0-4 for the preseason

So the Browns finished 0-4 on the preseason with their 16-10 loss to the Bears last night at the Stadium. Does it matter? I'm really not gonna lose any sleep over losing preseason games, especially when so many players are out with injury. And don't forget, this one also featured Ken Dorsey prominently for almost three quarters of the game. So again, don't panic over the outcome. It would have been nice to get a win, or even a good showing for that matter in the final tune-up before the regular season. But this team still has 9 days to prepare for September 7th against the Cowboys and I expect them to be ready.

""It really doesn't mean anything because it doesn't count," Crennel said of the Browns' four losses. "We could've been 4-0 and if we lose to Dallas you're going to ask what went wrong.""

The good news for the Browns was the fact that the offense seemed to move the ball much better when the starters were out there. Brady Quinn looked to be much improved compared to his first start in Detroit. He finished 7-of-9 for 65 yards and led the Browns to two scoring drives and a 10-0 lead in just over a quarter of action. And Brandon McDonald had a nice interception of Kyle Orton (is he really going to be a starting QB in the NFL???). The bad news is that they may have lost three more players to injury. I really hate the preseason and I'm glad it's finally over.

Robaire Smith puts some pressure on Kyle Orton, forcing a turnover

Terry Pluto offers some scribbles in his notebook from Thursday's game... and there's some stuff worthy of noting in today's Browns notebook from the ABJ (after you get past the depressing injury news)... and finally, try not to puke when you see ESPN's 2008 NFL fan rankings.

Tribe Update: The Indians will put their 10-game winning streak on the line tonight when they open their three-game weekend series against the Seattle Mariners. I'm a little worried since my wife and I will be in attendance. But I'm curious to see if there will be more fan interest now. And if so, how will the team respond? Jeremy Sowers will be on the mound for the good guys.

Paul Hoynes says the recent hot streak is a matter pride... And here's a nice story on the Tribe's #1 pick Lonnie Chisenhall... and I just through this was interesting (I'm a huge Tait fan, but Drennan? Not so much.):

Joe Tait and Bruce Drennan, a former Indians play-by-play team, will reunite to call the second game of the Tribe's doubleheader against Kansas City on Sept. 13 on SportsTime Ohio. Tait and Drennan did Tribe games from 1980 through 1987.

We Just Can't Streak

So the Tribe split their four-game series with Texas. It could have been worse (from a hitting perspective, as we've seen all year), and it could have been much better (our pitchers were smacked around all series). I'm not gonna get too high on our hitting in this series, or too low on our pitching. I think a lot of it has to do with the ballpark, the strength of the Rangers hitters, and the abomination that is Texas's pitching staff.

All I know after last night is that Kevin Millwood looks weird without his goatee (I don't think I've really even seen him pitch since his great '05 season with us), Rafael Betancourt can't throw strikes anymore (and when he does they are usually hit a loooooong way), and the Tribe can't string together consecutive wins anymore. The last time the Indians won two straight games was May 13-15. Since then they are 5-14. Yikes.

Old friend Milton Bradley finished the series with 4 HR and 7 RBI

Tonight, we head north to face the Tigers to start a three-game weekend series. It will be Paul Byrd against Justin Verlander in what I expect to be another slugfest featuring two lousy pitchers. I didn't expect going into this season that on June 6th we'd be fighting the Tigers to stay out of the bottom of the Central. Jayson Stark has an interesting take on what's going on in what was thought to be one of baseball's best divisions.

Yesterday was also MLB's annual June draft - here's a rundown of all the Tribe's picks. I don't know anything about any of them but I hope they can help us somewhere down the road. Today's ABJ had some more information on top-pick Lonnie Chisenhall. I especially like the part about him being kicked off the team in South Carolina on burglary and grand larceny charges. Awesome.

Cavs Update:
Brian Windhorst reports that Andy Varejao will not be playing for his native Brazil in this summer's Beijing Olympics. I hope he is serious about rehabbing his ankle - he will either be valuable trade bait this year, or an important piece to the puzzle if he can regain his form of last year.

I'm also proud to report that I didn't watch one single second of Game 1 of the NBA Finals last night. I saw the score this morning and felt sick to my stomach thinking that could easily be the Cavaliers in place of Boston. And I felt the same way about last year's World Series. F the entire city of Boston. I can't stand them.