Cleveland

There are going to be the usual jokes made about this, but it was no laughing matter inside the clubhouse post-game as Mariners veterans got all of the players inside a private, off-limits room and held a team meeting prior to everyody dressing for the plane ride home. I know some fans and pundits tend to roll their eyes at team meetings and on some clubs, you can schedule them on your calendar as monthly, or even weekly events. But I would have been stunned to have not seen a meeting after the two-game fiasco we just witnessed here, with the Mariners getting outscored 19-1. There's a reason some of us were asking Raul Ibanez post-game last night about whether he worried some less experienced players might be tempted to get down on themselves after losing that hard-fought series in Cleveland Ibanez gave his teammates the benefit of the dout last night. But today, when they were blown off the field for a second day in a row, Ibanez and other vets made sure the players were reminded of how hard they'd worked the past month or so. And -- it goes without saying -- how close they are getting to throwing it all out the window if they play like they have the past 24 hours. “I think it’s important to remember all the good stuff that happened,’’ Ibanez said. “Not just on the trip, but prior to the trip. I think we’re going to be all right. We have a good group of guys, guys that are going to fight, that are going to scratch and claw.’’ Ibanez didn't want to discuss the content of the meeting, but did add that it was "a good time'' to call one. Brendan Ryan agreed with that assessment. “This is a whole different brand of baseball,’’ Ryan said. “This isn’t the brand of baseball we wanted to come in here and play. The losses in Cleveland were tough, but the hunger and drive was there. "This isn’t good,’’ he added. “We got behind and I don’t know, that determination – that if they score 15, we score 16 – didn’t seem to be there. I don’t know if we were feeling bad for ourselves, or what. But it’s a good time for an off-day.’’ And really, that's the difference. In Cleveland, the Mariners looked like a team that could go toe-to-toe with the game's best, even while getting swept. Here, they looked like the Mariners of 2010. You'll remember back in 2011, when the Mariners played .500 ball until July 4, then lost 17 in a row en route to a 95-loss season. They really needed some guys to step up with conviction back then and help pull the team out of that historic slide. That's one reason manager Eric Wedge was keen on getting more of a veteran presence on to the roster. Hence, today's meeting. An attempt to up the intesity level a bit. Not just sit back and take it. There are things, as I mentioned last post, that the front office and Wedge can do to help. The two losses here were mostly attributable to terrile starting pitching. The Mariners don't have a whole lot of in-house options in Class AAA right now, but Jeremy Bonderman seems worth at least a look. If Bonderman is promoted, it is still unlikely to be at the expense of Brandon Maurer, who lasted only three innings today. Wedge said postgame that Maurer is learning a lot up here, took a beating today that all young pitchers eventually go through, but came out of it OK and will be better for it. Maurer had the bases loaded and one out in the second inning and got Howie Kendrick to ground into a double play. “(Pitching coach) Carl (Willis) came out to the mound…with the bases loaded and said ‘This is how you become a man’,’’ Maurer said. “So, I go in there and throw a two-seamer and get a double play. I guess that was a positive I could take out of it.’’ Now, that's all fine and good. But if Erasmo Ramirez and Danny Hultzen were healthy, I dou

In the absence of a consensus No. 1 pick, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Cleveland Cavaliers are exploring all options.

Now obviously every game matters and the most important game to win is the one coming up. I was taking a look at the schedule though and was thinking which games are most important to win. Once I got looking at it and tried to rank them from one to sixteen many factors came into play. You want to win your division games. You want to take care of the easier opponents. It's easier to win at home then on the road. So taking in these factors I tried to put together an order of must win/highest percentage of winning the game in order to make the playoffs. 1. Jaguars 2. @ Jets 3. Bills 4. Lions 5. Steelers 6. Dolphins 7.@ Chiefs 8. Ravens 9.@ Steelers 10. Bears 11. Bengals 12.@ Ravens 13@ Vikings 14.@ Bengals 15.@ Packers 16.@ Patriots So basically I view the Patriots as the hardest game to win because they are a really good team and were playing there in New England in December. I view the Jaguars as the easiest/most win game because they are the weakest team weakest team we play. By my rankings it also shows that I think the Bengals are the best in division opponent and the steelers are the weakest. Tell me what you think and if you disagree. If so, how would you rank our schedule? Now obviously every game matters and the most important game to win is the one coming up. I was taking a look at the schedule though and was thinking which games are most important to win. Once I got looking at it and tried to rank them from one to sixteen many factors came into play. You want to win your division games. You want to take care of the easier opponents. It's easier to win at home then on the road. So taking in these factors I tried to put together an order of must win/highest percentage of winning the game in order to make the playoffs. 1. Jaguars 2. @ Jets 3. Bills 4. Lions 5. Steelers 6. Dolphins 7.@ Chiefs 8. Ravens 9.@ Steelers 10. Bears 11. Bengals 12.@ Ravens 13@ Vikings 14.@ Bengals 15.@ Packers 16.@ Patriots So basically I view the Patriots as the hardest game to win because they are a really good team and were playing there in New England in December. I view the Jaguars as the easiest/most win game because they are the weakest team weakest team we play. By my rankings it also shows that I think the Bengals are the best in division opponent and the steelers are the weakest. Tell me what you think and if you disagree. If so, how would you rank our schedule?

