Rich Swerbinsky

Rich Swerbinsky is the editor-in-chief for TheClevelandFan.com and President of TheClevelandFan.com, LLC. Tired of a lack of alternatives for Cleveland sports news, talk, and opinion ... he created this website, bringing it to the web on February 1, 2006.

Swerb has been a maniacal fan of the Browns, Cavs, Indians, and Buckeyes since about the age of four, and has always loved to express himself in words. He wrote for a number of different publications and websites before creating The Cleveland Fan, and now pours everything he has into this site, which has continued to grow and thrive since inception.

Swerb's other loves in life are golfing, reading, fantasy sports, cooking, Great Lakes Brewing Company, his wife Hallie, his four and a half year old son Nicholas and his one and a half year old daughter Chloe. Nicholas is already a proud and passionate Cleveland sports fan at a very young age, just as his father was.

Swerb loves to hear feedback on his columns, as well as his websites, as he is always looking for ways to improve them. He can be contacted by clicking on the link below.

Contact

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Adam Burke

Adam Burke, 24, is a lifelong Clevelander who spends nearly every night of his summer watching Tribe games and nearly every night of his winter watching whatever hockey game is on TV.

Amazingly, Adam has a phenomenal woman to whom he is engaged who actually puts up with his love of sports and gambling. Adam has since converted Jennifer into a diehard Indians fan and a fan of hockey, despite her southern upbringing.

Still playing hockey for the Skating Tripods Hockey Club, a band of on-ice misfits and off-ice alcoholics, Adam still stays close to the game he loves and writes about it for us here at The Cleveland Fan.

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Andrew Clayman

Andrew Clayman is an Akron native and Bowling Green State University grad currently making his home in Chicago, IL. Despite having moved out of state, he is a firm believer that certain other Akronites should stay home and play for their nearest local professional sports team for the full extent of their careers

That said, Andrew has already sacrificed his youth and sanity for perennial heartbreak as a Browns, Indians, Cavs, and Zips fan. He was in the stands at Browns Stadium on Bottle Throwing Day, and his father was at 10 Cent Beer Night. The tradition runs deep. Mention Cory Snyder's mustache, Dwayne Rudd's helmet, or Cedric Henderson's jump shot and you've got a conversation on your hands. After all, when the big picture is this hard to look at, might as well focus on the funny little details.

Andrew's Philosophy: "While most sports fans put their teams on pedestals, Cleveland fans see them in the mirror."

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Brian McPeek

Brian McPeek is a lifelong Clevelander who famously worked the sidelines for the Browns during the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons, which many of you may remember as "The Drive" and "The Fumble" seasons.

After single-handedly sending the Browns spiraling into the Dark Ages he graduated from Bowling Green State University with a journalism degree. Naturally he went to work in the insurance industry where he's worked for the past 18 years.

When not perusing the message boards in his self-appointed role of sniper, Brian lives in Madison with his wife of 19 years, Lisa, and his three daughters, Danielle, Jessica and Kacie.

Feel free to contact Brian at Peeker643@yahoo.com.

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Chris Hutchison

Chris was born in and grew up near in the thriving metropolis of Canton, OH. He graduated from NYU Film School, which was perhaps the biggest waste of money in the history of mankind since We Are The World. After stints in New York City, Miami, and Southern California, he has (for reasons unknown) returned to the football Mecca of his youth. He is investing heavily in cryogenic technology in an effort to stay alive until Cleveland wins another championship.

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Cris Sykes

Cris Sykes is a 30-year-old writer from Mentor, Ohio. He is an eternal optimist with the Cleveland sports franchises. He thought Chris Palmer, Charlie Manuel, and Randy Wittman were all good hires the day they were made. He thought Jeff Garcia was going to be a Pro Bowl Quarterback when he arrived in Cleveland. Keith Hernandez would lead the American League in hitting when he arrived in Cleveland.

