After today, there will only be one more copy of Scott Raab's The Whore of Akron book that we will be awarding in this contest. That means there will be somewhere between fifteen to twenty entries that I thought were definitely winners as soon as they were posted on Twitter that won't actually be winning.  This is what happens when you're charged with running a contest to win a book that tons of people want to read really, really, bad before it comes out.  It's actually pretty stressful.  Cleveland Jackson and I are doing our best to manage that stress however, and we did eventually pick another winner for today.

And that winning tweet belonged to the person who posted this:

I have officially become overwhelmed by the number of QUALITY entries into the #WhoreOfAkronContest.  I am not just saying that we've gotten nearly 500 hundred entries so far, because we have, but I am more specifically saying that about 100 of them are funnier than anything I could've came up with.  I almost feel bad picking a winner at this point because there are so many that could win.  In the end though, we will be only giving away (5) copies of Scott Raab's The Whore of Akron book in total and the rest of you will need to support a Cleveland author and go buy one yourselves.

In the meantime though, with two books given away so far, Cleveland Jackson and I have been updating the leaderboard feverishly.  There were some good ones we received yesterday, and even this morning.  For now, I will just leave it at that.  Keep the creativity rolling peoples, and keep the entries coming.  We will announce two more winners on Thursday and Friday morning of this week at 10am.

As far as today's winner is concerned though, the third copy of The Whore of Akron belongs to the person who penned the following:

As the entries continue to pour in for the #WhoreOfAkronContest in an attempt to win one of the five copies of Scott Raab's new book that we have available here at Stepien Rules, I still believe there are tweets entered Sunday that can win at some point this week. 

Cleveland Jackson and I have been updating our internal leader-board constantly, as all entries are thoroughly reviewed with the utmost diligence upon submission, and I can say that several of those entries are still hanging around near the top as potential winners for sure. That said though, it was and entry that came in last night that went ahead and claimed victory on Day Two of this contest.

So the second copy of The Whore of Akron is now off the board, and that winning tweet is as follows:

Since the #WhoreOfAkronContest was announced at 1pm yesterday we have been overwhelmed by both the amount of entries received so far, as well as the quality of those submissions.  

There are at least thirty entries that Cleveland Jackson and I could have selected as our Day One Winner, and we definitely have received multiple winning tweets so far I believe.  Just because an entry you posted yesterday, or last night or this morning, is not today's winner does not mean that it cannot still win later this week.  It can, and frankly there are a couple entries that probably will.   

We will be announcing ONE winner each day at 10am this week, and we will give away a total of FIVE copies of Scott Raab's The Whore of Akron book by the end of business on Friday.  All entries will continue to be reviewed on an as received basis, and we will be announcing four more winners starting tomorrow.

The first copy is off the board though, and that winning tweet is below:

The Whore of Akron by Scott Raab, which can be pre-ordered both here and here, will be released on November 15th but you can win a free copy this week!  The good people at Harper Collins were nice enough to send us (5) copies to be given away here at Stepien Rules, and we will be doing just that on a one book per day basis starting on Monday.


Cleveland Jackson and I have since determined the contest parameters, and I am currently in the process of announcing those right now in a long and drawn out fashion.  There were a few ideas tossed around, including one by the great Joe Posnanski which involved launching softballs (or books - my version) off the Terminal Tower in a similar way to how Ted Stepien promoted his softball team back in the day.  After further review, we didn't want to hit any cars or hurt anyone's wrist like he did, and plus we couldn't get up to the 52nd Floor so we decided to scrap that one.

The contest details we then settled on are as follows:  

• Post what you would be willing to do in order to bring a championship to Cleveland on Twitter.  
• Tweet your entry @StepienRules with the hashtag #WhoreOfAkronContest (@StepienRules #WhoreOfAkronContest) which leaves 105 characters for your response.
• Multiple entries are allowed, and in some ways encouraged.
• Following @WayneEmrbysKids and myself on Twitter can only help your cause since we are the judges
• We will thoroughly review all entries each day, and announce one winner per day, Monday thru Friday, for a total of (5) winners.
• Be creative with your responses, and have fun with it.

Good luck people!
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Click here to read Chris Grantland's Whore of Akron book review.  Click here to read Scott Sargent's review over at WFNY.  

The links to pre-order The Whore of Akron are again here and here.

We never got the championship we were promised.  But we got The Whore of Akron.  An honest to god real god damn work of literature.  Layers of literary and cultural references for analysis and deconstruction.  Unimpeachable evidence that will outlive us all of about what happened, why it mattered so much and how it felt.  Written passionately, painstakingly by one of the best living writers on the planet.  Who just happens to be a Clevelander.  Author and protagonist, Scott Raab.

And even if being born and living your whole life 30 minutes from Cleveland, working in Cleveland for 7 years, having your image Christ-like shorn across a city block in Cleveland and being the pride of the city for that whole stretch wasn’t enough to, this book will make you feel like a Clevelander.  In the book Raab crams Muni Gate D tight with memories of Cleveland to Texas to Cleveland to Iowa and finally New Jersey without ever losing his Cleveland connection:   Getting high in the cemeteries with the dead Rockafellers.   Pondering why someone with nothing left to lose never capped Art Modell.  Stealing the deposit bag from that shoe store and catching a plane to London with the money.  Leaving Texas to avoid outlaw biker gangs and drug dealers.  Classes at Cleveland State.  The decision between sobriety, fatherhood and suicidal ideation.  The real decision.