Lakshmi Puri, UN Women Hardly a day goes by without a news story on some violation of women’s rights. In recent months, appalling incidents of violence against women and girls, from Delhi to Johannesburg to Cleveland, have sparked public outrage and demands to tackle these horrific abuses. In Bangladesh and Cambodia, the shocking loss of life by garment factory workers, many of them women, sparked global debate on how to secure safe and decent jobs in our globalized economy. In Europe, the disproportionate impact on women of austerity cuts, and the use of quotas to get more women on corporate boards continue to make headlines. Even though women have made real gains, we are constantly reminded how far we have to go to realize equality between men and women. World leaders recognized the pervasiveness of discrimination and violence against women and girls when they signed onto the visionary Millennium Declaration in 2000. Amongst the eight Millennium Development Goals, they included a goal to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. With these goals set to expire in 2015, we are now in a race to achieve them. We are also in the midst a global conversation about what should replace them. It’s time for women to move from the sidelines to the centre. In a new post-2015 development agenda, we must build on the achievements of the MDGs while avoiding their shortcomings. Everyone agrees that the goals have galvanised progress to reduce poverty and discrimination, and promote education, gender equality, health and safe drinking water and sanitation. The goal on gender equality and women’s empowerment tracked progress on school enrolment, women’s share of paid work, and women’s participation in parliament. It triggered global attention and action. It served to hold governments accountable, mobilize much-needed resources, and stimulate new laws, policies, programmes and data. But there are glaring omissions. Noticeably absent is any reference to ending violence against women and girls. Also missing are other fundamental issues, such as women’s right to own property and the unequal division of household and care responsibilities. By failing to address the structural causes of discrimination and violence against women and girls, progress towards equality has been stalled. Of all the MDGs, the least progress has been made on MDG5, to reduce maternal mortality. The fact that this has been the hardest goal to reach testifies to the depth and scope of gender inequality. To make greater progress, UN Women proposes a stand-alone goal to achieve gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment that is grounded in human rights and tackles unequal power relations. We envision three areas that require urgent action. First, ending violence against women and girls must be a priority. From sexual violence in the camps of Haiti and Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to intimate partner shootings in the United States and elsewhere, this violence causes untold physical and psychological harm. It is one of the most pervasive human rights violations, and carries tremendous costs for individuals, families and societies. Second, women and men need equal opportunities, resources and responsibilities to realize equality. Equal access to land and credit, natural resources, education, health services including sexual and reproductive health, decent work and equal pay needs to be addressed with renewed urgency. Policies, such as child care and parental leave, are needed to relieve working women’s double duty so women and men can enjoy equality at work and at home. And third, women’s voices must be heard. It is time for women to participate equally in decision making in the household, the private sector and institutions of governance. Despite progress in recent years, women comprise just 20 percent of parliamentarians and 27 percent of judges. For democracy to be meaningful and inclusive, women’s voic

