On the bright side, the #Crew96 Banana Kits were GLORIOUS as always. Nice to see them again.

Tonight was the 18th stoppage-time game-losing goal in #Crew96 history. It's the third 1-0 stoppage time game-loser in club history. All at home. 6/12/11: Cristian Nazarit 91+ vs CHI 9/24/11: Chad Barrett 93+ vs LAG 3/14/26: Hany Mukhtar 94+ vs NSH

ICYMI, I wrote an essay about Forest City Cleveland's brand unveiling and why I so strongly connected with it. sirkbook.com/2026/03/10/f...

Miami going 31-0 and then shitting the bed in their first conference tourney game against a team that went 7-11 in the MAC is a delightful, heart-warming sports story. A+++. 10/10. Five stars. The main plot was annoying and went on far too long, but the crescendo was <<chef's kiss>>.

Exciting news! @clevelandprosoccer.bsky.social has announced the identity and crest of the MLS Next Pro team that will kick off in 2027: Forest City Cleveland I wrote about why the club's branding resonates with me. sirkbook.com/2026/03/10/f...

It’s time to stake our claim, Cleveland. We need a statue outside the Jake of the Joe Carter and Cory Snyder “Indian Uprising” Sports Illustrated cover from 1987. (“Believe it! Cleveland is the best team in the American League.” They went on to lose 101 games. Not Joe Carter’s fault though!)

"Walmart Saturday Showdown" sounds like...a trip to Walmart on a Saturday.

ANOTHER random find while doing Force research.... I had never seen the Toronto Towers logo! Here is Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien unveiling the team's logo at Maple Leaf Gardens in March 1983 as he intended to relocate the Cavs there.

Another random find: 8 English top-flight teams participated in an indoor soccer tournament in 1983, looking to reverse soccer's struggles in England. There was talk of shutting down outdoor in winter to play the indoor game. Lack of arenas was a hindrance. Opening paragraphs...

Random thing I came across during Force research: In 1982, Art Modell was rumored to be selling the Browns to start an expansion team in LA to block the Raiders from moving there. NFL insiders said it was in the works, but he denied it. If only it had happened...

Well, not really. Totally different stakes. But it still sucks when what would have been an all-time classic moment is ruined to the point you wish it had never happened in the first place because all it did was give false hope and ratchet up the residual anguish forever.

Now Chicagoans know how the Rajai Davis homer feels.

A QB heaving a ball from 25 yards behind the line of scrimmage to a guy in the corner of the end zone to tie the game in the closing seconds is a play so preposterous I can’t believe it didn’t happen against the Browns. Other teams must suffer when the Browns never make the playoffs.

Jose got six turns and still lost to the non-Joses at tic-tac-toe. I never thought it possible, but I guess we found something he's not awesome at?

imagine hitting 13 walk-off home runs

Attn: @michaelarace1.bsky.social Guy being interviewed on local news in Cleveland kicking it old school Hartford.

Akron Beacon Journal readers' favorite athletes by team, circa June 1988: Kosar, Carter, Haaskivi, Price. That's a fairly representative mixed-franchise local Mount Rushmore of my childhood.

A hazard of Cleveland Force research is that sometimes you catch strays...

Jeff Kent being in the HOF is really stupid when 2B like Lou Whitaker and Bobby Grich are not. Those two were comparable at the plate (Grich a little better, Whitaker a smidge below) when compared to their eras, but were so much better defensively. Kent is in b/c "most HR by 2B" in HR-inflated era.

It remains stunning to me how even with Magic and Bird, the NBA still was not that popular in the 1980s. The NBA as we know it didn't really happen until the 1990s. Here's a clip from the ABJ in March 1983 looking at the Major Indoor Soccer League vs. the NBA. Look at even those "good" NBA numbers.

Codify hot take: the introduction of an ABS Challenge System will increase Steven Kwan's batting average.

