Something To Talk About May Soon Lead To Something To Cheer About

Everybody...everybody from your grandmother to your little leaguer thinks Grady Sizemore should be moved down in the Indians' lineup...everybody but manager Eric Wedge.

Bud Shaw thinks so...

Terry Pluto thinks so...

Pat McManamon of the Akron Beacon Journal thinks so...

Sheldon Ocker thinks so...

Hell, even Joe the Plumber thinks so!

Grady is striking out more this year than ever before. He is batting .220 because of the strikeouts and the fact that he is leading off. But, after the first inning with a runner in front of him like Jamey Carroll, he gets better pitches and hits through a hole where the infielder holding Carroll or someone else on base has vacated. Sizemore has too much power to be a lead off hitter. He takes a big swing and therefore strikes out often because nobody is on base ahead of him when he leads off. Most of the experts mentioned above would bat Sizemore 3rd with Victor Martinez batting cleanup. Think about this...

Sizemore wants to lead off to get as many at bats as he can. Drop him one spot to 2nd in the lineup. Put Shin Soo Choo 1st, Grady 2nd, and leave the leading hitter in the American League, Victor Martinez in the 3rd spot where he belongs.

I loved seeing manager Eric Wedge get tossed the other night, not because of my desire to see him work in another industry but because I thought he was absolutely right to dispute the blown call at home plate. Mark DeRosa was SOOOOOOOOOOO safe!

But here is an interesting result of the tossing of Wedge. The team lost control of the game and blew a 7 run lead to lose the game 8-7. If Wedge were still in the game, would we have lost?

Does a manager, even of the caliber of Eric Wedge mean that much to a team within the framework of a 9 inning game?

How does this speak to the rest of the coaching staff that let the bottom fall out?

Perhaps Wedge was still calling the shots from the clubhouse runway but at any rate, I still maintain the coaches, the manager, the general manager, and the owner all should be on the hot seat for the pitiful start this team has had over the last two seasons.

It is long past time for the Dolan family to go back to what they know, cable TV. They do not have the resources or the savvy to run a major league sports franchise.

Please sell the team and spare us the pain that we suffered with the likes of Nick Mileti and Ted Stepien.

I am so very tired of the short arms and deep pockets these guys have when it comes to financing a competitive team.

Were we just lucky in 2007?

Mr. Dolan, if you love the Cleveland Indians as you say you do, sell the team!

Terry Pluto On Mars

Terry Pluto, sports writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer doesn't totally blame Eric Wedge for the demise of the Cleveland Indians the past two seasons...that's nice.
He does feel that the blame is shared with GM Mark Shapiro and the ownership of the team..that's nice, too.

http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2009/05/tribe_skipper_has_a_managing_p.html

Tell you what...Let's throw a party for all of them, kinda like we did when the '97 Indians lost the World Series to the mercenary Florida Marlins.

Can't you just see the signs and hear the chants..."We're Number 5, We're Number 5!"

There are a lot of guys in Chrysler and GM that wish Terry would switch to writing the Business section for Wall Street.

Perhaps we can get Obama to bail out the Indians, you know, so that they can compete again. After the large bonuses are handed out to the front office and manager, we maybe could afford a pitcher for the bullpen.

Until this team is purchased by someone or some group that can finance the daily and future operations properly, we will be forced to feel fortunate that this team remains in our town. How many years did we tell ourselves, "Bad baseball is better than no baseball."

What if MLB decided to pull the plug on their flailing franchises like Chrysler and GM?

Goodbye Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Cleveland!

It's time for the ownership and management of the Cleveland Indians to grow a pair each and make some bold moves. Last year we were told to wait for 40-50 games. This year they are taking action, aren't they? That sorry excuse of a pitcher Masa Kobayashi is still on this team! If he can't pitch, how much of his salary is he earning shoving hot dogs down his throat in the bullpen each night? This is the kind of thinking and action that makes this team and their ownership second rate. Cut the S.O.B. and move on!

There are some hungry and talented guys in our minor league system and on our bench on the big team that could move in and replace the guys hitting 2 buck and some change.

Stop the bleeding!

Fire Wedge!

Fire Shapiro!

