Best I've ever seen: RHP Jack Morris

Best I've ever seen: RHP Jack Morris
Sunday, October 28, 2007Paul HoynesPlain Dealer Reporter
The best right-hander I've ever seen isn't in the Hall of Fame and I have no idea why.

He won 254 games and on Oct. 24, 1991, pitched one of the greatest games in World Series history. Anyone who saw it, especially the Atlanta Braves, would have to agree.

Jack Morris pitched 10 innings in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series to lead the Twins to a 1-0 victory over Atlanta. Morris, 37, threw a 126-pitch shutout on three days' rest after starting Games 1 and 4.

Twins manager Tom Kelly told Morris he was done after the ninth inning. Morris changed his mind.

"I talked to him, told him I had a lot left," said Morris. "I told him, 'We don't play tomorrow.' "

Kelly relented, saying, "What the hell, it's only a ballgame."

Some ballgame.

Morris struck out eight, walked two and allowed seven hits in 10 innings. Wrote a Minneapolis sportswriter, “Morris could have outlasted Methuselah.”

The 6-3, 200-pound Morris was not the warm and cuddly sort. He wore a bushy mustache and was constantly in need of two things — a shave and an attitude adjustment.

Morris won 198 games for the Tigers, but manager Sparky Anderson hated to take him out of a game. Not because Morris would complain vocally, but because he’d slam the ball into Anderson’s hand when he came to the mound. Anderson said it hurt.

He was rude to reporters, male and female alike. He was cocky, too.

Morris was one of the first pitchers to master the split-fingered fastball. Tigers pitching coach Roger Craig taught it to him.

Once when the Indians were playing Detroit, Morris said Ty Cobb couldn’t hit the splitter.
Morris said he’d seen old films of Cobb and could tell by the way the Georgia Peach held and swung the bat that he couldn’t hit the splitter. What Morris was really saying was that Cobb, the greatest Tiger in history, couldn’t hit him.

Morris liked to throw at Indians leadoff hitter Kenny Lofton’s legs. After one particular game, in which Morris made Lofton dance for much of the afternoon, Tribe manager Mike Hargrove expressed his displeasure to reporters.

When the reporters relayed the information to Morris, he growled, “Tell Mike those are sliders. The same sliders he couldn’t hit when he faced me.”

In short, he was just what every manager wanted from a No. 1 starter — snappish, mean and talented.

Morris started 14 opening days and at one point made 500 consecutive starts without missing a turn in the rotation. He was on the disabled list twice in an 18-year career.

He won 162 games in the 1980s, the most by any pitcher.

He threw a no-hitter against Chicago on April 7, 1984. From 1979 through 1992, according to ESPN’s Jayson Stark, Morris won 233 games compared to Nolan Ryan’s 168 when both men were in their prime.

Ryan is in the Hall of Fame.

Morris is still on the outside looking in.

The Indians signed Morris in 1994 for their first year at Jacobs Field. They were looking for veterans to season a young team that would dominate the AL Central for the next seven years.

Morris still had his temper and splitter, but he was 39. He’d injured his right shoulder in 1993 with Toronto and the end was near.

During a tight spot in one game, second baseman Carlos Baerga came in to check on Morris at the mound.

“What do you want?” snapped Morris. “Get back to second base.”

It soon became clear that Morris had other things on his mind besides baseball. Catcher Sandy Alomar Jr., went to the mound once to see what was bothering him. Morris was crying because his girlfriend had broken up with him.

He started leaving the team between starts so he could help get the wheat harvested on his farm in Montana. Management tolerated it for a while, but Morris’ conditioning and performance suffered.

“Hey, it’s crunch time on the farm,” said Morris.

To which Hargrove replied, “It’s crunch time here, too.”

The Indians released Morris on Aug. 10, 1994. He won 10 games that season, his last in the big leagues.

Rickey being Rickey in LF

Rickey being Rickey in LF
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter

The most vivid memory I have of Rickey Henderson, the best left fielder I've ever seen, had nothing to do with what made him fa mous. Henderson, the best leadoff hitter to ever work a count, stole more bases and scored more runs than any player in history.

My clearest Rickey moment came at the Rogers Centre, then called SkyDome in Toronto. Henderson was batting leadoff against the Indians.

On this particular day, he was facing Jose Mesa. How old is the memory? It was 1993 and Mesa, two years away from becoming the closer that wrapped Cleveland in his arms before breaking its heart, was still a starter.

It was an afternoon game, the SkyDome roof was open and Henderson was taking his time getting into the batter's box. Mesa fumed while he waited. Before it all turned bad for Mesa in Cleveland, he was a decent guy with a sense of humor.

On the mound, he tended toward snappishness.

When Henderson finally stepped into the box, after much gyrating, digging and adjusting, Mesa sent him ankles over elbows with his first pitch of the afternoon. It was the best knockdown pitch I've seen, and nothing happened.

Henderson got up and stepped back in the box without protest. The umpire didn't give a warning, and Mesa continued pitching.

A future Hall of Famer had just been flipped like a baseball card in the wind, and the game continued without a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Things have changed since then.

Henderson played from 1979 to 2003. He came to the big leagues with Oakland at 20. He retired with the Dodgers at 44.

I saw a lot him because he spent most of his career in the American League. He looked cool and played cool.

When Henderson hit a home run, he'd take the big Cadillac turn around first base, running sideways for a while. I remember him wearing wrap-around sunglasses when he stole bases. He looked like Robocop sliding head-first into the bag.

Henderson's game was a constant battle between substance and flash.

On routine fly balls, he'd position himself under the ball, but wouldn't just catch it. He'd snatch it out of the air, crisscrossing his arms in the process like a man on a deserted island desperately signaling a low-flying plane.

He called it the snatch catch.

Secretly, I always hoped he'd drop one. If he did, I never saw it.

Henderson, built like an NFL tailback, hit out of a crouch. Jim Murray, the Hall of Fame columnist for the Los Angeles Times, said the crouch reduced Henderson's strike zone to the "size of Hitler's heart." Now that's a line that will get you into Cooperstown.

The small strike zone, and a good eye, helped Henderson draw the second-most walks in history at 2,190. He held the record when he retired, but was passed by Barry Bonds when the National League started walking Bonds three and four times per game. Henderson held his speed. He set the major-league record with 130 steals in 1982. Sixteen years later, he stole 66 bases for the A's in 1998. Henderson, born on Christmas Day, was 39.

Baseball is filled with unwritten rules. When it comes to base stealing, it's not polite to steal when you have a big lead or to pad your own stats. Henderson never worried about such things.

No one steals 1,406 bases by following protocol. On May 1, 1982, at Cleveland Stadium, the Indians had to put utility infielder Mike Fischlin behind the plate late in the game. Henderson stole second and third against the overmatched Fischlin in an 8-2 Oakland victory. It probably wasn't Henderson's greatest moment, but it was, in one of his favorite sayings, "Rickey being Rickey."

The Best I've Ever Seen: DH Frank Thomas

The Best I've Ever Seen: DH Frank Thomas
Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Big Hurt doesn't cause as much pain as he once did. He's looked every bit

of 39 years old this season while making his way around the bases in an ex aggerated hop, skip and jump for Toronto. It's the best he can do on a surgically repaired left ankle that will ache for the rest of his life.

Running never paid the bills for Frank Thomas. Hitting still does.

He's the best designated hitter I've ever seen because of that. Thomas spent his first 16 seasons with the Chicago White Sox. When he stepped into the batter's box at U.S. Cellular Field, it reminded me of the Sears Tower in downtown Chicago with a bat in its hands.

Thomas wasn't quite 110 stories tall, but at 6-5 and pushing 280 pounds, he was plenty big enough.

Former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn installed the DH in the American League in 1973 to put muscle and runs back in a pitching-dominated game. Kuhn probably had a hitter like Thomas in mind when he did it.

Nobody starts out as a DH. Players either get thrown into the job when they're young while management tries to create an opening for them elsewhere, or they back into it because of injury or age.

Then again, maybe they just can't catch the baseball.

In 1991, Thomas' first full season in the big leagues, he was Chicago's regular DH. He soon moved to first base and won consecutive AL MVP awards in 1993 and 1994. By 1998, Thomas was the White Sox's regular DH.

Thomas went into this weekend with 1,240 games at DH and 971 at first base.

DHs come in all shapes and sizes.

Edgar Martinez, regarded by some as the best DH ever, wasn't a big man at 5-11 and 210 pounds. A third baseman by trade, Martinez played 1,412 games at DH for Seattle. Over 18 seasons, he hit .312 with 309 homers and 2,247 hits.

