Heartbreak alert …
19OK, I’m seeing heartbreak. Maybe this is just Cleveland paranoia perking up. Maybe is just the involuntary reaction the body has after a lifetime of watching John Elway and Michael Jordan revive that stabbing scene in Psycho. Then again, maybe it has something to do with Eric Wedge’s adamant announcement that the Indians will start Paul Byrd in Game 4 against the Yankees — a move I strongly, strongly, strongly, strongly disagree with. Can you add a few more stronglies in there? Is that how you spell “stronglies?” How about stronglys?
Anyway, I’m seeing heartbreak in the very near future.
This baseball postseason has been very surprising and interesting for me. I believe that sportswriters should not entirely lose the sports fan inside them. This is what I admire about Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy. I know that Bill’s work has been critiqued and analyzed to death all over the Internet, and I don’t want to get into any of that. The guy makes me laugh. That’s enough for me. But the larger point is that Bill never has been afraid to be a fan, and I think that’s appealing.
Now, of course, you can take this too far. I was listening to a college football postgame show on the radio, and there was some reporter interviewing the players. The guy sounded like the Chris Farley Saturday Night Live character, you know, the one who told Schwarzenegger: “Remember when you did that scene in The Terminator, and you said ‘I’ll be back,’ and then you came back … that was awesome.”
This is how the radio interview went as best I can remember:
Interviewer: “Scott, you had just a great game.”
Scott: “Well, I had a pretty critical fumble, and that’s just inexcusable.”
Interviewer: “But the fumble didn’t prevent your team from winning the game, and you made so many great plays. You really were incredible.”
Scott: “Right, well, I’m pretty hard on myself and I can’t fumble there.”
Interviewer: “Hey, you are just always trying to get better, that’s what so amazing about you. Even when you make a tiny mistake that doesn’t really hurt anybody, you still use that as motivation.”
Scott: “Well, a fumble’s a big thing,.”
Interviewer: “Thank you Scott, you are a great player. You just keep being you.”
That’s how he closed off all his interviews: “You just keep being you.” So, yeah, you can take the whole “remember what it is to be a fan” thing too far. But, I do believe that you can go too far the other way too, you can cover sports without emotion, without joy, and as Boots the monkey says in Dora the Explorer, “That’s not so good.” (Oh yeah, I’m quoting Boots the monkey, you’re damn right. If I have to watch it, you have to hear about it). I think it’s important to keep a connection to that thing that drew you to sports in the first place — the worst feeling in the world for me as a sports reader is to pick up a story, read all the way through it, and feel at the end, “Oh man, this guy HATES sports.”
I hope nobody has ever said that about me, because I do love sports, and I want that to come through. I’m a fan. Thing is, I have over the years become a fan in a much broader sense. It isn’t about one team or one player now. I’m a fan of great moments. I’m a fan of great players. I’m a fan of drama, a fan of excellence, a fan of inspirational stories. I would like to see the home teams win, sure, makes life better, but more than that I’m a fan of good people. It made me happy when Tony Dungy won the Super Bowl last year. It made me happy when Roger Clemens got knocked out of Sunday’s game. Same reason.
But I would say that somewhere along the way, I did lose some of that irrational fan I had been as a boy, the one who believed that Rick Waits would win 20, the fan who sat in bed and stared at walls for hours when the Browns lost, the fan who screamed “Get a damn rebound, one damn rebound, just one,” over and over at the television when the Cleveland Cavaliers were playing. I guess I believe that most people outgrow that fan much in the same way that most people at some age stop going to keggers and stop pretending they get today’s music.
Well, this postseason has been interesting because, rather to my surprise, I am finding myself entirely drawn in by this Cleveland Indians team. Maybe it comes down the fact that I’m 40 now, and Cleveland has never won a single thing in my entire life, and I’ve had enough of that (I will have an excruciatingly long entry on my Cleveland fanhood shortly). Maybe it’s because I like the way this Indians team was built. Maybe it’s because they’re playing the Yankees. Whatever the reason, for the first time in years, I feel a bit of that old Indians fan coming out. It’s not as crazy. I’m not yelling at televisions (except when Dick Stockton is announcing games) and I’m not losing my appetite if the Indians lose (I’m beyond letting anything affect my eating).
But I can say that I really would like to see this Indians team break the spell. And I’m seeing heartbreak ahead. The Indians lost Sunday night. Now, they’re going with Paul Byrd, which probably means another loss — and an eventual Game 5. I cannot believe they’re starting Paul Byrd. I mean I know Paul, I’ve written about him — he’s gutsy enough. He has done what he can with his abilities. I respect that. But come on.
To me, you have to win one of the next two games, and you have two of the best pitchers in baseball, C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. You HAVE to start them in Games 4 and 5 and give yourself the best shot to win. You cannot start Paul Byrd. That’s all.
