Cleveland, John, and Brad

For no apparent good reason, yours truly has always had a soft spot for Cleveland. True, it's kind of an armpit city, but they hadn't had much to root about in the world of sports until recently. And yes, I weary of all the Lebron hype. You'd think he's a king or emperor or something. One of those is enough, and he currently occupies the White House. Ahem.

At that, they still only have a grand total of one world championship in modern times. That Lebron guy and his merry gang upset the highly favored Golden State Warriors a couple years back for the NBA crown.

Yet the Cleveland Indians have been a force to be reckoned with of late. They came within a single out of winning the World Series last year. Earlier this season the Tribe rattled off a 20+ game winning streak. Very impressive stuff.

But there's a major catch to all this. The Indians did NOT win the Fall Classic last year, rather bowing out after having held  2-0  and 3-1 leads over the Chicago Cubs. Ouch.

Fast forward to the present. In the ALDS they held another 2-0 lead over the NY Yankees in the best 3 out of 5. They had it, they had it, and then they didn't have it. Wham. The Bronx Bombers came roaring back to win three straight. Down goes Cleveland again. Ouch II.

So what is the lesson to be learned?

Evidently, when the going gets tough, Cleveland gets choking. Then again, the Cleveland Browns are just about enough to make anybody gag.

Interesting the Boston Red Sox just canned manager John Farrell with a year left on his contract. That means JF gets a whole year paid vacation. A pretty sweet gig actually. But why would they do such a thing? Under Farrell's guidance the Bosox won their division title this year. This, despite the loss of slugger David Ortiz to retirement, star pitcher David Price missing extended time due to injury, and last year's Cy Young winner Rick Porcello tumbling from a 22-4 record in 2016 to a not-so-good 11-17 in 2017.

Just a few short years ago the same Bosox won the World Series with Farrell at the helm. Could it be that merely making the post-season isn't good enough in Beantown anymore? And hey, they were taken down in the playoffs by a great team in the Houston Astros. Pitching, hitting, defense, speed, you name it and the Stros have it. Plus they're young so could be a force for years to come.

Boston GM Dave Dombrowki, the same guy that got run out of Detroit a while back, said in his opinion the team needed to have new leadership. Well OK, if ownership signed off on it, that's pretty much that. But he also said the next manager needed to be young, hence able to relate to the players, and good with the media.

It just so happens former Detroit Tiger manager Brad Ausmus is currently unemployed. True, the Tigers were god-awful this year, downright pitiful after they traded away what little talent they had for the dreaded "prospects" of the future. But this was not the fault of Ausmus. He could only play the cards he was dealt -- and they weren't pretty.

Nevertheless, he's only 48 years old, had a long Major League career as a player himself playing for four different teams, both in the American and National leagues, and is definitely media friendly. He's cool under pressure, and patiently answers any and all questions honestly.

It would seem he would fit the bill nicely in Boston. To boot, he's originally from New Haven, Connecticut, just a stone's throw up the road from Fenway. OK, a long throw, but still a native New Englander. And he went to Dartmouth, one of the Ivies, so he's got some serious brains going on as well.

You just know Ausmus would jump at the chance to be the skipper of the Bosox.

The question is -- will they offer it to him?

If so, you heard it here first. Nary a talking head has even mentioned the possibility so far.