Paul Molitor, 6-0, 185, came from the same mold. Molitor, the first Hall of Famer to play more games at DH than any other position, ended his career with 3,319 hits and 234 homers. Molitor appeared in 1,174 games at DH.
When I think of the DH, I think of power, not singles.

Guys like Thomas, David Ortiz, Andre Thornton, Travis Hafner, Don Baylor and Cecil Fielder are my idea of a DH - big guys who can dent a baseball and carry a team. General managers can move hitters like that into the middle of the lineup and not worry about them for the next five years.

Thomas certainly has that kind of power. On June 29, he became the 21st player to hit 500 homers. Through Friday he was at 513 and counting.

"I'm going to stick around until I hit 600," he told Toronto reporters in June.

Thomas brings more to the plate than a big swing. He has great knowledge of his strike zone, which makes him even more dangerous. Thomas has walked 100 or more times in 10 seasons, while striking out 100 or more times in just three seasons.

In Chicago, his managers used to get mad at him. They wanted him to be more aggressive, but he knew what worked for him.

Thomas has a career .303 batting average, .421 on-base percentage and .561 slugging percentage.

When Thomas was at his peak, the White Sox went to the postseason once, getting swept by Seattle in the 2000 division series. In 2005, when Chicago won the World Series, Thomas spent most of the season on the disabled list because of an ankle injury.

It was suggested the reason the White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 was because Thomas' prickly personality was no longer at the center of the clubhouse.

Be that as it may, when Thomas left the club after that year to sign with Oakland, he did so as best hitter in White Sox history. He's the franchise leader in homers, RBI, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

For Paul Hoynes, Tigers' Ivan Rodriguez is best catcher he's seen
Sunday, August 26, 2007Paul HoynesPlain Dealer Reporter
The best catcher I've ever seen was not happy.

Jack Morris had just hit Ivan Rodriguez on the wrist with a pitch in a game between the Indians and Texas in 1994. Rodriguez, plotting revenge, slid hard into second base on a force play in the same inning. He was out, but he took out shortstop Omar Vizquel with a knee injury on a slide meant to injure.

After the game, manager Mike Hargrove was seething. When a reporter asked about Rodriguez's slide, Hargrove threw a paper cup full of pop and ice out his office door and into a wall across the hallway. The brown pop slid down the white wall as Hargrove raved.

Not only was Hargrove mad at Rodriguez for putting Vizquel on the disabled list, he was upset at reliever Jose Mesa for not hitting Rodriguez later in the game. Looking back, could the Mesa-Vizquel feud been blooming even then?

Rodriguez, however, paid a price.

Whenever the two teams played in the wake of Vizquel's injury, Rodriguez was hit by an Indians pitcher. He accepted it.

Finally, Charles Nagy hit him during a game in Cleveland and Rodriguez spread his hands, as if to say, "Has my bill been paid?"

The Indians didn't hit Rodriguez again, at least not intentionally.

Catching is a contact job. The ball can thud into your mitt between 100 and 200 times a game. Foul tips, wild pitches, stray bats and base runners collide with your body.

There are freak injuries. Sandy Alomar Jr. twice split the webbing on his throwing hand trying to catch Tom Candiotti's knuckleball. A hitter's backswing once broke his cheekbone
Contact and pain become second nature. Some catchers even like it.

Rodriguez may have that kind of streak running through him because it defined his best game.

In Game 4 of the National League division series in 2003 between Florida and San Francisco, with the score tied, 5-5, in the eighth inning, Rodriguez collided with Giants catcher Yorvit Torrealba while trying to score on a Miguel Cabrera single. Rodriguez knocked the ball loose from Torrealba, allowing himself and Derrek Lee to score for a 7-5 lead.

In the ninth, after the Giants made it 7-6 with two outs, Jeffrey Hammonds sent a soft single to left field with J.T. Snow on second base. Jeff Conine made a one-hop throw to Rodriguez. He buried the ball in his glove as Snow crashed into him.

Rodriguez held on, Snow was out and the Marlins eliminated the Giants to move onto the National League Championship Series and, eventually, a World Series title. Elias Sports Bureau said it was the only time in postseason history that the tying run was thrown out at the plate in a game-ending situation.

What better moment could a catcher have? A pitcher has a no-hitter. A power hitter has a four-homer game. A catcher, defining his craft, blocks the plate, saves the game, sends his team deeper into the postseason and rides off into the sunset.

Rodriguez hit .353 (6-for-17) with one homer and six RBI in the division series; .321 (9-for-28) with two homers and 10 RBI in the NLCS; and .273 (6-for-22) in the World Series that year.

He was 31, supposedly on the downside of his career after 12 seasons with Texas when he signed with the Marlins for one year. Teams wouldn't offer him a multiyear deal because they were afraid of the herniated disks in his back. The deal paid off.

Florida won its second World Series in six years and Rodriguez signed a $40 million contract with Detroit before the 2004 season. It seemed like strictly a money-driven move at the time, but Rodriguez was back in the World Series by 2006.

Rodriguez's game, even today at 35, is well- rounded. His arm, not as strong as when he could stop a running game with a mere glance to first base, is still dangerous. Offensively, he's no longer the AL MVP that he was in 1999, but he's still productive.

He calls a solid game and is as combative as ever behind the plate.

Rodriguez, like many players, has been tainted by steroid rumors. The rumors grew when he reported to spring training in 2005 significantly thinner than he'd been in the past. Rodriguez's body makeover coincided with MLB's stricter steroid-testing policy and being named as a steroid user in a book by former Rangers teammate Jose Canseco.

Did he or didn't he? The next time that question probably comes into play will be when Rodriguez becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame five years after his retirement.

Before the Johnny Bench e-mails start, please consider the parameters of this series. It is about the best players I've seen since I started covering the Indians in 1983. Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson always said that every conversation about the best catcher who ever lived should start and end with Bench.

Far be it from me to argue with Anderson, but here's my problem. Bench's last year was 1983, which was my first. So you can see why I took a different direction.

Former Cleveland Indians Manny Ramirez is the best right fielder Paul Hoynes ever saw
Sunday, July 15, 2007Paul Hoynes Plain Dealer Reporter

The face of the best right fielder I've ever seen was expressionless. On a table in the middle of the visitor's locker room at the Metrodome was his suitcase. It had been slashed over and over again with a knife.

The pale blue suitcase was old and worn, and Manny Ramirez brought it with him from the minors when the Indians called him up on Sept. 1, 1993. All around him was laughter from the veteran Indians, who made fun of the shy rookie and his ruined suitcase. It seemed cruel at the time -- and it still does -- remembering Ramirez's face.

He looked like a high school kid, trying to be brave, not far from tears. The suitcase was too old to buy. A suitcase like that comes from home.

On Sept. 2, 1993, Ramirez made his big-league debut as the Tribe's designated hitter. He went 0-for-4 against Kevin Tapani and Carl Willis in a 4-3 victory over the Twins. Willis is now the Indians pitching coach.

Why the harsh treatment on the day of his debut?

Maybe some of the veterans were afraid. They'd heard about Ramirez all season. When he finally arrived, he did so as Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year after hitting a combined .333 (163-for-489) with 31 homers and 115 RBI at Class AA Akron and Class AAA Charlotte.

They knew he'd come to take somebody's job.

The Indians roster was filled with Latin American players. Many of them had left home with the same kind of suitcase. It's doubtful any of them were ever welcomed to the big leagues like that, even if Ramirez did get a new suitcase out of the deal.

I know I never saw it happen to another Indians rookie.

The next day, the Indians opened a three-game series against the Yankees in the Bronx, not far from where Ramirez grew up in Washington Heights. A bobbing mass of people in the lower left field grandstand at Yankee Stadium came to greet one of their own. They never stopped gyrating or making noise. They carried signs and chanted as if they were at a soccer game
Ramirez did not disappoint them.

In his first at-bat, Ramirez hit a ground-rule double to left field off Melido Perez for his first big-league hit. In the sixth, he hit his first big-league homer, a two-run drive to right to knock Perez out of the game. In the eighth, he homered again, this time to left field off Paul Gibson.

Ramirez went 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBI in his second game. A career-long affinity for hitting the Yankees, especially at Yankee Stadium, was established.

Ramirez is a lifetime .315 (216-for-686) hitter against New York with 51 homers and 151 RBI. He's hitting.311 (112-for-360) with 26 homers and 72 RBI at Yankee Stadium.

