On February 24, renowned sportswriter Terry Pluto spent an hour with the Cleveland Club via Google Meet to discuss NE Ohio sports. Pluto has spent a career covering sports, most of it for the Akron Beacon Journal and the Plain Dealer.
“I’ve been fortunate,” Pluto said. “It’s been an enjoyable career. I say that what I really do is in the diversion department, that is, I write about a topic people enjoy participating in and watching, and that learning more about this topic – sports – diverts them from harsher realities. A lot of society is stressed out, and for certain short periods of time people who read sportswriters can set their minds to other matters.”
Pluto began his career covering sports in North Carolina and then Baltimore. “I remember the excitement in 1979 when I covered the Orioles getting into the World Series. But that was nothing like the excitement I felt covering the 1995 Indians when they got into the World Series – because the Indians was a team I had known as a kid. I’ve been very lucky to cover teams I grew up with, because I knew them so well.”
Talking with Cleveland Club participants, Pluto lamented the problem in baseball of the richest markets paying the most money for the most celebrated athletes. “Over the last five years, the winningest teams have been, in this order, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Astros, the Guardians and the Brewers,” he said. “The first two have paid huge amounts of money in salaries, the Astros used to, and the Guardians and the Brewers don’t but have beaten the odds.” He added, “You know things are bad when the Yankees are complaining that the Dodgers are spending too much. But we can fix this. The NBA has been showing that.”
Pluto noted the remarkable 2025 Guardians season coming from 15 games back to winning the Central Division. His feeling is that the team’s chemistry took them to this notable feat. “Could any other team have done this?” he said. “I don’t think so. They are well run; they are smart; they are good guys and they have what I think is the greatest player I have ever seen in a Cleveland uniform – José Rameríz.”
Pluto said that sports coverage is a good money-maker for Cleveland.com, that people pay for subscriptions to see columns “beyond the paywall. We are financially viable,” he said.
Responding to Club member questions:
Pluto thinks two balls/strikes challenges per side per baseball game is the correct number (and added that challenges in the NBA take far too long).
He liked the Cavaliers’ acquiring Dennis Shroder – “he’s feisty.”
He likes the Cavaliers. He thinks Kenny Atkinson has been a good coach (“I helped push the team to hire him”).
He did not like the Browns replacing Baker Mayfield with DeShaun Watson, though he admitted that at the time Watson had generated some excellent statistics while Mayfield had been struggling.
His favorite sports moment in Cleveland that he has covered (other than the 2016 Cavaliers championship) was watching the Indians beat Seattle in 1995 to advance to the World Series.
He said that sports teams ownerships have changed in the last 40 years from “family businesses” to what he calls “mutual funds of sports,” that is, investment pools that buy up portions of multiple teams and focus more on investment return than in building competitive teams. He also noted that a billion dollars does not get you in the game. You need “mega billions,” he said.
To boost Guardian’s hitting, “Rhys Hoskins might come along,” he said. “I also like Chase DeLauter; he will be a star if he stays healthy."
People can learn more about Terry’s views on the weekly podcast “Terry’s Talking.”
To learn more about Terry Pluto and his books, go to terrypluto.com.