Effective immediately, the Cleveland Indians have relieved Manny Acta of his managerial duties. Sandy Alomar Jr., the team's bench coach under Acta, will assume managerial duties for the final six games of the season. According to a Tweet from the Cleveland Indians' Official Twitter, the search for a new manager will begin immediately and that Alomar Jr. is a candidate for the job.

Acta leaves the Indians with a 214-266 record and is now just 372-518 for his career as a manager during stints with the Washington Nationals and Cleveland Indians. Acta never had much to work with in Cleveland, though the writing has been on the wall since the team's epic collapse began at the end of July. Acta finished fourth in the 2011 American League Manager of the Year voting after leading the Indians to an 80-82 season despite a plethora of injuries.

What hurt Acta the most this season was how the team collapsed, just like they did in 2011. The Indians were 30-15 after 45 games in 2011 and wound up going just 50-67 the rest of the way. In 2012, the Indians were 37-33 through 70 games and have gone just 28-58 since.

The dismissal of Acta adds a new dimension to what was already going to be an interesting offseason with Shin-Soo Choo and Chris Perez likely to be traded and some other decisions that need to be made regarding the starting rotation and the revolving door of players at key corner positions.

Stay tuned to TheClevelandFan.com for more information on both the firing of Acta and the team's search for a new manager.

ESPN is reporting that Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita may meet with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday to discuss his role in the New Orleans Saints bounty program.

Fujita, who was originally suspended for three games for his alleged role, is the only player who has not met with Goodell since an appeals panel overturned the suspensions. Saints defensive end Will Smith and linebacker Jonathan Vilma, along with defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove, currently a free agent, met with Goodell earlier in the week at NFL offices in New York.

Fujita, who is still recovering from a knee injury, had planned to meet with Goodell by video conference, but the league decided it wants the players to sit down with Goodell in person.

"Scott is committed to a just and fair resolution in this matter, but he is also committed to his teammates and his club," the NFL Players Association said in a statement. "He is still undergoing treatment for a knee injury and is preparing for this week's game. We scheduled a video conference with the league but they informed us that they were only interested in an in-person meeting."

Even though the panel put the suspensions on hold, it also ruled that Goodell still has the power to suspend the players under the "conduct detrimental" portion of the league'scollective bargaining agreement.

The Browns play the Ravens on Thursday night, which frees up Fujita for a Friday meeting.

Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson was voted the NFL Rookie of the Week, the league announced on Friday. (The award has a corporate sponsor name, but we're not seeing any of that money, so ...)

Richardson earned the award after totaling 145 yards and two touchdowns against the Bengals in Cincinnati. Richardson ran for 109 yards, scoring on a 32-yard rush, and had 36 receiving yards, including a 23-yard touchdown reception.

Richardson, the third overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, is the first Browns player to win the weekly award since the immortal Charlie Frye, who picked up the honors after Week 17 of the 2005 season when he passed for 199 yards in a 20-16 win against Baltimore. (Frye also threw two interceptions and took four sacks that day; must have been a light week for rookies).

Richardson was selected from among five finalists through fan votes on NFL.com/rookies. The other finalists were punter Johnny Hekker of the Rams, quarterback Andrew Luck of the Colts, quarterback Ryan Tannehill of the Dolphins and quarterback Russell Wilson of the Seahawks.

After the regular season, five players will be nominated for NFL Rookie of the Year honors. Fans can vote for the winner on NFL.com/rookies throughout the month of January. The NFL Rookie of the Year will be announced at the second annual NFL Honors awards show in New Orleans on Feb. 2.

(Photo by ClevelandBrowns.com)

The air is getting crisper, the temperature is falling, the leaves are changing, this Cavs blogger is getting less cranky about the weather and the NBA season is underway.  The latest event to occur that has Cavs fans getting excited was the team officially announcing the annual Wine and Gold Scrimmage.  The intrasquad game will take place on Saturday October 6th at the Quicken Loans Arena.  Tickets are free of charge at any Northeast Ohio Drug Mart location or by following this link. 

The Cavs will have the full game experience that fans accustomed to.  The team will be selling hot dogs and Pepsi for $1.00.  This is a good opportunity for people to see professional NBA players up close for a very low cost.

