{"id":125931,"date":"2019-12-17T02:02:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T07:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=125931"},"modified":"2019-12-16T21:34:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T02:34:57","slug":"random-thoughts-hoops-the-tribe-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2019\/12\/17\/random-thoughts-hoops-the-tribe-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: hoops, the Tribe & more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week’s Random Thoughts center around Wayne Trace basketball, 2019 in a flash, bowl games, a fire sale in Cleveland and the hapless Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wayne Trace<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a slow start, Wayne Trace is on a role. This is a basketball team that can present some matchup problems for a lot of teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Raiders will play at Van Wert on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where has 2019 gone?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least to me, it seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago that Crestview won the Division IV basketball state championship, and Van Wert enjoyed an amazing baseball postseason run, all the way to the Division II state semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also doesn\u2019t seem like it was that long ago that Van Wert\u2019s Kirsten Clay won the Division II state discus championship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019ll be interesting to see what 2020 brings with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowl games<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a college football fan, the most wonderful time of the year begins this Friday \u2013 bowl season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, some of these games will be hard to watch, but if you\u2019re the diehard type, you\u2019ll have 40 games to choose from between December 20 and January 6, plus the national championship game on January 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire sale<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a Cleveland Indians fan, get ready for a long season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The owners \u2013 the Dolans \u2013 are shedding payroll left and right, including the salary of two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. Francisco Lindor will be gone at some point as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indians had their shot to win the World Series in 2016, but the window of opportunity has closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Browns<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All I can say is \u201cI told you so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the season I said this team wasn\u2019t ready for prime time and I was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday in Arizona kind of summed up the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Santa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Santa \u2013 as a Browns fan, all I want for Christmas is for the team to be good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week’s Random Thoughts center around Wayne Trace basketball, 2019 in a flash, bowl games, a fire sale in Cleveland and the hapless Cleveland Browns. Wayne Trace After a slow start, Wayne Trace is on a role. This is a basketball team that can present some matchup problems for a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 02:25:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}