This is what drives me absolutely crazy about some coaches/managers — I like Wedge just fine. But it seems like they forget that the whole point, especially in the playoffs, is to win. That’s all. It isn’t to make people happy. It isn’t to pay homage to tradition. It isn’t to make friends. Win. Sometimes I think Bill Belichick is the only guy who gets this. People say: What is it that makes Belichick so great? Is he smarter than everyone else? Does he work harder? Is he more ruthless? Is it because he spies on his former coaches? What?
I’ll tell you what I think it is: The guy plays to win. End of story. I remember a couple of years ago, the Pats were playing the Colts, and that’s when Peyton Manning had his record-breaking year. Now, you know all year, defensive coordinators were breaking down film, having late night meetings, losing sleep. And you KNOW that at some point, more than one of them said: “You know what we should do? We should just rush two linemen and drop back nine into coverage. The guy will never know what hit him.”
And then those coordinators laughed, shared that goofy idea with other coaches as a joke, had a little more coffee, and went back to some standard defense which Manning carved up.
So what did Belichick do? He thought, “Hey, you know what we should do? We should rush two linemen and drop back nine into coverage. The guy will never know what hit him.”
And then they DID it. Now, the strategy worked, but even if it didn’t work — so what? The point is he figured out what he honestly believed to be the best way to win, then he put that plan into motion. He didn’t run scared. As a fan, that’s all I want from my manager or coach. Do everything you can to win. If it doesn’t work, hey, losing is part of the deal. If Sabathia gets racked in Game 4 (he has only gone on three days rest once in his career, and that was back in 2001 — though he did throw a one-hitter for five innings in that outing), so be it. If Carmona loses Game 5, OK, you tried.
But if you lose the series because you just gave away Games 3 and 4 by starting Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd, well, that’s just a whole lot harder to live with. And yet, that’s the way they’re going. Yep, heartbreak. I can almost feel it now.
A few quick postseason thoughts:
– I have no idea how Arizona wins games. None at all. They one good starter, a most-of-the-time leadoff hitter with a .295 on-base percentage, and Orlando Hudson and Conor Jackson hitting three-four in the lineup. You couldn’t win 90 games with this team in Strat-o-Matic if you were playing in a league where the other managers didn’t know the basic rules. Then again, Grady Little is in their division.
– Nice effort by the Cubs, eh? I mean, seriously, that’s embarrassing. I mean, you know it’s bad when you have Lou pulling Zambrano in Game 1 in some sort of misguided anticipation of using him in Game 4, and the Cubs are NEVER IN THE LEAD AGAIN. That’s bad stuff.*
*I guess, technically, the Cubs did lead 2-0 in the middle of the second inning of Game 2. But Arizona scored four in the bottom of the inning.
– I love this Rockies story. I also have this image, this vision, of a Cleveland-Colorado World Series, with Cleveland FINALLY winning and burying the ghostly image of John Elway that still haunts the city.
– While driving around, I picked up a rather bizarre interview that XM radio had with Boof Bonser about the postseason. You gotta love the Boof. He didn’t really offer too much insight into the postseason, but in the “Ha ha, let’s just talk about football” portion of the interview, Boof gave a great answer. The host, in one of those happy talk type statements, said Boof had to be happy that Jon Gruden (who coaches Boof’s beloved Tampa Bay Bucs) didn’t manage his baseball team.
Boof responded: “Well, I don’t really want to get into that, but I’ll tell you this, I’m not going to say if you’re right or wrong about that, but you’re right.” You rarely get that many contradictions in one sentence not spoken by a presidential candidate at a debate.
Coming soon (maybe):
– An in-depth look at what it has meant to be a Cleveland sports fan.
– A study to determine what your city’s SHQ is (“Sports Heartbreak Quotient.”)
– A live in-game chat with New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro.
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The D-Backs are unbelievable… their Pythagorean W-L is 79-83. Winning 90 is just crazy. I’m almost rooting for them out of sheer spite for all that we hold good and true in the game.
I don’t disagree with you, as I’ve written more than enough times on my own blog - starting Byrd diminishes the team in several ways. He got shelled by the Yankees in his last start, although he pitched well enough for 5 outs and then the wheels came off. He tends to overthrow in high-pressure situations. More importantly, he comes with Kelly Shoppach, which means sitting either Hafner or Garko and playing VMart out of position.
Wedge is playing percentages here. Postseason starters on short rest win only 25% of the time, and CC has started on short rest only once in his career. CC also threw 114 pitches on Thursday, so Wedge has little confidence he’d bounce back and give you 6-7 IP. Also, Byrd pitches better on extra rest. With 6 or more days’ rest, he’s got a 3.86 ERA in six starts. On normal rest, it’s 4.81 in 22 starts. Wedge also knows Byrd tends to get run support, and the Tribe is likely to hit well against Wang pitching on three days rest.
