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Play since August has many talking about 'What if?'
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sports writer
POSTED: 08:47 p.m. EDT, Sep 06, 2008
KANSAS CITY, MO.:It's called fantasy baseball.
What if the Indians had won two out of three last weekend against the Seattle Mariners instead of being swept in the series?
What if the Indians had won all three against the Chicago White Sox last midweek instead of only two?
What if Carlos Quentin, the White Sox MVP candidate, misses the rest of the season after breaking his wrist at Jacobs Field?
What if the Minnesota Twins continue their slide (5-9 on the road), perpetuated in part by having to play 10 games against the White Sox, Tribe and Tampa Bay Rays?
The Indians win the pennant! The Indians wins the pennant! The Indians wins the pennant!
This kind of foolish thinking was rampant in Northeast Ohio as recently as Wednesday, after the proprietors of Progressive Field won two in a row from the White Sox to move within 91/2 games of first place in the American League Central Division.
Yes, it might be a long shot, said the sports-talk hosts, revving up their listeners, who were all too willing to imagine such a far-fetched pipe-dream springing to life, but. . . .
Hadn't the Indians been 91/2 games back with the same number of games to play in 2005, when they made a headlong dash for the wild-card berth?
The answer is yes, but one question was not posed: Did the Indians make the playoffs in 2005? No, they did not.
And this season, it would have been even more difficult to put on a successful charge this late in the campaign. This Tribe is more distant from the front-runner in the wild-card race (the Boston Red Sox) than from division contenders, the Twins and White Sox.
Which is fine, except that instead of having had to pass one team, the Indians would have had to pass two. (Notice I'm using past tense, because the race is over.) Through Wednesday, had the first-place White Sox posted an 11-12 record the rest of the way, the Indians would have had to go 22-2 to tie.
If fans want to alleviate their disappointment with the season by entertaining delusional thoughts about their favorite team, it's fine with me. The problem comes when this idea is taken to its logical (more likely, illogical) conclusion.
If the Tribe is still in the race, the thinking went, then General Manager Mark Shapiro never should have acted in such haste to trade C.C. Sabathia, Casey Blake and Paul Byrd. Couldn't Shapiro see this coming? Sure, the same way the auto manufacturers who were cleaning up on SUV sales saw the stratospheric rise in oil prices coming.
Neither Shapiro nor manager Eric Wedge could have anticipated that their team would rise from the ashes in August. And neither did the fans or talk-show hosts.
Moreover, Shapiro waited long enough to get the best deal he could. I don't see anyone complaining about the acquisitions of Olympian Matt LaPorta and Carlos Santana, who put up rather unbelievable numbers in the minors.
Granted, the Indians have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the race. But in every other way, they are dead in the water and have been for almost two months. Shapiro moved at the right time to salvage something from the viable body parts, so quit griping.
Inside video replay
The way video has been described, when the chief of the umpiring crew calls for the use of replay, the umpires are to leave the field.
But that's not quite the way it works. In practice, one umpire is delegated to remain on the field in case there's any hanky-panky by players or other uniformed personnel (no, I don't know what they could do to influence the decision, either), while the other three tend to replay business.
At Progressive Field, the umpires will retire to a room behind the plate — next to the umpires' locker room — where a locked box contains a small high-definition monitor (maybe a 19-inch screen) and a telephone connected by direct line to a room MLB replay officials occupy in New York.
The crew chief keeps the key to the box while he is in Cleveland, or sometimes he asks one of the other umpires to hang onto it.
Blessed silence
For about a month, one of the popular sporting events in Cleveland was for armchair athletes to sit in front of a computer and compose nasty e-mails about hitting coach Derek Shelton, then ship them to every radio station and newspaper in Northeast Ohio.
Unaccountably, those e-mails have stopped coming. I don't know whether the people who sent them moved out of town in disgust, because Shelton still has his job, or whether they have found a new target: maybe Bob Barr's presidential campaign (look it up) or the size of Jim Leyland's mustache.
It can't have anything to do with Shelton. He's the same hitting coach who was hailed as a savior after Eddie Murray was fired a couple of years ago. And he's the same hitting coach who presided over the Tribe's lengthy first-half slump this year. He's also the hitting coach directing Ben Francisco, Shin-Soo Choo and Franklin Gutierrez, who seem to be gaining traction as genuine major-leaguers.
What's the rush
Fans around here keep suggesting that Victor Martinez be moved from catcher to first base next year to extend his career.
Why? Martinez will not wear out if he spends two or three more seasons behind the plate as an everyday catcher. He's a professional athlete, not only highly skilled, but also a guy who is strong and healthy. The surgery he underwent in June to clean out his right elbow is considered low risk and definitely not career threatening or career shortening.
The Indians have plenty of other candidates to play first, not only next year, but also in seasons to come: Ryan Garko, Michael Aubrey, Beau Mills, just to name three.
Moreover, as a catcher, Martinez is a special hitter, a run producer who can drive in 90 runs and go deep 20 times a season. As a first baseman, his numbers would be rather ordinary, and he has more value as a handler of pitchers and defender behind the plate than most fans realize.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
KANSAS CITY, MO.:It's called fantasy baseball.
