Happy new year, everyone, and I hope you all had a joyous LeBron Day. It's difficult to believe this blog's biggest holiday is now in its sixth year, considering that Corey and I made up discovered the ancient traditions of the first LeBron Day the night before back in 2004. We've since uncovered more ancient traditions and dropped others (which had been debunked by modern researchers...

Happy Festivus, random five people who are still, for some reason, paying attention to this essentially-defunct blog! I bring you tidings of great special teams-related statistics!You thought we were dead, but the joke's on you, because we were just resting our eyes. I am writing this post for a couple of reasons:The Browns are actually showing signs of life, thanks in large part...

I hope you have enjoyed quizzes #1 and 2. With the fast-approaching start of the LeBron season (a.k.a. The Holy Time), it's about time for a Cavs quiz, no? This one's pretty straightforward:Can you name the Cleveland Cavaliers during the LeBron Era (2004-2010)?Enjoy!

Quiz #1 was a resounding success, so I'm moving right along to Quiz #2. This time, I hope you're ready to have a few laughs:Can you name the New Browns leaders in passing, rushing, receiving, and return yardage (1999-2009)?Incidentally, I'm taking requests for other Cleveland sports-themed quizzes. In fact, the reader who supplies me with the best quiz idea will win a brand new blazer...

Sure, we haven't posted in like twelve years. And sure, what little we have posted this summer has been focused on re-living the past glory of the 1990s Indians. And sure, this post will also partly be about re-living the past glory of the 1990s Indians. And the problem with that is...?I am obsessed with the trivia game website Sporcle, which has hit upon an addicting trivia game...

We'll get back to our "Exploring the 1995 Media Guide" series, I promise, but first, in flipping through the book, trying to decide which section to showcase next, I was inspired to bring you this non-Media Guide post. The question is simple: which of our 1990s Indians heroes are Hall of Fame-bound, and of those, which, if any, will go in as Indians?To help me assess...

In this, the second installment of our nostalgic journey through the 1995 Indians Media Guide, we'll be channeling our inner Gary Meadows, and counting down the 10 rockingest mustaches in the book. Between the stars, the nobodies, the coaching staff, and everyone in the middle, the '95 Indians were a squad with some quality mustaches.If you missed Part 1, it can be found here. Also...

I know what you're thinking: "What, more Mistake by the Lake content? How do these losers live their lives?" Well, what can I tell you? Truly, the amount of blogging we do has a direct, one-to-one correlation with how much we care about you, our loyal readers.Anyway, you might have noticed that the 2009 Indians season has quietly turned into an exciting race for not-last place.....

A lot of factors can go into shaping a sports rivalry. There's shared history, geographical proximity, recent playoff match-ups, and so on. I suspect, though, that the biggest factor determining the strength of a rivalry is, quite simply, volume. Your biggest rivals will tend to be the teams you play most often.It happens that some cities have "natural" rivalries with...

Last updated: 9:20 PM8:31 PMLike most of you (I'm assuming), I awoke Sunday morning with an incredible headache and no memory of anything that happened during the previous 214 days. Did the U.S. go to war with Canada? Did they invent flying cars? Did Spielberg finally produce I, Ernie (the Rubin Brothers' much-hyped screenplay)? Was I published in the New York Times? Who can say...

Get out your maple syrup, ladies and germs, because it's finally time for the real playoffs to begin! As we're about to see, the Magic are actually a bona fide elite team. So while the Cavs are still the favorites, this series is unlikely to be a walk in the cake... the pan-cake (boom)!Let's go straight to the four factors:When the Cavs are on offenseAs a reminder, the Cavs finished...

In my wittily-titled post "The Regular Season," I pointed out that the 2009 Cavaliers' regular season was the 5th-best ever (and by "ever" I of course mean "since the NBA-ABA merger," because, seriously, I have only moderate amounts of time to waste, and I choose to waste them as efficiently as possible). In the ensuing weeks, the Cavaliers have gone on a playoff rampage the likes...

