherrod Brown, for the U.S. Senate. To find out more about Connie Schultz (con.schultz@yahoo.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

Photo: Cleveland Cavaliers via Facebook

Playoff Snubs Ate At Dodgers’ Paco Rodriguez, So Now He Eats Better

Playoff Snubs Ate At Dodgers’ Paco Rodriguez, So Now He Eats Better

By Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

PHOENIX — Paco Rodriguez would like to apologize to his grandmother. But it’s really Don Mattingly’s fault.

Last fall Mattingly, the Dodgers manager, kept the left-handed reliever off a playoff roster for the second time in as many seasons. And for Rodriguez that was a sign that changes had to be made.

Gone was his grandmother’s homemade Cuban food, which Rodriguez had eaten for 23 years. In its place was an organic diet recommended by Brandon McDaniel, the Dodgers’ strength and conditioning coach. And given the results this spring, grandma may have had a hard time getting back into the game.

“Physically I got a lot stronger,” said Rodriguez, who has struck out five in three Cactus League innings. “Sometimes my knees didn’t bounce back. Since I started my diet, I haven’t had those down days where my knees feel bad.

“As long as I feel good and I can get everything out of my body, that’s the best thing. So I’m going to stick to it.”

Yet none of that happens if Mattingly had simply given Rodriguez what he thought he had earned: a place on the roster for last year’s division series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I was very upset,” said Rodriguez, who was also left off the Dodgers’ 2013 National League Championship Series roster. “That really took a toll on me this offseason. And I thought a lot about it. That motivated me and gave me the extra drive to get healthy and get back to where I once was.”

Where Rodriguez was once was at the back end of the Dodgers bullpen.

Two months after signing with the team out of the University of Florida, he became the first member of the 2012 draft class to reach the big leagues. A season later he pitched in 76 games, most in the majors by a left-hander.

But he struggled down the stretch and was even worse in the division series against Atlanta, so Rodriguez was left off the team for the next series. The problems carried over into 2014, with Rodriguez being sent down to the minors in early May. He made just three more big league appearances before rosters expanded in September.

“The one thing we saw at the end of 2013, he lost a little sharpness on some of his pitches,” Mattingly said.

For a guy who had been rushed to the majors, pitching fewer than 20 innings in the minors, it was humbling.

“Last year was that learning experience,” Rodriguez said. “Being up and down and understanding how hard it is sometimes to get up on a regular basis and play every day and not having that motivation when there’s not 40,000 people in the stands.

“It’s easy to do that when you have so many fans. Sometimes you don’t get that in the minor leagues.”

So when Rodriguez got back to the majors he was determined to prove he should stay, giving up just a walk and a hit in his first five appearances. But in his sixth game he gave up a game-tying home run, then watched the playoffs on television.

“I took it personal,” he said. “Working so hard to get back to that point, I really wanted to make the team and just be a part of it with them. That’s something that you take into the off-season and you really try to get back to being the person that you can be.”

So Rodriguez changed the way he slept as well as what he ate and drank, dropping fried foods and sugary sodas. On the mound, he’s tried to get back to pitching with the quick tempo he used two years ago.

Whether that’s enough is a decision that again rests with Mattingly. The Dodgers aren’t convinced they need more than one left-hander in the bullpen — and that one spot almost certainly will go to J.P. Howell.

Which leaves Rodriguez needing to prove that he, too, belongs.

“Paco just has to be himself,” Mattingly said. “Paco’s in the running like everyone else. We really do talk about taking the best seven [relievers]. So there could be three lefties.

“We haven’t gotten that far. We’re kind of looking at everybody.”

In the meantime, Rodriguez is going to stay away from grandma’s kitchen and use the playoff snub for fuel instead.

“I did some really good things when I came up my first year and I feel like I can do that again,” he said. “I think that I can get back to that person that I was. And I want to be able to help the team…like I did in 2013.”

Photo: Keith Allison via Flickr

Spurs Hammer Heat To Take 2-1 NBA Series Lead

Spurs Hammer Heat To Take 2-1 NBA Series Lead

Miami (AFP) – Kawhi Leonard tallied a career-high 29 points as the San Antonio Spurs thrashed the Miami Heat 111-92 in game three of the NBA finals.

Tim Duncan finished with 14 points and six rebounds Tuesday while Danny Green scored 15 points for the Spurs, who jumped out to a 25-point lead in the first half then held on for the victory and a 2-1 series lead.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said he was looking for more offence from Leonard on Tuesday. Leonard was hindered by foul trouble in the first two games, fouling out in the game-two defeat in San Antonio.

“We just wanted him to be who he has been the whole year,” Popovich said. “I think he overreacted to the foul situations in the first two games and he became very cautious and he doesn’t play like that.

“He has got to be active at both ends, so he figured it out.”

The first half was an old-fashioned shootout as San Antonio put on the best shooting display for a half in NBA finals history, hitting 19 of their first 21 shots.

The two-time defending champion Heat cut the deficit to seven points at one stage in the second half but they never could recover from the Spurs’ opening blitz that saw San Antonio shoot a superb 75.8 percent from the field to lead 71-50 at halftime.

“I don’t think we will ever shoot 76 percent (at halftime) in a half again,” Popovich said. “I mean, that’s crazy.”

Game four of the best-of-seven series will be on Thursday night in Miami.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade pumped in 22 points each for the Heat, who suffered their first home loss of the 2014 post-season.

Rashard Lewis finished with 14 points and Ray Allen came off the bench to score 11 in the loss.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said his troops dug themselves too big a hole in the first half to overcome.

“They won the battle clearly tonight,” said Spoelstra. “We came out at a different gear than what we were playing. It just seemed we were on our heels most of the first half.’

Miami lost the finals in 2011 then won back-to-back titles in 2012 and last season — when they beat the Spurs in seven games.

This is the first NBA finals rematch since the Chicago Bulls battled the Utah Jazz in 1997 and 1998.

Tuesday’s contest was reminiscent of last year’s game three of the NBA finals.

San Antonio bounced back in game three, setting the finals record for most three-pointers in a game with 16. They went on to win 113-77, handing the Heat their worst loss in franchise playoff history.

Swingman Leonard led the scoring explosion Tuesday, with 16 of his points coming in the opening quarter for the Spurs, who are trying to win their fifth title since 1999.

Leonard shot six-of-seven from the field and made all three of his shots from beyond the arc in the first half. His first missed shot didn’t come until late in the second quarter.

The Spurs were so dominant on offence that at one point they were shooting 90 percent from the field — a better ratio than their free-throw shooting.

“I was just in attack mode and trying to be aggressive early,” said Leonard.

James did his best to keep the Heat in it in the first half, but he couldn’t do it by himself and the 71 points was the most given up by the Heat in a playoff half in their history.

“They just jumped on us,” James said. “This is something that at this point in the season shouldn’t happen.

“This is the last team in the NBA you want to dig yourself a hole against.”

Wade, who was fined $5,000 for flopping in game two, had five turnovers in the first half for Miami, who shot a respectable 47.6 percent from the field overall.

Wade came to life in the third quarter, scoring 11 points as the Heat cut the Spurs’ lead to 86-75 heading into the fourth. They held the Spurs to just 31 percent shooting in the third.

©afp.com / Timothy A. Clary