Charles Ramsey gets free burgers for the rest of his life. That is the reward a group of more than a dozen restaurants decided to give the hero credited with freeing three women in Cleveland who had been held hostage for more than a decade. Ramsey was a neighbor of the accused kidnapper and was eating a Big Mac when one of the three women being held escaped. In a now-famous television interview, Ramsey said he put down the McDonalds and came to the aid of the kidnapped women —  Amanda Berry and her daughter, along with Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. “I heard screaming. I’m eating my McDonald’s,” Ramsey told ABC News’ Cleveland affiliate WEWS. “I come outside. I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of the house. I go on the porch and she says, ‘Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time.’ ” To reward the Cleveland hero, the restaurants are giving Ramsey free burgers for life. It’s quite a list — he can to any of a number of places from brew pubs to bistros to regular old burger joints. The participating restaurants stretch from Cleveland and across northeastern Ohio all the way to Pennsylvania. Ramsey’s interview got McDonalds to take notice. After the company received a barrage of tweets asking the fast food chain to reach out to Charles Ramsey,@McDonaldsCorp tweeted:  “We salute the courage of Ohio kidnap victims & respect their privacy. Way to go Charles Ramsey- we’ll be in touch.” Ramsey already had one burger tribute. Hodges restaurant, where he works as a dishwasher, created the Ramsey Burger in honor of him. It’s modeled after the Big Mac. That inspired a business partner of Hodges owner to come up with a bigger tribute. Scott Kuhn, owner of Driftwood Restaurant Group, wanted his restaurants to participate in the free burgers for life offer. “We want to honor our local hero with local food,” said Kuhn, who owns four participating restaurants. “He stopped his meal midway through to help those women. We’re now making sure he has other opportunities to go out and fully enjoy his burger.” To cash in on the free burgers for life, Ramsey has a single-edition “Chuck Card.” All he has to do is flash it at one of the participating restaurants and the burger is free. Charles Ramsey Gets Free Burgers For Life After Cleveland Rescue is a post from: The Inquisitr

I know that all of Bedgedom is in "win now" mode and I'm sure there will be no shortage of posts on how to get that done. So just to be different I thought I'd put on my Kevin Pritchard hat for the day and take the contrarian approach. After all it is that magical time of year when all we have to do is dream of the future. I'm pretty sure that it was ole KP that said, "in order to maximize draft assets, the way to go is move UP in weak drafts and DOWN in strong ones", or something like that. So let's see what happens if we go into full on Pritchslap mode and try to recreate the B-roy LMA draft scenario. The plan is to completely hit the reset button and see how many good assets we can pile up with just this weak draft to work with. Step 1) Buy Dallas's #13. They want room to go after Dwight. We might have to take on a small contract to sweaten the deal, but by the time I get through gutting this roster the payroll is going to be just fine. Step 2) Trade Batuum for #4,5,6ish. Step 3) Trade LMA to Cleveland for #1 and another asset. Probably #18 this year, a future 1st, or Tristan Thompson. Step 4) Trade 2-3 second rounders to get a late first rounder. I'm hoping for something in the 20-25 range, and like New Jersey at #22 as a good partner at this point. So now we have #1,(let's say)#5, #10, #13 #18(or TT),and #22ish. That's too many picks even for me. Let's see if we can do some consolidating and move up a couple more spots. At this point I'm a little torn. There's just so many options. I think my preference would be to package #13 and #22 (plus a little sweetener if neccessary) to get another top 10 pick. The more I look at that #18/TT option, the more it is turning into Tristan Thompson and I'm just keeping him to build with. So now you've basically got #1, #5ish, #8ish, and your original #10 in a weak draft. You have no Batuum or LMA but you do have one additional asset from Cleveland that I'm calling Tristan Thompson right now. It could be a future first rounder or this years #18 if you prefer. Who do you draft and how good of a team can you make a couple years from now? I was going to start with Nerlens and hope for another lottery pick in next years supposedly strong draft. But then I saw this..."The other real concern is that Noel tore the same ACL that he had torn as a sophomore in high school. After coming back faster than doctors had recommended, some wonder if this recent injury was inevitable and whether there could be structural damage making further injuries to the same knee more likely."...I'm out. So with that in mind. #1 Otto Porter: I take him first so I don't accidently get stuck with 2 shooting guards. #5 Oladipo: I'd rather have Mclemore, but Porter probably wouldn't be here at this point and I gotta have him since I traded Nicola. #8 Cody Zeller: Everything you don't like about him isn't really a problem at my newly opened 4 spot. #10 Alex Len/Steve Adams I'm not sure which I like best yet, but a center to compliment/push Meyers Leonard goes here one way or the other. So now you're long or athletic at every position. You also have tons of cap space and assets so that you can snap up any odd superstars that come on the market, similar to what the Houston Rockets did with James Harden. Of course the short version is to keep all your assets, just get the #13 from Dallas, package it with #10(or Wes)to make a run at Oladipo and call it a day.