I have seen a lot of great right fielders. If I hadn't picked Ramirez, it would have been Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels. Or maybe Tony Gwynn or Andre Dawson if I'd seen them in their prime.

Ramirez's prime sprung right in front of me. It was impossible to ignore.

Defensively, he certainly wasn't the most graceful right fielder, but he went to the gap and to the line much better than people think. He did not have a great arm, a Juan Gonzalez-type arm, but he almost always hit the cutoff man.

His mistakes became local punch lines. Ramirez did not hide from them.

After dropping a ball in right field one night, he pushed a big plastic laundry cart around the clubhouse the next day.

"Hey, Enrique," he shouted to teammate Enrique Wilson, "how do you like my new glove?"
There was the playoff game at Yankee Stadium, when he splattered himself against the outfield fence, back toward home plate, as if he was Spider Man climbing the fence in chase of an apparent home run by Derek Jeter. The ball hit just below Ramirez's right ankle, about three feet above the ground.

Ramirez, of course, never saw it coming.

In a regular-season game at Yankee Stadium, he gave chase into the right-field corner after a fly ball. While all eyes followed him into the corner, the ball fell about 20 feet behind him on the warning track.

All that was forgotten when Ramirez came to the plate. Everyday living might have sped past Ramirez unchecked, but at the plate, with a bat in his hands, everything slowed to his speed. He never seemed to take a bad swing, look off balance, argue with an umpire or toss his helmet in frustration.

Boos or bad calls didn't bother him because he belonged at the plate.

Charlie Manuel, former Indians hitting coach, once found Kevin Seitzer and Julio Franco working with Ramirez on hitting to right field. Manuel shooed them away as if they were naughty children. He didn't want singles hitters messing with one of baseball's smoothest and hard-earned power swings.

Ramirez, who homered in his final at-bat with the Indians in 2000, has spent the past seven years in Boston. To hear those close to the Red Sox talk, he has become strange and isolated - baseball's Howard Hughes. But I think he's still mostly a shy kid with a one-of-a-kind swing.

Ken Griffey Jr. is Paul's choice in center field

Ken Griffey Jr. is Paul's choice in center field
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter

He had long ago left the Great Northwest when I finally saw an Indians player hit a ball over the head of the best center fielder I've ever seen.

Ken Griffey Jr. was wearing Cincinnati red and white and years of injuries had turned his legs and hamstrings to shredded wheat. I can't remember the player who did it. I just remember that I'd never seen it before.

When Griffey played for the Seattle Mariners, under the concrete roof of the Kingdome, he caught everything. He had great speed and instincts going back on the ball for a 6-3, 228-pound man. He didn't play deep and there wasn't a center-field wall that scared him.

Griffey's left arm was strong and accurate. There were no humps in his throws to the bases, just a long fluid line, like a bullet train headed into Tokyo with the throttle wide open.

I always thought his throws should have come with a train whistle or a contrail. Runners trying to advance on fly balls to center did so at their own peril.

There are those who say the only reason Seattle still has a big-league club is because of Griffey. They made him the No. 1 pick in the country in 1987 out of Cincinnati Moeller High School.

Two years later, Griffey, all of 19, was in the big leagues to stay. When the Mariners made the postseason in 1995 for the first time in franchise history, Griffey was the center of their universe.

He had, and still has, a great swing. It's a lovely, left-handed swing complete with the upward tilt of a true power hitter. The right-field wall at the Kingdome, where Griffey played his best baseball, was 23-feet high and so close you felt like you could touch it from the press box. It was 357 feet from the plate to right center and 316 feet down the line.

The wall was painted pale blue with out-of-town scores displayed on it. Griffey used his lovely swing to hit homer after homer over that wall.

The dome's artificial turf was fast and worn. There always seemed to be a haze in the air and at times ceiling panels fell to the field. Griffey loved the place.

In one four-year stretch from 1996-99, he hit 209 homers. Here's the breakdown - 49 in '96, 56 in '97, 56 in '98 and 48 in '99.

Griffey spoke quietly, took batting practice wearing his cap backward and his spikes untied. He looked impossibly young and upset traditionalists with the ease in which he approached the game.

When the Mariners played the Indians, he seemed to spend more time on their side of the field than his own. He would talk to Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton and other players while they stretched near the batting cage. In one series at Jacobs Field, several hours before game time, Griffey spent a good 45 minutes in the Indians' locker room talking to players.

I've never seen another player do that before or since.

The Mariners moved out of the Kingdome and into Safeco Field on July 15, 1999.

Safeco Field, with its retractable roof and pitcher-friendly dimensions, was former manager Lou Piniella's dream. He had grown weary of the wild 10-7 games inside the Kingdome and longed for a bigger park that would reward pitching and defense as well as power.

It was not Griffey's favorite place. The heavy sea air settled into the park at night and killed his drives to right field.

The new park may have contributed to Griffey wanting out of Seattle. The Mariners' inability to pay him was a factor as well, which played a role in Randy Johnson being traded in 1998 and Alex Rodriguez becoming a free agent in 2000.

The Mariners traded Griffey to Cincinnati after the 1999 season for five players. He was home, back where his father played for the Big Red Machine, but injuries ravaged him during his prime years.

Griffey, 37, finally relented and moved to right field this year. The swing is still there and 600 homers are within reach this season.

If he had stayed healthy, it might be Griffey instead of Barry Bonds getting ready to break Hank Aaron's record this year. If not this year, he would have certainly been a threat to pass both Bonds and Aaron before retiring.

Vizquel has fun playing the game

Vizquel has fun playing the game
Sunday, April 22, 2007

I've tried not to be a homer in pick ing the best players I've seen while writing about the Indians and Major League Baseball since 1983. Two of my first three choices, Eddie Murray and Robbie Alomar, made stops in Cleveland but spent the majority of their careers elsewhere.

When it came to shortstop, however, I plead guilty. I picked Omar Vizquel, who spent 11 years with the Indians.

The shortstop position has been redefined during Vizquel's career. It started with Cal Ripken Jr., long before Vizquel became an Indian in 1994.

Then came three Ripken clones in Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra between 1994 and 1997. Like Ripken, they are tall, strong and hit home runs.

Vizquel is short, 5-9 at best, and has never hit more than 14 homers in a season. But I've never enjoyed watching a player more. Game after game, Vizquel did it better, and smoother, than anyone else.

It is interesting to look back on the standard-bearers for the shortstop revolution. Ripken, who retired in 2001, will enter the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in July. Garciaparra, old and battered before his time, is playing first base for the Dodgers. Rodriguez, who started this season with 464 homers - Ripken hit 431 - is still trying to get the hang of third base for the Yankees.

Jeter and Vizquel are the only ones still playing short. If I hadn't picked Vizquel, I would have chosen Jeter. Born into the lap of Yankees luxury as a rookie in 1996, few play harder or better when there's a game to be won.

The thing I like most about Vizquel is that he never looks like he's working during a game. He's serious when he needs to be, but most of the time he's smiling like a kid playing ball in the back yard with his buddies.

One night in Kansas City four or five years ago, a limbo contest was being held in the stands between innings. The scoreboard cameras would pick out a fan, who would then try to bend under a digitally enhanced limbo stick. Then the camera found Vizquel fielding grounders at short. Vizquel, laughing, limboed under the stick as the fans cheered.

It was Vizquel's sense of fun that started his long-standing feud with former teammate Jose Mesa. One spring training, during an intrasquad game, Vizquel homered off Mesa and did a cartwheel across home plate. The fans at Chain of Lakes Park laughed and applauded, not knowing that a slow-burning fuse had been lit inside Mesa.

Former General Manager John Hart knew before anyone else what Vizquel would mean to the Indians teams that dominated the American League Central from 1995 through 2001. When he acquired Vizquel from Seattle after the 1993 season, Hart was so excited he made a special trip to Venezuela just to watch Vizquel play winter ball. It was as if Hart had to see Vizquel with his own eyes to confirm that he'd really been able to get him from Seattle for Felix Fermin and Reggie Jefferson.

Vizquel, who won a Gold Glove in Seattle in 1993, won eight more in Cleveland. After signing a three-year deal with San Francisco because the Indians wouldn't pick up his option, he became the oldest shortstop in history to win a Gold Glove in 2005. He topped himself in 2006 by going gold again.

In Cleveland, Vizquel made catching a baseball look easy.

