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Fausto Carmona is starting to resemble C. C. Sabathia. The Indians might have to put a full-time tailor on the payroll to keep letting out Fausto's shirts and pants. The Indians have so many different uniforms, the poor tailor might burn out the motor on his sewing machine. Fausto is a bigger size every time he starts.

It's been almost a week since my last posting because I concentrated on writing two more chapters of my book. They're terrific chapters. (The book, by the way, will come out next spring. Overpriced, but it will make a nice Father's Day present.)

I was pre-occupied with other news, as well, and not everything was good. My dear friend Dick Zunt, whom you remember as the scholastic writer at The Plain Dealer for almost half a century, got a bad doctor's report. He's got cancer. They took a malignant tumor out of his right armpit last week. After some test results they'll plan their strategy. He was in no shape to attend the St. Ignatius football game Saturday night, which tells you the shape he's in.

Nevertheless, I must apologize to my blog readers -- both of you -- for the week of silence.

Now, some observations about the high school football scene before getting to the Top Twenty.

As usual, it is pure agony getting rosters for the Cleveland Senate schools. It wouldn't take much to run off a dozen copies of each roster for the media and the fans at those three o'clock games on Fridays. There's usually only a couple of television stations that shoot highlights of those games, almost never a newspaper reporter. Providing rosters is a matter of courtesy and professionalism. It's also the one opportunity to promote their pupils in a worthwhile activity, wearing football uniforms and not orange jumpsuits

Here's how we cover those games for television. When there's a good play, I ask coaches and players on the sidelines for the name of the kid. Then I try to get the spelling. Sometimes I just go up to the kid and say, "What's your name?" The kids may think that's how this is done in big time, big city television. No, it's not done this way anywhere else in the world except in the Cleveland Senate and gang fights. Covering Senate football is a joke. Most media organizations won't do it. But I'm there every Friday at three o'clock. I feel like a fool.

This has been going on for decades and I'm on the verge of saying, "I've had it. They don't care. Why should I?"

In the meantime, the media will be all over them when they have riots, beatings, murders and various other crimes on school grounds.

Two guys who stepped up for me this past weekend were East Tech athletic director Joe Dallas and John Adams football coach Gary Jackson.

Dallas bought a telephone answering machine for his school office and returns calls. Few Cleveland high school athletic offices have answering machines.

Jackson faxed me his roster and -- this was a huge bonus -- a master schedule for the Senate football season listing the field location for the games.

Then I got lucky a second time. At Rhodes Field I was actually handed a Senate master schedule. I hope they send one to The Plain Dealer. When the PD lists a game such as, John Hay at East High, it doesn't tell you much. Neither school has a field.

I'm told they're thinking of putting together packets of rosters. Let's see. Glenville plays Friday night at Collinwood field. I bet they won't have rosters for the media, much less the fans.

By the way, you can find football rosters on most high school web sites. But you know the schools that don't have web sites, don't you? I thought so.

DAN COUGHLIN'S HIGH SCHOOL TOP 20