Just hours after manager Eric Wedge and his entire coaching staff were let go by Indians GM Mark Shapiro and the Dolan family ownership, the Tribe still had to take the field for a traditional doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. As I turned the game on at 4:05, all I wanted to see was h0w many people there were in the stands for first pitch.
Luckily, the STO cameras were “smart” enough to give us an overhead shot for the roof in right field. I am not joking when I tell you at 4:05, there couldn’t have been more than 200 people there. It was crazy. As I was driving to pick my son up from school, I had the game on the radio and I literally could hear some crazy fan yell at White Sox rookie Brent Lillibridge “Lillibridge? What kind of name is that?” Almost as if he had the crowd mic in his hand. It was that silent.
Speaking of silent, the White Sox bats were just that against the enigma that is Tribe starter Fausto Carmona. Now to start off, I will say that it was a cold 51 degrees (which feels like 31 at this time of year) against a team that clearly wanted this doubleheader to be over as soon as possible. Their at-bats against Carmona proved it. But Fausto showed some flashes of his old self during seven solid innings of work. He threw 103 pitches, giving up just five hits and two walks; a positive sign for a guy who’s command has been so shaky all season.
The offense provided just enough in the 5-1 win. They got two in the second on Matt LaPorta’s RBI double and Lou Marson’s sac fly; two more in the fourth on a Marson RBI single and a Trevor Crowe sac fly; and one in the sixth on Travis Hafner’s 16th jack of the season.
Chris Perez threw two scoreless innings to preserve the win for Carmona, his sixth of the season. It was good for the big right-hander to end the season on a high note, since it was marred by inconsistency and a trip all the way back down to rookie ball.
“I feel like I can be the guy I was in 2007,” he said through first-base coach Luis Rivera. “Believe it or not, I am trying to do that. I’ve learned a lot of good and bad. Sometimes the more I try to do I get in trouble. I have to back off a little. I can not say I had a good season, but I am looking forward to next year.”
Both teams managed just six hits apiece, which was great for the fans and workers at Progressive Field. Since the game went by so quickly – in just two hours and 17 minutes – game two of the double dip could start right at 7:05!
And you thought game one was quick? The night cap pitted Tribe starter Justin Masterson and his home ERA of just over 1.00 against Sox lefty Mark Buehrle, a notorious quick worker. Two hours and 17 minutes felt like a Yankess/Red Sox nine inning game in terms of length compared to this one.
Both teams flailed away all game long and acted as if they couldn’t get back to the dugout fast enough. Masterson was masterful – pitching his first career complete game, striking out a career-high 12 hitters. He allowed just four hits and two walks. One of those four hits, a Paul Konerko RBI single in the sixth, was the only run either team would score in the 1-0 home season finale.
That was probably because the Indians fielded a lineup only a player’s mother could love. You know when Trevor Crowe is hitting second behind Jamey Carroll, a high-scoring affair is not in the cards. The bottom of the order read like a who’s who of future ex-Indians: Kelly Shoppach, Andy Marte, Wyatt Toregas, Niuman Romero.
Of course they were going to be shut out. Like the Sox, the Wahoos managed just four hits off of Buehrle, Tony Pena, and Matt Thornton. It was almost as if Wedge said to himself “I want to see what collection of players I can put in my 1-9 that will get me home as quickly as possible tonight.”
He succeeded.
This game took just two hours and two minutes.
Back to Masterson, like Carmona, he ended his season on a positive, with his career best. It’s a shame it didn’t come in a win. “I wanted to end on a strong note and have something to take into spring training,” Masterson said. “I feel good about that. It was a strange day. We played two games of baseball in about five hours and had everything else going on, but kept battling.”
You can all but put these two in the 2010 rotation somewhere in the middle. But whoever manages them, probably won’t know what they have in either guy. As for their current manager, he went out of Progressive Field with a split, and his dignity. Earlier in the day, he faced the media after learning his job in Cleveland is done. It was a stand-up move by a stand-up guy. He knew his fate over a week ago, but stayed on anyways for the rest of the year.
“I still wanted to finish what we started this year,” said Wedge. “I felt it was the right thing to do. It’s been a long run here — as managers go. There are real factors that have led to this point in time. I understand that. The people in this organization understand that. That’s enough for me.”
Say what you want about him as a manager, but Wedge is a class act. How many other managers/coaches have you seen get right in front of the media the day they were fired, take responsibility for the performance of their team and praise the organization that just sent him packing? That is a real man right there.