Sometimes, when he was trying to catch a pop-up and the sun was in his eyes, he'd turn his back to the sun and the ball. With the sun blocked, he would catch the ball as it came over his shoulder.

Yankees scout Gene Michael watched Vizquel do that against the Yankees at Jacobs Field and marveled at his creativity.

The best thing I ever saw Vizquel do was in 1994 after he made three errors in a game. The defensive magician had failed in front of his new fans at Jacobs Field.

Vizquel answered every question from a mob of reporters after the game. Jim Thome, just getting started on being the Indians all-time home run leader, had the locker next to Vizquel's. He watched with his eyes and mouth wide open.

To this day Thome will tell you it's the reason he never ducks a question, good or bad, from the media. Thome figured that if a gold-plated shortstop can do it, so can he.

Royally good hitter
THIRD IN A SERIES
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter
The third basemen that made the biggest impression on me in 24 years of covering baseball were George Brett and Wade Boggs. Maybe it was because they both kissed home plate against the Indians.

On Sept. 29, 1993, a cold night at Kauffman Stadium, Brett singled in the eighth inning to tie the Indians, 2-2. It was his last at- bat in front of the hometown Kansas City fans. The Royals won the game in the ninth, 3-2, and after the winning run scored, Brett was given a ride around the ballpark in a golf cart to say goodbye to more than 31,000 fans.

When the cart reached home, Brett got out, dropped to his knees and kissed the plate.

Boggs became famous with the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, but he kissed home as a member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Aug. 7, 1999. Boggs, in the sixth inning of 15-10 Indians victory, homered off Chris Haney for his 3,000th hit. He's the only player in the 3,000-hit club to gain entry with a homer.

After stepping on the plate at Tropicana Field, Boggs went to the ground and kissed it. It was his third hit of the night, but just his second homer of the season. In the press box, they handed out cigars in plastic cylinders as mementos. I still have mine.

Brett and Boggs are each in the Hall of Fame. Brett, a left-handed hitter, won three batting titles and had 3,154 hits. Boggs, a left-handed hitter, won five batting titles and finished with 3,010 hits. I picked Brett as the best third basemen I've seen because he hit for more power at a traditional power position.

In 21 seasons, Brett hit 317 homers with 1,595 RBI. Boggs, in 18 seasons, hit 118 homers with 1,014 RBI. Brett was a .337 (56-for-166) hitter in the postseason. Boggs hit .273 (42-for-154) in the postseason.

Neither player was a great third baseman, but they worked at it.

Brett played 1,692 games at third, but spent a lot of time at first base (461 games) and designated hitter (506 games), starting in the middle of his career. Boggs stayed on the hot corner much longer, playing 2,215 games there.

A couple of hours before Brett's last game, he was interviewed by several reporters. He was asked how he'd like the last at-bat of his career to go.

The answer still makes me smile.

My impression of Brett was that he was a Cadillac kind of ballplayer: big head, big home runs, big headlines and big money. He played ornery and always needed a shave.

Brett's answer showed another side of him.

"I'd probably like it to be a ground ball to second base," he said. "I've had over 10,000 at-bats, and I figured I've grounded out to second about 5,000 times.

"A double wouldn't be bad. A homer wouldn't be bad. But a ground ball to second would be perfect. Then I could run like crazy to try and beat the throw to first."

Brett, 40 at the time, was still talking like the hustling rookie whom hitting coach Charlie Lau took under his wing in 1974.

His final at-bat didn't follow Brett's script. The Royals ended the season against the Texas Rangers at old Arlington Stadium on Oct. 3, 1993.

When Brett came to the plate for the last time after going hitless in his first three at- bats, Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez told him that Tom Henke was going to throw him nothing but fastballs. Brett singled through the middle on a 1-2 pitch and scored on Gary Gaetti's homer.

"It was the most emotional at-bat I've ever had," Brett told Kansas City reporters. "I knew it was my last one. I could have played one more year but, if I'd played one more year, I'd have played for the money, and the game didn't deserve that."

Alomar pouted, but could play

Alomar pouted, but could play
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter

Lou Whitaker was the first second base man I saw turn a real big-league double play. It happened on a Sunday afternoon at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium late in a game the Indians were threatening to win.

Whitaker, with runners on first and second base and one out, took a throw from shortstop Alan Trammell. With almost no movement, and his back toward the runner bearing down on him, he stepped on second, pushed himself into the air and became a tiny tornado, twisting above the base before making a throw to first to end the inning.

Doc Edwards, who managed the Indians at the time, pointed out the play after the game. I'd never seen any of his Indians do it because they couldn't.

In a season, outs can look the same game after game. When they are made differently, when someone swerves left instead of right, it leaves an imprint.

In 1983, my first year on the beat, the Indians acquired veteran second baseman Manny Trillo from Philadelphia as part of the Von Hayes trade. Trillo, who'd won three Gold Gloves with the Phillies, did not want to be an Indian and played like it.

He still had his moments.

In a Cactus League game at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Ariz., with a runner on second and one out, Trillo moved in a couple of steps and motioned to Toby Harrah to move closer to third base. On cue, the next batter sent a sharp grounder to Trillo. He could have gone to first for the easy out, but instead he went to third. The runner was out by 15 feet.

Whitaker's double play and Trillo's throw to third -- a play I have not seen since -- were my two best memories of second base play until the Indians signed Robbie Alomar as a free agent before the 1999 season. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the best second baseman I've seen.

His duels against the Tribe's Carlos Baerga -- the two Puerto Rican second basemen competed for supremacy of their island every time they played -- were riveting. I saw Alomar help Toronto win consecutive World Series in 1992 and 1993. I saw him spit in umpire John Hirschbeck's face on Sept. 27, 1996, when he played for Baltimore. Alomar then helped the Orioles upset the Indians in the first round of the postseason even though Cleveland fans believed he should have been suspended for the spitting incident.

But nothing prepared me for watching Alomar every day for three years. Not only did he have the ability to do everything required of a baseball player, he actually did it. Here are his Cleveland stats:

1999: .323 batting average, 24 homers, 120 RBI, 138 runs, 37 steals

2000: .310, 19 homers, 89 RBI, 111 runs, 39 steals.

2001: .336, 20 homers, 100 RBI, 113 runs, 30 steals.

1999-2001: Won three straight Gold Gloves.

Alomar could have won the AL MVP award in each of those years. He might have been the best all-around player in baseball in that time frame.

Yet he never seemed happy. He wore a rosary around his neck and had a picture of the Virgin Mary in his locker. He was moody and petulant and, like everyone else, loved to second-guess the manager.

When the opposition pushed Alomar off the plate or knocked him down, he complained to reporters that his manager and teammates weren't protecting him. When Indians reliever Steve Karsay hit one of the Cincinnati Reds in retaliation for Alomar getting hit, he complained that Karsay didn't hit the other player hard enough. It sparked a locker-room argument between Alomar and his older brother, Sandy.

Alomar and shortstop Omar Vizquel, two of the best defenders of their era, worked in frosty perfection on the field. Off the field, they barely spoke.

Was Robbie Alomar a spoiled brat in the clubhouse? Perhaps. A close second to perfection at second base? Definitely.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

phoynes@plaind.com, 216-999-5158.

Best Indians second baseman (after Robbie Alomar) -- Carlos Baerga.

Best of the rest: Frank White, Lou Whitaker, Ryne Sandberg, Craig Biggio, Willie Randolph, Bobby Grich, Jeff Kent, Chuck Knoblauch, Alfonso Soriano.

Eddie was steady first baseman

Eddie was steady first baseman
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter

My favorite memory of the best first baseman I've seen in 24 years of covering the Indians and Major League Baseball came one spring training in Winter Haven, Fla. While his teammates were sweating under a late February sun, taking batting practice against pitchers for one of the first times since the end of the previous season, Eddie Murray stood behind the cage studying the path of each pitch.

Hitters hate the first few days of BP. The pitchers always have the advantage because they've been in camp a week longer. A hitter's day, in that situation, consists of bad swings, broken bats and avoiding getting hit in the head by some wild-armed, spring-training invitee trying to impress the manager.

Murray, well on his way to the Hall of Fame by that time, knew this. Which is why, along with his seniority, he was excused from the first few days of "live" BP.

When asked when he would start swinging the bat, Murray, showing eloquence, said, "There shall be no wine before its time."

Murray didn't play a lot of first base during his stay with the Indians from 1994 until he was traded in 1996. He was used mostly as a DH, but the man knew what to do with a glove.

