Saw a game and a half at The Jake this afternoon. Maybe 3,000 of the crowd of 17,000-plus were still around when Coco Crisp singled home the winning run in the 13th inning. Each inning from the 8th on, a significant exodus of fans occurred when the Indians failed to score in their half of the inning. Sure, it was 50 degrees and windy and nasty, and I guess most fans had reason to be pessimistic when they realized that the game had become a "battle of the bullpens". But I still have a hard time understanding how people can get up and leave a game in which they have invested three and a half hours, that is still tied in extra innings. Got a dinner date? Afraid you'll feel like an idiot if you stick around and then we lose anyway?
It's another example of how drastically different the crowds at Jacobs Field are today, compared with the sellouts of the 90's. Clearly the product on the field is not a playoff caliber team, but there is zero enthusiasm for what is going on out on the field. Unless the scoreboard puts up the pathetic "Make Some Noise" notice when we need one more strike from Sabathia to retire the side, the crowd sits in dazed silence. There's no applause when the next Indians hitter is announced, and almost no verbal exhortation from fans to players as the game goes along. One of the reasons I continue to yell "Let's go, Jody", or "Sit 'im down, C.C." from my seat some 25 rows back is that I'm sure the players will be able to hear me, such is the frustrating silence that prevails most of the time. That, and I'm hoping I can demonstrate to some young or inhibited fans that it's OK to yell positive, encouraging things to individual players or to the team in general. Nobody gets hurt. And I do feel like I loosen up some of the people sitting around me, because they start to yell too, once they see or hear me do it. But it's still a drop in the bucket. These people are lifeless.
While I'm recounting pet peeves about Indians games, let me say that I continue to be embarrassed for the organization when they play that idiotic "Talkin' Tribe" song every game, as the Indians are taking the field for the top of the first. Even Michael Stanley's "This is My Team", in all of its vapidity, wasn't as grating to the ears as this lame number:
We've got the players, this guy's really hot (Hot, Hot)
We've got a future, we're headed to the top
We're on the warpath, it's spreadin' far and wide
We're talkin' baseball (Indians Baseball) Talkin' Tribe!
We're on the warpath? I know we can do better than that. And to sing "we've got a future" is an admission that we lack a present. On top of that, it's just a really stupid song. Even at that however, it's not as embarrassing as playing "We Will Rock You!" when we're down 5-1, and we get a man on first with two outs in the 8th inning. We will what? Really?
Enough bitching. I love watching C.C. Sabathia pitch. That he owns 44 big league wins at the tender age of 23 is remarkable, but it's been great to watch him mature in his approach to pitching over the last year or so. Despite being all business when he's on the mound, he has some endearing quirks and habits that are becoming his trademarks, and make him fun to watch.
For one, he always catches the ball with his bare hand when it comes back to him after being thrown around the infield following a putout, (which only happens with no runners on base). Early in his career, the third baseman would throw it to him from the customary spot near third base. Always a nice soft lob, but even that I thought was pretty risky, given the money riding on the fingers of C.C's pitching hand staying healthy. I've noticed that now, probably at the insistence of management, Blake and C.C. walk toward each other as the ball is going around so that when Blake takes the throw he is standing right next to C.C., and flips it to him from a foot away. It's a little thing, but it's cool. And C.C. is far from the first guy to have a superstition about stepping on the foul lines when he goes on and off the field from the dugout. But when a guy that big vaults the line, people notice...and the earth moves a bit.
And then there's the baseball cap, tugged to one side, which is C.C's "look". It might elicit some ridicule from opponents or even teammates if he wasn't 6' 7", 300 lbs. and throwing a baseball 97 mph. In fact, it appears that the look is becoming something of a trend. Called the "C.C. Hat", it's so cool, it's catching on. I love it.
One last thing. Isn't it about time somebody gave Mark Shapiro a pat on the back for signing Ronnie Belliard? All the personnel moves don't work out, and I'm sure that the performances of Scott Stewart and Jose Jiminez will get better, and Belliard will undoubtedly cool off. These things balance out. But by anybody's standards, a month is a long time to hit over .400, and nobody expected anything like this performance, defensively as well as offensively, from this kid. No matter what happens the rest of the way, this guy can play, and Shapiro deserves the kudos for seeing it.
Here's a recent Minor League Report (in .pdf file format), that includes player statistics for all the farm teams. Note that at AAA Buffalo, the Indians' middle infielders of the future are tearing the cover off the ball. Brandon Phillips is hitting .359, and Jhonny Peralta is at .368.
Posted by dan at May 1, 2004 10:16 PM