Random Ridiculousness

It's that time again. Letting out what my mind keeps in.

+Gas prices are finally dropping back down again. It comes right in time for the holiday travel season -- I just hope they stay down at least until after the first of the year, since I'll be on the road again for the days right after Christmas.

+Thanksgiving takes on a new meaning this year as well. My brother, Brian, hits the trail for the Air Force in December, so Mom Hunt is making sure everyone can get together for the last time for probably at least a couple years.

Luckily, my boss allowed me to have the day before Thanksgiving off work so I can make it back to T-town and see my brother off. It will be the quickest trip I've taken in awhile, but definitely will be worth it. In addition, it looks like I should be able to make it back to Tiffin for the night before Thanksgiving bar celebration, which is always awesome, seeing high school friends you haven't seen in a long time.

+After nearly six months producing the 10 p.m. newscast, I've decided that the 2nd shift is probably the worst of the three you can work.

1st shift is obviously ideal, waking up at a fairly normal time, going to sleep at a fairly normal time, having time in the afternoon and evening to relax -- or, mostly importantly for someone who's new to an area, to meet people for a drink or dinner.

3rd shift might not be the best for sleeping, but if you can block out enough sun in your room it's fine. Some of my fellow producers who work that 3rd shift find it easier to sleep twice a day, which I would agree with doing. The thing about the 3rd shift is that you can tailor your schedule to allow yourself time to hang out or have dinner with people in the afternoons and evenings.

The 2nd shift, though, allows none of that. Waking up isn't the hard part - in fact, you wake up just about any time you really want to wake up. You spend the free time of your day making lunch, watching daytime television or running errands. If you try to get up early, you spend your workday just trying to make it to the end.

You finish working anywhere between 11 and midnight, giving you maybe two hours to meet friends out somewhere, but likely sending you home to finish off your day with a movie or late-night television show. 2nd shifts do not assist with meeting new people, getting together with the people you already know or dating anyone. OK, that's my rant.

+I'm thinking about trying to grow a playoff beard. It might have to be amended to be called a "postseason" beard, mainly because it looks like Notre Dame will have at least one extra game this year and the Browns will not. That means I MIGHT have some facial hair by the time ND plays in a bowl game. How I love being baby-faced.

+How crazy has it been to be a Cleveland Indians fan the last two years? In 2007, the team tied for the best record in baseball, led by pitcher CC Sabathia - their first Cy Young Award winner in years - and was a win away from the World Series.

This season, the Tribe finished at an even .500 (which, by the way, was just seven games out of first in the Central Division) and had two big winners on the field - Cliff Lee grabbed the AL Cy Young Award and Grady Sizemore won both a Golden Glove and the Silver Slugger Awards. And Cleveland traded away a guy who finished 5th in the NL Cy Young Award voting.

Despite what many believe, there was no way the Indians were going to re-sign CC Sabathia. If he didn't sign before the season, he was not staying in Cleveland after the season. For the Indians to get what they got out of Sabathia, it was a HUGE victory for the Tribe. It might have cost them a playoff run this year, but at least the Indians got something for Sabathia, unlike the same situations with guys like Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, who left town with nothing coming in return.

+That's all I got. Go Browns. Need a Monday Night Football encore from the win over the Giants.

Tribe-ulations

Cleveland Indians manager Eric Wedge says he doesn't want to give up on the season yet. Most Tribe fans have trouble understanding this theory. The Indians are going to need a 2007 Colorado Rockies-type run over the next four weeks to get back to being a legitimate contender.

I know Wedge has toyed with the lineup a BUNCH this season, but I haven't seen Grady Sizemore out of the lead-off spot enough. Why not give him some more RBI chances with the likes of Shin Soo Choo or Jamey Carroll leading off (both have marginally better on-base percentages)??

In addition, if Sizemore reaches the base paths in front of the #4 or #5 hitters (whomever they may be on a given night), wouldn't the threat of a stolen base make the opposing pitcher at least consider throwing more fastballs than off-speed pitches in case Sizemore is planning on taking second base??