He played 2,413 games at first, more games than anyone in history. He wasn't as flashy as contemporary Don Mattingly, who won nine Gold Gloves, but he was more durable and productive.

Murray was nicknamed Steady Eddie during the first 12 years of his career in Baltimore. The yearly numbers were usually just short of flashy, but after 21 seasons, the totals were staggering. Murray, who never hit more than 33 homers or drove in more than 124 runs in a year, became just the third man in history to hit over 500 homers and 3,000 hits when he retired.

Willie Mays and Hank Aaron are the other two.

He drove in 1,917 runs, the most by a switch-hitter, and went to eight All-Star games.

Murray did not like reporters. He spent most of his career in a cold war with them. When he did talk, his words and opinions were enlightening. It just didn't happen enough.

It did not stop him from being a first ballot Hall of Famer because his numbers could not be ignored.

Murray treated teammates and clubhouse staff warmly. At first base, he never shut up when an opposing runner reached base. And he took terrible batting practice.

Hitters as big and strong as the 6-2, 220-pound Murray like to show off in BP. They try to see how far they can hit every pitch. Murray practiced jam shots and flares. He knew he could hit a 65 mph fastball from bullpen coach Luis Isaac out of the park, but he didn't know if he could take that same pitch and dump it 15 feet over the second baseman's head.

It's one of the reasons he finished his career with 3,255 hits.

Murray gave the emerging Indians of the mid-1990s legitimacy. He was one of the few people in the organization not intimidated by Albert Belle. After Belle hit 50 homers and 52 doubles in 1995, he wrote 50-50 on the back of his baseball shoes.

"What's that," asked Murray, "your I.Q.?"

Murray reached 3,000 hits on June 30, 1995 against Minnesota on a single through the right side of the infield. Belle, on second base, stopped at third.

Years after the hit, Murray, the Tribe's hitting coach at the time, was asked what he remembered about the historic hit.

"Albert should have scored," said Murray.

To reach this Plain Dealer Reporter:

phoynesplaind.com, 216-999-5158.

Death by Blunt Instrument

Plenty of off-season decisions await Indians GM Mark Shapiro
Thursday, October 25, 2007Bud ShawPlain Dealer Columnist

Ride it out with C.C. Sabathia or seek to trade him? Baseball post-mortems really are a relaxing, fun time for baseball’s general managers. It’s surprising they don’t enter wearing their pajamas and carrying a tub of popcorn.

Mark Shapiro got roughly 72 hours to come to grips with his disappointment before having to measure his anxiety.

Shapiro said Wednesday the team would address Sabathia’s contract status “sooner than later,” meaning before spring training. But, he said, his inclination if the two sides can’t agree on a new deal is to put the best team possible on the field in 2008, which is difficult to imagine doing without Sabathia.

“He’s been extremely consistent and extremely strong in wanting to be part of this team and part of this community,” Shapiro said Wednesday. “The only question there’s ever been, understanding the magnitude of his success and what it means in a free-agent environment, is there a business deal that makes sense for both him and our ownership that can be struck?”

No small question, that. Sort of like, “What’s the meaning of life?”

Sabathia is entering the final year of his contract. Shapiro thinks it’s “possible” to keep him but it will require “some push” on both ends.

It’s rolling a boulder up a mountain.

But even if they’re far apart when spring training rolls around, I’d keep Sabathia, too. Unless this team is looking up to Kansas City at the trade deadline, you’d keep him until the end and hope it’s not a bitter end.

He will probably win the Cy Young Award over Josh Beckett, since voting concluded before the postseason began. His playoff performance aside, it’s not as if the 2008 season can make him much more marketable than he is today.

- You can’t say he hardly knew Kenny Lofton. But don’t expect him back for a 17th time. Or is it 18? Shapiro wasn’t ready Wednesday to discuss personnel decisions. Lofton, a free agent, gave the Indians exactly what they hoped he’d give them. That did not include a lot of run production, which also wasn’t a surprise.

Corner outfielders are usually prime run producers on a baseball team. At age 40, Lofton certainly isn’t one. The Indians have David Dellucci and Jason Michaels signed.

But even if they didn’t, they’d want a bigger bat in left field.

The Indians won’t miss Lofton anywhere near as much as the fans will.

The Indians have 10 days after the end of the World Series to pick up Paul Byrd’s option. The same goes for Joe Borowski and Aaron Fultz, but Byrd is the tougher call. The league’s interest in talking to him about the HGH issue probably won’t amount to much. HGH is banned in baseball. But they don’t test for it. (Now, there’s a deterrent).

So unless Byrd admits he’s still using it, I don’t see a suspension coming down.

Byrd’s story is sketchy to say the least. But he also won 15 games and along with Jake Westbrook at least gave the Indians two pitchers willing to challenge hitters.

- Was Travis Hafner hurt? That would explain a few things. “No,” said Shapiro. “I think pressure maybe — again it goes back to how much he cares — some of the pressure he feels, he carries that weight with him. He’s a resident of this city. He wants great things for this team and these fans.”

One theory died this season.

Remember early in the year when you wondered if the absence of a long-term deal was affecting Hafner? Not so much.

- Josh Barfield is the one we hardly knew.

“It’s difficult for me to see a team next year that doesn’t have Asdrubal Cabrera playing a significant role on it,” Shapiro said.

And then: “[Cabrera] won’t play shortstop. Jhonny Peralta is our shortstop next year.”

Barfield was overmatched in his first year in the American League. That could change, but he didn’t exactly come close to tearing up the National League either.
- Asked to venture a guess at the 2008 rotation, Shapiro didn’t hesitate . . . after the first three names anyway. Sabathia, Carmona and Westbrook.

The other two will come from a group including Byrd, Cliff Lee, Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey.

Shapiro talked of Lee failing to “make adjustments” early this season as the reason for his demotion.

When the Indians talk about Lee, you get the idea it’s not the strike zone that worries them but the zone between his ears.

- The HGH story was not a distraction that cost the Indians the series. Shapiro called it an issue for him and Byrd, nobody else. He’s right. When you lose, 11-2, and are outscored, 30-5, over the last three games, there’s nothing subtle about it. The autopsy shows death by blunt instrument.

Tribe shouldn't shy away from improving lineup

Tribe shouldn't shy away from improving lineup,
writes columnist Terry Pluto
Friday, October 26, 2007

Mark Shapiro said he'd feel good about the Indians coming back with the same team as it had in 2007. That's no surprise, as most general managers would take that stance after a team overachieves by winning 96 games, beating New York in the playoffs and coming within one game of the World Series.

But Shapiro and assistant Chris Antonetti know the Indians need a left fielder with power. The Indians should have learned the cut-and-paste-and-pray approach doesn't work after watching the platoon of Dave Dellucci, Jason Michaels and later Kenny Lofton.

Lost in the Tribe's march to the playoffs was that they were 10th in the American League in runs scored in the second half of the season. They conquered the Central Division primarily because their 3.56 ERA was the lowest in the league after the All-Star break.


Modern baseball people love a statistic called OPS: on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. The Indians consider on-base percentage to be the most critical number.

Slugging percentage reveals a player's ability to hit for power, not just homers - but also doubles and triples.

The average big leaguer had an OPS of .760 in 2007; anything over .900 is outstanding.

In 2007, the average American League left fielder had a .758 OPS. The Indians were a dismal .719. Here's a quick left field breakdown: Kenny Lofton (.714), Jason Michaels (.721) and Dave Dellucci (.678). If you add together their homers (11) and RBI (74), you still don't get much.

The Indians do have Franklin Gutierrez and Ben Francisco, but let them handle right field. Try to deal for a left fielder. The Indians have players to trade. Cliff Lee (5-8, 6.29) is only 30 and from 2004 to 2006 he won 46 games. He's left-handed and signed through 2010. It would not be surprising if he came back to pitch effectively, but with the Indians he appears to have fallen behind Aaron Laffey and possibly Jeremy Sowers for the fifth starter's spot.

Other possibilities would be Josh Barfield, who lost his second base job to Asdrubal Cabrera. Shapiro insists Jhonny Peralta "will be our shortstop next year," but if a deal is big enough, the Indians should consider moving Peralta and Lee. They can play Cabrera at his natural shortstop position while giving Barfield another shot at second base. Barfield is only 24 and a career .301 hitter in the minors. He batted .280 as a rookie with San Diego in 2006 before falling to .243 this season.

