Hurry To Sell, Rush To Buy!

Manny Acta is the new manager of the Cleveland Indians. He got his first Cleveland perception right; there will be no parade or fanfare over his hiring in Cleveland. What this amounts to is another low salary manager who is deemed very valuable by this organization because he is bi-lingual but has a losing record as a major league manager. What it really amounts to is that they replaced one yes man with another. Could you imagine some of the conversations between Bobby Valentine and Mark Shapiro? "Well Mark, we thought we might try to beat these guys today with our guys. Just who are our guys today?"
or
"Mark, put down the cell phone and back away!

So now that we have settled into another 3 years or so of the same Indians' baseball, what else could go right, wrong, or anything but the same catatonic boredom we have become so oblivious to?
Well, if the Dolans would do the right thing, they would have the team up for sale. One possible buyer could be Rush Limbaugh! After all, the NFL snubbed him on his attempt to buy the Rams. Think of the possibilities...The team is already considered politically incorrect with their Chief Wahoo mascot. But Rush could turn a "Deaf Ear" to this. The team already plays ultra conservative baseball and that should suit Rush just right. Rush could be right at home handling the steroid issue. He could compare 'roids to his own dependency of prescription drugs.
Yes, a new low has been hit when considering the possibilities of who could wind up buying the Indians...and finding the possibility an improvement!

Valentines Day?

OK, so we have a bona fide manager interviewing for the job of Manager of the Cleveland Indians! Getting this proven winner in the wigwam is the first step to rebuilding and putting a light at the end of the tunnel for becoming a winning franchise once again!

We need Bobby Valentine...Now!

There is a lot of speculation and otherwise horse shit in the local daily paper about the good, the bad, and the ugly of hiring Bobby as manager.

One guy claims that Bobby Valentine is a bit of a loose cannon and will buck upper management. Yeah, Cleveland doesn't do too well with loose cannons as some of those all star players are showing up on every body's post season playoff rosters! A loose cannon is just what this team needs! We have had it with the yes men who go along with the fire sales and the injury cover-ups, and all of the weaknesses associated with losers!

This guy Valentine is a winner!...And he hates to lose!!!

He is hailed as a great baseball mind but some of our sports writers would prefer to mire in the fact that Valentine has been out of American baseball for 6 seasons, that he doesn't have a good knowledge of the American League and the Central Division, and that he is unfamiliar with the new OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage). OK, so what challenges can you think up for day two?! Give me a break!

You can be sure that this team will leave Spring Training ready to play and compete everyday instead of whining about the desert air affecting our hitters and pitchers.

Are there risks for Bobby Valentine? Sure there are! But in analyzing this young team, he would have to be very excited about the talented outfield and infield already in place. Pitching is the big question mark with this team. Valentine has got to be thinking that this is an opportunity to grow a young team quickly into a contender...It just takes the right leader!

This guy is personable, knowledgeable, likable, talented, driven, and a winner!

This town will open their hearts (and wallets) to him and his team. Little Italy will probably name a street after him and make him the Grand Marshall of the Columbus Day Parade!

Let's not let this guy get away. The Indians need Bobby Valentine and right now, Bobby Valentine needs the Cleveland Indians!

Dolan, Shapiro...Have You Completely Given Up?

Here is an excerpt from a story about Manny Acta on the Cleveland Indians official website;

[Manny Acta is a realist.
He knows the average baseball fan, given a preference, would like to see a big name manage his team.
"Everybody in this town and probably every town in America would want a top-[name] guy, a Joe Torre, a Tony LaRussa, one of those guys to walk in and manage their club," Acta said.
Acta, who was in town Tuesday to interview for the Indians' managerial job, also realizes names like his won't result in a ticker-tape parade with people lining the streets downtown.
"The reality is those guys don't go for those jobs," Acta said of baseball's big name managers. "Those type of jobs go to guys like me."
Acta managed the Washington Nationals for two-plus seasons and compiled a 158-252 record before being replaced in July.]

So Manny, what are you saying...this is a second rate job?

Perhaps that is the way the job is being portrayed to him.

Until the ownership and upper management of the Cleveland Indians grasp the reality that they must compete at a higher level than they have been or even want to, they will continue to challenge for last place in the American League Central Division.

In August, Indians' President Paul Dolan stated that this team in this small market can only be expected to be competitive one to two years in a five to six year span.

Now we have to swallow the fact that managing a major league baseball team in Cleveland is a second rate job. Sure it is, if all you are willing to pay for is a second rate manager!