With all that said, I still say play to win tonight, pitch CC, and bring Carmona back on normal rest Wednesday if necessary.
“– I love this Rockies story. I also have this image, this vision, of a Cleveland-Colorado World Series, with Cleveland FINALLY winning and burying the ghostly image of John Elway that still haunts the city. ”
And the entire World Series played in snowdrifts.
In all seriousness, Boston-Cleveland will be more fun to watch than the World Series, to me, even if the NL wins the WS. Carmona/Sabatthia/Beckett/Dice K/Schilling on the mound, Hafner/Ortiz/Manny/Martinez at the plate. Right there, that’s more star power than both Colorado or Arizona can muster.
It reminds me of the NBA when the Western Conf. Finals is what you want to watch, even when you know the NBA Finals loom and you know there’s a possibility the Eastern representative might actually win.
Joe:
I know exactly what you mean about learning to love the “great moments” in sports as opposed to a specific loyalty to a particular team. I’m a Chicago guy and grew up watching Walter Payton, I loved Sweetness not just because he was a great running back, but because he was devoted to playing the game the right way, he never disrespected the game or the fans. My expectation was that all fans, regardless of their favorite team would respect Payton for the player he was.
As a Bears fan I create a bit of controversy because I’m also a huge Brett Favre fan. I never actively root for the Packers, but I always root for Favre to do well because he’s so much fun to watch and you have to admire his love of the game. It drives my brother nuts. It’s also led to some interesting situations. You try being in a bar on the southwest side of Chicago wearing a Bears jersey and letting out a cheer for Favre. Let me tell ya’ some people just aren’t as mature as we are.
As far as starting Byrd, I don’t share your fear. I haven’t researched the stats, but my memory tells me he comes up big in big games.
On the other hand it doesn’t seem Wedge has learned anything from Pinella. In the playoffs, the most important game to win is the game you’re playing. It doesn’t make much sense trying to plan ahead when you should be planning to end it now.
Joe –
I agree with your overall theme, but dislike the focus on results over process. If Lou’s pulling of Zambrano for Marmol had worked out and Zambrano was able to come back in G4 to shutdown the Dbacks, wouldn’t that have been a great example of a manager playing to “win”? Instead, it worked out the worst way possible and now he’s getting flamed for doing something unconventional. I think you shouldn’t urge Wedge to do something unconventional when you similarly excoriate Piniella after he tried and failed. Plus, there are good arguments for Wedge to keep with Byrd. In addition to the points raised the previous comment, if they win G4, they will have their top two lined up to start the ALCS. Remember, it’s not just about one game, but about 11.
i’m a red sox fan but live in arizona and it has been interesting watching them this year. the team’s pythagorean W-L record is a little deceiving when you take into account their 5th starter was getting blown out on a regular basis. they don’t have to worry about a 5th starter in the postseason. and they don’t even have orlando hudson right now. he’s out for the year with a thumb injury.
the other nice thing about them being in the playoffs is you don’t have to listen to mark grace and don sutton’s kid announcing the games on TV. a few weeks back when they were trailing the pirates 5-1 in pittsburgh, grace and sutton start in with “come on diamondbacks fans back home in arizona let’s find our happy place. let’s think good thoughts, happy thoughts. c’mon we can do this.” i always liked grace as a player but stuff like that is embarrassing. my grandmother has more balls than those two guys.
This was a really fun and enjoyable blog, thank you. I want you to know that what you write is not relegated to writers. I am not a writer, and I am a baseball fan. A Yankee fan, to be exact. I remember living and dying with moments when I was 8, in 1977. I remember Nettles in game 3 vividly, and he became my hero. I am touched by this blog because to call myself a fan now might just be an insult to my 8 year-old self. My chief regret if the Yankees lose is that I will have to look for other points of interest, among teams with which I have no emotional investment at all. I don’t even hate the Red Sox anymore. But I AM still a fan, even if A-Rod is not my hero.
Hmm. I thought what Lou did was defensible. You talked at length about Belichick and how he figures out the best plan to win and then enacts said plan. Well, Lou thought up what he believed was the best plan and went with it. It might have been the best plan, too. But it didn’t work, and therefore it will be shredded as idiocy. Which is EXACTLY why those other coaches/managers don’t use unorthodox planning more often.
As a Yankee fan, I’m sure happy Byrd is starting tonight. There’s no guarantee that he won’t go out and throw a shutout, of course, but if the Yankee offense fails to pound the snot out of Paul Byrd, they don’t deserve to advance to the ALCS anyway. This gives the Yanks a better chance of forcing a game 5 (at which point they’re probably toast anyway - Sabathia/Carmona v. Pettitte), and that’s really all I can ask at this point.
