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.