Manny Acta, take your .385 major league managing "losing" record and go manage Houston!

Mr. Dolan, SELL THIS TEAM!

MY2K Could Cheat Us!

By now, you have heard of the movie, seen the previews, read something in the paper about the Internet hysteria developing, or you have just been working so hard that you are unaware of the craze sweeping the world. Yeah, it's all about the movie "2012" depicting the events of the end of the world. Silly you say? Yeah, probably, but the momentum the movie is giving the quickly developing panic is of some serious concern, now known as MY2K. Want to write it off? Google 2012 and see what you get.
It seems the basis of the movie and the concern is the fact that the ancient Mayan calendar ends in 2012, December 21, 2012 to be exact. A prediction of a Planet X or possibly two planets on a collision course with Earth is raising the speculation that the Mayans may have had more insight to this instead of just getting lazy and ending their calendar when they did.


But hold on a sec...What if they did know something? After all, about the time the Mayans were building their great temples, Egyptians on the other side of the world were building pyramids of similar size and shape. OK, so what the heck does this have to do with a Cleveland Indians blog?


Well, when you visit some of the 2012 web sites, there is so much speculation, some out of prophecy, some out of fear, some even humorous. I tend to take a humorous approach to these things. Why? Well I live in Cleveland where we haven't had a major sports championship since 1964 and every day appears to be cataclysmic in not only sports but the weather, the economy, etc. So it seems that these Mayans were Indians, right? It would be fitting that the Cleveland Indians should win the world series two months before the end of the world. If these guys can predict the end of the world they certainly ought to be able to make book on something as simple as who wins the 2012 world series, don't ya think?
But wait, what if they got part of this wrong? What if they got the end date wrong? What if the end date is really October 21, 2012? Now that would make a lot of sense in Cleveland. Picture this; The Tribe handily wins the division, breezes through the ALDC and the ALCS to reach the 2012 World Series in mid-October. They begin play in the series where the lights are not needed to be turned on because of the brilliance of the two approaching planets on a collision course with Earth. Then, just as the Indians are about to go 3 games to none on their series opponent, WHAM-BAM, catastrophe hits!

Well, don't get overly concerned. This team is far from being competitive until at least the 2013 season. Hell, they don't even have a manager yet!
Enjoy the movie but don't lose any sleep over it, unless you are an Indians' fan where sleep is constantly interrupted by other catastrophes caused by a lack of solid ownership and management.

Who Dat Man?!

As the Cleveland Indians trick or treat through their search for a new manager, I cannot help but unmask who I believe to be the right man for the job, Bobby Valentine. While managing the Mets, Valentine was ejected from a game and later appeared back in the dugout with sunglasses and a fake mustache. He was fined and suspended for this action.
I loved it then and I love it now!
Here is the important part; Bobby has big league management experience, a winning record, and a pennant. How many of the other candidates have that? I guess we don't really know until the also rans are announced when the new manager is named. But speculation leads us to understand that they may be talking to John Farrell (no big league management experience), Travis Fryman (NBLME), and Brad Mills (NBLME).
Of course, names like Buddy Bell surface and even though he has big league managerial experience, he lacks a winning record...too often. Mike Hargrove keeps surfacing as well. Commitment would be the big question. Remember he quit on Seattle.
So Bobby Valentine is probably the leading candidate. Come on Bobby, there is no hiding the fact that you want to manage in the bigs again so dust off the sunglasses and mustache and bring your passion for the game and sense of humor to the shores of Lake Erie!

Good Fit? Yeah!

Go Joe...And All Of Your Ex-Indians!

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers on their completion of a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals tonight! From my view, my ex-Indians had plenty to do with helping the sweep and they will have plenty of contributions in getting to the World Series for Joe Torre and his Dodgers. Manny being Manny and Casey being Clutch are at the heart of a very good team.

As much fun as it is to see these guys doing so well in the post season for other teams, it still pains Indians fans to reflect on what could have been if these guys were still maintaining lockers on the corner of 9th Street and Ontario. Manny Ramirez, Casey Blake, Ryan Ludwick, Carl Pavano, Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, Mark DeRosa, Victor Martinez, Rafael Betancourt, Ronnie Belliard, Ben Francisco, and even Jim Thome to name a few of the guys who got away and are littered through the playoffs this year.

Perhaps it is our image. I love smiling Chief Wahoo. I do not think of him as degrading but he truly is politically incorrect. That doesn't bother me at all. What bothers me is that he resembles a nice guy, maybe a push over. The front office could use the above logo to help encourage some think-tank time to stop the dismantling of the team and bring back a winning tradition. Don't look for that to happen...the deep thinking until the current upper management and ownership are banished from the shores of Lake Erie.