A few of Cris’s favorite things ... Athlete: Roger Clemens Day of the year: Opening day for Major League Baseball Team: 1995 Cleveland Indians Coach: Jim Tressel Game: Ohio State over Miami (FL) Book: The Godfather Returns Movie: Pulp Fiction Sports Movie: Major League

In his spare time, Cris usually goes out for some drinks, and is interrupted every few minutes to throw a bowling ball. His 9-5 job is doing research and development for Sherwin-Williams, where he has been working for the last 5 years.

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Dan Wismar

Dan Wismar is a Cleveland Heights native, and a lifelong northeast Ohio resident. Like a million other Ohio boomers, he idolized Rocky Colavito, Jim Brown and Paul Warfield as a kid, and like so many of us, he credits and thanks his Dad for his "fanhood". And though he's old enough to remember 75-cent bleacher seats and Ross Fichtner, he's still young enough to stay optimistic about this town and its teams.

Dan has covered OSU sports for The Cleveland Fan since the Spring of '08, the attachment to the Buckeyes being as ingrained in him as the unhealthy Indians and Browns loyalties.  In whatever he writes on the local sports scene, he'll always try to bring to the reader the perspective of the home team fan in the stands...because at this late date...playing the role of detached, objective journalist...well, that's just not going to happen.

Dan has worked for over 30 years in the executive search and employment consulting business here in northeast Ohio. In his spare time he's a blogger and an avid reader of non-fiction, and will golf at the drop of a hat. The kids are grown, so he and his wife Cindy hope to take in a lot more road trips from now on. And when the good guys are playing at home, he likes to get to the game as often as possible. Because it's going to happen...and he wants to be there.

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Dave Kolonich

Dave Kolonich grew up in Warren, OH and has recently migrated to the bluegrass of Lexington, KY. A life long Cleveland sports fan, he longs for the glory days of the Marty Ball era, which sadly is the pinnacle of his Cleveland sports experience.

He is a graduate of Youngstown State University and currently spends his days shaping the youth of America. Outside of the realm of sports, Dave is obsessed with history, politics, art, The Band, Mr. T and harassing Rich Swerbinsky.

He also writes for his own blog, Cleveland Reboot, which can be found at www.ClevelandReboot.com.

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David Regimbal

David Regimbal is a 23 year old bachelor living in Canton, Ohio. His interests include Ohio State football, Ohio State basketball, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, Cleveland Browns football, and meeting new people... in that order. If you want to have a great time with him, tag along during game day and he will show you what being a passionate fan of your team is suppose to look like. Witnessing his ability to grill eighteen cheeseburgers at a time during a tailgating session, it's obvious the man can cook.

His pet peeves include people who get married on a Saturday afternoon during football season, when television announcers call point guards "quarterbacks" and quarterbacks "point guards", anyone from Michigan and anyone from Ohio who has the audacity to vacation in Florida (have we forgotten 2006-2007 so quickly?).

Let's just say that if his favorite sports teams were women, they'd all have restraining orders on him, bringing a new meaning to the term "stalker". Don't expect to gain any sympathy or helpful suggestions from his family either; they're all just as crazy about Ohio sports as he is. David can easily be distracted by anything colored Scarlet or Grey.

He also likes long walks on the beach, Italian food and candles that smell like watermelon.

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Erik Cassano

Erik Cassano is an award-winning writer from Cleveland, Ohio. His works have been published in The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine and Crain's Cleveland Business. In his full-time job, he is an associate editor for Smart Business Network, a Westlake, Ohio-based chain of business trade publications with editions in nearly 20 cities nationwide. An avid sports fan, Erik lives and dies (mostly dies) with the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers.

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Gary Benz

Gary Benz is a life long Cleveland-area resident.  He has suffered, along with the rest of us, through every bad play, player and team to grace the Cleveland sports scene.  He has spent more time and money than he cares to remember on Cleveland sports teams with nary a championship to show for it, save for the 1964 NFL Championship.  He hasn't yet given up hope, despite what people may say.  Gary is a journalist by degree but left that lucrative field years ago for a more pedestrian existence in the field of law and business.  He also writes for his own website, which can be accessed at www.nextyearagain.blogspot.com.  You can follow him on twitter as well.

