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October 28, 2010Cavaliers and Their Fans Show a Winning Spirit in Season Debut
October 28, 2010With Texas and San Francisco both vying for a World Series title this week, I figured it was time to look back on what happened to the mid to late 90’s Indians teams. Whether the Rangers or the Giants win, it will erase one of the top five longest droughts in Major League Baseball history. Texas has never won a World Series, while the Giants last title was before they moved to the city by the bay. This of course leaves the Indians and the Cubs at the top of the list.
It shouldn’t have been this way.
The 1994 Cleveland Indians were a young team coming into their own and swash-buckled their way to a 70-47 record, trailing the division leading Chicago White Sox by just one game when the strike ended the season prematurely. The next year, the Tribe was the best team in Baseball from start to finish. They won an insane 100 of their 144 games during the strike-shortened season and boasted the game’s best offense. They would fall short however, losing to the Atlanta Braves in six games of the ’95 World Series. We all seemed “happy to be there” at the time, thinking this run was just beginning.
It was just the beginning of two things in fact – great regular seasons that ended up in October despair, and not so memorable managerial decisions by skipper Mike Hargrove.
During Game Six of that World Series, he made the ever controversial decision in a 0-0 game to allow left-handed reliever Jim Poole, who hadn’t had an at-bat all year, attempt to lay down a sac bunt with the lead run on first base with nobody out. Hargrove wanted Poole to be in the game to face David Justice to start the home half of the seventh. Poole, naturally failed in his bunt try, and compounded Grover’s mistake by giving up a solo homer to Justice; the only run of the title clinching game for the Braves. Never mind the fact that Hargrove carried two other lefties on the postseason; Paul Assenmacher and Alan Embree.
The ’96 team breezed through another AL Central season, and met the Baltimore Orioles in the first round of the playoffs. Instead of a second consecutive trip to the Fall Classic, the Wahoos were upset by the Baltimore Orioles in four games. This was a missed opportunity that Tribe fans seem to gloss right over. It was Albert Belle’s contract year and he was a beast again. The everlasting image of Albert that is burned in my brain was his grand slam off of Armando Benitez in Game Three of the ALDS at Jacobs Field. That stadium rocked like it never had before.
What nobody remembers was Mike Hargrove was about to take the bat out of Albert’s hands in that situation. With two on and nobody out, Grover sent pinch hitter Casey Candaele to the plate in place of Jim Thome to bunt both runners into scoring position. If Candaele did his job, then first base would be open and Orioles manager Davey Johnson would have no doubt called for an intentional walk. Luckily for Hargrove, Candaele was walked loading the bases for Albert, who bailed Grover and his team out. This mistake, he skated on, but it was just a one game stay of execution.
In Game Four, a day after Belle’s magnificent grand slam gave the Indians a win, Hargrove brought out his closer Jose Mesa for a fourth inning (after he had blown the save in the ninth) in the 12th despite having long man Chad Ogea ready in the bullpen. The Indians season would come to a premature end after the then-hated Robbie Alomar took Joe Table deep, giving the Orioles a 3-1 series win. I defy you to find me a playoff game since 1996 where a similar situation occurred and a pitcher who 99 out of 100 times pitched one inning per game, came out for not just a third, but a fourth inning of work. Of the many blunders Hargrove made in the playoffs, this one may be the most egregious. Though the Tribe would get their revenge a year later, ’96 was viewed as a blown opportunity and we’d never see Albert Belle in the Red, White, and Blue again.
As frustrated as I was with Grover after the ’96 playoff loss, he certainly redeemed himself in ’97 as he took perhaps the worst team in the “Era of Champions” to within two outs of ending the cities decades long title drought. (SIDE NOTE – only in Cleveland would we refer to a time period as “The Era of Champions” yet not have any titles to go along with it). Gone were Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle, and Dennis Martinez. In were Justice, Marquis Grissom, and wonder-boy Jaret Wright. Jim Thome moved from third to first base to make room for the one year stop-over of Matt Williams. It was a different team and while they only won 86 games in the regular season, had that team of destiny feel.
Don’t believe me? How else can you explain being three outs away from elimination vs. Mariano Rivera in the ALDS and winning that series in Five; Or coming back after Grissom lost a ball in the sky in a 1-0 game in the ninth thanks to an Omar Vizquel missed squeezed bunt that resulted in a walkoff win in Game Three of the ALCS against Baltimore; Or Sandy Alomar’s walkoff winning single in Game Four; Or Tony Fernandez’s homer off of Benitez breaking a scoreless tie in the 11th inning to clinch the AL Pennant in Baltimore on a night that the Indians were out hit 12-4; or getting two wins from Ogea in the World Series against Florida, one of which included him getting not one, but two hits and an RBI.
Not even Grover’s incessant righty/lefty crap was going to derail that ’97 team. It worked to perfection in the seventh and eighth innings of Game Seven in Miami.
The ’99 Indians were another major disappointment to me and to me, was the straw that broke the camel’s back with Grover. The Indians housed the Red Sox in the first two games at Jacobs Field and headed to Boston needing just one win to get back to the ALCS for a fourth time in five years. I do partially blame myself for this epic meltdown because I booked a plane ticket back to Cleveland from Chicago to come home for the ALCS the following weekend, but the real blame goes to Hargrove.
