By Marc Lawrence — Born and raised in Cleveland, I met my high school sweetheart there and am proud to say we’ve been happily married for 53 years. Reared in the projects, I sold scorecards at Municipal Stadium for Cleveland Indians games to earn some pocket-money and to get a chance to catch the second-half of the games for free. So my allegiance is with my hometown, and the Tribe. It is with a tear in my eye that they’ve announced the need to change the baseball team’s nickname for the sake of political correctness. Never once was the name “Indians” ever used, or even thought of in a derogatory manner by its fans or followers. But in today’s world, activists have a voice and it’s being listened to, albeit far too often. They took away Chief Wahoo, the loveable caricature, from us two years ago and now they want my friend, the Indians, as well. Sorry, but with all due respect to Native American Indian tribes everywhere, whenever I here the word Indians I think of it in honor of the great American Indian and of my baseball team of 105 years. You’re going to have to do better than ripping away at the heartstrings of our long-founded hometown team than standing up for an injustice that is not an injustice, especially when it comes to hometown loyalty. Convincing loyal Clevelanders that the name change will help lower suicide rates by Native American Indians is like telling us that using the name Fighting Sioux of North Dakota is racist and demeaning – as opposed to it portraying them as the image of a POWERFUL warrior. What’s next … Change the name of the Pittsburgh Pirates because it offends looters and pillagers worldwide? Expel the state of Indiana? So when the day does comes, here hoping that in my remaining years on this earth I’ll be able to accept the Cleveland Rockers (the hometown of the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame and legendary Rocky Colavito and the “Cleveland Rocks” song from the Drew Carey show) as the new name of choice that the Indians left behind. Rest assured, though, it will never replace the days of yelling, “Scorecard lineup. Get your scorecard!”
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In case you missed it, Baltimore’s 47-42 win over Cleveland was highest scoring game of season and 3rd-highest in Monday Night Football history (89). And according to ESPN, it was also the most points in final 2 minutes (20) since 2013 Ravens-Vikings … the 1st game to end on a safety since 2016 … and the 1st game in NFL history with 47-42 final score. In addition, the 9 combined rushing TDs is tied for the most in a single game in NFL history.
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From this week’s PLAYBOOK Football Newsletter: L.A. Rams head coach Sean McVay is a cripple-shooter, going 16-1 SU and 14-3 ATS with the Rams versus sub .333 foes, including 8-0 SUATS from Game Five out. On the flip side, the New York Jets are 0-17 SUATS as a non-division road dog of 4 or more points when facing an opponent coming off a SU and ATS win. Not a very promising picture for the Flyboys this Sunday.