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Greg Popelka

Greg has a family of 4, who he tries to insulate from his brooding when Cleveland sports rip his heart out. He appreciates music by a wide range of artists - and is currently involved in converting a chunk of his vinyl album collection to .mp3 files. Greg is an eager latecomer to the music of Phish. His iPod Nano has a killer collection of 230 rock/pop songs from the 1980’s, compiled in part by his brother and his aunt, and which proudly lacks any Lionel Ritchie, Phil Collins and Michael Jackson. The Nano is his running companion, and he runs 6 – 10 miles a week when the weather is decent. Greg is somewhat of a WWII history buff. His favorite movies usually involve war, international intrigue, or Michael Winslow.

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J.D. Shultz

J.D. Shultz is a comedy / entertainment writer currently based in Los Angeles. He's originally from Ohio, but you probably could've guessed that. (As hard as it is to believe, California natives aren't falling over each other to become fans of a city 2,000 miles away, whose sports teams haven't won anything in 45 years.)

Since J.D. is a Cleveland fan at heart, he can't adopt the sexy, local teams . . . it just isn't a real option. (So Cleveland forever it is!) It's sort of like when the Washington Bullets wanted to change their name in 1997, and they allowed their fans to vote on these five new names: The Dragons, The Express, The Stallions, The Sea Dogs, and The Wizards. (Yeah, the Washington Sea Dogs was a choice.) (???)

The final tally was something like: The Dragons (0%), The Express (0%), The Stallions (0%), The Sea Dogs (0%), The Wizards (.01%), and the write-In selection "Uh, let's just stay the Bullets" (99.99%). But that just wasn't a real option. (So Wizards it was!) J.D. is excited to be a contributing Cavs writer for The Cleveland Fan . . . but if you just can't get enough of his undeniable amazingness here, hit up his Cavs blog at http://www.thewineandgoldrush.com.

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Jerry Roche

Jerry Roche is a freelance writer/editor who covered Super Bowl XVI in Pontiac, Mich., and has interviewed such celebrated sports figures as Otto Graham, John Wooden and Merlin Olsen, among many others. He is former sports editor of the Port Clinton News-Herald and Alliance Review whose writing has been honored by the Ohio Associated Press Sportswriters Association. The U.S. Army veteran earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Ohio University.

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Jesse Lamovsky

Jesse Lamovsky has been a staff writer for the Cleveland Fan since 2006, specializing mostly in Browns and Buckeyes coverage with a side of Cavaliers coverage thrown in. Jesse’s first (hopefully not last) book, The Worst of Sports, was published by Random House in 2007, and someday he hopes to write either the definitive history of the Cleveland sports drought (with a happy ending, of course) or at any rate, something else that pays him handsomely. He currently resides in Strongsville with his lovely and patient soon-to-be-wife.

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John Hnat

John Hnat writes about the Cavs (and occasionally other Cleveland sports-related topics) for TheClevelandFan.com. He is one of the fewer than twelve known people who can name the Cavs roster from 2002-03 (aka The Year Before LeBron). By day, he works as a developer for a local computer software company, a role that has absolutely nothing to do with the bachelor's or law degrees he earned from Case Western Reserve University. John lives with his two incredibly active children in the suburban Cleveland area.

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Jonathan Knight

A lifelong follower of Cleveland athletics, Jonathan Knight has written six books on Cleveland sports, becoming one of the nation’s most respected Cleveland sports historians. When not researching and writing, he manages communications for Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives with his wife Sara, a professional photographer, and two sons.

Learn more about Jonathan and his books at www.jknightbooks.com.

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Mansfield Lucas

Mansfield Lucas is not his real name, but the takes you'll get are as real and raw as they come. Sometimes intelligent, sometimes whack, sometimes thought provoking, sometimes inspiring questions of just what did his parents do to him, anyway? grammatically sound but always readable. As satisfying as an old POC in a 40 degree can.

Mansfield grew up in the heart of Cleveland's East Side in Euclid, and like Greg Brinda attended St Ignatius High School, and like Greg, decided that rather than go onto college he'd matriculate to Kent State. Unlike Greg, Mansfield actually knows what he's talking about and rarely stutters.

