CLEVELAND — It's time for another edition of "Hey Jimmy!" 3News' Jim Donovan is here to answer all your burning Cleveland sports questions.
Let's get started!
Hey Jimmy! I was wondering what your thoughts were on the Browns changing the name from FirstEnergy Stadium to Cleveland Browns Stadium. - Sam in Avon Lake
Well, the FirstEnergy thing was a bit of a problem because of a legal issue there, obviously.
Here's the thing I remember, and perhaps you all remember this, too: When Al Lerner got the team back in 1999, he did not take on any naming rights, nor would he allow any naming rights, at the the stadium. It was Cleveland Browns Stadium, because he was all about bringing the team back — having the same colors, no emblem on the helmet — and the name of the stadium would be "Cleveland Browns Stadium."
And I liked that. Now, do I think it's going to stick? Absolutely not, because it's a lot of money and every team does it.
For instance, down in Cincinnati, they changed the name from Paul Brown Stadium to Paycor Stadium. They've changed the name of Heinz Field over in Pittsburgh, and I'm sure the Browns are out there in the bidding process right now for somebody else to corporately come in and have the naming rights.
But while we have it, it is Cleveland Browns Stadium, and I always that was pretty cool that Al Lerner had it that way.
Hey Jimmy! How do you feel about the Browns spending the first week of training camp in West Virginia? - Brian in Columbia Station
Well, as the old John Denver song goes...
Anyway, I think it's the new way of doing things, and I think the Browns last year took a look at what the Philadelphia Eagles did. If you remember, right in the middle of training camp, the Eagles came to Berea and they worked out against the Browns, and then at the end of the workouts they had their preseason game down at the stadium. Then, the Eagles left Cleveland and went home for a day before doing the same thing the next week — they went to Miami.
They wanted to get out of the whole Philadelphia thing, and it really worked for them. They really bonded, and teams that have done this feel that you bond a little bit better when you're together, because it's not like the old days of training camp where the team would stay in a hotel away from home.
Nowadays, they go home. If you're a veteran and you have a home, you go back and forth to work, so you're not really confined like you were in the old days.
So, I think the Browns are taking a look at, "Hey, let's do it a little bit differently." Plus, there's a lot of construction going on at their site out in Berea, and that might be part of it, too.
But, we'll see if it works. They feel it's good. They feel they can really come together a little bit more as a team by just "being together" as a team, and then they'll come back and they'll practice in front of all of you for a certain amount of time.
Hey Jimmy! The Guardians so are painful to watch. Any chance they package some of their abundant pitching prospects and get a proven bat soon? - Pete in Oberlin
I know where you're coming from, OK? I mean, they could take batting practice in a hotel lobby and do no damage. That's the way it's been going so far.
First of all, they cherish that pitching, and they have so much of it it's coming out of their ears. They have much more than anybody else does, so they could do what you want them to do or what you're insinuating they should do about getting another bat.
But I think, right now, they are not going to push the panic button. I think they really feel down deep, "We can win this division. At some point, we're going to start to hit a little bit more, the weather's turning, and we're going to hit. We're not going to overtake everybody offensively, but we're going to hit enough — married with that pitching — that we'll be OK."
Now, if it goes deeper into the summer and division is still winnable but they're not there, yeah. I think then, when the trading deadline would come up in late July, they could go out and get a bat, which they might do anyway. But to give up all that pitching — or to give up any of that pitching — that is very, very tough for them to do.