Thursday, June 23, 2005

My Bad

After attending the first full 3 game series of my life (that is, I was at all 3 Red Sox games), and watching the Tribe get swept, I am banning myself for some time from the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. I'm 1-5 this season. Maybe going to a Reds game this weekend will change the luck.

With a lot of disappointment (that I'm still getting over) I thought I'd go with some non-game related hits:

  • The Indians hats should look like this, http://www.lids.com/pid/20027032. I don't know why there is an "I" on their hats, we're not Indianapolis Indians. I prefer the script "C". The only change I would make to this hat is replace the Chief Wahoo with the old Chief Wahoo logo, seen in the inner circle of this hat, http://www.lids.com/pid/20019893. In fact, that full body Chief Wahoo should replace the oversized red head on the left chest of the home jerseys and the sleeves of all the jerseys as well. So, maybe I spend too much time thinking about this stuff, but this is my team.
  • Anybody have any other suggestions for the Indians' unis? Why can't I get a forum to share my thoughts with the Tribe marketing department?
  • Watching the new graphics on FSN is confusing and too full of sound effects. I feel like I'm playing a video game. If I wanted to play NHL '95 (the finest game ever made, outside of Tecmo Bowl), I'd plug it in and continue my season with the Boston Bruins.
  • Also, if I see that commercial for the BDSSP with Jimmy Fallon saying, "That's not cool, Salley", or the Jimmy Fallon look-alike (with the bad mustache) telling his boss that "perfection takes time", sitting in a b-dubs, I'm going to throw up.
  • TB's story about Grady Sizemore is a classic. Why is it that everytime I see Grady on the field, he reminds of the young Moonlight Graham character from Field of Dreams? He looks like he's 12, facing 30 year olds. I'm waiting for Ray Liotta to ask him if he thinks the next pitch is going to be low and away or in his ear. "Think low and away, but watch out for in your ear."
  • The Batter's Eye Bar has EXPLODED and is THE place to be during a game, but why not open the two picnic type areas during the game to make it even more of a party atmosphere?
  • Looking at the Media Guide, here's a quick question: How many Tribe players, on the roster today, were developed by the Indians?...4! Sabathia and Riske were drafted and Peralta and The Stick were non-drafted free agents.
  • That means the rest of the roster is made up of free agent signings or players Shapiro acquired in trades. Which led me to the next question: Finding the cupboard bare when he became GM, who did Shapiro trade to get the current players?...David Justice (Jake), Richie Sexson (Wicky), Jacob Cruz (Gerut and Bard), Russell Branyan (Broussard), Bartolo Colon (Grady and Lee), Einar Diaz and Ryan Drese (Hafner), Chuck Kitaen (Coco), and Robbie Alomar (Arthur Rhodes, by way of Matt Lawton). Sure Sexson would look good in a Tribe uni, but the proof is in the pudding. Shapiro has made some great trades to form this current roster. Sure, there are some duds (Scott Stewart for Ryan Church comes to mind), but I'll take that track record.

The sweep at the hands of the Sawx, while disheartening, only shows that the Indians are close; but are not there yet. They're beating up on the teams they should (Rockies, D-Backs), but haven't yet figured out how to battle the really good teams (Sox of both varieties, Angels, and even the Twins). They're on the right track though.

At the beginning of the homestand, I said that 38-35 was the worst case scenario and that 40-33 was the goal. A sweep of the Reds accomplishes the 40-33 and only a complete meltdown (losing 2 of 3 to the Reds) brings about the worst case. The conclusion of the homestand should put the team in a nice place.

With the Reds (and presumably, GM Dan O'Brien) in town for the series, could this be the forum to get a young RH outfielder (Kearns or Wily Mo, who for some reason are both on the trading block)?

I'm working up an organizational depth chart that should be finished soon. With all of the player movement in the minors, I thought it would be good to have an easy place to go to answer the question, "Who do we have in the minors at 3B?"

5 comments:

Cy Slapnicka said...

i really like the idea of bringing back the old chief wahoo. i would kill for a hat with a larger one on it. found a larger link for the one you reference: wahoo

i also hate the jerseys with the alternate color sleeves. just tacky. why don't we just change our colors to turquoise and black.

and PC, based on the fact that A. only 4 people read this, and B. none of us need a remedial lesson on Field of Dreams, i think its safe to say you didn't need to actually name the movie or spell out the scene. we woulda caught on. are you writing this column for women or baseball fans? maybe tomorrow you can teach us all how to calculate a batting average and explain that walks don't actually count as ABs in the statistics.

i'm still bitter about the sweep.

TB, i loved the story. and to tell you the truth, grady looks so innocent its quite possible he's walking around thinking, "i hope i don't let mr. bennet down". either that or treating his body like a jungle gym with some girl he picked up in the warehouse district.

Anonymous said...

there is way more than 4 people reading this...they just don't post because they don't want to match wits with the all knowing slapnicka...good line on grady though, he should surpass Jared Wright's #'s with little effort

i'm sensing that the sweep has left people a lot less hopeful of contention this year...i'm one of those people. I think we should move the fatboy for a decent RH bat that can potentially hit over .210. CY and PC will argue because they bought his shirts, but will he really be able to help us win divisions in the upcoming years

i will now go jump off my roof since i can no longer take the constant itching from poison ivy.

Cy Slapnicka said...

mister bachtel, you've reached a new low. you were sitting there posting to this blog (which MAYBE 5 people read) at 1am on a thursday night. maybe you should jump off your roof...into a pack of wolves

Paul Cousineau said...

Thanks for the love from the East Coast. Most e-mails I get from people who don't post mock the old Slapnicker.

I hope more than 5 people read this thing.

Got an about face on my attitude about the Tribe last night from a non-Clevelander (the wife). My whole attitude is "half-full" now.

Just scored tix in the left field lower corner. 4 games in a row!
More in the next blog.

Anonymous said...

PC, stop going to games