Mansfield has written for over a decade on several internet sites and has also been a published sports writer and music critic for the now defunct Downtown Tab magazine, which means, yes, somebody actually did pay him to write this crap at one time. Shocking.

Mansfield has a PhD in the TCE (TM) (The Cleveland Exeperience, as in sports' experience), a concept that will no doubt come up frequently in his blurbs. He will be covering the Cleveland Browns for The Cleveland Fan.

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Mike Furlan

What started as diehard interest in the Cleveland Browns, morphed into an insane fanaticism for all things Buckeye for Mike Furlan. When the infamous traitor, Art Modell, absconded with Mike's beloved Cleveland Browns; Mike poured all of his passion into Ohio State athletics.

Mike is a ten year veteran of the United States Marine Corps and Operation Enduring Freedom. He currently remains on active duty and is stationed in the Columbus, Ohio area where he can usually be seen bouncing one of his children on his knee.

Mike's interests include probability theory with applications in actuarial mathematics, latin poetry, and weightlifting. Mike coaches lacrosse and baseball and is defensive line coach for youth athletic teams.

Mike just moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he is attending U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion School with his wife Shannon and their four children.

Mike will be covering Ohio State Buckeye football for The Cleveland Fan.

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Mike Perry

Mike Perry was born and raised in northeast Ohio. Except for a five-year sentence in Pittsburgh, where he moved for career reasons (and from the first day looked for a way to move back) he has made the Cleveland area his home. He loves Cleveland and fondly recalls his first memory involving sports…the Miracle at Richfield. As with every other die-hard Cleveland sports fan, Perry has suffered his share of heartbreak. When Elway drove 98 yards and drove a stake through our hears he was sitting on the 40 yard-line, swilling Hungarian tomato wine to keep warm. He witnessed The Shot and The Fumble at his Kent State dorm room and sat helplessly in his apartment in Butler, Pa. when Jose Mesa melted down.

While most people credit their father with introducing them to the world of sports fandom, Perry has to thank his cousin, Jeff Short, who introduced him to Pete Franklin’s Sportsline in the early 1970’s. He is joining the staff at TheClevelandFan.com to provide fans of the Mid- American Conference extensive coverage of this overlooked league.

Perry is married and lives in Amherst with his wife, Christy, and his two sons Mitchell (3) and Matthew (1).

 

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Mike Piper

No bio for Mike Piper

 

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Mitch Cyrus

Mitch Cyrus is living proof that sports fanaticism and appreciation of the arts can co-exist, an opinion shared by Rich Swerbinsky in the creation of the Movies & TV section of TheClevelandFan.  Mitch has been onboard at TCF since Day One, contributing as a movie critic, entertainment analyst, sports columnist for football and golf, as well as a humorist with his recaps of “The Sopranos” and “24”.

A native of Shelby, Ohio, Mitch completed his college at High Point University in North Carolina, and decided to stick around due to marrying a pure Southerner as well as having the opportunity to golf year-round.  In his real-life profession, Mitch is the director of security and compliance for a software company providing human resource targeted applications.

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Nick Allburn

Nick Allburn is a 23-year old guy from North East, PA (basically Erie). One of his earliest memories is the purchase of his first Chief Wahoo hat.

Nick is a Penn State MBA student, and his primary foci for TheClevelandFan are the Browns and Cavaliers. Nick enjoys the finer things in life, such as reading from his collection of leather-bound books, distance running, triathlon, the occasional adult beverage, and Nintendo. Nick probably owns more Bernie Kosar jerseys than you do.

In addition to writing and podcasting for TCF, Nick collaborates on a Cleveland sports blog located at http://forestcityfanatics.blogspot.com.

 

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Nino Colla

Nino Colla currently attends The University of Akron full-time and commiserates about the Cleveland Indians all the time. If you were to categorize his childhood with the specific era of Indians baseball he grew up with, you would probably call it a rough childhood. Nino grew to love that rough childhood though, even with the likes of Alex Escobar roaming the outfield and Jason Davis throwing 100 mph beach balls. 

