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By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Saturday, Jul 12, 2008
CLEVELAND:| Team meetings are quirky things.
After wins, they're occasion for celebration.
It was Thursday's players-only meeting that ''brought us together,'' one guy said. We were very direct with each other, another said. We shared, said a third.
Shared.
Imagine Ty Cobb sharing.
But that's a different topic.
Manager Eric Wedge called a meeting with his Cleveland Indians team before Thursday's win over Tampa Bay. He wanted to make some points, and though he was kind and polite when he addressed the media about the meeting, one gets the impression he was more pointed with his players, who had returned to Progressive Field with a near-historic 10-game losing streak.
Imagine, going from one game away from the World Series one year to a double-digit losing streak the next. That reality is hard to get your arms around.
So Wedge went the meeting route, and he did it Thursday, he said, because he wanted to be at home and have injured players like Jake Westbrook and Travis Hafner hear the message, too.
Wedge talked about the team's funk when C.C. Sabathia was traded and how the players were the ones who could eliminate that funk.
He talked about forgetting about it — ''separating,'' a key Wedge word, was used letting the negatives beat down the team.
There are plenty of negatives, too. As Wedge said, ''What we're going through is a team effort.''
But he added that the players have ''the ability and the power to do something'' about the situation.
The Indians had returned to Progressive Field with a 10-game losing streak.
How bad was it?
Three strikeouts in a row with the bases loaded bad.
The bullpen blowing a six-run lead bad.
That's expansion-year Browns bad.
Pretty much an embarrassment and what the Indians did in Wednesday's finale in Detroit in the 10th of those 10 losses. They blew a six-run lead, thanks to the bullpen, and they struck out three times with the bases loaded.
That's nearly unfathomable.
No matter how many times a manager says the Indians could have won 1-of-2 in Detroit or this and that in Chicago, it sounds hollow when a team strikes out three times with the bases loaded. It's hollow when the actions on the field bring to mind a hangdog approach.
The Indians started the season with high hopes. They're now a team that has traded its ace, cut its closer and lost two starting pitchers and its Nos. 3 and 4 hitters to injury.
Losses have piled up.
Wedge was adamant that his team is not feeling sorry for itself, is making an effort and does care.
But there comes a point when performance on the field overrides attitude. A guy can be the world's hardest worker, but he's not much use if he can't hit the corner on a 1-2 count in the eighth inning. The same traits that made the Indians a likable team a year ago when they won are now obscured by poor play and losses.
Consider the third inning Thursday, when Aaron Laffey gave up a two-run, two-strike bomb to Jonny Gomes, who was hitting all of .186.
That should not happen.
Singling out Laffey isn't fair, really. It was way back in April that catcher Victor Martinez tagged home on a play, thinking there was a force-out. Runners were on second and third.
Last year's Indians did not do that kind of thing.
Meetings won't change the team's reality. The playoffs are a distant dream that has filtered away. That does not mean heads should be hanging or it's pack-it-in time or that a tone cannot be set for 2009.
Yes, that's lame compared to reaching the playoffs, but it's the best the Indians have right now.
Thursday night, the sun was shining and there was a good crowd to see the Rays, a young team playing well.
The Indians played well, and the fans had a good time. When the game ended, folks were leaving happy. It was baseball.
The least the Indians owe those fans — and themselves — is a professional effort. They gave it Thursday.
There's an adage that states: ''Being a professional means doing your best when you feel your worst.''
Think about it.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
CLEVELAND:| Team meetings are quirky things.
Get the full article here.
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