Dutch Oven

6 minutes ago, ballpeen said:

Only a vocal minority of fans think playing in the cold and snow is cool and some sort of an advantage.  I don't think players like playing in crap weather.

It definitely can be an advantage.

I think its been shown over the years that it hasn't been for the Browns, though. 

9 hours ago, Flugel said:

Give it a shot - it's just for fun.  Try to make it someone projecting in the vicinity of the draft slot in round 2. I'll start with a slight reach (and I'm thinking we might even draft a RB in the next round).  Here's my selection for the Browns at Pick #54 in Round 2 (and if he head butts Rodger Goodell - I'll give him a $200 bonus):

LT Kiran Amegadjie - Yale, 6-5 321lbs 37 inch arms  - 2 time All Ivy League 1st Team Selection.  Strong, fast, fierce and agile.  Led his team to 2 Ivy League Championships.  In 2015, the Bucs drafted Division 3 OG Ali Marpet out of Hobart in the 61st slot overall and he eventually made the Pro Bowl.  1 Mock Draft in Athlon Sports Draft Mag has the KC Chiefs drafting Amegadjie at #63 overall to protect the blindside of Mahomes.  Right now LT is a glaring weakness on the blindside of QB the Browns have invested a lot of money in.  LTs go fast in the draft so it might be very well worth the reach.  

This is an excellent choice, I could definitely see this happening. 

DT Maason Smith, LSU. 

LB Junior Colson, scUM

1 hour ago, tiamat63 said:

 

Tomorrow night? I'll be back at home and settled in with the rest of the week off. 

Looking at another group TBB film session.

Would be a great way for us to establish some better understanding of Payton's game. 

Ok, I've never done this...

How do you do the thing you do regarding discord? 

Hypothetically @ballpeen, lets say a spot in downtown could be found to build a dome...

Would you prefer it to stay somewhere downtown, or would you want it out in Brookpark? 

It was tough watching Bieber walk onto the field before the game. You could see him get choked up. 

7 minutes ago, ballpeen said:

Ok....fair enough on the Haslam comment.  I really wasn't aiming the comment like you really thought that.

 

As for space, I am talking open space.    The city could evoke eminent domain laws, but then you would have to clear out blocks of building.  Some in use, some not.  Like I said earlier, it's not popular when the government starts kicking people and business out of their homes.

 

I wonder how many people who live in Cleveland actually go to games?  My thinking is Haslam and company have studied that question and the results say the most fans come from the west and south. 

I'm sure the majority of people who come to Browns games are from outside the city, there's less than 400,000 people in Cleveland proper, but over 2+ mill in the metro area. 

I really, REALLY think the Haslams want a dome in Brookpark, so are they just trying to see if the city blows their doors off with a ton of money to stay on the lakefront? This should be a very interesting year, I'm sure by this time next year we will have a good idea where the Browns will be playing in the future. 

Thoughts on LB Payton Wilson, NC State with the 2nd round pick? Is that a legit spot for him?

He has some red flags, specifically his injury history, but man he's got some tools galore. 

15 minutes ago, syd said:

wow look's like Cleveland is in total Eclipse right now

That was pretty surreal. 

10 hours ago, mjp28 said:

Do you have any memorable  Opening Day  stories ?

Ler's hear them.

I was at the last home opener at Cleveland Stadium, 1993.

I believe it was a sell-out (or close to it) and it was two weeks after the boat crash that took Steve Olin and Tim Crews' life. Their wives were brought out to the mound before the game, it was a sad scene. 

1 hour ago, Neo said:

The Braves had three ace pitchers, Smoltz, Galvine, and Maddux. Yeah, that 95 Indians team was probably the best team ever put together that didn't win a title. They just ran into a buzz saw that was the Braves pitching staff. 

That and a strike zone for the Braves pitchers (specifically Glavine in Game 6) that was roughly the size of Rhode Island. 

5 hours ago, Neo said:

All the great pitchers they had and they still didn't have a better pitching staff than the Braves in 95. That roster was LOADED and still didn't win a title.

The 90s teams had good pitching staffs overall, but lacked a definitive #1 starter.

They had a chance at getting Pedro Martinez, but balked at the asking price. (I can't remember what was wanted for him) I have to think Pedro on the Tribe would have probably put them over the top.

The great pitchers came after the 90s run, starting with Sabathia. 

3 hours ago, ballpeen said:

Like I said, they want the space, and Cleveland doesn't have it.

