Failed promises, lost season: Terry Pluto on the frustrated fans of the 2009 Cleveland Indians

Failed promises, lost season: Terry Pluto on the frustrated fans of the 2009 Cleveland Indians
by Terry Pluto/Plain Dealer Columnist Tuesday July 14, 2009, 7:12 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Maybe you are an Indians fan like me. Maybe you were really looking forward to this season, while having one eye on the rearview mirror from 2007.
That's when the Indians won 96 games, when they dumped New York in the first round of the playoffs and fell short by one game of going to the World Series. This team in 2009, it had to be more like that 2007 group than the Indians of 2008, right?

Those 2008 Indians had a 41-53 record at the All-Star break and finished a discouraging 81-81.

Yes, 2009 would be a new year, a year when the bullpen couldn't be as bad as 2008 -- when the relievers' 5.13 ERA was second worst in the American League. Hey, they signed a $10 million a year closer in Kerry Wood. They traded for some other relievers.

At least the bullpen should be fixed, right?

Wrong. Wrong! Wrong!

This season, everything went wrong. The bullpen is awful, the starting pitchers even more pathetic and the Tribe has the league's worst record (35-54) at the break. Having the highest ERA in the major leagues at 5.40 will do that. That 5.40 ERA is the highest in team history! The only other year the ERA was above 5.00 was 5.28 in 1987.

A rainy opening day -- and a loss -- should have told Indians fans Molly Marunowski (left) and Jessica Dell'Aquilla all that awaited the team in 2009."This is the most discouraging season I've ever experienced," e-mailed Berea's Terry Callaghan, adding that he was born in 1950. "I am so disgusted that I deliberately ignore them. When I go out to bars and restaurants where the Tribe is on TV, no one is paying attention. No cheers when they score, no groans when they lose."

Actually, Callaghan still does care, as he wrote several paragraphs about trades that should be made and people who should be fired.

What makes this a season of tears for Tribe fans is the team was supposed to win. On its Web site, eight of 20 ESPN baseball writers predicted the Indians to win the Central Division. So did I, insisting they'd win at least 91 games.

"There appears to be a big crack in the crystal ball or it's just full of smog," e-mailed Ron Zurowski. "I have 12 sets of tickets for the rest of the season that I intend to give away."

As for myself, I confess that I will go to more games this season. I still think Jacobs -- I mean, Progressive Field -- is a terrific place to watch a game. But I never thought the games would be ... well ... so awful!

Maybe you can understand why an unsigned email arrived with this heading: Tribe Ruins My Retirement! You can guess the content of the 60-year-old fan still pining away for former Tribe manager Charlie Manuel -- who moved to Philadelphia and won the 2008 World Series.

There was a game where Trevor Crowe ran from second base to third on a ground ball to short -- and was thrown out by 20 feet. There was a game with a runner on third base, one out. A grounder was hit to Jhonny Peralta at third. He calmly ignored the runner headed to the plate and tossed out the runner at first base, seemingly unaware of the number of outs, just like Crowe.

Whatever happened to that 2007 team?

Only two pitchers remain on the active roster from that playoff staff -- Rafael Betancourt and Aaron Laffey. In case you forgot (I did), Cliff Lee spent part of 2007 in the minors and was not on the playoff roster.

Cy Young winner CC Sabathia is with the Yankees. Paul Byrd is retired. Jake Westbrook has been out since last season with elbow surgery and 19-game winner Fausto Carmona is such mess, he's in the minors. So are Raffy Perez and Jensen Lewis, once reliable relievers.

This season, the Indians have been through 26 pitchers, closing in on the American League record of 32. A pitching staff that for the previous four seasons was in the top two of fewest walks in the league, now has walked the most.

"My wife won't watch the eighth inning, but I do," e-mailed Jerry Crawford from Las Vegas. He is a retired drama professor who signs his emails "The Real Chief Wahoo" and weeps over the Tribe each night with the MLB package on pay TV.

Ah, yes, the eighth inning, where the Indians have been outscored, 69-34.

Then Crawford adds to the torment by watching Seattle play, especially former Indians Franklin Gutierrez and Russell Branyan.

"They have been marvelous," wrote Crawford. "That figures."

"A season like this reminds me of a David Letterman Top Ten from a few years ago," e-mailed Herb Bell. "The subject was signs that your team is bad. The No. 1 answer was, 'Your team rhymes with Smidians.'"

Most nights, the Indians hit a bit -- but don't pitch.

But when 2008 Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee takes the mound, they forget to hit. His record is a deceiving 4-9 with a solid 3.47 ERA. He has lost five games despite allowing two or fewer earned runs over at least seven innings -- hey, that leads the league.

Poor Lee, the Indians have scored a grand total of 14 runs in his nine losses ... yet they've scored 22 runs in one game at New York, 15 against Oakland and 12 (in a loss) to Milwaukee. None of that happened with him on the mound.

"When I travel, I always take books about the Indians with me," e-mailed Barb Schopp from Mansfield. "This time, I'm taking a murder mystery."

Better than Barb wanting to kill some of the players and coaches. She makes trips to spring training most years to check out the Tribe.

"We're missing something this summer," wrote Schopp. "It's not just a good baseball team, it's all the fun that goes with a good team. That's what makes me blue."