Thursday, November 1, 2007

CENTRAL ISSUES:Zumaya out for half a season

Joel Zumaya - the fearsome Tiger reliever who was in line for the closer's job - will miss the first half of next year with an injury to his throwing shoulder.

The Associated Press reports Zumaya hurt the shoulder while moving household items during the recent California wildfires.

Zumaya, who underwent surgey on the shoulder yesterday, lives just south of San Diego.

The injury makes it much more urgent for the Tigers to resign their closer of the past few years, Todd Jones, who -
as we passed along yesterday - is looking to play closer to his home in Alabama.


WHITE SOX, TORII HUNTER TO TALK

The
Chicago Sun-Times is reporting today the White Sox plan to meet with free-agent outfielder Torii Hunter, who has spent his entire career with the Twins.

The Times reports Hunter is a top priority for the Sox this year. If a deal happens, it would of course keep the multi-talented centerfielder in the Tribe's division.

According to the paper the White Sox may also be interested in free agent shortstop
David Eckstein.

Meanwhile, T
he (New York) Daily News reports today the Yankees have shown an interest in White Sox 3B Joe Crede. Crede played in only 47 games last year due to injury and is more than ependable du to the play of his replacement Josh Fields, who hit 24 dingers.

FARRELL OUT?, SKINNER IN? AS PIRATES SKIPPER

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that former Indians pitcher and front-office type John Farrell is strongly leaning toward staying in Boston as the Red Sox pitching coach, meaning the job of Pirates' manager is still wide open.

Tribe 3B coach Joel Skinner is a serious candidate for the Pittsburgh job.The paper reports Skinner's interview was scheduled for today.


ON A COMPLETELY SEPARATE ISSUE....

During the recent playoff run, I got lots of e-mail from fans in the same boat as me - a Tribe Fan in Yankeeland - who wanted to know where in the New York area they could watch sports in a Cleveland-friendly atmosphere.

Given that I am already a grand uncle (though -thankfully - not yet a grandpa) I don't spend much (any) time in sports bars.

However, I recently discovered that Jack, at the Tribe Report, is one of us- a Cleveland sports fan living in Brooklyn (and not the one attached to Parma). I posed the question to him. Here, edited a little, was his suggestion. Hope it helps. And please let us know if you know of others.

  • Blondies, Blondies, Blondies! There are two: Blondies East and Blondies West. Both are home to things like the NYC chapter of the Browns Backers, the OSU Alumni club (I'm an OSU Alum, btw). They're home to other similar groups as well for Michigan State, U of M, Detroit Lions, Penn State, etc. It gets kind of cloudy at times as to where the allegiances are at the two bars, but I can say that Blondies East was like being in a bar in Euclid, Ohio during the recent playoff run! It was pretty cool. Meeting people, finding out you know some of the same people back home, watching the Tribe together. Was pretty cool. A simple google of "Blondies NYC" will get anyone the info they need. I will say, though, that for something big like the OSU/Mich game or if the Browns go to the playoffs (actually any Browns Sunday is like this) you'll need to call and make reservations and say you're there for that particular game.

2 comments:

moose said...

well that will certainly help the indians if zumala is out and jones is the tiger version of borowski

hunter to chicago is not good
but minny may also trade santana
which would hurt the indians cause they beat Santana !!!

if I was skinner I would take the pirates job - for all the good decision he made he will only be remembered for the lofton stop sign
but does anyone think the indians would have won that game if he scores

Ron Vallo said...

I don't think it's unreasonable to think they Indians would have won Game 7 if Lofton had scored. There's no way of knowing. I've never been a big Skinner fan. I say I hope he goes.