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By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 05:16 p.m. EDT, Sep 05, 2009
You probably don't think much about Jim Thome. Why would you? Out of sight, out of mind; he hasn't played for the Indians since 2002.
Thome has a chance to hit 600 career home runs on his way to the hall of fame. I hope he gets there. He has 564, but now that he's with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he's not likely to add many to his total.
As a designated hitter in the National League, Thome will spend most of his playing time as a pinch hitter. But at his age, 39, he can't afford to waste even a couple of months sitting on the bench.
Thome will be a free agent at the end of the season, and he has performed well enough — batting around .250 with 23 homers and 74 RBI in 350 at-bats — to latch onto a job in the American League in 2010. Unfortunately, he won't be playing for the Tribe.
I know that train left the station long ago. The timing is all wrong, except for one thing. Pipe dreams aside, the Tribe is unlikely to contend for a postseason berth next year, and it would add a little spark to the season to watch Thome's march toward 600.
But general managers don't operate that way. I probably wouldn't, either. The Tribe already has a designated hitter, Travis Hafner, who should be over his physical disabilities by next spring. Moreover, cash to pay players not already on the roster will be slim or nonexistent.
Some of you still hold a grudge because Thome signed with the Phillies after vowing not to leave. Except he never promised to stay — he repeatedly said he wanted to remain in Cleveland if a deal could be worked out — and how could any sane individual turn down an additional $25 million (that's additional) to play with a contending team elsewhere?
Did Thome want to flee Cleveland? Hardly. Just before he left, he asked the beat writers who covered the team — Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer, Jim Ingraham of the Lake County News-Herald and me — to stop by his house for an interview.
The day I visited him and his wife, Andrea, we went through the usual question-and-answer session and talked awhile (Andrea made chocolate chip cookies). Just as I was about to leave, Thome asked, ''Do you think in a few years they'd let me come back?''
I knew the answer, but I didn't want to disappoint him, so I said, ''Jimmy, you need to think about playing for the Phillies right now. The rest will take care of itself.''
I still know the answer, and I wish I was wrong.
Going, going, whoops
It recently struck me that this year, moreso than any season in memory, opposing oufielders have made life miserable for Indians hitters by repeatedly catching drives against the fence.
I have no idea what normal would be in terms of frequency for this kind of play. As far as I know, there are no official or reliable statistics on which to draw. I do know that several of these catches robbed players of home runs.
How? Because I keep track of these plays in my scorebook, as well as catches on the track and what I label as ''deep'' catches, where the outfielder makes the play within two or three steps of the track.
With four weeks of the season still to play, Tribe batsmen have been retired on catches against the wall nine times, and most of these would have been home runs.
Only Shin-Soo Choo and Victor Martinez have been victimized more than once. Grady Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera, Ryan Garko, Chris Gimenez and Kelly Shoppach have seen extra-base hits taken away in this fashion once each.
Seattle Mariners outfielders did it to the Tribe twice the same day. On July 19, Ryan Langerhans took away a home run from Choo, and Ichiro Suzuki stole one from Martinez. The Indians lost 5-3.
The previous day, in a game won by the Mariners 3-1, Franklin Gutierrez made a leaping catch at the fence of a ball hit by Cabrera in the first inning. Seattle outfielders made four other catches of drives to the track during the game.
What does all this prove? Not much, except maybe it takes all kinds of misfortune to put together a really bad season.
Rare Wyatt sighting
Wyatt Toregas is the first major-leaguer with the given name of Wyatt since 1923, when the immortal Wyatt Eure Snipes roamed the outfield for one game on behalf of the White Sox.
In Snipes' very brief career, he had one at-bat and did not hit safely. Nor did he go by the name Wyatt. Instead, he was known as Roxie, though his teammates in Chicago hardly knew him long enough to treat him with that kind of familiarity.
Before Snipes, there were only two other major league players with the given name of Wyatt (according to Baseball-Reference.com): Wyatt Arnold Lee, who pitched for Washington and Pittsburgh in 1901-1904, and Yancey Wyatt Ayers, another pitcher with Washington and Detroit, whose career lasted from 1913 to 1921.
Ayers and Lee also went by nicknames: Doc Ayers and Watty Lee.
It has been noted that Toregas was named for Wyatt Earp, because his parents were watching the film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on television when they were searching for a name that fit their new son.
If Wyatts are a rarity on big-league rosters, Earps are non-existent. But there are six players named Earp who played in the minors, the most recent in 1947. And, no, I don't know whether any of them were related to the marshal from Dodge City.
Degrees of separation
Dave Miller is the Indians' pitching coordinator. That is, he tours the Tribe farm system checking on the progress of the organization's pitchers.
What does this have to do with Michael Jordan? Just this. Miller's sister was a classmate of Jordan's at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., where Jordan was cut from the varsity basketball team as a sophomore.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters. Follow the Indians on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Indians.
You probably don't think much about Jim Thome. Why would you? Out of sight, out of mind; he hasn't played for the Indians since 2002.
