Camping in Cleveland: Day Five Recap

By Don Delco
NoLogoNeeded.com staff writer

Lou Brown couldn't believe it. It was a spring day in Arizona in the late 1980s. By some stroke of luck, he had one of the fastest guys he's ever seen on a baseball diamond trying out to be a member of his Cleveland Indians team. But this player thought he was a home run hitter.

Finally, Brown had it. During a batting practice session one day, Willie Mays Hayes hit one too many pop ups.

"Well, you can run like Hayes, but you hit like s**t," Brown said. "With your speed, you should be hitting the ball on the ground and be legging them out. Every time I see you hit one in the air, you owe me 20 push ups."

Hayes obliged and did the 20 push ups for every pop up. It spilled over into an spring training game. Instead of running out a pop up against the Oakland A's, he did his 20 push ups at home plate, much to the bewilderment of the catcher.

Lou Brown would be proud of Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini.

Click "Read More" below to continue reading the day five recap.

Canton Repository
Yesterday, Browns rookie center Alex Mack did his best impression of Willie Mays Hayes as reported by the Repository's Steve Doerschuk.

Mack got everybody’s attention after he fouled up a snap. Mack left the huddle immediately, chugged around the perimeter of the field at a driving pace and ran all the way back into the huddle.

In addition, Doerschuk also reported on Robert Royal's inability to catch a football.

Tight end Robert Royal’s dropped balls are starting to get noticed. Late in Tuesday’s practice, a 20-yard Derek Anderson missile went right through Royal’s hands.

NLN: Not too surprised by Royal's inability to catch a football. He was signed to be an offensive lineman who conveniently wears a tight end's jersey number.

ClevelandBrowns.com
The team's official Web site caught up with one of the Browns' new offensive lineman, John St. Clair. With the depth of the offensive line seemingly improved in the offseason, none of that will matter if the players don't perform once they get on the field. According to St. Clair, the Browns offensive lineman coach George Warhop will help those players this season.

"I'm learning from Coach Warhop, one of the better offensive line coaches in the NFL. Just being on this team, I can't say enough about this group of guys we have on this team and how hard everybody's willing to work."

Cleveland Plain Dealer
Mary Kay Cabot had the latest on the QB derby.

The quarterbacks remained even through a day of situational team drills, including no-huddle, goal-line, and trailing by four points with one second remaining and facing fourth down from the 5. Both quarterbacks fared well in the latter drill, with Derek Anderson lobbing a TD pass to Mike Furrey on the left side of the end zone over Corey Ivy and Brady Quinn finding tight end Martin Rucker just inside the right corner.

Given the same situation but with the ball moved back to the 35, a leaping Brodney Pool knocked down Anderson's heave and Quinn's pass fell incomplete in the end zone. Backed up 10 more yards to the 45, Pool picked off Anderson's pass at the right side of the goal-line and Hamza Abdullah swatted Quinn's short offering away from Syndric Steptoe at about the 5. Quinn was picked off once by Eric Wright in team drills, but the ball was tipped by Brian Robiskie. Displaying plenty of arm strength, he hit Edwards on a deep post and Josh Cribbs on a fly in one-on-ones.

NLN: All these reports on the QB battle means one thing right now, the Browns' first preseason game against Green Bay at 8 p.m. on Aug. 15 will be must-see TV.

  August 06, 2009 at 8:15 AM

Comments

Best introduction to a post. Ever.

  August 06, 2009 at 1:20 PM by Tom

Unfortunately I will be out of town and without TV for the Green Bay game...hopefully you guys will post a recap shortly afterwords so I can get an idea how they looked

  August 06, 2009 at 9:05 AM by BFlynn

You forgot to mention that Lou Brown surely knows what to do when players (Dawson) bring up anything contract related.

  August 06, 2009 at 1:12 PM by The Voice of Reason

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