A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The MLB offseason has just gotten underway, and the Indians were the first team to make a major move. It was announced Monday afternoon that the Indians had traded for Derek Lowe of the Atlanta Braves. In exchange, the Indians sent minor-league reliever Chris Jones to Atlanta.
Last year, Carlos Santana’s promising rookie season ended early after a home plate collision at Fenway Park. With the image of Ray Fosse getting laid out by Pete Rose still a memory in Indians’ fans heads, there was some concern if Santana would ever become the star catcher he was projected to be.
Fortunately, Carlos has progressed nicely during his second season and is actually having a better season then you might think.
Way back in February, USA Today’s 2011 MLB Preview Magazine published a lengthy piece by yours truly, whereupon I rendered my thoughts on who the most over and underrated players in the game were as we approached the new campaign.
I figured I might as well do monthly updates on these “predictions,” so as to capriciously praise or condemn myself.
It’s been 21 years since the state of Ohio celebrated a championship in one of the four major professional sports (to clarify: football, baseball, basketball and hockey).
During that time Ohio has suffered like few other states have. In addition to almost total futility on the field, the state has had to endure more than its share of off the field problems as well.
Twelve long years. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve followed baseball seriously.
Even though I was born and raised in Indiana, baseball was my favorite sport for most of my youth. It was the sport at which my dad played and excelled. I didn’t own a basketball hoop yet, so it was the sport I played the most. Every year, my parents bought me more and more books about America’s Pastime. If it had to do with baseball, I soaked it up like a sponge.
Cooperstown was the first Hall of Fame my parents ever took me to visit. Just in case you were wondering how obsessed I was, I saved the bag from the bookstore that held my mementos from the day.
I was the annoying kid on the block that knew all the stats. Whether it was playing, watching, or studying, I was obsessed with the sport.
Then, something happened. Well, actually, a few things:
First, I realized that the Cubs would probably never be good.
Secondly, and more importantly, I outgrew it.
When I turned 13, I entered Junior High, and my school didn’t have a baseball team. In order to continue to pursue baseball, my parents would’ve had to pay a lot of money to get me onto one of those travel teams. Since I could play soccer and basketball for free, baseball ended up taking a backseat.
My parents bought me a basketball hoop, sent me to basketball and soccer camps, and the rest was history.
As I grew older, I started to becoming antagonistic towards baseball.
It’s boring.
It’s too slow.
It’s unfair when the Yankees and Red Sox can spend so much more than everyone.
It’s unfair that the Cubs will never be good.
Etc… (every cliche imaginable)
I lost track of everything that made me love the game. Until this past Saturday.
Yesterday was officially the first day of summer, which is a perfect time to check up on the biggest surprises thus far in the MLB. I picked the two biggest surprises in the American and National Leagues to highlight.
This past weekend was largely dominated by the NBA Conference Finals, but many other interesting stories occurred in the sports world. Here are just a few, including very unfortunate news about a baseball legend.
This is the second in a monthly series called “Down on the Farm” that will chronicle my visits to various minor league parks throughout the 2011 season. (Part 1 can be found here.)
In May’s edition, I regale you with tales and photos of my journey to Round Rock (Texas) to watch the Express on a lovely Saturday night with my wife. I’ll also update you on the progress of the Indianapolis Indians.
Grady Sizemore is scheduled to return to the Indians’ lineup on Monday in Kansas City. He is returning to a team that is 10-4 and tied for first in the AL Central.
His return should help the team, but at the same time it could mess up their current chemistry.
After two straight disappointing seasons with less then 70 wins, the Cleveland Indians have gotten off to an excellent start this year. Cleveland is currently 7-2 and has won seven straight.
A huge reason why the Tribe had two straight seasons with less than 70 wins was of lack of power in the middle of the line-up. From 2009-2010 Cleveland had only two players that hit more then 20 home runs in a season.