It's easy to understand why Sizemore is still in the lead-off spot -- he doesn't seem to be the problem. And it's hard to argue with the numbers: .261 average, .366 OBP, team-leading 19 HR, team-leading 19 stolen bases. So Sizemore is having himself a decent year. But the team isn't.

In a June issue of the Akron Beacon-Journal, Wedge said, ''Grady likes it up there, and he's one of the best in the game...I don't see why you would want to take one of your greatest areas of strength away?" The reason why is because there's the possibility that Sizemore will be BETTER as a #3 hitter than as a lead-off man. Even more, there's the possibility that Cleveland will be a BETTER hitting team with Sizemore in the three hole.

In the American League, a .500 winning percentage probably won't get you close to winning a wild card spot. In other words, an exact reversal of the first half of the year won't be enough to keep the Indians in it. And if Eric Wedge truly believes there's hope left for this season, he might want to consider a MAJOR change because small lineup changes obviously aren't helping Cleveland score runs.

Swing and a Drive...

First Week as a Cheesehead

Now that I've been in the Badger State for an entire week, I figured I'd take a look back at how it all went.

We had breaking news on Thursday, the last day of training for me. NBC 15 has newscasts at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. Around 3:50, our Web Producer, Abby, was reading over a news release that said police in Minnesota made an arrest of a suspect in connection with a high-profile murder that happened in Madison a few months ago.

The newsroom went into crazy mode. Abby printed the news release and our news director ran it to the 4 p.m. anchor to read immediately off the top of the newscast (she had about a minute to gather what the heck was going on). We pulled a reporter from a live shot at another story to come back to Madison and work on an angle of the murder arrest story. A different reporter stuck around and reported ANOTHER story instead of leaving after the 6 p.m. newscast like he usually does (putting in a day of around 11 hours).

Meanwhile, I had no clue who Joel Marino (the murder victim) was or who we could call to get more information or interviews for stories. But I learned a ton within the short time that I was there that night. It was a good thing to see how breaking news works within the station BEFORE having to deal with it on my own.

My first solo-produced newscasts were Friday, when I tackled the 6 and the 10 (which I'll do on every Friday from here on out). Luckily for my "first day," there wasn't anything that tried my skills immediately.

Otherwise, my first week was pretty uneventful. I spent over an hour the first day doing paperwork and reading company policies. The IT guy was on vacation, so I still don't have a station e-mail or computer user name or user name for posting stories to the web. That difficulty should be gone on Monday, thankfully.

There's a possibility I might have a blog on nbc15.com in the coming weeks, but that's not for sure at this point. I want to have a few posts in the can before I have the opportunity to start one up. If you have any ideas, let me know!!
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Where has the Indians' lineup gone this season?? Unless I make a daily trip to a sports bar, I can no longer watch the Tribe games live. But that's OK with me at this point considering this was their batting order against the Cincinnati Reds in the third game of their series in Cleveland...

Grady Sizemore
Casey Blake
Ben Francisco
Jhonny Peralta
Shin Soo Choo
Kelly Shoppach
David Dellucci
Andy Marte
Jorge Velandia

Are you kidding me?? Marte needs to play everyday or get designated for assignment. Choo is hitting well, but should NEVER have to be a designated hitter in any Cleveland lineup. When Jorge Velandia started at shortstop on Wednesday night, it was the 65th DIFFERENT lineup used by Eric Wedge in 78 games.

It's a tough season for everyone on this team for various reasons, many of which are injuries. But even before the injuries there were underperformances. Cleveland couldn't score runs if its life depended on it for a stretch of about two months. But I'm done with this season. If C.C. Sabathia isn't traded soon (well before the trade deadline, when teams are willing to give a little more to have him sooner.

Bring on the Browns and, maybe even a little bit, the Irish.

Swing and a Drive...