The book is an autobiography about that survival and evolution of a man.  A memoir in tight readable perfectly prepared prose.  And Lebron James is part foil, part antagonist, part cautionary figure, and part vehicle as an emblem of historical undeserving disrespect.  This is the book that Scott Raab, a former 12 year old attendant to the last sports championship in Cleveland, was born to write.

In an article yesterday primarily citing sources who indicated Baron Davis has three teams (Lakers, Knicks, Bobcats) he'd be more interested in potentially signing with than the Miami Heat, should he in fact be Amnesty Clause'd, a warning shot was also fired across the bow of NBA front offices everywhere.



That message reading both simply and forcefully: Just back off Anthony Parker, the Cavs got this.

The free agent Parker averaged 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in 72 games for Cleveland last year, while also playing both gritty and stellar defense as well, and Marc Stein offered the following on the Cavs interest in re-signing him:

"The well-regarded Ramon Sessions is also on the books in Cleveland for two more seasons at a cap-friendly salary and Daniel Gibson is coming off his best season. Sources say that the Cavs, furthermore, regard re-signing Anthony Parker as a priority, with Parker earmarked to play a lot of shooting guard to free up minutes at small forward for the newly acquired Omri Casspi."

Anthony Parker is 35 years old, has a highly active and loyal Facebook Fanclub in Cleveland, but more than that he has been dependable in his two years of service with the Cavaliers.  In these last two seasons, he has played in 72 and 81 games respectively. Going back to 2006, AP has played in 70+ games during each of the last five seasons, and even hit for perfect attendance (all 82) during the '07-08 campaign.

Yesterday ESPN identified the player or players most likely to be Amnesty Clause'd on each team in the Association, and pegged Baron Davis as the Cavaliers' most likely candidate.  After Davis, Antawn Jamison was the next most likely possibility, and this much I think everyone can agree with.


BD has roughly $26 M guaranteed over the next two seasons, and Jamison has $15 M guaranteed for this next one.  Both guys will probably be hurt for a while next season too because they're both pretty old as far as NBA years are concerned, and when healthy they each play the same positions as Kyrie Irving and Omri Casspi do. So the Cavs kinda don't need either of those guys right now, no offense to Baron or Antawn specifically.

Whether the Cavaliers end up using the Amensty Clause on either guy this season or not is still debatable at this point. Scott Sargent laid out the relevant and legitimate factors that would probably go into the decision making process for Chris Grant and company on Friday over at WFNY, and there's definitely some strategic possibilities for the Cavs Braintrust to consider either way as far as each of those players are concerned.

What bothered me about ESPN's discussion of this subject yesterday, as it related to the Cavaliers, is that they completed over-reached in an attempt to place both Dan Gilbert and LeBron James' names together in the same sentence for no real reason in my opinion. This is what they said, and I highlighted the part that I'm referring too:

When I first saw him take the stage on Lottery Night rocking that bowtie I couldn't help but smile, and when I first heard him offer that catch phrase I couldn't help but laugh. As I watched him work his way around that room I couldn't help but notice the genuine joy he did so with, and when he won that pick for Cleveland I just felt like it made sense. Dude's that cool, and thousands of people like me were immediately drawn to Nick Gilbert when he was first introduced to the NBA community as a result. After reading more about his story today, however, I can't help but think the guy they call "Gilly" is even more inspirational than he is cool. And he's pretty damn cool.


Mary Schmitt Boyer sat down with Nick, as well as his parents, to talk about Nick's battle against Neurofibromatosis and it is a tremendously moving piece, published over at The Plain Dealer on Monday.  For some background on Neurofibromatosis, known as NF, it is a nerve disorder that causes tumors to grow anywhere in the body at any time.  NF can be inherited, but it can be a spontaneous mutation as well which was the case for Nick.  He was diagnosed at fifteen months old, has had emergency surgery on his brain to remove a tumor already, along with a number of other surgeries and procedures, yet casually and confidently refers to himself as simply "a lucky guy".  

Below is some of that article from The Plain Dealer:

When they poured out Grey Goose on the carpet, the sins and human afflictions of riches seemed so much closer than the twisted morality of unimaginable wealth of the men that provided them with those riches. That, and they play a game which forces a visible display of accessibility, humanity and horrendous insulting humiliating unforgiveable failability.

Is there a worse fate that being willingly led down one wrong path after another in search of the wrong answer? Into believing that casinos, far right wing monstrous political monetary contributions of Dick DeVoss and the triumph over labor laws, that this could somehow translate into desire to meet more than financial goals and manifest desire to lift a community on willing shoulders? Into acceptance of the weight of suspension of disbelief that the same ambition that drives support for the engine that drove an economy into dirt could also pilot a shameless simplicity to win a fucking championship whose meaning has outgrown its utility?

It was never wrong to believe that our morality could withstand a measure of corruption. Otherwise the jerseys that burned brought flames three years late. And perhaps they did. But it was that corruption that led us to believe in the necessity of shortcomings. Acceptance of the waving of that horrible interlocking NY in the faces of the small market that not only deserved so much better, but was so close to where he was born, raised, and learned cruelty.

So do we cheer for the landlords? To grind their tenants into a form more palatable to us?

Do we honestly believe that interests have aligned, if only for this moment, with men of wealth and power? Or that the interests of the NBPA union align or at least resemble in any manner the eroded bargaining position of the American worker?