In Game Three, the Indians looked like they were heading for a sweep, but starting pitcher Dave Burba inflamed a muscle in his forearm and had to come out of the game in the fourth inning. Did Hargrove turn to a long man such as Sean DePaula, who had done a very nice job late in the season? Nope, he strangely decided to go to Wright, his scheduled game four starter and a kid who has never once pitched out of the bullpen. Wright was a disaster and the game quickly got out of hand. But again, Grover had a chance to right the wrong – with the bases loaded in a tie game in the sixth, he left lefty Ricky Rincon in the game to face the right-handed hitting Indian killer John Valentin. For years, Hargrove was a slave to the righty/lefty theory, yet this time, with DePaula ready and warm, he let Little Ricky face Valentin, who doubled to clear the bases. The Indians were blown out of game three 18-4, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
Hargrove left himself with two starters who would have to go in games Four and Five on three days rest – Charles Nagy and Bartolo Colon; neither of which had any success in their careers in this situation. Nagy and Colon were miserable failures and the Indians lost the last two games, including game five at home, where they were done in by the great Troy O’Leary (hit a grand slam and a three run homer).
I don’t know what I’m trying to prove by pointing out Hargrove’s October shortcomings. Its just that its World Series time and I despise the fact that the Indians missed so many good chances to win a title in the mid to late 90’s.
15 Comments
Thanks for bringing up all those buried memories…
TD, thanks for the memory. I was at several of those games at the Jake, and it was a thrill to be there.
However, you criticize Hargrove for being a slave to his incessant righty/lefty crap, but then you note that “It worked to perfection” in ’97 and then you criticize him for not being a slave to it in ’99.
Ah, there’s a fine line between an honest post-mortem and second-guessing.
^Strike “honest” and insert “unbiased.”
Haha jbreg, I started reading this, then read your comment. Maybe I will just read half of this article. It was weird being young (I was 9 when we face Atlanta), and having the best baseball team in the AL. It would be nice to have that again. Crying at the end of the Marlins game is not my favorite child hood memory, but Jim Thome signing every piece of Thome memorabilia at Winter Haven will long live with me. And to think, the only World Series those great Braves teams won was against Cleveland. Story of our city’s life.
MrC – I have no problem with him sticking to his guns going righty/lefty all the time. But in 99 he didnt and it may have cost us that series with Boston. As for 97, yes, it worked.
Great job, guys, of finding the black lining to the silver cloud of the Cleveland sports scene this week. In a week when the normally hapless Browns beat the defending Super Bowl champs…and the Cavs open with a huge win vs. Boston…we get an article beating up Grover for playoff losses. Nothing like being a Cleveland sports fan….
Grover was not the manager because he was a great strategist, He was the manager becasue he could handle a roster of players, some of whom were hard to control. This aspect is more important during the long season, and in the post season, the weakness at strategy comes out. What I fault Grover for is not having the bench coach strategist who could have pointed these things out to him. No different than faulting Mike Brown for not having a stong offensive coach during his tenure.
Having said all that, I suffered through the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s, and have great memories of being with my sons as we all saw our first live post season games in the 90’s
“With Texas and San Francisco both vying for a World Series title this week, I figured it was time to look back on what happened to the mid to late 90’s Indians teams.”
Nope. It’s never time to look back at how we lost those games. Don’t rain on our Cavs opening night win with some Cleveland history misery.
I was 11 in 95
Haven’t cried since
Yikes- welcome to Masochism Central. What, tired of spanking Acta, Brown is gone and Mangini gets a 2 week reprieve?
Re 1995, that wasn’t on Grover. Pitching usually wins a series. Our old crafty pitchers were not going to win a 7 game series against Maddox, Glavine and Smoltz in their primes. That Atlanta staff was historically great. It went 6 games but didn’t feel that close.
None of that hurts as much as 2007. I still think about that ALCS, a lot.
Agh. Thanks for providing my weekly dose of Cleveland sports castration, TD.
you are really nitpicking here. for one, you are talking about a manager that did get us to the WS in 2 out of 5 seasons (not counting ’94 since there wasn’t a WS to get to).
I would bet that Atlanta fans can do the same with Bobby Cox if they want to (find 3-5 supposed managerial errors during their 14 straight playoff runs), but what is the point really?
in fact, i disagree with many of your assertions on what his mistakes were.
1. Game6 of ’95 WS – I would defend Hargrove on this one. In this pitching duel, you want your best pitcher facing Justice. It backfired because Poole gave up the HR, but if Grover thought Poole was his best pitcher to face him, then his decision is warranted (yes you can argue the other side that every run was gold in that situation, but I say it’s a 50/50 call which you value more)
2. Game3 of ’96 ALDS – so, you are saying that if he did his job, you have bases loaded with 1-out. If we get lucky (which we did), then you have bases loaded with nobody out and Belle at the plate. Both sound like pretty darn good options (let’s say he let Thome bat and he strikes out. Now you have 2-on and 1-out for Belle instead. I’ll take my chances how it played out).
3. Game4 of ’96 ALDS – I have no idea what Grover was thinking. This was a bad move IMO.
4. Game3 of ’99 ALDS – agreed, throwing Wright out there was not wise. But, just a case of focusing on the short term of closing out the series, so more forgivable than #3.
Oh man, this was a painful read.
All this would have been avoided if the Indians had been willing to part with Jaret Wright in a deal for Pedro Martinez, or if they could have convinced Curt Schilling to come here in ’97.
Put either of those guys on the staff and the Indians win in ’97 and probably in ’98 as well. And I would have liked their chances in ’99.
Now I just made myself more depressed.
I was just going to say that I remember being curled up in the basement TV room crying after the World Series in ’97. Glad to know everyone else was out there with me.
I was 12.