In his Game 3 recap, Brian Windhorst wonders if LeBron's 47 points on 15-of-25 from the field Saturday ranks as His greatest shooting game ever. However, Windhorst doesn't really draw a final conclusion, so this felt like my cue to jump in."Greatest shooting game" is not very well-defined. It could mean "greatest scoring game" (in which case, "scoring...

Just when you were starting to enjoy your inter-rounds vacation, it's time for more pancake hoops! This month, our beloved Cavs take on those Southern belles, the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta had a .556 Pythagorean win percentage in the regular season, which makes them the NBA's 13th-best team, and rightly deserving of the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference. (Interestingly, the Hawks'...

Friends, by now you are aware that Alex and I have developed an effective system for purging our inbox of the gomillions upon gomillions of reader inquires we receive each week. We decided several years ago that the best way to respond to your many e-mails would be to use the NBA All-Star Break, MLB All-Star Break, and Browns bye week, respectively, to respond to an arbitrarily selected...

As a NFLPA-certified Draftnik, I couldn't have been more excited by this year's NFL Draft. Especially when it came to who the Browns should select. Most everyone thought that they should take the athletic guy with short hair, but I knew all along—no way, José—they should take the strong guy with the tattoo: he projects better to the pro game. That's what the amateurs always...

Three posts in five days—what is this, 2004?As we endure the interminable march toward meaningful Cavaliers playoff games, but before we get too far removed from the regular season, I wanted to make a couple of points about that regular season, and what it suggests about the 2009 Cavs' place in history. Plus, I needed an excuse to run more Cavs graphs, as required by my contract...

I have not been to an Indians game yet this year, but loyal reader Mike was kind enough to send us a link to this article about a shocking new-for-2009 development at Progressive Field. Long story short, you can now buy "Ketchup Cheats" T-shirts at the Indians team shop. This comes as a surprise, to say the least, and at first I wasn't quite sure how to react to it.In case you're...

Meine Damen und Herren,The end of the regular season has been a long time coming, but it's finally pancake time at The Q! Okay, so this first series is more like the amuse-bouche before the pancakes. But still—let us preview!As we usually do for our Super Preview Extravaganzae, I'll run down each of the four factors twice (once for offense and once for defense), to try and paint...

If there are two things I can never pass up, they're a bowl of matzo ball soup, and a graph about the Cavaliers. So, since we haven't posted anything in a while, here are two Cavs graphs I cooked up, in which the Cavs themselves are represented in matzo ball-form. Sort of.This first one is pretty simple. It compares each Cav's O-Rating to his D-Rating. These metrics were developed...

This has nothing to do with Cleveland sports (go team!), but I wanted to alert all of you puzzle fans that Corey's debut crossword puzzle is in today's New York Times. It's only available online to those with premium accounts, and if you have one of those, you've probably already done the puzzle. Otherwise, you're going to have to purchase a copy at your local...

Justin Kubatko of Basketball-Reference.com has joined in on the playoff probability game with his own report. Unfortunately, it's a black box for now. But it makes for a good complement to John Hollinger's creation.The Cavs' patience at the trading deadline not only bodes well for the team in the long-term (all of the rumored deals had the Cavs taking on more salary and longer commitments...

My selective memory could be playing tricks on me, but it seems like LeBron's not getting as many foul calls this year as He did in previous seasons. I'm not the only one who's wondering this. If you've watched many Cavs broadcasts on FSN—most notably, last night's game in Orlando—you know that Fred McLeod and Austin Carr definitely think something's up with NBA officials this...

Following last night's euphoria-inducing beat-down of the Celtics, after the euphoria and Fruity Pebbles consumption died down, there was some discussion about Doc Rivers' seemingly desperate use of the Hack-A-Ben strategy late in the game. The consensus in the media, it seemed to me, was that this was a poor decision—just look how it worked out for Boston!—but I'm not so sure...

It's the most wonderful time of the year and for the fifth consecutive December 30, Corey and I and a few friends closed it out with a raucous celebration of LeBron Day. If you're unfamiliar with this most holy of days, every December 30, the faithful are compelled to make a pilgrimage to Akron, Ohio to visit the sites of LeBron's youth. After that, it's back to Cleveland for a LeBron...