Season pass opens doors at Cedar Point

One of my first memories is puffing up my a hat to meet the height requirements on The Beast at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Since I stumbled off that ride, I’ve been hooked.

I’ve felt the click-clack of the elevator chain on the Magnum 2000 at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio several dozen times. I’ve spent hours waiting  for the opening of the Millennium Force at Cedar Point, and I’ve looped on the Raptor on the first and last runs of the day.

An unrelated job brought me back to Sandusky, within minutes of Cedar Point’s gate, and I purchased a season pass ($110 for regular, or $169 for platinum with free parking). Instead of trying to pack all of the 17 roller coasters into one day, a pass meant I could go to the park for a few hours after dinner at my favorite local restaurant and then visit the shoreline amusement park as the sun set over the Sandusky Bay, with less urgency. The bulk of the crowd was gone by 7 p.m., leaving shorter lines and less traffic.

When I was younger, a trip to Cedar Point with my family meant arriving at the park at 9:30 a.m., with lunch and coolers in tow, sunscreen slathered over every visible inch of skin. I still enjoyed it then.

As a resident of Sandusky, however, I saw the quieter, relaxing side of the park. My trips to Cedar Point were no longer only about the roller coasters — they were still the main attraction, of course — but about pacing and integrating my visits with the rest of what Sandusky had to offer.

"Unbloggable"?

Dan Steinberg of the DC Sports Blog asked if the Wizards might become as "unbloggable as the Cavs."

How are the Cavaliers "unbloggable"?

The Cavs have some interesting personalities to discuss, and their organization is good enough to 'believe,' but flawed enough to fantasize massive changes. 

LeBron is (usually) too PC and controlled to give you good quotes, but can still produce some excellent material. His game, his ambitions (right-minded or misguided efforts to become a "mogul," for example) and the stranglehold he has over the organization top-to-bottom all provide excellent talking points. Players sometimes take pot-shots at him on and off the court, and so do fans and the media. He's so good that people are in a hurry to dismiss him as 'not as good as Michael Jordan,' though that may only hold up for so long.

Cleveland has a ton of consummate professionals on our team, too, with strange personality quirks and history. Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the witty, soft-spoken gentle giant of the squad. Player-coach Eric Snow spends more time working on Delonte West's game than his own. Wally Szczerbiak is desperately trying to relive his glory days at Miami (OH). Joe Smith finally gets to experience the second round. Ben Wallace needs to prove that he isn't irrelevant. Cleveland's resident loudmouth, Damon Jones, is seriously struggling with his diminished role.

Danny Ferry was himself the product of one of the worst trades in Cleveland history, but has tried to shake things up. How is an 11-player deadline deal three-quarters the way through the season "unbloggable"? No one thinks he's perfect, for sure, but that lends to more good discussion. What could have or should have been. Ferry also leaves us with a team that keeps Cleveland fans going and believing. 

The owner Dan Gilbert is one of the quirkiest and most innovative people in the business world. He's interesting in his own right, but more so because he'll invest whatever it takes to get a ring, from a $25 million practice facility (Cleveland Clinic Courts) to a multi-million dollar home locker room renovation or exorbitant luxury taxes on the payroll. He even stole the Detroit PA announcer and the TV play-by-play guy when he came here. He's Mark Cuban without a blog.

Are the Cavs not bloggable because they don't do ridiculous things like call out one of the best players in the league? Or maybe declare in the media their wish to play a certain team because they're 'soft'? Or fan the fire by calling the most dominant player on the other team a 'crybaby'?

Why don't captains Butler and Jamison have better control of their team? They're two stalwart, professional personalities and excellent basketball players – But if they can't reel in the stupidity of Stevenson or the ridiculous comments of Gilbert, are they doing their duties as captains? Why don't approximately 28 or 29 other teams in the league have these persistant problems? Jamison said that the comments through the mass media were 'beneath him,' and he was right. He just didn't exude the authority to convince his team that the trash-talking through the media was beneath them, too.

Three things would make the Cavs "unbloggable."

1) Lack of controversy.

2) A depressingly bad team, with no history or future.

3) No fan base to read the posts.

But the Cavs have controversy (hello, penultimate regular-season game against the Sixers, the entire Washington series or the massive trade). The Cavs have a pretty good team with a history (complete with our own disappointing one-sided 'rivalry') and a future. And Cleveland breeds sports fans, for lack of passion about anything else connected to the city.

So, really, what did he mean by unbloggable? LeBron and Z have control of the team, and they'll be playing into the second round (at least) for as long as James is in Cleveland. 

Isn't discussing the games, the on-court action on the 50-by-94 rectangle in the middle of the arena, the main event to blogging? And the Cavs create great fodder on the floor, even for opposing bloggers.

I can guarantee, at this moment it is much more fun to be a Cleveland writer than a Wizards blogger. The Cavs fans are still discussing the ongoing season … And that's what it's all about.

Dan is a gifted writer, but I whole-heartedly disagree with him on this one.

The Greatest Man in Cleveland Basketball

If you're not aware of Cleveland's Joe Tait, you're missing the best part of Cleveland basketball.

Joe Tait was the original play-by-play man of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's known for his clarity, his exciting calls... And his brutal, brutal honesty.

That may have been why Ted Stepien fired him for two seasons in the early 1980s, in his worst move as a basketball owner. For many years, Tait seemed like the only reason to follow the Cavs.

He has what you might call a "long leash" with the Cavs--He was former owner Gordon Gund's eyes in the game. Since then, he has become a basketball advisor and personal commentator to the part-owner, as well as the VP of Cavs broadcast operations. No one knows more about the Cavaliers now, or ever, than Mr. Tait.

He'll always tell it exactly as it is, good or bad. When it's good, he's an unstoppable announcing machine, calling out every player, location, and play. He's excited, and exciting. Joe is in full control of the listeners' emotion during the game. He deftly inserts enlightening commentary into his announcing, including commentary on the players that other broadcasters do not dare to make..

He is also the team's most tenacious critic when they're losing. Tait's brash honesty is why I am writing to you tonight.

The Cavs played without LeBron on Thursday night. On both ends of the floor, the Sonics massacred the Cavs, and Tait took no prisoners on the dilapidated Cavaliers.

Here are some quotes from last night:

"I could have made that shot! There was nobody around him!"

(announcing a promotion) "...If you want to rebound for the Cavs during a pregame shootaround. Or, if you want to rebound for the Cavs tonight."

"I'd like to leave, but I'm stuck here without a ride until the end of the game."

"If these referees have any mercy at all, they will call only fouls that result in broken bones or blood."

"The Cavaliers are dying a miserable death here at Key Arena."

"They're going to put two seconds back on the clock, which is considered by many to be cruel and unusual punishment."

"The Cavaliers have failed to get the last hoop of the first half--In fact, they've failed at just about everything they tried. Mike, do I envy you; you're going HOME when this halftime is over. I have to stay and watch the rest of this atrocity."

Seattle's shooting 61% from the field, the Cavaliers, 34%. And now before I break down and cry, let us pause for more on the Cavaliers radio network."

"Just leave (the interview request sheet) right there. I'll start a bonfire with it later."

Some audio clips of better times.

Well there you have it, the last truly honest man in sports broadcasting. He's one of the last relics of old-time basketball and straightforward, unsweetened game commentary.

Listen to the next game on NBA League Pass audio. He makes every game worth it, even a horrific loss like Thursday night.