Seems you can make a pretty good living with consistent paychecks by being the person who writes those "The lottery prize is enormous, but the winner will take home less than that" stories. The people-who-know-how-to-read-but-have-never-heard-of-taxes demographic is highly coveted and catered to.

Congratulations to Lionel Messi for amassing 67% of the MLS Cup assist total of 2008 #Crew96 Guillermo Barros Schelotto. You approached the general vicinity of greatness, Leo, and that's quite a feather in your cap.

I wonder if @michaelarace1.bsky.social ever went to see the Hartford Hellions.

Just saw a newspaper ad from 1981 where you could get a buy-one-get-one offer for Cleveland Force tickets if you filled out a form and mailed it in with two UPC cut outs from packs of Newport cigarettes. The good old days.

Yet @mrgeorgewallace.bsky.social keeps inciting the Yo Momma Wars. This award is a sham!

Why is the soybean oil always PARTIALLY hydrogenated. Finish hydrogenating that shit, you lazy wockaflockas!

Dashboard display of an adjacent contact while pulling up someone to call. Sometimes it’s nice to get a random reminder of the weird things that have happened in my life.

The white helmet sucks. The brown helmet sucks. The Oregon Duck-ification of NFL teams with classic, rock-solid identities is annoying.

One of the cool things about being a #Crew96 fan is thinking, "Man, that first championship was so long ago" when it really wasn't that long ago, but it's so long ago compared to the more recent championships.

Announcer just said Nagbe was "cool as a cucumber." To be clear, cucumbers are cool as Nagbe. #Crew96

Flawless sports day. Crew won. Cavaliers won. Browns didn’t play. Couldn’t have gone any better.

Incredible playoffs. Incredible World Series. Yet in the end, the bajillion dollar super team that everyone anointed as the champion well before the season won the title as expected. Such a bummer that baseball’s brokenness won out in the end to put a damper on all the thrills of the past month.

8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for baseball

If the game is still going by the time of first pitch Game 4 they have to play both games simultaneously

The classic Larry Miler “Five Levels of Drinking” standup bit, but adapted to be about this #WorldSeries game.

OK so you know the gag on the Simpsons when Sideshow Bob is stepping on the rakes, it's funny, then it's too much, then it's terrible, then it's transcendently hilarious this baseball game

Ohtani tonight double homer double homer intentional walk intentional walk intentional walk intentional walk totally normal evening you wouldn't think he could still do things that you insist you've never seen before, and yet

“no position player has pitched in a world series game. we hope it doesn’t get there” NO. WE HOPE IT DOES GET THERE. HOPING SOME WEIRD THING HAPPENS IS THE WHOLE POINT OF BASEBALL.

they should make tomorrow a holiday for baseball reasons

This game is like I got caught smoking a baseball and now I have to smoke a whole pack of baseball

We’ve progressed from watching the baseball game to being held hostage by the baseball game.

if you've got a one-run lead with no one on against the greatest player in the 150-year history of pro baseball, you simply have to throw him a pitch that is roughly over the middle of the plate and dick-high

Has there been a more senseless change to football broadcasting than switching the field goal point of view to behind the kicker so it’s impossible to see the ball because of the wall of fans, when they used to do the POV from behind the uprights which made the ball super easy to see?

They say we have no “footballing culture” but right now in America, there’s a team named “Sharktopus FC” that just earned a replay of a loss because the ref for their last match turned out to have once been a player for their opponent’s second team. 🇺🇸

Eight years ago that I stood up there and was so overwhelmed by the size and response of the crowd that I totally forgot to talk about what I meant to talk about. Like, at all. This is probably why teleprompters exist. I may have forgotten to say what I meant to say, but I’ll never forget that day.

THAT IS THE CRAZIEST PLAY I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE AND NOTHING WILL EVER TOP IT. HOLY COW. WOW. #Baseball

It’s not fair that the Dodgers have a bajillion-dollar payroll but just won a playoff series on #Guardsball ridiculousness.

I didn’t watch my team get eliminated from the playoffs just to watch other teams do annoyingly stupid things to blow playoff games.