While some fans have been begging for the Indians to deal for Carl Crawford (.315, 80 RBI, 50 steals), a better possibility may be Jason Bay, who averaged 33 homers and 105 RBI while hitting .296 for Pittsburgh in 2005-06. He also has a reasonable contract, with two years and $13 million remaining.

Bay was hitting .310 at the end of May, then .209 in the final four months. He's had some knee problems, and that may have been the reason for his decline. But even his subpar numbers of 21 homers, 84 RBI and .244 were more than the Tribe has been getting from left field the last two years.

At 29, Bay should be capable of a comeback. New Pirates GM Neal Huntington (a former Tribe assistant) will want a lot in return. But the Indians should talk to him, and keep the phones busy as they pursue one more big bat

Let's not forget success of season for Tribe

Let's not forget success of season for Tribe
Indians' win in ALCS just not meant to be
Published on Tuesday, Oct 23, 2007


BOSTON: The doorman at the Courtyard just off Boston Common heard I was heading back to Cleveland. He yelled down the street to have me stop.

''Hey now,'' he said. ''I tell you what. That team of yours has a bunch of great young players. They'll be back.''

He's right, of course.

Any team that wins 96 games and comes within a win of the World Series has had an outstanding season. And when that team has its core of players back the following year, it must be considered a favorite, especially if you figure General Manager Mark Shapiro continues his magic and improves the team in the offseason.

But these are Cleveland teams, after all, and it's so easy to forget next year for another day and wallow in the mire of what-could-have-beens in this year.

Add them all up it's not as difficult as adding up the runs the Indians gave up in the final three games and it's evident winning the American League Championship Series was not meant to happen.

Start with C.C. Sabathia failing to win Game 5 at home. Continue with Grady Sizemore's leadoff home run in Game 6 being called foul. Or the home-plate umpire squeezing Fausto Carmona. Or J.D. Drew's grand slam, the Boston Red Sox's version of Bucky Dent's hit from nowhere.

Go to the first inning of Game 7. Jhonny Peralta had Manny Ramirez's hard grounder lined up for a double play. Except the ball hit the lip of the infield and bounced over Peralta's head.

That's how the Red Sox got their first run, on a bad-hop double-play ball.

Then there's Kenny Lofton, the guy the fans wanted so badly to be the star.

Twice, things were lined up for that to happen.

But Lofton was called out at second in the fifth inning on a ball he hit off the wall. He sure looked safe. He said he was safe. For some reason, an umpire a couple of feet away staring right at the play said he wasn't.

Then Lofton was at second in the seventh thanks to a dropped popup by the immortal Julio Lugo, Boston's $9 million shortstop. Franklin Gutierrez grounded one over the bag at third, and third-base coach Joel Skinner held Lofton because of the quirkiness of Fenway Park.

Skinner said after the game that he's watching the shortstop because he's well aware a carom in the left-field corner can go back toward the infield. When Skinner saw the immortal one, the $9 million shortstop, go out to left, he held Lofton.

Yes, he should have sent him home.

Odds were good the game would have been tied.

Manny Ramirez might not have even thrown home.

This Indians moment was Brian Sipe at old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland seeing the safety take a jab step to Dave Logan and Sipe throwing to Ozzie Newsome with the ball winding up in the hands of safety Mike Davis, a guy who couldn't catch a cold at any other time in his career.

Skinner looked at the shortstop and held Lofton. The ball rolled into the outfield.

Instead of being the spark plug who ran the Indians into a tie, Lofton was the sad figure who talked about what could have been.

Then there was Ryan Garko, who hit a blast to center field in the eighth with two on.

This ball was tagged, but it was tagged to the wrong part of the park, and Brook Jacoby Ellsbury was able to track it down.

Ten feet to the right, and the game is tied.

Then there's Casey Blake, who sent a blast to a similar spot in center field for the game's final out except deeper. Coco Crisp ran it down, which led Jonathan Papelbon to throw his glove in the air.

What you wondered with Blake's blast was where it was in the seventh, when he swung at the first pitch and hit into an inning-ending double play with Lofton on third.

A fly ball there scores a run, and the game is tied. Blake, one of the most patient hitters on the team, swung at the first pitch against a guy who was close to being rattled. End of inning.

So it goes with Cleveland sports teams.

They say there's no crying in baseball, but the World Series of 1997 proved there is no God, either. Not with Craig Counsel and Edgar Renteria coming up with crushing hits and runs.

This series, when the Indians were ahead 3-1 and playing at home to go to the World Series, confirms that absence of a higher power.

This doorman at the Courtyard didn't know that when he continued speaking.

''Those guys are young, and now they've been through it,'' he said. ''They'll know how to handle it next time and they'll do better.''

Once again, from a doorman comes wisdom.

Experience will help the Indians and maybe the pitchers won't give up 30 runs the last three games of a series.

By any objective measure this was a successful season, one to remember and of which to be proud. Let's not forget that these Indians were not predicted by many to win the AL Central.

Had someone lined any of us up in April and said, ''You'll beat the New York Yankees in the AL Division Series, then take the Red Sox to seven in the ALCS,'' most of us would have been happy.

So while we lament the things that could have been, let's still try to take a step back and appreciate a season that was special.

And try not to think that with a few breaks, it could have been a little bit more special.

In the late hours of a New England evening Sunday, fans who jammed the city's public transportation system were high-fiving each other. Riders on the MBTA sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game and airport shuttle buses Monday morning had ''Go Sox'' on the scroll.

Someday, somehow, some way those kind of things will happen in Cleveland.

It might happen with this team and this group of players.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.

BOSTON: The doorman at the Courtyard just off Boston Common heard I was heading back to Cleveland. He yelled down the street to have me stop.

''Hey now,'' he said. ''I tell you what. That team of yours has a bunch of great young players. They'll be back.''

He's right, of course.

Any team that wins 96 games and comes within a win of the World Series has had an outstanding season. And when that team has its core of players back the following year, it must be considered a favorite, especially if you figure General Manager Mark Shapiro continues his magic and improves the team in the offseason.

But these are Cleveland teams, after all, and it's so easy to forget next year for another day and wallow in the mire of what-could-have-beens in this year.

Add them all up it's not as difficult as adding up the runs the Indians gave up in the final three games and it's evident winning the American League Championship Series was not meant to happen.

Start with C.C. Sabathia failing to win Game 5 at home. Continue with Grady Sizemore's leadoff home run in Game 6 being called foul. Or the home-plate umpire squeezing Fausto Carmona. Or J.D. Drew's grand slam, the Boston Red Sox's version of Bucky Dent's hit from nowhere.

Go to the first inning of Game 7. Jhonny Peralta had Manny Ramirez's hard grounder lined up for a double play. Except the ball hit the lip of the infield and bounced over Peralta's head.

That's how the Red Sox got their first run, on a bad-hop double-play ball.

Then there's Kenny Lofton, the guy the fans wanted so badly to be the star.

Twice, things were lined up for that to happen.

But Lofton was called out at second in the fifth inning on a ball he hit off the wall. He sure looked safe. He said he was safe. For some reason, an umpire a couple of feet away staring right at the play said he wasn't.

Then Lofton was at second in the seventh thanks to a dropped popup by the immortal Julio Lugo, Boston's $9 million shortstop. Franklin Gutierrez grounded one over the bag at third, and third-base coach Joel Skinner held Lofton because of the quirkiness of Fenway Park.

Skinner said after the game that he's watching the shortstop because he's well aware a carom in the left-field corner can go back toward the infield. When Skinner saw the immortal one, the $9 million shortstop, go out to left, he held Lofton.

Yes, he should have sent him home.
Odds were good the game would have been tied.

Manny Ramirez might not have even thrown home.

This Indians moment was Brian Sipe at old Municipal Stadium in Cleveland seeing the safety take a jab step to Dave Logan and Sipe throwing to Ozzie Newsome with the ball winding up in the hands of safety Mike Davis, a guy who couldn't catch a cold at any other time in his career.

Skinner looked at the shortstop and held Lofton. The ball rolled into the outfield.

Instead of being the spark plug who ran the Indians into a tie, Lofton was the sad figure who talked about what could have been.

Then there was Ryan Garko, who hit a blast to center field in the eighth with two on.

This ball was tagged, but it was tagged to the wrong part of the park, and Brook Jacoby Ellsbury was able to track it down.

Ten feet to the right, and the game is tied.

Then there's Casey Blake, who sent a blast to a similar spot in center field for the game's final out except deeper. Coco Crisp ran it down, which led Jonathan Papelbon to throw his glove in the air.