Fire Willis!

Fire Shelton!

Play LaPorta!

Bring up some hungry future stars!

Put the team up for sale!

And stop the @#!!! whimpering and excuse making!

It is the responsibility of the media in Cleveland to call it like it is...Wedge is to blame! So is Shapiro...so is ownership! Until we demand a good product, they will give us excuses and no warranty!

So, You Live In Cleveland!

Below is a story from Yahoo.com, America’s most miserable sports cities (2009)
By Tom Van Riper, Forbes.com May 8, 5:05 pm EDT

http://webmail.windstream.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fsports.yahoo.com%252Ftop%252Fnews%253Fslug%253Dys-forbesmisery041409%2526prov%253Dyhoo%2526type%253Dlgns

Yes, it is true...Clevelanders DO love being miserable!

We have two seasons; Winter and Summer!

Ya can't get your leaves picked up by November 'cause it snows so early and cutting the grass in April/May is like driving a convertible in the Rain Forest.

But we have people to do that...really.

In fact, that's what keeps the economy so brisk here is that when things get to a disaster level, we call someone to help.

The electricity can go out for a week at a time if winds get over 5 MPH or snow accumulates to an inch or more.

The river burns, the lake almost died, the inner belt bridge is about to collapse, but worst of all...all of those life threatening issues aside, we haven't had a sports championship since 1964.

We can take all of the fire and brimstone but we can't take that!

As Swine Flu threatens us from our western suburbs, what is really on every Clevelanders' mind is what is wrong with our Tribe and how will the Cavaliers blow it?!

(Forget about Eric Mangini, the Browns won't have a winning season until he is a footnote in another book of bad Cleveland jokes.)

If you are old enough to remember a TV show called, "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" then you may not be senile enough to forget that the Cleveland Browns won the NFL championship in 1964.

That's about the time Dobie Gillis went off the air. On the show was a character named Maynard G. Krebbs who was played by Bob "Gilligan" Denver. Maynard loved monster movies and he was particularly fanatical about one that he mentioned on just about every show. That fictional movie was "The Monster That Devoured Cleveland."
We loved it when beatnik Maynard referred to it, or the many sequels like "Son Of" and "Son Of The Son Of The Monster That Devoured Cleveland!"

So what the hell happened to us?

Did a sports monster devour Cleveland?

Remember "Red Right 88?" That was the familiar play that cost the Browns their SuperBowl berth in 1981. Of course, by coach Sam Rutiglianno opting to throw one more Brian Sipe pass instead of going to his normally very consistent field goal kicker Don Cockroft for a "gimmie" on the very frigid and frozen tundra of the old wind whipped off of the lake Municipal Stadium, our fate was sealed and hearts in Cleveland all cracked in a huge ear shattering snap. But not to worry, as Sam said of the outcome in a post game interview, "There are 3 billion Chinese people who will wake up tomorrow and not care that we lost this game."

You moron! What about the 1.5 million (back then) Clevelanders that suffered through yet another Cleveland sports disappointment?

Well, things have gone from disappointment to humiliation at the hands of Michael Jordan, John Elway, John Elway, John Elway, Earnest Byner, David Justice (before he was traded to the Indians), Jose Mesa, Edgar Renteria, the San Antonio Spurs, Manny Ramirez, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, the Red Sox Nation, and the Boston Celtics. (Who have I forgotten?)

Well, it is up to Lebron James and his Cavaliers to deliver a championship to Cleveland and it has to happen now!

Just forget the Cleveland Indians for now and the next few seasons because they are done!

I was listening to the game last night driving home and heard a commercial that may explain where much of their problem, at least in management lies. The commercial was by radio voice Tom Hamilton who was advertising for Man Power. He said that the Cleveland Indians go to Man Power for their staffing needs.

Well, hell! That explains Shapiro, Wedge, Willis and the whole lot of shallow thinkers that make the decisions that most affect the team!

These are the same guys that want you to think that it is the players who are the problem and not the coaches and management.

Really!

Who is still on this team from the most recent heartbreak of 2007?

Betancourt, Carmona, Laffey, Lee, J. Lewis, Sowers, Martinez, Shoppach, Barfield, Cabrera, Garko, Peralta, Choo, Dellucci, Francisco, and Sizemore.