DH Travis Hafner’s absence from the line-up was the major reason for the lack of power. From 2004-2006, (Hafner’s prime) he played in 406 games, hit 103 home runs, and had .303 batting average. Over the last three years he had only played 269 games, hit 34 home runs, and batted .259.
Hafner, just like the Indians is having a tremendous start.
The MLB season is about ten days old, and there are already many surprises in the American League. Each division has its own storylines, and I will break down the surprises by division.
The world has lost a great man. “The Ace of the Greatest Generation,” Bob Feller, died Wednesday night after bouts with leukemia and pneumonia.
While the Chicago Cubs receive most of my vitriol these days, during the mid-1990s to early-00s there was no franchise in baseball I abhorred more than the Cleveland Indians. There were two reasons for this.
First, the Indians were awesome then. You might recall that from 1995-2001 they never won fewer than 86 games and won the AL Central all but one of the those seasons (finishing 2nd the other). They made to World Series twice (’95, ’97, losing both) and reached the ALCS another time. The dominance of these Indians kept my White Sox from doing anything of significance other than our out-of-nowhere 2000 season.
The second reason I hated the Indians was a man named Frank Dorazio. Frank worked with my dad when I lived in West Lafayette and could actually watch every White Sox game, which is when I really became a die-hard. Unfortunately this coincided with the Indians’ run, and since I saw Frank often I could never escape his wrath. He was (and I assume still is) a big Indians fan and was never bashful about rubbing it in my face that the Indians always had the leg up on the White Sox.
I’m sure that Frank has watched in amusement over the past decade as, one by one, all of those former Indians from the mid-1990s have made their way to Chicago during the latter stages of their careers. The latest example is Manny Ramirez, who is expected to join the White Sox later today.
[Editor's note: It is a day of writer debuts!
First, Kurt Allen debuted with his analysis of Brett Favre's retire-or-not history. Now, Patrick Suley makes his debut with a new feature, the Unjustly Obscure Player of the Week (which fits in perfectly with the content I announced yesterday). I'll let him explain how the series will work.
Enjoy his first piece below.]
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I’m Patrick Suley, longtime baseball fan and first time writer for Midwest Sports Fans. Like any sports fan, I have been enamored with and enraged by players that get very little press or recognition. Time passes and these players drift off into the ether of baseball lore.
I feel it is my mission to give a different player his due each week. This is hardly a new concept. SharapovasThigh.com has done a similar thing with “Random Retro Baseball Player”. VeteranPresence.com too has it’s “Forgotten Player of the Moment”. But hell, I love these articles and figure I can add to the memories.
I still remember the first time I was unfaithful to my own team. It was back in 1993. I was an avid Toronto Blue Jays fan, and like all good nine-year-olds, I refused to cheer for anyone not destined to help the Jays repeat as World Series champs.
But then I saw him.
And on that date, July 30, 1993, I became a Travis Fryman fan.
If you are a fan of the White Sox, Twins, Cardinals, Reds, or even the Tigers, there is still a lot of drama to come during the balance of the 2010 MLB regular season. However, if you are a Cubs or Indians fan, your team sits at 15.5 games out of first place as I sit here typing on August 7th. Barring a miracle, both teams will be at home come October.
But we are not front-runners here at Midwest Sports Fans, and both Cubs and Indians fans are among our readership; thus I pledge to you that we will not forget about you during the dog days of August and September. (Keep in mind, I am an Indiana basketball fan that has had to suffer through three straight years of depression and disappointment. I feel a small fraction of your pain Indians and Cubs fans!)
That is why I decided to launch this contest. I wanted to find a way to give suffering Cubs and Indians fans something to smile about over the next two months. And in my experience as a baseball fan, few things make baseball fans smile like old and often goofy pictures of retro ball players.
If you don’t believe me, go to Sharapova’s Thigh and look through their list of Random Retro Baseball Players, like this one (complete list in sidebar). That’s entertainment.
So our goal is simple: let’s sift through the litany of unintentionally entertaining retro Cubs and Indians to come up with the greatest retro Cub and the greatest retro Indian of all time.
