Scene is closed tomorrow, so there will be no blogging, as instead of sitting at my desk at 8:30 in the morning, I'll be teeing off at Little Mountain Country Club. Here's a laundry list of links and such to keep you busy until Monday (or for the 17 seconds it takes you to read through them).
— Ryan Garko was sent packing to the Giants in the Mid-Season Fire Sale of 2009 and the change of scenario has made Garko into.... well, Ryan Garko.
He's sitting on the bench now, effectively benched after some position players shifted around and Bruce Bochy wanted to get Edgar Renteria's bat into the lineup. Yes, Renteria, who is batting .116 in September. That's how far Garko has fallen off the radar. When Bochy's using logic like, "Edgar, not long ago, won a game with a grand slam," you know there's little hope for Garko to do anything but sit on the bench and think of how his next call to Jim Rome's show will go. (Mercury News)
— Let's Go Tribe is continuing their march to fire anyone and everyone associated with the lowly Cleveland Indians. The latest installment tackles the trainers, who, let's be honest, might as well be handling our big-money guys with meat cleavers for all the good they're doing. (Let's Go Tribe)
— In the latest issue of ESPN the Mag, which will hit shelves soon, the Lake County Captains take home a prestigious "Veeckie" award. What's a "Veeckie" you ask? Well, it's the name of the honor the mag gives to the best minor league promotions of the year. The Captains snagged the prize for their "Cleveland Sports HIstory" night, which included bouncing balls off people's heads (like Cansceco), nickle beer, re-creations of "Red Right 88" and "The Fumble," among others. (MinorLeagueBaseball.com)
— Congrats to Shin-Soo Choo who now owns the major league record for most homers hit by a Korean player with 16 dingers. (JoongAng Daily)
— Speaking of Choo, ESPN looked at nine outfielders who have emerged during the 2009 season. If you guessed that Choo's on the list you win a shiny conglomeration of Cleveland sports-related link items. There's a bunch of gobbly gook in Crasnick's analysis (stuff like "determination," etc.), but it's nice to see Choo recognized. How's Benny Broussard doing these days?
(ESPN.com)
Four years ago, Choo and Chris Snelling were second and third in Seattle's outfield pecking order behind phenom Adam Jones. Snelling never managed to stay healthy, but Choo has continued to get better since GM Mark Shapiro acquired him for Ben Broussard in July 2006."Cleveland did a really good job of evaluating," an AL scout said. "They always felt he was going to be this type of guy. I'm not sure the industry as a whole had him evaluated that high."
— NPR is the latest to print an excerpt from LeBron's book "Shooting Stars." It's nothing tremendously exciting, but it is the first chapter and you're not going to buy the book anyway, so read on. (NPR)
— Want to see the coolest Browns shirt ever? Click on the Cleveland Frowns link. (Cleveland Frowns)
— A case surrounding the logo of the Washington Redskins is heading to the Supreme Court. Can you think of any other possibly racially offensive logos floating around? Waiting For Next Year talks about the future of Chief Wahoo. (WFNY)
— Is Kenny Lofton a Hall of Famer? Well, let's put it this way: He's in my Top Ten of Baseball Players Who've Gotten Lapdances from Janet Jackson Onstage. Actually, Hardball Times looked at War vs. Win Shares and the differences in historical rankings for a ton of players (they use Kenny Lofton specifically) is quite interesting. (Hardball Times)
— After all the rumors about Cablevision possibly giving LeBron his own TV channel if he signs with the Nicks, New York's Will Leitch made a list of shows involving LeBron that he might actually watch. My favorite: "LeBronomics: An announcer hypnotically reads the amounts of various commodities Lebron's money can buy. ("Pork futures: all of them.")" (NY Mag)
— If you haven't read about this yet and want to feel incredibly sad, then you should continue. A young boy, Lucas Halco, sitting on his father's lap at a Mahoning Valley Scrappers game was hit in the head by a ball and is now in an induced coma and no one's entirely sure how much he'll recover. You can read more over at Shysterball or go to this site and make a donation. (Shysterball)
— ABJ's Patrick Mcmanonononononmananananamononoahahannon has a nice post breaking down Brady Quinn and the Browns' offense. (I know how to spell his name, but like saying Garkonoponopolous instead of Garko is more fun, I like my version better.) (Ohio.com)