Nino is originally from Youngstown, Ohio, now lives in Kent and is double-majoring in Communications and minoring in Sport Management at Akron. He's maintained his own blog, The Tribe Daily, since March of 2008 and uses it to compile all relevant information on the Tribe and occasionally photoshop Indians players in an effort to be semi-humorous. He also contributes to the Akron Aeros coverage at Indians Prospect Insider and can be found on twitter @TheTribeDaily.

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Paul Cousineau

Paul Cousineau has been actively following the Indians since his days in the “Little Indians’ Fan Club”, when he and his friends absorbed fielding tips from Brook Jacoby like little sponges and stood in awe of the immortal Pat Tabler.

Born and bred on the East Side of Cleveland, he had his passport stamped after graduating from college to cross the Crooked River and set up shop on the West Side.

At the urging of his Milwaukee-bred wife, he started writing The DiaTribe in Spring of 2004 to put his thoughts on the Indians on paper, so to speak. He can usually be found sitting in the Mezzanine at most home games, chatting up Bob the Beer Guy and looking over the shoulder of the guy with the ponytail who keeps score of every home game in front of him.

He and his wife welcomed their first child Patrick in winter of 2006. Though he won’t publicly comment whether his son’s name is an homage to Tabler, it couldn’t have hurt.

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Ryan Aroney

Ryan Aroney is a lifelong resident of Northeast Ohio and a graduate of the Cleveland State University School of Communication. He spends more time than he should following his favorite sports teams, all of which happen to play in Cleveland or Columbus.

When not writing for TheClevelandFan.com, Ryan works in media relations. Ryan also covers high school sports as a freelancer for local newspapers and contributes to a Cleveland State Vikings sports blog at LetsGoVikes.com.

A former college baseball player, Ryan enjoys taking part in as much baseball related activity as possible in his free time.

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Sam Amico

Sam Amico has covered professional basketball for newspapers, magazines and websites for more than a decade. He is the author of "A Basketball Summer: The Pro Game as it's Played in the Off-Season," and makes regular appearances as an NBA analyst on SportsTime Ohio. He can be reached at amico@probasketballnews.com.

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Scott Swerbinsky

Scott Swerbinsky is Swerb's cousin, and goes by the moniker "Spoon". He was born and raised in Willowick, Ohio. He is a student of the sport of boxing, which he knows inside and out, and is also a big fan of mixed martial arts fighting.

Spoon will be covering the sport of boxing for The Cleveland Fan, and is known as the "FightDr" in the forums. He is a die hard Cavs,Tribe, Buckeyes and Browns fan.

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Steve Buffum

Steve Buffum grew up in Akron, Ohio. He received BA degrees in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Virginia, which he does not use. He then moved to Austin, Texas, where he bailed on his PhD program and got a Masters in Mathematics, which he does not use. He currently works for a chemical management firm in Austin as a data cudgeller.

He lives with his wife, two sons, one daughter, and the two dumbest cats in North America.

Buff is a passionate and incredibly knowledgable fan of the Cleveland Indians, whom he covers for The Cleveland Fan.

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Thomas Delaney

No bio for Thomas Delaney

 

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Tom Mieskoski

No bio for Tom Mieskoski

 

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Tony Lastoria

Tony Lastoria was born in Northeast Ohio and has lived there all 35+ years of his life. His love for baseball is only superseded by his love for his family, namely his wife Heather and two children Nicholas and Alyssa.

While he is a Cleveland sports fan and loves the Browns, Cavaliers and Buckeyes, he grew up with a passion for baseball and has been following the Indians since he was 6-years old. Over the past 10-12 years that passion for Major League Baseball has permeated the minor league baseball scene. With the numerous affiliates and future players of the Indians to follow, minor league baseball now rivals his love for the Indians and major league baseball.

Tony follows, reports, and writes exclusive minor league content on the Cleveland Indians minor league system for TheClevelandFan.com, SportsTimeOhio.com, and his own site at IndiansProspectInsider.com. He travels to all the Indians affiliates and talks with numerous players, coaches, front office personnel, scouts and more.  He has also published three books on the Indians farm system.