Defense is a rare sight at the annual scrimmage.  The players tend to not take the game too seriously, but it is still an exciting event for fans because they get to see their favorite players and new team additions for the first time.  I will be keeping an eye out for what Dion Waiters' conditioning looks like and how Tristan Thompson's jump shot is developing.  It will also be great to see Kyrie Irving in uniform for the first time since the regular season ended. 

The scrimmage is not an amazing product in it by itself, but it is a great time to be a fan because it symbolizes that the regular season really is just around the corner.  The fact that the game is hosted in the Quicken Loans Arena is a welcome change after all of the years it was held in Akron. 

The Cleveland Browns soon-to-be owner Jimmy Haslam III (hereby known as JH3) stepped down from CEO of Pilot Flying J yesterday, retaining the position of Chairman.  He will be replaced by John Compton of Pepsi, presumably hand-picked by JH3 for the endeavor.

The timing of this move - coming 2 days after JH3 witnessed just how far the Browns still have to go on the field - is not lost on this fan base.  The assumption?  That JH3 feels he has to throw himself into the task of cleaning up this steaming pile of rhino dung full-force.

We wish him luck on this daunting quest.  

Help us, Jimmy Haslam Kenobi.  You are our only hope.

INDIANS ANNOUNCE 2013 MLB REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE

Tribe Opens Season at Toronto Tuesday, April 2 vs. Blue Jays

Home Opener Monday, April 8 vs. New York Yankees

CLEVELAND, OH --- In conjunction with all 30 Major League Baseball clubs, the Cleveland Indians have released their preliminary 2013 MLB regular season schedule.  The Tribe will open the 2013 season, their 113th campaign as a member of the American League, on the road for a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, April 2. 

After traveling to Tampa Bay for a three-game series against the Rays, the Tribe returns to Progressive Field for the home opener on Monday, April 8 vs. the New York Yankees.  The first homestand will consist of a four-game series against the Yankees (April 8-9-10-11), three games against the AL Central Division rival Chicago White Sox (April 12-13-14) and a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox (April 16-17-18). 

Highlights of the 2013 Cleveland Indians Regular Season Schedule:

• The Tribe’s first homestand begins on Monday, April 8 against the New York Yankees, and includes ten games against the Yankees, White Sox and Red Sox.

The Tribe heats up Progressive Field for eight summer weekends from May 31 to September 2. The Tribe will play 41 home games from Memorial Day (May 27) to the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (September 1) – including Father’s Day vs. the Washington Nationals (Sunday, June 16).

• Number of Home Games By Month: April – 11; May –17;  June –11;  July –16;  August – 11;  September – 15

• The longest homestands of the year include 10 games to open the season (New York Yankees, Chicago and Boston) and 10 games from July 5-14 (Detroit, Toronto, Kansas City).  The longest road trips of the year include 10 games between April 19-29 (Houston, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City) and June 24-July 4 (Baltimore, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City).

• The regular season will conclude with a four-game road trip against the Central Division rival Minnesota Twins (September 26-29).

• Interleague play in 2013 features matchups against the NL East. The Philadelphia Phillies come to Progressive Field for the Tribe’s first ever April interleague matchup (April 30, May 1). The New York Mets and Washington Nationals also visit Progressive Field, September 6-7-8 and June 14-15-16, respectively. The Tribe will travel to take on the Atlanta Braves (August 27-28-29) and Miami Marlins (August 2-3-4). 

• The Indians and Ohio rival Cincinnati Reds will meet four times in back-to-back, two-game home and away series (May 27-28-29-30).

• The Astros join the American League in 2013 and take on the Indians in Houston (April 19-20-21) and at Progressive Field (September 19-20-21-22).

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced their promotional schedule on Tuesday for the upcoming 2012-13 NBA season and the biggest takeaway is the team is rolling out yet another alternate uniform.

According to the team's website, the gold uniforms will make a "bold on-court debut" at the home opener against Washington on Oct. 30. The gold uniform will serve as the team's "permanent official alternate" to the home white uniform and will be worn "substantially" throughout the season. (We imagine it will be as permanent as all the other alternate uniforms the Cavs have rolled out the past few years.)

The uniform is bright gold with a wine CAVS wordmark across the chest. The team's "DNA statement" (oh, geez), All For One. One For All will be printed on the inner-collar, just like it is on the home and away jerseys. The Cavaliers “C” is centered below the neckline and the secondary logo “C-sword” appears on both sides of the shorts.

