Another steroid user? This would be a surprise.

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After all the bad news MLB has had the past few years where it comes to steroid use and the tainted records all over the record books, the past few months have been a cherry on the cake. Even after the collective baseball world came to grips with the fact that bigger-than-life stars like Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds may have used performance enhancing drugs, there were still some stars that we always thought were pure naturals.

But lately they keep falling. First the revelation that A-Rod used steroids a few years ago. I actually tend to believe that he used them for a while, and then stopped. Call me naive perhaps. Now, today, it was announced that Manny Ramirez was suspended 50 games for violating the drug policy. He, however, denies that it was a steroid, saying it was prescribed. However, he is not appealing the suspension.

"Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me," Ramirez said. "Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now.

"I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. I want to apologize to [Dodgers owner Frank] McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, [manager Joe] Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I'm sorry about this whole situation."

If you had to name a handful of stars, especially given the testing environment now, that are most likely not juicing, despite their prodigious statistical records, many fans would have said, A-Rod, Manny, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr., etc. Manny in particular seems very unlikely to ever need anything in order to hit a ball 450 feet. I hope this was a mistake by the doctor, that Manny is getting blamed for.

One by one even these names are being sullied.

It's sad.

(And even me, as a die-hard Indians fan, can't just assume that many of our stars weren't doing the same thing, even though only Paul Byrd has been named. There's certainly no proof, but we had some big guys back in the day, like Albert Belle and Jim Thome, and I hope it was all the weight room, and not the needle.)

So much for rust

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Eight seconds. That’s how long it took the Cavaliers to get in game form after their nine-day sabbatical. (Thank you very much asinine NBA schedule makers.) LeBron James takes a handoff from Delonte West (or “Delonnie” as Dick Stockton calls him), flashes across the baseline for a dunk, and there goes any worries about rust.

To be fair, the team looked a bit out of it defensively early on. Atlanta started off hitting seven of nine field goals, many of those at or near the hoop. The Hawks shot 56% in the first half, but the Cavs were still up by 5 at the break. It was an unusual game in the sense that LeBron acted as more of a scorer than a distributor early; that was likely due to the Hawks choosing not to double cover him, as well as guys (namely Z, who had his worst game of post-season) just not hitting shots.

What’s great about this team is how unspectacular they can look and still control a game. The Cavs simply squeeze teams to death with their unsexy but effective boa constrictor defense, which I’m now convinced is the best in the league. Cleveland gets a few stops, creates a few turnovers (17 for the Hawks last night), and before you know they’re up by 16.

I still think Atlanta’s explosive enough offensively to take a game from us at their house. However, the energy the Hawks get from their home court, where they possess a 31-10 regular season record, may not be enough to bridge the overall gap in talent, depth and experience the Cavs possess. In other words, a 27-point Cavs victory at home may just translate to a six-point win on the road. We could be looking at a sweep, but I’ll play it conservative and stick with Cavs in 5.
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AND THEN WE HAVE THE INDIANS
The Tribe has gotten short shrift this season here at Cleveland Sports Torture. They are steadily becoming the third horse in this town behind the Browns, whose draft has been the subject of much hand-wringing among fans, and of course the surging Cavs, who unlike the Browns actually deserve all the praise and attention they’re receiving.

The Indians are the Fredo of the Cleveland sports triumvirate. They’re just…kind of inconsequential and sad. I feel like they should be managing some Mickey Mouse nightclub in Boca Raton at this point. The disturbing thing is there is not one aspect of the team you can point to and say, “They just need to fix that and they’ll be in contention.” No…there are nights when the starting pitching falters, other nights when they strand a boatload of men in scoring position. The bullpen is once again utterly atrocious, giving up 7 runs against Toronto yesterday afternoon.

Mark Shapiro signs a legit closer in Kerry Wood, a good move, but the rest of the ‘pen is unable to even get to him. Oh, the irony. The cruel, cruel irony. They’re also dealing with Pronk’s creaky shoulder. The big man recently visted MLB’s very own Dr. Doom, orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, to have that $57 million shoulder looked at. Never a good sign.

The Tribe is already near the bottom of the league in attendance. Continued ineptitude likely means you’ll see more fans at Browns training camp than at Progressive Field come July. The franchise almost has an air of complacency, from Larry Dolan on down. They seem content to contend once every couple years, with hopes of building the farm system to supplant the players they inevitably lose to big-money teams. Put simply, I’m getting very bored with this club’s seemingly laissez-faire attitude. Judging by the half-empty stadium most nights, I am not alone.

Round Two arrives...finally....

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After only a week+ rest, the Cleveland Cavaliers finally return to action Tuesday night at the Q versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Not much to say about this series, in one humble fan's opinion, this shouldn't be much of a series. And that fan is the ugly white guy who sits next to Magic Johnson in the ESPN studios. After game 7 of the Heat-Hawks series, Tim Legler Jon Barry (I guess) ripped the Hawks for the "worst series of all time", especially after the spectacular Bulls-Celtics first round series, which many called the best of all times. (That one went to overtime in 5 games, while EACH of the seven games in the Hawks-Heat was won by more than 10 points.)

Basically Barry said, "congratulations Hawks, it took you seven games to beat a one man team, now go to Cleveland, play your four games, and go home for the summer."

I hope it's that easy. The Cavaliers are obviously playing near the top of their game all year. As has been talked about ad naseum, the Cavs' team unity is second to none, and showed up again at the very nice ceremony at St. Vincent-St. Mary for LeBron's first MVP award. The whole team got up on stage, LeBron gave them a (kinda small) gift and definitely gave them a ton of credit. He didn't use the line he should have used, though. "I'd much rather be MVP of the NBA Finals this year. Or have Z be the MVP, or Mo, or Delonte, or Andy....."

The Hawks did win one of the four games versus Cleveland this year, but of course, not in Cleveland. Even with that one regular season win, I can't see this going more than 5 games, but my money is on another sweep. The Cavaliers have the intensity not to look past any games.

We'll see. This will be a nice test.

Your 2008-2009 NBA MVP

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More later.

According to the Celtics...

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Here's an item I came across from Besides the Point: The blog by Patrick McManamon
I thought is was pretty funny, yet true. It should be an interesting game 7 tomorrow night. I wish someone would just level Rondo.

By the way if any of the Cavs series end up like this series has gone I might have a heart attack. I can handle 1 overtime game in the playoffs but not 4 (so far).

Here's the post from Besides the Point courtesy of Waiting for Next Year.

"According to the Celtics …

"This is disrespectful.

"(This) is being a good teammate.

"This is not a cheap shot.

"This is a good play.