And so the Grind comes to an end this weekend in Boston. Just what Eric Wedge needs, a trip to the place that essentially was the beginning of the end for him. He took a 3-2 lead into Fenway Park two years ago needing just one win to get to the World Series. He left without it.
In an even more fitting end to an era, longtime Tribe coach Joel Skinner will finish his career with the Indians organization in the stadium where he made the biggest blunder of his career. It is apropos that the last place he will ever give “The Skinner Stop Sign” in the Wahoo Red, White, and Blue is in Fenway Park. I still don’t forgive him.
Somewhere, Kenny Lofton is laughing.
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(Mark Duncan/AP)
Author: TD
TD is a born and bred Clevelander who agrees with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt when he says ""Ranch Dressing makes everything better except for cereal and ice cream."TD has written 253 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
They had 3 dollar tickets last night … and I still didn’t want to go sit (half of the weather, the other half half the team)
So the Jake looked like the Grind Canyon?
Sunday comes the Grind Finale.
Thanks, you’ve been wonderful!
I can’t wait until next week and this season is just over. Not that TD doesn’t do a great job covering the team, but I really want something better to read about during the 10AM time slot
When I was at Fenway Park this summer, I took pictures of the 3rd base coaching box, just to remind me of the pain Skinner has caused.
I’ll be at 2 of the games this weekend at Fenway, where rain is in the forecast for the entire weekend (very appropriate). I’ll be wearing my tribe jersey and might even bring a sign thanking Eric Wedge (I agree that he’s a class act).
tough year for the Tribe, and it looks like the Browns are quickly finding rock bottom, but thankfully we have the Cavs to root for this year.
In the meantime, someone grab Sal Fasano, please!
It’s just the last act of Hamlet or Macbeth — you know what’s going to happen, but you’re powerless to stop it.
And maybe that’s a good thing.
TD-if you watched Wedge’s presser, you saw for the first time someone who was relaxed (or as relaxed as Mr. Twitchy can be) and RELEIVED for this whole episode to finally end. He’s more than happy to have stayed on with two winning seasons in eight years, and collect the $1.3M remaining on his contract for next year. That’s the reason for his calmly and happily spoken words.
I wish him well personally, but please-enough about what a class act this guy is. He certainly won’t make it to a major market with his lack of personality and rigidity. I have serious doubts as to whether he’ll ever manage another big leauge game. But please, the overblown kudos for a guy who should never have been handed this job is well…………….
Isis -
There’s a difference between applauding the man and applauding the job the man did.
I can’t think of too many people in baseball who would have been as classy as Wedge has been in his departure. For this I too applaud him.
I also think there’s no doubt that Wedge and his coaching staff were unable to get this team over the hump of mediocrity. Something about the way Wedge ran the team (and there are a myriad of theories behind what the specific problems were) ensured that they wilted under pressure and played below their talent level far too often. For this I couldn’t be more excited to see him go.
And you’re fooling yourself if you think Wedge won’t find another ML job at some point. He has 7 years of experience and a career winning % just a shade below .500 (He’s 561-569 in his career as of today). His career managerial record looks no different from, say, a Jim Tracy before he was hired as manager of the Rockies this year.
I could see a team that’s been burned by a bad experience with a first-time manager (like, say Houston, where Cecil Cooper was tremendously unpopular with the players) looking to get someone in with some experience who can provide a steady hand. I can’t say I see Wedge necessarily managing next year, but it’s pretty easy to see him taking the “Bench Coach to Manager” route for some poor team in the not too distant future.
You know who is having a big national manager hunt…the Nationals.
Its time… its time… time to do the Capital Griiiiinnnndddd!
Eli you are silly.
Isis must be hella fun at family dinners. “Mom, I know you spent three hours cooking this turkey, that the selection at the store wasn’t the greatest, and that in spite of all of that you’re putting on a happy face for the rest of the family, but there’s no reason for this turkey not to be restaurant quality. In fact, I have no idea why you’ve still been in charge of making the turkey after Thanksgiving 1996 when the stuffing was over-cooked and the gravy was too lumpy. You’re clearly not qualified, and though I’m sure it is a relief for you not to be standing in the hot kitchen ramming bread crumbs up a frozen bird’s corn chute, I for one am happy that this dinner is over. If only you’d gotten rid of dad, too, then we’d have a better dining room table at which to eat your crappy food.”
DP Diesel FTW!
DP Diesel with the comment of the year!
@11
What’s wrong with that?