With apologies to Clement C. Moore, who, like Cleveland’s title aspirations, has been dead since 1863...

’Twas the night before Christmas when all along Lake Erie

Not a team was in contention and the fans were quite weary.

The high draft picks were set, ready to anoint

The next batch of players sure to disappoint.

Colt McCoy was nestled all snug in his bed,

Though he had double vision and appeared to be dead.

His dad called out Holmgren, who said not a peep

Now hoping this meant he could go back to sleep.

While back at the Q the Cavs finally were ready

To start playing ball after an offseason so petty.

Yet there still was no King we had known so well

For his soul is burning in the bowels of hell.

The streets were all buried with lake-effect snow

And that made us wonder how low we could go.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear

But cheery Phil Dawson holding a six-pack of beer.

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In a week mired with more losses, the Blue Jackets got a big win economically. This past week, Franklin County Commissioners approved a measure to make Nationwide Arena a publically-owned venue and the move will stabilize the Blue Jackets’ future in Columbus. If only the deal helped stabilize the hockey team.

The arena agreement will use a series of loans and casino tax revenue to acquire the funds necessary to make the $42.5M purchase of Nationwide Arena. The proposed agreement would keep the Blue Jackets in Columbus until at least 2039. The arena was formerly owned by Nationwide and the Dispatch Printing Company.

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I’m honestly not sure if there’s a better wide receiver in all of football than Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald. The guy’s been an All-Pro numerous times, has made a half dozen Pro Bowls and accumulates yards and scores regardless of who’s throwing the football for the Cardinals.

He’s a guy you might want to account for at all times. Especially on 3^rd and 6 in overtime when you have the Cardinals looking at what would have been a 50+ yard field goal to try and win the game.

But somehow the Browns defense forgot all about Fitzgerald. And despite the fact that Jay Feely kicked a 20 yard field goal to win the game, the Browns lost the game on the play before when Fitzgerald was left all alone to haul in a 33-yard pass from John Skelton.

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Humor is the theme this week in the Cleveland Sports Video Grab Bag, as we dive into the Youtube archives for evidence of how tragedy breeds comedy in a losing sports culture. Three such clips have been harvested for your  viewing pleasure, including Sudden Sam and The Hawk doing their best Abbot & Costello impression, an amusing re-enactment of the Cavs huddle prior to “The Shot,” and the hilarious absurdity of the Browns sweeping a season series from the Steelers. 

To get the funny started, though, we travel back in time to a not particularly funny point in history: 1969. There's a Nixon in the White House, troops in Vietnam, hippies at Woodstock, and terrible baseball in Cleveland. The ’69 Indians would have required a corresponding acid trip to be the least bit entertaining, as they stumbled and bumbled to a 62-99 record, drawing an average of about 8,000 fans per game to the lakefront (roughly 10% of Cleveland Stadium’s capacity). All in all, the season had proven a monumental collapse following a promising 1968, when the Tribe went 86-75 behind one of the best pitching staffs in the game. Now, Luis Tiant and Steve Hargan had taken huge steps back, losing 35 games between them, and Sonny Siebert was gone—traded in April of ’69 (along with Joe Azcue and Vicente Romo) to Boston for Dick Ellsworth, Juan Pizarro, and a slugging young outfielder named Ken Harrelson.

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