64% of the 25 man roster (not counting those on the DL) that almost went to the World Series in 2007 are still on this team.

Do you still think it is the players fault in 2008 and 2009?

Come on Cavs, gotta make it happen...you are the only hope of a town starving for a winner and desperately looking to change an image!

What's Next?!

Boston scores 12 runs in an inning before an out?

Cliff Lee carries a shutout into the 8th inning and loses?

Masa Kobayashi is still in the United States?

Things are so bad with the Cleveland Indians,

the town is preparing for the worst with the Cavaliers!

There was;

"The Drive"

"The Fumble"

"The Shot"

"The Mesa"

"The Trade"

"The Other Trade"

"Oh, That Trade, Too!"

Weary Clevelanders are wondering what will keep LBJ and the Cavs from winning the first major sports championship in Cleveland since 1964!...

"The Injury?"

"The Swine Flu?"

"The Steroid?"

"The Asteroid?"

"An Early Judgement Day?"

Well, that is just not going to happen because the Cavaliers will win the championship this year and bring it to this town for the first time since 1964!

But that certainly is not going to help our hapless Indians, is it?

Here's a thought...

Because Manny is a dirty-rat cheater, Major League Baseball awards the Cleveland Indians the 2007 ALCS and allows a computer to play the World Series between the Colorado Rockies and the Cleveland Indians and of course, the Indians win! However, their championship will be tainted with an asterisk, as will the year 2007 and the word "Championship" from now on.

Hey, that's not a bad idea!

Why not let a computer, let's call him 'Roid, play all of the Cleveland Indians' remaining games in the 2009 season? Virtual Eric Wedge can sit in the dugout and play with his USB as the Indians fall for a record number of losses. Other teams can have the night off as their "Me's" take the field. We can virtually travel to New York and those wonderful sports in the rotten apple can be represented by "fans" that interfere with batted balls in the outfield...it will be so realistic! And then, just for shits and giggles, let's have the home plate umpire make a really piss-poor third strike call on all of the virtual Indians!

But seriously, how much more is it going to take to get someone to do something to fix this team? Perhaps MLB commissioner "Able Bud" will put a moratorium on trades, kinda like what happened to the Cavaliers in the'70s! Bud would have to approve any trade, draft, promotion, demotion, lineup, pitching change, substitution, etc. to ensure the franchise doesn't go belly-up.

So, who is to blame? The players? Grady Sizemore is batting just over .200. Rafael Perez can't throw a strike. Jensen Lewis, Aaron Laffey, Fausto, Ben Francisco, all of them just up and went bad?

Get a General Manager, a Team Manager, and a Pitching Coach and put them with these same guys, many of whom almost went to the world series in 2007, and the team will drastically improve and immediately compete.

While were at it, a change in ownership wouldn't hurt a damned bit either!

YGTBSM!

YGTBSM!

Wednesday, 5/6/09, 7:30 PM
Bottom of the 1st, 3 on for Boston, nobody out...YGTBSM!


Tuesday, 5/5/09, afternoon affair
Toronto scores 7 runs in their home half of the 7th inning...YGTBSM!


Masa Kobayashi still in the big leagues...YGTBSM!


Kerry Wood can't figure out how to save a game...YGTBSM!


Kelly Shoppach continues to look at called strike three...YGTBSM!


Luis Valbuena still in the big leagues...YGTBSM!


Cleveland Indians' pitcher's ERA 5.96 (dead last in the American League)...YGTBSM!


Eric Wedge, Mark Shapiro, and Carl Willis still employed...You Really Got To Be Shitting Me!

Wahoo! What A Win!

It wasn't pretty but we will take it!

It was fun though, wasn't it?

The Tribe hitters were stymied for most of the game but stayed patient, waiting for their chance to go ahead...then again...then again!

It was a roller coaster ride of a game but it certainly kept your attention.

Didn't you just get the feeling last night that the Tribe was going to somehow win that game?

If you did, you had to be as patient as the hitters, looking, measuring, waiting to erupt.

There were big hits, big plays, and some pretty good and pretty bad pitching.

