Yonatan

Last week, for the first time in my life, I had one of those moments. Ive seen it overacted many times in movies and on TV and thought to myself "yeah right, like they wouldnt remember" until it happened to me.



I wanted a big dry erase board in our prep kitchen at work. It was so that we, as a chef team, could educate our staff about important information that would help empower them to move the restaurant forward.



I put one of my sous chefs in charge of buying the board, dry erase markers and thin, black electrical tape to border off the different sections. He brought in all of the supplies and we were on our way. Board, check. Markers, check. Tape, wahhh wawww. Too thick. I needed it to be thinner and was told by my sous chef, "they didn't have any such thing". Well, I know they do and I'm gonna call the guy who put the board together at my previous spot to find out where we got it, then, Boom! the punch to the gut.



As I reached for my phone, I realized I had done it. The man I was going to call was my long time friend, one time sous chef and best man in our wedding, Jon Banks. Jon passed away on March 15th of this year. He was 35 years old. His passing was so sudden and shocking, leaving a lot of questions to this day yet to be answered. I couldnt believe it, had I already forgotten about losing Jon and put him that far out of my mind like one of those shows/movies that I mentioned?


We became friends more than ten years ago, when he first came to work for The Factory. As years went by, life changes and people move around, but I always knew that when I called Jon or when he called me no matter where we were, we just picked up the conversation like we were standing in a prep kitchen together.

Jon was a funny cat. He always uplifted the spirits of the people around him, and playing jokes on everyone. He was also very unselfish. When Sheila and I figured out when our wedding date was going to be, I called Jon(who was living in St. Louis at the time and I hadnt talked to him in probably 4-5 months) and asked him to be my best man for our October 1, 2005 wedding in Cleveland. He immediately, excitedly accepted and we didn't find out until our wedding day that it was also Jon's 30th birthday. He never mentioned it to take away from our day and we had to announce it at our reception to give him some props. This meant alot to us, as a single guy with a million friends on a milestone birthday, would fly in to be with us, no questions.

I see probably 5 guys a week that make me do a doubletake thinking they're Jon. I think about him alot and the funny, dumb stuff he used to do and the hundreds of stories I have about him. He was a good friend to Sheila as well and we miss being able to pick up the phone and bullshit or ask him where to buy thin electrical tape for dry erase board projects.

We miss you bro.

Gaymes

Ok, now with the LeBron saga finally over and most fan's feelings turned from heart break to being over it, its time to move on. Right? We'll try. The Tribe is playing better as of late and Brown's training camp starts soon so there are a few things to look forward to as a Cleveland sports fan.

On my way home from work the other night, I was listening to what I would nominate, if ever my opinion was asked, the worst show in the history of sports talk radio. I was ready to try to find a combination of static, deathmetal and folk when I heard a very intriguing pre-break teaser. They were going to discuss a major sporting event that Cleveland was going to be hosting and would bring alot of opportunity to our city.

They had me. I was waiting anxiously during the over the top silly car commercials and throwing out ideas in my head. 2020 Summer Olympiad? 2018 World Cup?Superbowl LV? 2015 Summer X Games? 2011 Bowling championship?(I'm glad I don't know what it's really called) I started to feel like Ralphie Parker waiting for the message using his Ovaltine decoder ring.

They returned and quickly ended the buildup. Unbeknownst to me,(seems like I was one of only a few that didnt know) back in September of '09 Cleveland, Ohio was awarded the 2014 Gay Games (huh?) beating out Boston and Washington D.C.. I had no idea there was such a thing. I was just happy that we finally beat Boston at something. After a little research, I found that there are 12,000 participants in the games, which is more than the Olympics and It could bring anywhere from $50m to $80m to the local economy and great exposure for travel and tourism to Cleveland. Then I thought, are we ready for this?

The Games have previously been held in cities such as Vancouver, Amsterdam, Sydney, Chicago, San Francisco and this year they are being held in Cologne, Germany. Im sure they all have their issues, but this is Cleveland. Chicago dyes their river green for St. Patricks Day, our river may still spontaneously combust at any moment. Vancouver's nickname is "Hollywood north", ours is "the mistake on the lake", you get it. We are the ugly duckling in this for sure.