What you wondered with Blake's blast was where it was in the seventh, when he swung at the first pitch and hit into an inning-ending double play with Lofton on third.

A fly ball there scores a run, and the game is tied. Blake, one of the most patient hitters on the team, swung at the first pitch against a guy who was close to being rattled. End of inning.

So it goes with Cleveland sports teams.

They say there's no crying in baseball, but the World Series of 1997 proved there is no God, either. Not with Craig Counsel and Edgar Renteria coming up with crushing hits and runs.

This series, when the Indians were ahead 3-1 and playing at home to go to the World Series, confirms that absence of a higher power.

This doorman at the Courtyard didn't know that when he continued speaking.
''Those guys are young, and now they've been through it,'' he said. ''They'll know how to handle it next time and they'll do better.''

Once again, from a doorman comes wisdom.

Experience will help the Indians and maybe the pitchers won't give up 30 runs the last three games of a series.

By any objective measure this was a successful season, one to remember and of which to be proud. Let's not forget that these Indians were not predicted by many to win the AL Central.

Had someone lined any of us up in April and said, ''You'll beat the New York Yankees in the AL Division Series, then take the Red Sox to seven in the ALCS,'' most of us would have been happy.

So while we lament the things that could have been, let's still try to take a step back and appreciate a season that was special.

And try not to think that with a few breaks, it could have been a little bit more special.

In the late hours of a New England evening Sunday, fans who jammed the city's public transportation system were high-fiving each other. Riders on the MBTA sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game and airport shuttle buses Monday morning had ''Go Sox'' on the scroll.

Someday, somehow, some way those kind of things will happen in Cleveland.

It might happen with this team and this group of players.

Some Cleveland Indians' contracts are up

Some Cleveland Indians' contracts are up
Tuesday, October 23, 2007Jodie Valade
Plain Dealer Reporter

As his Indians teammates packed up boxes and cleaned out their lockers Monday at Jacobs Field, pitcher C.C. Sabathia strolled up to outfielder Trot Nixon. He swiped Nixon's jersey off a hanger in his locker, handed the outfielder a pen and demanded he sign the back of the uniform.

Sabathia added the signed jersey to his collection, folding the jersey in a box that contained all the autographed memorabilia he has snared this season. He had to ask for Nixon's contribution Monday because Sabathia only collects jerseys from his favorite players - and he wasn't sure when he will see Nixon again.

Nixon is one of a handful of Indians whose contract is up and might not be back next season. Even though the outfielder injected the team with his jovial nature and brash experience in the locker room - as well as invented the postgame pie-in-the-face tradition - he hit .251 while yielding increasing time in right field to promising newcomer Franklin Gutierrez. Nixon declined to speak to reporters Monday.

Kenny Lofton, who was so embraced in his return to the Indians, faces an uncertain future, too. Again. The 40-year-old Lofton has played for eight teams since leaving the Indians the second time in 2002.

"It's not on me," Lofton said. "The situation is never on me. If it was up to me the last eight years, I wouldn't have been in all those different places."

Lofton said of his return to the Tribe: "It was awesome. It was a great experience. The fans get behind you during this time of year. It was awesome."

More uncertainties:

Another handful of Indians have club options: right-hander Paul Byrd, closer Joe Borowski and left-handed reliever Aaron Fultz.

Byrd's option was expected to be picked up, but news of his HGH use from 2002-05 might impact the Indians' decision now.

Borowski's option must be picked up 14 days after the conclusion of the World Series, and he said he expects to hear hints of the Tribe's intention before that. The 36-year-old, who recorded a career-high 45 saves this season, wants to return.

"Who wouldn't?" he said. "This is a first-class organization from top to bottom. It starts with the front office and how they treat people, what they look to bring in. You can't say enough about the team. This is probably the closest group of guys I've ever been around. It'd be a pleasure. I hope I have an opportunity to come back."

Third baseman Casey Blake is eligible for arbitration, but the Indians are expected to work out a deal. The Tribe has not gone to arbitration since 1993.

Still fast:

Lofton had a chance to see a replay of his baserunning in Game 7's seventh inning, when third-base coach Joel Skinner held Lofton at third on Gutierrez's single to right, and the still-speedy outfielder said he would have been safe if sent home. The Indians trailed, 3-2.

"I could have scored," Lofton said. "I use my speed. If a ball's hit to the outfield, I'm going to try to score, regardless of how shallow or whatever a guy's playing. I'm going to try to score. That's just who I am."

Lofton emphasized he had to follow the instructions of Skinner. "There's nothing I can do about it," Lofton said. "That's his decision. I have to listen."

Not again:

Borowski now has the unfavorable distinction of playing on two teams that led 3-1 in a league championship series - and then lost the series. In 2003, Borowski played for the Chicago Cubs, who crumbled to the Florida Marlins.

"At least with the Cubs you knew there was one definitive mark that pretty much decided the series," Borowski said. "And I'm not saying it was the [Steve] Bartman thing, but it was that inning. This is a little tougher to take because I thought we had a fantastic opportunity to advance. It will be a bitter pill to swallow."

ALCS ratings:

Sunday night's Game 7 drew an 11.7 rating, which was 8 percent better than the 10.8 earned by last year's NLCS Game 7 between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. It was the highest-rated LCS game since 2004.

Is this the end for Indians or the beginning?

Cleveland Indians have unanswered questions
Is this the end for Indians or the beginning? Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Paul HoynesPlain Dealer Reporter

Jacobs Field sat there Monday in the morning sun, green and manicured. All it needed was a ballgame.

There could have been one there Wednesday. Game 1 of the World Series between the Indians and Rockies was almost a reality.

Then came one of the biggest folds in Indians postseason history. Leading Boston, 3-1, in the American League Championship Series on Oct. 16, the Indians lost three straight games by a combined score of 30-5. It cost them their sixth trip to the World Series and a chance to be world champions for the first time in 59 years
So instead of resting Monday, taking care not to talk too loudly because of their champagne hangovers, after clinching the pennant Sunday in Game 7 at Fenway Park, the Indians were cleaning out their lockers. They will each have an exit meeting with General Manager Mark Shapiro and manager Eric Wedge before escaping into the off-season.

Amid the boxes, bats, gloves and clothes, C.C. Sabathia still couldn't believe how he pitched in three postseason starts.

"I wanted to win so badly, I got real emotional, real competitive," said Sabathia. "It took me over. That hasn't happened to me in a couple of years."

Sabathia, who lost to ALCS MVP Josh Beckett in Games 1 and 5, went 0-2 with a 10.45 ERA.

"We all felt like we were going to win it," said Sabathia. "I felt like I had to throw perfect pitches and shutouts. That's not me."

Sabathia and Fausto Carmona won 19 games each during the regular season. They made four starts in the ALCS and went a combined 0-3 with a 12.67 ERA (23 runs in 16 1/3 innings).

Fenway Park has become Carmona's personal haunted house. After blowing consecutive save opportunities at Fenway in his short trial at closer in 2006, Carmona lasted six innings in two ALCS starts at Fenway. He gave up 11 runs on 10 hits and nine walks.
"I would have bet my paycheck that Fausto and I wouldn't have done that," said Sabathia. "I'll take the blame on that. Fausto is still a young guy. This was his first full season in the big leagues."

Closer Joe Borowski, who saved 45 games during the regular season, had one of only two saves in the ALCS.

Jonathan Papelbon had the other, entering Sunday’s 11-2 victory in the eighth inning with the Red Sox leading, 5-2.
“We lost the first game and won three straight,” said Borowski. “Then they won three straight. I guess we shouldn’t have lost the first game.”

It was the Indians’ first three-game losing streak since they lost four straight from Aug. 10 through Aug. 14. From Aug. 15 through Game 6 Saturday, the Indians never lost more than two in a row.

The Indians’ late-inning collapse in Game 7 stunned Borowski “It’s something you haven’t seen all year,” he said. “Jake Westbrook is pitching a great game, and in the blink of an eye, the game is suddenly out of reach. Sometimes it only takes one little thing and it snowballs.”

A little thing like third base coach Joel Skinner stopping Kenny Lofton after Franklin Gutierrez’s single over the third base bag bounced off the grandstand in foul territory and rolled into left field. Skinner thought shortstop Julio Lugo had a shot at the ball and stopped Lofton. The ball, however, rolled to left fielder Manny Ramirez.

Lofton’s run would have tied the score, 3-3. When he didn’t score, Casey Blake promptly hit into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Then Blake started the bottom of the seventh with an error at third to set up Dustin Pedroia’s two-run homer off Rafael Betancourt, who had not allowed a run in the postseason before Game 7.