Let's see what these guys can do with a one game winning streak.

Tonight it is Anthony Reyes' turn.

He needs to get us into the 7th inning with a strong performance.

This is another must win game for Wedge and his bunch as they leave the comfort of the cover of the Jays' park and head to the Green Monster for 2 big games.

Gotta win this one tonight though first!

I'm thinking...Tribe 8, Jays 3!

Did you hear it?

I am 99.9% sure that after Shin Soo Choo grounded out to end the Cleveland half of the 7th inning, STO sportscaster Rick Manning apparently thought he was off the air once more and I heard him drop an "F" bomb again. I am certainly not offended by it and I share his disdain for a weak swing to end and inning and kill a badly needed rally!

Fun-ny!

Gotta take a moment to congratulate the King on getting his first crown of the season!

Way to go King James on winning the NBA League MVP!

I was driving and heard the award presentation on 1100 AM. Too bad it was on the Triv show. What a buffoon that guy Trivisonno is!

Here is to Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers who are sure to bring Cleveland their first major championship since '64!

Do Wedge And Shapiro Deserve A Chance At 2009?

Well, do they?

There has been plenty of criticism of the Indians' start to the 2009 season, namely General Manager Mark Shapiro and Manager Eric Wedge. This page has long been a critic of Wedge. Today, in the Akron Beacon Journal, Indians' beat writer Sheldon Ocker writes "A Blooming After April?" in this morning's edition.

http://www.ohio.com/sports/44232867.html

Ocker begins the article by calling for the dismissal of Wedge for his repeated poor starts to 5 out of the 7 seasons he has been at the helm but then gets soft and defends him before calling for his head once more. Come on Shelly, what are you saying?

There was an e-mail published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer today that quoted a reader in saying that perhaps manager Eric Wedge should begin each season in Arizona in extended spring training! I love it!

But wait a sec!

Let's not throw the rope over the tree just yet.

Yeah, I really said that!

Look at what took place this week;

Wedge got pissed and threatened to make changes if guys didn't start playing better.

He brought up David Dellucci, Matt LaPorta, and Luis Valbuena from AAA Columbus. So far, Dellucci has paid dividends as he had 2 great games in Detroit and probably help serve the Wedge Wake-up Call that got Jhonny Peralta back on track.

But our problem is not the hitting and the fielding as much as it is the starting and relief pitching. (Actually, they all stink right now!) It truly is the starters not going long enough and the relievers of late turning leads into losses.

However, only David Huff at AAA Columbus is showing any signs of life as the pitching goes.

We are 9-16 with 15% of the season in. One year ago, both Wedge and Shapiro were telling us to relax as nothing was going to be done until 35-40 games into the season.

Well, Hooray! This year, something is being done!

The position players are much easier to move back and forth from the Bigs to AAA. I truly think that Wedge, Shapiro, and Pitching Coach Carl Willis believe in the starters as well as the relievers on the team. I gotta believe that they are reviewing video and looking for the mechanical breakdowns that seem to torment this team over the last 4-5 years.

How does Cliff Lee go from flop in 2007 to Cy Young in 2008 and back into trouble in 2009?

Mechanics!

Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, Aaron Laffey, Jensen Lewis, et al; each one has or has had mechanical issues that appeared to be career threatening.

If Wedge, Shapiro, and Willis truly believe in these guys, then they must get them straight quickly, like before we face East Division leading Toronto tomorrow night.

And what about Toronto? Where will these guys be in September? Not in first, not in the playoffs!

The next four games are critical, critical, critical!

We play 2 vs. Toronto and 2 vs. Boston.

They are critical to Wedge, Shapiro, and Willis as their jobs with the organization depend on getting this team to compete with these two teams.

They are critical to putting this team back on track for the season as 3 losses in these 4 games will tailspin the season.

They are critical to the mental toughness of the players on this team and how they view their chances in 2009.

There is no doubt that we must win both games from Toronto and at least one from Boston.

I all of a sudden have faith in Eric Wedge.

I want to have faith in Eric Wedge.

This is my team and the Cleveland Indians winning isn't the only thing to me, it is everything!

Go Tribe!

Go Wedge!