This is not the announcement that I thought they were going to make. I'm disappointed its not something that has to do with one of the four, five, eight or even ten major sports we have in this country. Either way, Cleveland has a chance to shine on a pretty big stage. Hopefully, Byner won't carry, Ehlo wont defend and Elway sits this one out. We could really use the boost, but not so fast.

Boston, fackin Bawston, has cried foul. The city officials vying for the games to be held there claim that Cleveland has broken many of the rules that would make it possible to host including: the maximum number of sports allowed is 28 and Cleveland has applied for 40. Also, all venues are to be within a max of 15 miles of city limits (golf would be held in Akron, home of the traitor) which is 45 miles away. So, not only do the Celts and the Sox get the best of us, now the city officials are getting at us as well. The decision to allow Cleveland to host is now under review and could possibly be overtrurned and granted to Boston. Of course. Why would we get the chance for good exposure?

As much as Cleveland could really benefit from hosting these games, it seems like our sports curse cannot be lifted. We'll have to wait and see. At least the Cavs two draft picks and Vitaly Potapenko are dominating the Summer league, Tim Couch is in great shape and Jose Mesa is throwing a wicked 12 to 6 in Columbus.

LeGone

Thank you LeBron for pushing me to finally start my blog. My hate filled venomous tweet rant left me unfulfilled as a man, Cavs fan and most of all Clevelander. I'm not even that upset anymore that he left, even though obviously we were the team to beat w him on it. It's the way he did it, spitting in Clevelands face and making a mockery of us with "the decision" on live, national TV.

There is an interview w LeBron from 2006 in which he states " I want to bring a championship to Northeast Ohio and will do whatever it takes to do so". He went on to say he would "never be a ring chaser". Hello foot, I'm mouth, come inside.

Lebron has already shown Cleveland that he has no heart and now proves he has no balls as well. Not making any effort to communicate with the Cavs after the season ended and then dropping this on the organization without a heads up to seek a "plan B" just adds to the cowardice displayed by a spoiled, had everything handed to me my whole life brat kid. His self-promoting, Vitamin Water sponsored decision show was a joke, though I too usually keep Vitamin Water on my bookshelves as the B & G club of Greenwich does.

He was noticeably uneasy at the beginning of the interview until the announcement that he was going to use his talents, not with the Heat or Wade and Bosh but in South Beach. Hmmm...was that supposed to try to ease the pain of Ohioans, like we didnt know that South Beach was Miami? StupidAss. As the interview went on, he got looser and started to feel more comfortable w the damage he was causing. As his talk with Jim Gray ended( i hate him too now), I'm sure he felt almost at ease as the softball questions were kid glove handed to him by the analysts at ESPN. Then it happened.

Michael Wilbon showed LeBron images and video of his beloved fans in Lakewood burning LeBron jerseys and tshirts. You would have thought that he was shown Gloria and Delonte hittin it on LeBrons kitchen table surrounded by Vitamin Water and both of them wearing St. Vincent St. Marys #23 jerseys. Classic. His face and body language immediately changed and though he managed to get through the rest of the questioning, he was noticeably affected. Cleveland's err.... Akron's most beloved son became the devil in the blink of an eye.

The next day, Dan Gilbert became my favorite person. His reaction letter to "the decision" was maybe the best thing to happen to Cleveland sports since the drafting of The Lord of No Rings. It was great. It's about time that someone in Ctown showed some serious passion about one of our sports organizations. I hope that he follows up and pushes hard. I may get a GILBERT #23 Cavs jersey made in his honor and buy his Fathead.

The great thing about this is that he will never, no matter how many rings he gets(assuming that he does win some), be a real winner in most peoples minds. Mike, Larry, Magic, Kobe, Isiah, KG even soft ass Timmy will all be greater champions when its said and done because they were true and had heart. Each one of those guys would rather kill you than let you even score, let alone take a championship from them. LeTinman doesnt have that in him and would rather be friends w other players on the court and dap it up and play you score and then let me score. Hey fuckstick, no one else is like that, this isnt your high school camp where players need to kiss your ass. NBA players don't care who you think you are, they're pros too, stupid.

In closing, I love the Cavs more now than ever. They need us. There will be a huge hole for a while where Bron was and we are going to struggle for a minute. Thats ok, we're Cleveland and we've been through this before. To quote my loving mother, "LeBron James should burn in hell......Laces out". Thank you, mom. Any combination of sports and Ace Ventura can never be bad, even if they don't match. Suck it Bron.