Boston scored six more runs in the eighth, three on Pedroia’s double and two on Kevin Youkilis’ two-run homer off the Coke bottles above the Green Monster.

“It’s sad that we lost the series, but I thought that we had a great season,” said Gutierrez.

In the visitor’s locker room after Sunday’s game, catcher Victor Martinez, who hit .296 (8-for-27) in the ALCS and .318 (14-for-44) in the postseason, was close to tears.

“I did not see Victor crying, but it would not surprise me,” said Gutierrez. “He loves this team.”

While Martinez hit throughout the Tribe’s 11 postseason games, others did not. Travis Hafner hit .148 (4-for-27) and set an LCS record with 12 strikeouts. Grady Sizemore hit .222 (6-for-27).

Boston out-hit the Indians, .318 to .254, and outscored them, 51-32.

“We got beat by a great team,” said Ryan Garko, who hit .292 (7-for-24) in the ALCS.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys on this team. This wasn’t the end of something, it was the beginning of something.”

Plain Dealer columnist reflects on the Cleveland Indians' loss in the ALCS
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

In the end, they played bad baseball. When the Indians needed to be at their best, they were at their worst.

For that, there's no excuse.

Understand that Boston is gifted enough to beat the Indians three games in a row with both teams playing well. But what happened to the Tribe in the final three games of the American League Championship Series was discouraging.

They didn't hit. They didn't pitch. They set league championship series records for striking out the most times (63) and for having two pitchers each starting two games (Fausto Carmona and C.C. Sabathia) and each having ERAs over 10.00.

At times, they were so overwhelmed, it made you wonder.

What happened to that overachieving team with 96 victories, best in baseball along with Boston? What happened to the team that knocked off the Yankees in four games in the first round, including the clincher in New York? What happened to the team that did have control of the Boston series?

Most fans know the Tribe had a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven ALCS. Then they didn't just lose three in a row, they were outscored, 30-5. Most of their pitchers seemed frightened, refusing to throw strikes as Boston drew 20 more walks than the Tribe's batters.

Too many of the Tribe hitters were so tight, they seemed to be trying to squeeze their bat handles into sawdust. In the last three losses, the Indians batted .222 and were a dismal 3-of-17 (.176) with runners in scoring position.

By the final few innings of Sunday's 11-2 loss at Fenway Park, the defense even collapsed. For the series, the Tribe gave up four unearned runs -- Boston allowed none. You won't beat Boston when your two aces fail to win any of their four starts. Or when Travis Hafner hits a homer in his first series at-bat, then is 3-of-26 with 12 strikeouts after that. Or when Grady Sizemore is 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. He had two RBI, one on a homer, another on a sacrifice fly. He left 14 runners on base.

You won't beat Boston when you fail to finish the job at home.

It may be hard for some fans to remember this morning, but the Indians were losing by a 2-1 count heading into the seventh inning of Game 5 at Jacobs Field. Tribe Time was now, as the T-shirts proclaim. But that's when Eric Wedge suddenly began thinking about tomorrow, acting like this were the middle of July and he needed to save his bullpen.

The Tribe manager sent C.C. Sabathia to the mound for the seventh inning.

He looked weary (especially mentally) after 106 pitches in six pressure-packed innings where he was surrounded by more runners than a track coach. In the seventh, Sabathia was hit hard, and the 2-1 score was suddenly 5-1.
After the game, Wedge talked about maybe needing three relievers to get through the seventh inning . . . about not over-working Rafael Betancourt . . . about two games coming up in Boston.

Listening to that, there was only one response - Say What?

The Indians were off the day before Game 5, and there was an off day after Game 5. Plenty of time to rest.

With Boston's Josh Beckett on the mound, maybe it didn't matter because he seemed to be changing in a phone booth rather than the clubhouse. But Game 5 was the time to keep the score 2-1, to see if perhaps Beckett would make a mistake. Or maybe Manny Ramirez would be distracted by an airplane flying by as he stood in left field, maybe allowing a fly ball to drop in front of him.

But that 2-1 game became a 7-1 loss, and the Indians were never the same.

In their last 19 innings, the Red Sox scored 28 runs.

Several times in the playoffs, Wedge said, "It's not about where you play or who you play, but how you play."

Sounds good in theory, but no one should want to play Boston in Fenway Park unless there's no other choice as the Red Sox have baseball's best home record over the last five years.

This is certainly not to blame Wedge for the collapse that began in Game 5 and continued over the weekend in Boston. His leadership is why the Indians were battling Boston when everyone else was at home for the season.

In those three losses, Kenny Lofton was 1-for-11; Jhonny Peralta 1-for-10; Hafner 1-for-12 and the Indians managed only five runs in their last 27 innings. They never led once in the three losses.

The Indians emerged as one of baseball's best teams by doing the things Wedge has stressed since taking the job in 2003 . . .

Separate, don't let a bad game or bad inning carry over to the next.

Be patient at the plate, don't make easy outs early in the count.

Throw strikes, and Tribe pitchers walked the fewest hitters in the American League.

But in the last three games of the ALCS, they went 0-for-3, and paid for it dearly.

What, us worry? Fans can believe in Fausto

What, us worry? Fans can believe in Fausto

If you are a Tribe fan, you probably are nervous this morning.

Then again, if you are a Tribe fan, you probably were born nervous into this somewhat dysfunctional family that wears Wahoo red, white and blue - waiting for your baseball team to win its first World Series since the first Truman administration.

Nervous, and maybe fighting off a sense of impending doom?

That's what it means to be a Tribe fan as your team takes the field tonight in Boston for Game 6 of the American League Championship Series despite the fact that the Indians do lead this best-of-seven series, 3-2.

But now, they have to do it the hard way.

Now, they have to do it in Fenway.

Now, they hand the ball to a 23-year-old Fausto Carmona, who was more nervous than a cat trapped in the Westminster Dog Show when he pitched Game 2 at Fenway Park. He walked five and coughed up four runs during his 100 pitches over four innings. He sweated enough to make a modern-day Noah break out the hammer and nails and start pounding on some boards.

Now, the Indians will have to beat 40-year-old Curt Schilling, who is 9-2 in his postseason career.

Now, they have to win one of the next two games in Boston, where the Red Sox play with increased confidence - 51-30 at home compared with 45-36 on the road in the regular season. Nervous or flat-out scared, Tribe fans need to know it can happen.

Consider Josh Beckett, the new Mr. October after beating the Indians again Thursday. He's 3-0 in these playoffs, 2-0 against the Tribe. In his postseason career, Beckett is 5-2 with a 1.75 ERA.

But in 2003, Beckett was 23 years old, just as the Tribe's Carmona is today. At 23, Beckett had a career 15-15 major-league record with the Florida Marlins. He was a right-hander with a flame-thrower of an arm and a temper that ran even hotter. No one had a clue what he'd do in that October.

Today, we know that Beckett was 2-2 with a 2.11 ERA in the postseason of 2003, that he came back on three days' rest to win Game 6 over New York in Yankee Stadium, giving Florida the World Series title. He was the MVP, pitching twice, delivering two shutouts against the Yankees.

A reputation was made, a standard set. Carmona has the talent to do the same. He didn't win those 19 games in the regular season by accident. Just remember how he beat the Yankees, 2-1, at Jacobs Field in Game 2 of the division series. He dominated the game, one run and three hits in nine innings. His 113 pitches were sinking, sliding and shattering bats of the best lineup money can buy. So he has pitched twice in the postseason, once with excellence, the other with hesitance.

When Dennis Martinez pitched the Tribe to a 4-1 victory and a ticket to the 1995 World Series, the veteran right-hander called taking the mound in Seattle's Kingdome "walking into the mouth of the lion."

Carmona steps into a tiger cage, with its Green Monster lurking in left and a lineup loaded with snarling bats that love to hit in this little ballpark. But when Carmona is Fausto the Great, busting bats and permitting only ground balls - he can throw a shutout in a matchbox.

Carmona was 4 years old when Schilling threw his first pitch in the majors. Schilling has a career 29-11 record at Fenway, where Boston has baseball's best home record over the past five years. But the Indians won Game 4 in New York to advance to the Boston series. And they came back to win Game 2 of the ALCS last Saturday, about three hours after Carmona had been banished.

Are you nervous about this game?

Of course.

But if you are a Tribe fan, you know this is October baseball. Pass the aspirin and try not to bite your fingernails.