Riding the Cleveland sports train is a lot like planting your rear-end into one of the seats at Cedar Point’s Power Tower.
It’s up and down and up and down.
When the Cavaliers are good, the Browns are bad. When the Indians are good, the Buckeyes lose a couple late-season close games and end up in a non-BCS bowl. We don't live in the New England, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia or Los Angeles areas, so I guess because we are fans of Cleveland sports that means we can't win 'em all.
This year, Browns shook things up in their off-season by hiring a new GM and completely refining their quarterback position. Fans are excited about the promise Colt McCoy brings to the table. The Cavs, they had one of their best regular seasons in team history, yet were ousted in the second round of the playoffs, which has led to the firing of the head coach, resignation of the GM, and arguably the league’s biggest star readying himself to test the free agent waters.
And then you have the Indians, sitting at 22-36 and in last place in the AL Central. It is June 10th and they are already 12.5 games behind the division-leading Twins and one game back of the lowly Royals. When the stadium was called Jacobs Field, it would sell out and merchandise sales were through the roof. In recent years, the Indians have had to deal with a significant decline in ticket sales and merchandising, which is probably what forced the front office to accept an offer from local insurance company Progressive to rename the stadium Progressive Field. A quick look at the standings this year reveals that the Tribe are dead-last in American League attendance.
Their contracts appear to be as mess as well. The Indians are paying Travis Hafner (.243 avg, 20 R, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 0 SB) $11.5 million, yet Shin-Soo Choo (.290 avg, 33 R, 8 HR, 28 RBI, 10 SB) is making only $461,000 in comparison.
Jake Westbrook (3-3, 4.84 ERA) is making $11 million and Kerry Wood (0-2, 8.68 ERA, 4 SV) is pulling in $10.5 million. The club’s two best starting pitchers, Fausto Carmona (4-5, 3.49 ERA) and Mitch Talbot (7-4, 3.54 ERA), are making $5.08 million and $400,700, respectively. You could say that Carmona is the only player making what he’s worth in MLB terms.
When you're paying veteran ballplayers big bucks, they are supposed to provide A) numbers that show up in the box score, or B) significant clubhouse leadership, or C) both.
That’s been the Indians’ bread-and-butter. Find a young nameless talent (example Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, Jim Thome, C.C. Sabathia etc.) and sign them to a long-term deal. Yet it’s also been the Indians’ fire-and-smoke when these players develop into superstars and opt for free agency and the highest-bidding major market team (Ramirez to Boston, Belle to Chicago, Thome to Philadelphia, Sabathia to New York). Although, as in Sabathia’s case, there have been instances in the past where the Indians knew what was going to happen with free agency and have traded away their superstars for prospects, cash and picks.
From 1969 through 1993, the Indians had a final regular-season record of .500 or better just four times. Then in the strike-shortened 1994 season, the Indians were a powerhouse and finished 2nd in the AL Central at 66-47. This was the first of eight consecutive .500 or better seasons, six of which the Tribe made the playoffs.
That 1994 team consisted of:
C – Sandy Alomar
1B – Paul Sorrento
2B – Carlos Baerga
SS – Omar Vizquel
3B – Jim Thome
LF – Albert Belle
CF – Kenny Lofton
RF – Manny Ramirez
DH – Eddie Murray
To Cleveland fans these are all household names. Heck, to ordinary fans of baseball these are now all household names, but back in 1994 nobody knew who Sorrento, Vizquel, Thome, Lofton and Ramirez were. Baerga was already an All-Star, as was Belle. But it wasn’t until the 1995 campaign, when the Indians finished 100-44 and went on to the World Series did people start to recognize and respect this lineup as it developed from young farm talent into slugging All-Stars.
That starting nine from 1993 has one Hall of Famer (Murray), two future Hall of Famers (Thome, Ramirez), and three borderline Cooperstown enshrinees (Vizquel, Belle, Lofton).
In 2002, when the Indians finished in 3rd place at 74-88, the entire city of Cleveland was in shock. How could this happen? We were so used to winning. The Indians rattled off sub-.500 seasons in four of the next five seasons. Wahoo fans collectively wondered if their team was headed in the same direction that it was stuck in for 25 years in the late 60s, 70s, 80s and early 90s, which was nowhere but down at the cellar of the division.
Suddenly, in 2007, the Tribe once again won the division, finished the regular season four wins shy of 100, and reached the ALCS, losing in seven games to the Red Sox after leading 3-1.
Game 1 – BOS 10, CLE 3
Game 2 – CLE 13, BOS 6 (11 inn.)
Game 3 – CLE 4, BOS 2
Game 4 – CLE 7, BOS 3
Game 5 – BOS 7, CLE 1
Game 6 – BOS 12, CLE 2
Game 7 – BOS 11, CLE 2
Sorry about bringing that one up again.
Since then, the Indians have finished in 3rd, 4th, and are now currently last, in 5th, in the division.
We have to wonder if a lineup that looks like …
C – Lou Marson/Mike Redmond
1B – Russell Branyan/Matt LaPorta
2B – Luis Valbuena/Mark Grudzielanek
SS – Asdrubal Cabrera/Jason Donald
3B – Jhonny Peralta
LF – Austin Kearns/Mike Brantley
CF – Grady Sizemore/Trevor Crowe
RF – Shin-Soo Choo
DH – Travis Hafner
… can within the next decade develop into a lineup that includes a couple Hall of Famers and is one that was mostly made up of All-Stars. Cabrera, Sizemore and Choo are here to stay. All good enough to be All-Stars. Donald is a young talent that is perhaps playing in the Big Show a tad bit early due to Cabrera’s injury, yet he has shown signs of brilliance and should develop into a very good infielder. Add a couple key pieces here and there, and you never know. Give this lineup a solid first basemen and a quality veteran clubhouse leader and a young starting pitching talent … and … I’m just saying.
Remember, those 1994 Indians caught us by surprise. A couple of years earlier things continued to look bleak and nobody gave the Indians a chance. Afford this team some time to get healthy and develop and they will be back in contention.
At least we all hope so.