No, it may be time to get pissed.

I mean really pissed! Who would have thought that building a new ballpark would have made us competitive in 1994?

Perhaps an image change is due.

In the mean time, congratulations Joe Torre and his Los Angeles Dodgers. One more series to go and they are closer to my dream World Series (for this year)...

Dodger vs. Yankees in the revenge of Joe Torre!

Go Joe!

Sincerely, Indians!

Today, the Cleveland Indians sent a thank you e-mail to their loyal fans with the mention of excitement for the 2010 season. OK, that's nice but no one signed the e-mail! It was signed Sincerely with an Indians banner as the signature!
See Below...

October 5, 2009
Dear Indians Fan,
THANK YOU! We truly appreciate your support throughout the 2009 MLB season. We enjoyed entertaining the nearly 2 million fans who made the choice to visit Progressive Field - as well as those Tribe fans around the world who caught Indians baseball on STO, the Indians Radio Network and online at indians.com.
It is now time to move forward. There will be keen interest this off season, highlighted by the search for a new manager and coaching staff. As an organization, we are excited about the story that will be unfolding in 2010. It is a story featuring a new voice in the dugout and a young, talented team on the field poised to compete in the AL Central Division.Our top priority remains the same – to make you proud of who we are as an organization, how we represent your city and how we provide superior entertainment and customer service.Thank you again for your continued support of Indians Baseball.

Sincerely,


No one from the front office or ownership could sign the e-mail?
I know when I opened the e-mail I immediately forgot about the poor handling of the team over the last two years and also forgave them on the spot...NOT!
Forgive who?
Who wrote the e-mail?
This is like getting an e-mail from Barack Obama apologizing for the misappropriations of the Bail-Out money and then signing the e-mail "America"!

"Sincerely, Indians!"

Who Indians?...The Sioux, Crow, Seminoles?

This is unbelievable.

I will always be a fan of the Cleveland Indians but this ownership and upper management can't even have the nuts to sign an e-mail and take responsibility for the train wreck they created.

Mr. Dolan...Fire Mark Shapiro and sell this team!

Part 1 of the Tribe Trilogy Is Complete!

Yes, as we all know, it finally happened. Cleveland Indians' manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff were fired yesterday. But as much as some of us wanted to see Wedge go, me in particular, you must give him credit for handling the situation with tremendous class. No one outside of the Cleveland Indians' inner circle will know what exactly transpired but however this unfolded, Eric Wedge kept his composure and will continue to apply his strong work ethic through the remaining 4 games of the season in Boston.
The radio talk guys in Cleveland are apparently applauding the change but at the same time questioning the timing, with 6 games remaining in the season (at the time of the news conference) and raising a toast to Wedge for his ability to stay cool while he "grinds out" the remaining games as the lame duck manager.
Could there be another possibility why the announcement was made so hastily Wednesday afternoon? Was the termination beginning to leak out? Perhaps Wedge had been cleared to speak to say...the Astros. Yes, the Indians' organization is generally very classy when dealing with sensitive events but let's not rule out the fact that a leak may have occurred. It happens everywhere else, it certainly could have happened here. It is hard to believe that the organization wanted to give the fans a chance to say goodbye to their manager at the last home game of the season. Hardly, many fans were signing petitions for his removal, especially in the wake of the 11 game losing streak.

So good luck to Eric Wedge. Take the lessons you have learned in your first big league management job and go and prosper, perhaps like one of your predecessors, Charlie Manual. After all, it is only fitting that you too, like all of the players traded away become more successful in life after Cleveland.

OK so now what? Part 1 of the Tribe Trilogy is complete. When does parts 2 and 3 take place? In fact, they can occur in either order. To complete the trilogy, general manager Mark Shapiro should be run out of town for his part in the dismantling of the Cleveland Indians and the Dolans must sell this team to an owner or group that can support the business sense of the competitiveness needed on a daily basis for this team to be successful. The Dolans raised the white flag a couple of months ago when president Paul Dolan made the statement that in this small market, this team could only be expected to be successful one to two seasons out of every five or years. Is that how you ran your cable business? Same market, right? Did you just succumb to the dish guys because it was too hard to compete?

Here is hoping a man like Dick Jacobs doesn't only come around once in a 41 year span of time. Eric Wedge needed to go away but he only erred on the playing field. The owners and senior management are the guilty parties in the demise of the Cleveland Indians.