Thome has a chance to hit 600 career home runs on his way to the hall of fame. I hope he gets there. He has 564, but now that he's with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he's not likely to add many to his total.
As a designated hitter in the National League, Thome will spend most of his playing time as a pinch hitter. But at his age, 39, he can't afford to waste even a couple of months sitting on the bench.
Thome will be a free agent at the end of the season, and he has performed well enough — batting around .250 with 23 homers and 74 RBI in 350 at-bats — to latch onto a job in the American League in 2010. Unfortunately, he won't be playing for the Tribe.
I know that train left the station long ago. The timing is all wrong, except for one thing. Pipe dreams aside, the Tribe is unlikely to contend for a postseason berth next year, and it would add a little spark to the season to watch Thome's march toward 600.
But general managers don't operate that way. I probably wouldn't, either. The Tribe already has a designated hitter, Travis Hafner, who should be over his physical disabilities by next spring. Moreover, cash to pay players not already on the roster will be slim or nonexistent.
Some of you still hold a grudge because Thome signed with the Phillies after vowing not to leave. Except he never promised to stay — he repeatedly said he wanted to remain in Cleveland if a deal could be worked out — and how could any sane individual turn down an additional $25 million (that's additional) to play with a contending team elsewhere?
Did Thome want to flee Cleveland? Hardly. Just before he left, he asked the beat writers who covered the team — Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer, Jim Ingraham of the Lake County News-Herald and me — to stop by his house for an interview.
The day I visited him and his wife, Andrea, we went through the usual question-and-answer session and talked awhile (Andrea made chocolate chip cookies). Just as I was about to leave, Thome asked, ''Do you think in a few years they'd let me come back?''
I knew the answer, but I didn't want to disappoint him, so I said, ''Jimmy, you need to think about playing for the Phillies right now. The rest will take care of itself.''
I still know the answer, and I wish I was wrong.
Going, going, whoops
It recently struck me that this year, moreso than any season in memory, opposing oufielders have made life miserable for Indians hitters by repeatedly catching drives against the fence.
I have no idea what normal would be in terms of frequency for this kind of play. As far as I know, there are no official or reliable statistics on which to draw. I do know that several of these catches robbed players of home runs.
How? Because I keep track of these plays in my scorebook, as well as catches on the track and what I label as ''deep'' catches, where the outfielder makes the play within two or three steps of the track.
With four weeks of the season still to play, Tribe batsmen have been retired on catches against the wall nine times, and most of these would have been home runs.
Only Shin-Soo Choo and Victor Martinez have been victimized more than once. Grady Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera, Ryan Garko, Chris Gimenez and Kelly Shoppach have seen extra-base hits taken away in this fashion once each.
Seattle Mariners outfielders did it to the Tribe twice the same day. On July 19, Ryan Langerhans took away a home run from Choo, and Ichiro Suzuki stole one from Martinez. The Indians lost 5-3.
The previous day, in a game won by the Mariners 3-1, Franklin Gutierrez made a leaping catch at the fence of a ball hit by Cabrera in the first inning. Seattle outfielders made four other catches of drives to the track during the game.
What does all this prove? Not much, except maybe it takes all kinds of misfortune to put together a really bad season.
Rare Wyatt sighting
Wyatt Toregas is the first major-leaguer with the given name of Wyatt since 1923, when the immortal Wyatt Eure Snipes roamed the outfield for one game on behalf of the White Sox.
In Snipes' very brief career, he had one at-bat and did not hit safely. Nor did he go by the name Wyatt. Instead, he was known as Roxie, though his teammates in Chicago hardly knew him long enough to treat him with that kind of familiarity.
Before Snipes, there were only two other major league players with the given name of Wyatt (according to Baseball-Reference.com): Wyatt Arnold Lee, who pitched for Washington and Pittsburgh in 1901-1904, and Yancey Wyatt Ayers, another pitcher with Washington and Detroit, whose career lasted from 1913 to 1921.
Ayers and Lee also went by nicknames: Doc Ayers and Watty Lee.
It has been noted that Toregas was named for Wyatt Earp, because his parents were watching the film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on television when they were searching for a name that fit their new son.
If Wyatts are a rarity on big-league rosters, Earps are non-existent. But there are six players named Earp who played in the minors, the most recent in 1947. And, no, I don't know whether any of them were related to the marshal from Dodge City.
Degrees of separation
Dave Miller is the Indians' pitching coordinator. That is, he tours the Tribe farm system checking on the progress of the organization's pitchers.
What does this have to do with Michael Jordan? Just this. Miller's sister was a classmate of Jordan's at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., where Jordan was cut from the varsity basketball team as a sophomore.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters. Follow the Indians on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Indians.
Comments
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Canton, OH
Posted 05:56 PM, 09/05/2009
Thome sux. . He turned his back on us once already. .Who needs him. . .
Akron, OH
Posted 06:54 PM, 09/05/2009
shapiro could sign him and then trade him when he reaches 599 hr