 

Just to clarify a point I see going around, at least as I see it.  The parking, I mostly agree.  Haslam would have that, more than likely.  As for the hotels and restaurants, I doubt Haslam wants to get in to the restaurant or hotel business.  He would land lease a parcel to say Marriott...or Marriott franchisee. They would actually run the business and build the buildings. Haslam wants to be in the land business.  He will just rent the lots or spaces to various companies on say a 10-20 year lease.

 

At least that is how I would do it.  Less headaches and liabilities. He would still control what type of business would be on location.  I doubt he would approve plans to stick a 150 room Days Inn next to the stadium.

A city that used to be the sixth biggest in the U.S. that now has less than 400,000 residents has no where downtown they could build a football stadium? 

Come on meow. 

And yes, I didn't think Haslam would literally bus tables at a TGIFriday's next to the stadium or check people into a Motel 6. 

39 minutes ago, TexasAg1969 said:

He's out for the year while the last player to make the Astros' team is a 30 y.o. with only 8 ML starts who throws a no hitter last week. Baseball is truly a strange game sometimes.

The Indians/Guardians have had a lot of really good starting pitchers since the 90s, multiple Cy Young winners, etc...

But they haven't thrown a no-hitter since Len Barker's perfect game in 1981. 

Strange, indeed. 

Helluva way to start the season...

Sucks about Bieber though, he was fantastic in his first two starts, pitching at his Cy Young level again. 

I just hope that starting rotation injuries don't torpedo the Gs season again. 

Finally going to see The Black Keys, got tickets for the October 12th show at Rocket Mortage Fieldhouse. 

58 minutes ago, ballpeen said:

The difference is Chicago looks to have ample space on their lakefront.  Just a quick look at google maps show several "parks" on the south side that don't look very parkish to me.  All look more like wasteland that look like they were once industrial sites.  Maybe the term park is for proposed industrial park?  Some show climbing walls.  Nothing you couldn't erase.  All the mentioned are inside the city limits.

 

I think space is the problem the city has.  Without reclamation of private property, which it could do, be it very unpopular, finding a parcel large enough to fit what the Haslams want will be very challenging.

My point is the Bears bought a ton of land outside of the city proper, like the Haslams did, only to decide that the grass wasn't greener outside of Chicago.

The reason the Haslams want to get outside of downtown is that in Brookpark they could own EVERYTHING that makes money via the Browns GameDay experience. You want to park? Park at a Haslam-owned parking lot. Want to eat? Eat at a Haslam-owned restaurant, etc...

24 minutes ago, ballpeen said:

Good point on the number of games.  It's one thing to hold season tickets to 8-9 gabe v 42 or whatever it is for basketball.

 

As for infrastructure, everybody knows how that worked before when Maletti moved out there.  The state and county would have to step up and improve things.  It's not like it couldn't be done.

But, I do think the Haslams want to be closer to city center.  Brookpark is where it is going.  It's the only spot that checks all the boxes.  Having a option on the property requires earnest money  I have no idea what that may have entailed, but it is probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I doubt he would have put that up and risked to lose if he wasn't pretty damn sure he was going to purchase the property and pull the plug on the new stadium station.

Kind of an interesting parallel is what is going on with the Bears...

They bought a ton of acres in the suburbs (a former horse track?) and it looked like they were all set to move out of the city limits of Chicago, only to apparently scrap that idea and are now talking with Chicago about a new lakefront dome stadium. 

1 hour ago, nickers said:

Fuck the Tardians.. I hate to see people get hurt.. but this is total Karma.. The curse lives on...

Explains all your medical problems, huh? 

20 hours ago, Bob806 said:

Totally sucks.

Well, he's a free agent after this season. One of the wealthy teams will sign him. 

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

He will have missed a ton of games with injuries in '21 and '23, and now will miss virtually all of 2024. 

And according to Terry Pluto, he's probably going to have a 12-18 month rehab after surgery, which means he'll probably miss most to all of 2025.

This was the chance he took when he declined to sign multiple contract extensions the Guardians offered him. For the Gs, thank dog he did. 

Will have to have season-ending elbow surgery.

He's a free agent after the season ends. 

3 hours ago, Canton Dawg said:

There's a big chunk of land available in northern Summit County near Richfield. But I believe that's been tried before.

Honestly, I think that spot would work better for the Browns than the Cavs because you are only going 8 or 9 times a year.

Then again, how was getting in/out of the Coliseum? There would be three times as many people going to Browns games.

7 hours ago, Flugel said:

I didn't realize anyone would ever miss the 1-15 football followed by 0-16 football we had to endure a couple years or so before Stefanski arrived.  I was wrong...

This might come to a shock to some, but nickers is a miserable twat. 

I'm sorry to ruffle any feathers by dropping that bomb.