July 02, 2004

Hovering at .500

Okay, Sean Casey and Ken Griffey Jr. sat it out, but it was a satisfying 15-2 drilling of the Cincinnati Reds tonight. I'm working on a halfway-point post for the Indians, and trying to come up with a description for this team. Resilient, obviously. Flawed, but tough. It's too depressing to calculate where they'd be in the standings with even an average bullpen. So how do these guys keep their heads up? Bud Shaw says they're hungry:

It doesn't hurt either that the Indians roster is composed of players mostly too busy trying to establish themselves in the major leagues to get demoralized. Depression for them is the mildest, clearest baseball night in Buffalo. No matter how bad the losses are here, they remain major-league losses.

In more ways than one, of course.

The Indians have lost 19 games when they've been tied or held the lead in the seventh inning on. Nine times on the road a walk-off hit beat them, including five home runs. Yet a day off came Monday without any appearances on "Dr. Phil."

Credit Wedge. He has them buying into his plan for every game. As hitters they work counts, and hit "smart" more often than not. And as young as the team is, Wedge has them level-headed and playing like professionals. There are no hotheads or hotdogs on this team since they kissed off Milton Bradley. The budding, real friendships between players on the team are palpable when you watch them on TV. Casey Blake embracing, and hugging Ben Broussard the other night after the latter's grand slam broke him out of a long slump was touching.

And when will a beat reporter get the story on all these complicated dugout handshake/salute rituals when they're celebrating something? I mean we've seen this stuff before but these young Indians players are making it an art form. Seems like Victor Martinez and Ronnie Belliard are often at the heart of it, but they're all involved. They keep coming up with new and more involved handshakes all the time. They're having a blast with it.

You could make the case that this kind of behavior refutes my statement above that they play like professionals beyond their years, with no "hotdogs" and all. But as a fan I find the dugout antics endearing and funny. Perhaps the opponents feel differently but to me it's players having fun and growing together as friends and teammates.

As corny and cliché as that sounds, so far Wedge has managed to pull it off, at least in terms of the attitude, effort and morale of his team. Now, about that closer...

Posted by dan at July 2, 2004 10:48 PM
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