What if the Indians had won two out of three last weekend against the Seattle Mariners instead of being swept in the series?
What if the Indians had won all three against the Chicago White Sox last midweek instead of only two?
What if Carlos Quentin, the White Sox MVP candidate, misses the rest of the season after breaking his wrist at Jacobs Field?
What if the Minnesota Twins continue their slide (5-9 on the road), perpetuated in part by having to play 10 games against the White Sox, Tribe and Tampa Bay Rays?
The Indians win the pennant! The Indians wins the pennant! The Indians wins the pennant!
This kind of foolish thinking was rampant in Northeast Ohio as recently as Wednesday, after the proprietors of Progressive Field won two in a row from the White Sox to move within 91/2 games of first place in the American League Central Division.
Yes, it might be a long shot, said the sports-talk hosts, revving up their listeners, who were all too willing to imagine such a far-fetched pipe-dream springing to life, but. . . .
Hadn't the Indians been 91/2 games back with the same number of games to play in 2005, when they made a headlong dash for the wild-card berth?
The answer is yes, but one question was not posed: Did the Indians make the playoffs in 2005? No, they did not.
And this season, it would have been even more difficult to put on a successful charge this late in the campaign. This Tribe is more distant from the front-runner in the wild-card race (the Boston Red Sox) than from division contenders, the Twins and White Sox.
Which is fine, except that instead of having had to pass one team, the Indians would have had to pass two. (Notice I'm using past tense, because the race is over.) Through Wednesday, had the first-place White Sox posted an 11-12 record the rest of the way, the Indians would have had to go 22-2 to tie.
If fans want to alleviate their disappointment with the season by entertaining delusional thoughts about their favorite team, it's fine with me. The problem comes when this idea is taken to its logical (more likely, illogical) conclusion.
If the Tribe is still in the race, the thinking went, then General Manager Mark Shapiro never should have acted in such haste to trade C.C. Sabathia, Casey Blake and Paul Byrd. Couldn't Shapiro see this coming? Sure, the same way the auto manufacturers who were cleaning up on SUV sales saw the stratospheric rise in oil prices coming.
Neither Shapiro nor manager Eric Wedge could have anticipated that their team would rise from the ashes in August. And neither did the fans or talk-show hosts.
Moreover, Shapiro waited long enough to get the best deal he could. I don't see anyone complaining about the acquisitions of Olympian Matt LaPorta and Carlos Santana, who put up rather unbelievable numbers in the minors.
Granted, the Indians have not yet been mathematically eliminated from the race. But in every other way, they are dead in the water and have been for almost two months. Shapiro moved at the right time to salvage something from the viable body parts, so quit griping.
Inside video replay
The way video has been described, when the chief of the umpiring crew calls for the use of replay, the umpires are to leave the field.
But that's not quite the way it works. In practice, one umpire is delegated to remain on the field in case there's any hanky-panky by players or other uniformed personnel (no, I don't know what they could do to influence the decision, either), while the other three tend to replay business.
At Progressive Field, the umpires will retire to a room behind the plate — next to the umpires' locker room — where a locked box contains a small high-definition monitor (maybe a 19-inch screen) and a telephone connected by direct line to a room MLB replay officials occupy in New York.
The crew chief keeps the key to the box while he is in Cleveland, or sometimes he asks one of the other umpires to hang onto it.
Blessed silence
For about a month, one of the popular sporting events in Cleveland was for armchair athletes to sit in front of a computer and compose nasty e-mails about hitting coach Derek Shelton, then ship them to every radio station and newspaper in Northeast Ohio.
Unaccountably, those e-mails have stopped coming. I don't know whether the people who sent them moved out of town in disgust, because Shelton still has his job, or whether they have found a new target: maybe Bob Barr's presidential campaign (look it up) or the size of Jim Leyland's mustache.
It can't have anything to do with Shelton. He's the same hitting coach who was hailed as a savior after Eddie Murray was fired a couple of years ago. And he's the same hitting coach who presided over the Tribe's lengthy first-half slump this year. He's also the hitting coach directing Ben Francisco, Shin-Soo Choo and Franklin Gutierrez, who seem to be gaining traction as genuine major-leaguers.
What's the rush
Fans around here keep suggesting that Victor Martinez be moved from catcher to first base next year to extend his career.
Why? Martinez will not wear out if he spends two or three more seasons behind the plate as an everyday catcher. He's a professional athlete, not only highly skilled, but also a guy who is strong and healthy. The surgery he underwent in June to clean out his right elbow is considered low risk and definitely not career threatening or career shortening.
The Indians have plenty of other candidates to play first, not only next year, but also in seasons to come: Ryan Garko, Michael Aubrey, Beau Mills, just to name three.
Moreover, as a catcher, Martinez is a special hitter, a run producer who can drive in 90 runs and go deep 20 times a season. As a first baseman, his numbers would be rather ordinary, and he has more value as a handler of pitchers and defender behind the plate than most fans realize.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
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