You remember Charles Ramsey, right? He’s the normal guy turned hero after he helped rescue Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, all of whom were being held prisoner on Cleveland, Ohio’s West Side. Out of that nightmare of a story, Ramsey was one bright spot – a genuine, unassuming, utterly hilarious hero with a love for McDonald’s. Now, it looks like some local Cleveland establishments are looking to say thanks to Ramsey – in a great, big, juicy way. According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, about a dozen restaurants have partnered to give Ramsey free burgers for life. This includes AMP 150 at the Marriott Cleveland Airport; Washington Place Bistro and Inn in Little Italy; Fahrenheit restaurant in Tremont; Market Garden Brewery, Bier Markt, Bar Cento and Nano Brew in Ohio City; Welshfield Inn in Troy Township; Hodges and Pura Vida in downtown Cleveland; 87 West at Crocker Park in Westlake; Orchard House restaurant in Brunswick; Flour restaurant in Moreland Hills, and the Allegheny Grille in Foxburg, Pennsylvania. “We want to honor our local hero with local food,” said Scott Kuhn, who runs a few of the eateries involved in the gift. “He stopped his meal midway through to help those women. We’re now making sure he has other opportunities to go out and fully enjoy his burger.” Ramsey will be gifted with the only “Chuck Card,” which will entitled him to at least a free burger in all participating restaurants. He sure wasn’t shy about his love of burgers. Remember this classic line? “I’m eating my McDonald’s; I come outside; I see this girl going nuts,” he said, “…I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!” Oh Charles. We hope you enjoy your burgers. We really do. [Image via reddit]

Posted in Anastasia PantsiosArtsCultureDanceDrinksEatsEducationEntrepreneurialismFestivalHistoryMusic: Jazz / BluesMusic: PopularMusic: Rock and RollOutdoorsPartyPerformancePHOTOSTREAMReviewCreated with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR. Thu 5/2 Sat 5/4 The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival takes place each year the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May at the New Orleans Fairgrounds. It attracts people from all over the world who come to hear some of the hundreds of performers on ten stages from 11 [...]

This road trip ended shockingly worse than it appeared it would just five days ago, when the Mariners arrived in Cleveland having taken two of three from the New York Yankees. They haven't won since. And while some of the games in Cleveland went down to the wire, the Mariners were simply blown off the field here. This game ended 7-1 in favor of the Angels, so the Mariners were outscored 19-1 in the two-game series. That's not going to cut it. The pitching here from the starters was not up to MLB standard. And while I'm partial to letting the Brandon Maurer thing play out a little longer -- given some moderate success he's had -- this is not supposed to be a training school. That's what Class AAA is for. If he can't get opposite-handed hitters out with frequency, he's going to have trouble keeping pace at this level. As badly as I feel for Maurer today -- let's fact it, nobody wants to see somebody lit-up like that in his return to his childhood home -- I feel just as badly for the Seattle players who were never given a chance to compete in this game. Trouble is, the Mariners don't have a whole lot of options, meaning that they could probably replace one of Maurer and Aaron Harang, but not both. Not with anything that will lead to a real improvement, at least not this early in the season. But it's not just the pitching. There are too many black holes in this offense starting to show through and the Mariners might want to make an infield change now, rather than wait for the season to further disintegrate. The team nearly got shut out for the third time in four games. If there is any hope for an in-house solution to replace one of the struggling middle infielders -- be it Robert Andino, or Dustin Ackley -- they might consider doing it now. The Mariners keep saying that the time for free rides and developing at the big league level is coming to an end. That may be true for some players, but others look like they could use seasoning in the minors or someplace else. The Mariners don't have a catcher to replace Jesus Montero with, which is why he's still here and will be come Friday. But they do have Class AAA infielders in Carlos Triunfel and Nick Franklin who may or may not bring something to the table. They do have some options to replace some players who have underperformed all year. If they keep trotting out the same old excuses while losing the same old games, more and more fans are going to keep tuning them out. The Mariners were competitive in Cleveland. They got wiped out here. Cleveland is in the rear-view mirror. It's time to look ahead and deal with some issues.

Born on today's date, Reggie Cleveland. Reggie didn't exactly bring out the crowds.