It's not a bad look, all things considered, and should serve its primary directive: to separate fans from their money as they look to replace or add to their collection of Cavs jerseys.

We still wish the Cavs would just return to their wine-and-gold Miracle of Richfield jerseys on a full-time basis, but then that wouldn't be "marketing," now would it?

Now, the Christmas Story Bobble Leg Lamp giveaway is another story. That there is a major award if we ever saw one.

(Photo courtesy of ClevelandCavaliers.com)

A collective bargaining agreement appeals panel overturned the NFL’s suspension of four players – including Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita – for their involvement in the New Orleans’ Saints bounty program, according to NFL.com.

That means Fujita could be on the field for the Browns when they open the season on Sunday against Philadelphia.

While the ruling lifted the suspensions, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still has the power to suspend the players at a future date if he can prove there was an intent on their part to injure.

This is good news for the Browns, who are painfully thin at linebacker due to injuries to Chris Gocong and James –Michael Johnson.

The team can activate Fujita without cutting a player to create a roster spot, according to Jason La Canfora, but can still only dress the NFL maximum number of players.

Fujita received a three-game suspension for his allegedly contributing money to a pool that paid Saints players for intentionally injuring opponents.

“I’m overwhelmed with all the support,” Fujita Tweeted after the announcement. “Thank you so much everyone. Can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

Middle linebacker and defensive team captain D’Qwell Jackson welcomed the news.

“It’s a guy that we all well respect in the locker room,” Jackson told The Beacon Journal. “We hate to see him go through this ordeal. He just had a new baby in the family, and he’s gotta deal with this cloud that’s over his name right now. If you know Scott, you Scott’s a great guy and you hate for any guy to go through what he’s going through right now. To have him back and have him not deal with it at all for the short term is great for him.”

It will be interesting to see what the Browns do because, as Adam Schefter pointed out in a Tweet, coach Pat Shurmur has a rule that if a player doesn’t practice during the week, he doesn’t play on Sunday. Fujita has not been able to be with the team the past week because of the suspension.

But it sounds like Shurmur may make an exception in this case.

“We’ve got up until right before game time to put the roster together but I don’t see any reason why he can’t play,” Shurmur said in his Friday press conference.

In what comes as a surprise eleventh hour decision, four current and former New Orleans Saints players have had their suspensions rescinded, and will be eligible to play on Sunday.  This will likely only result in Cleveland's Scott Fujita (3 games) and former Ohio State standout Will Smith (4 games), who is still with the Saints, seeing action on Sunday.  Anthony Hargrove (8 games) is currently without a team, and the alleged ring-leader in a 2009 Bounty Scandal, Jonathan Vilma (season-long), is injured, and will not play.  The Saints General Manager and coaches suspended in the wake of this scandal were not part of the appeals process.

According to the Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns have been granted a roster exemption, so they will not have to cut anyone to make room for Fujita, but they can still only dress 46 for their opener with the Eagles at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sunday afternoon.  With the lifted suspension, the Browns linebacker will recover $214,705 in previously forfeited wages.  This news may not have come as a surprise to the 33 year-old entering his eleventh season, who told ESPN's David Fleming last week:

"The only reasonable thing for Roger (Goodell) to do now is admit mistakes were made."

After today's favorable news, Fujita added:

"I'm overwhelmed with all the support. Thank you so much everyone. Can't tell you how much it means to me."

For now, this is a temporary verdict, handed down by a 3-member Appeals Panel, who determined that the decision to suspend players for the pool of money issued for big plays in 2009 was not Goodell's decision to make, but the ball is in his court to determine whether discipline should be issued for playing with the intent to injure.  Goodell can make that decision at any time, but the league office has reported that it will not happen prior to this weekend's action.

Fujita signed with the Browns as a free-agent before the 2009 season, after spending the first eight years of his career with the Chiefs and Saints.  He has played in 19 games over the last two season, totaling 73 tackles and 3.5 sacks, which all came in the 2009 season.  While no one would define Fujita as a star, his availability will certainly be critical to the Browns, who are severely thin at Linebacker after being decimated by injury in the weeks leading up to the 2012 season.