For those who think it’s a bad plan, though, I’d take it easy on Eric Wedge. Not only would CC be going on 3 days rest, but the guy threw 114 pitches in game 1, and many of those I would describe as high stress pitches. It’s not like he cruised. Still, if it were my call, I’d bring him back for tonight.
For the very reasons you love baseball and the Indians, you should also appreciate the Dbacks. Those of us who have watched all year are still amazed, but we get it…they win with guts, with heart and soul, with well-timed hit and run calls, with manufactured runs, with a great bullpen and absolute hustle. Long before the beancounters ruled the game and devised such notions as a “Pythagorean W-L record” there were teams and players who just got dirty, refused to be intimidated by big salaries and flashy stars, and refused to be told they weren’t “supposed to win.” This team could lose (and has lost) 14-3 in one game, but still take 2 out of 3 by eking out a couple 1-run wins, and not care on whit about having been “outscored” in the series. And why should they? Sure, Bill James might roll his eyes, but do we play to win ACTUAL games or to please Mr. James and win his HYPOTHETICAL games?
One poster said “I’m almost rooting for them out of sheer spite for all that we hold good and true in the game.” To the contrary, sir: if you hold hustle, defense, and competitive fire to be “good and true,” then there is nothing spiteful about announcing your appreciation for this Arizona team. Save the “spite” for the beancounters who believe that games are won and lost within their calculators, and not by human beings on a field of play.
Go Tribe! I agree with the Colorado-Cleveland WS goal. I lived in Cleveland for the Drive, Fumble, and Shot, so I feel your pain. But here’s one trend– OSU loses in the championship game in football and basketball. Cavs get swept in Finals. Ohio teams are 0-6 in title games this year. And we know the Browns won’t be there!
I live in AZ now, and the D-backs are wild. It’s like Earl Weaver’s ghost is helping the team. Pitching and defense just need the occasional 3-run homer to win. You look at Paul Blair, Mark Belanger and some of the other old Orioles– that team was built just like the D-backs. And they won some World Series.
With all this talk I really dont know what to think, as a die hard indians fan, I would keep my fingers crossed and say its in god’s hands now.
I was watching the Indians-Yankees game last night and every time they showed Wedge on TV (during the first few innings–when the Tribe still had the lead) I swear he looked like HIS team was down two games to none, his boss had told him HIS job was on the line, and he was about to hurl his dinner at any moment. He may want to work on his poker face a bit before tonight’s Indians loss (um game).
I think this is a fascinating argument. I personally agree that Sabathia should take the ball on three days rest in Game 4, and for not one but TWO major reasons.
1) Sabathia, even on three days rest, gives the Indians a better chance to win Game 4 than Paul Byrd. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe Byrd pulls a great game out of his hat and eliminates my Yankees, but he has a rough history against New York. He doesn’t walk anyone, so if the Yanks can’t swing the bats tonight they would be in trouble. I would say early run support could benefit Byrd, but he did not escape the 4th inning when staked to a 5-0 lead against Randy Johnson and the Yanks while with the Angels in the 2005 ALDS. Point being, if Sabathia is the ace people claim he is, he could beat the Yankees on three days rest, and Eric Wedge has to give him the opportunity.
2) By not starting Sabathia in Game 4, Wedge will feel obliged to start his ace in a potential Game 5, rather than Fausto Carmona. And with all due respect to C.C. Sabathia, but Carmona is the last pitcher I want to see as a Yankee fan, given his 9-inning, 3-hit, 1-run performance in Game 2. Were Sabathia to start Game 4, it would allow Carmona to start Game 5 for the Indians, at home, on full rest. As it stands, I would love to see Carmona again in this series, because than it means the Yankees will have won Game 4, and will have already knocked Sabathia out of Game 5 with stalwart Andy Pettitte protecting a lead that could send them to the ALCS.
So you see, this decision not only could help the Yankees in tonight’s game, but in a potential Game 5 as well. It’s a scared decision, made by a manager more reluctant to lose than willing to win. The Indians might still win this series, but if they don’t this will be a decision they’ll sorely regret.
Sports fans in the Queen city miss your writing.
The difference between what Pinella did and what Wedge is doing is that Pinella was saving Zambrano for a Game 4 that he wasn’t certain of having. Plus, pulling his ace in a 1-1 game probably decreased his chances of winning Game 1.
Wedge knows he has two games in which to get one win. It’s very likely that he thinks he’s got a better chance of getting that win with Byrd on full rest tonight with Sabathia AND Carmona ready to go in Game 5. It would be asking a lot of C.C. to put him out there in the biggest game of his life, on short rest, against the best hitting team in baseball.
Wha……? Dude, Sabathia led MLB in innings pitched this year, and was clearly not in top form in Game 1. Byrd just needs to keep it close, and may surprise with his junk….then if it goes back to CLE, Sabathia is rested and Fausto is ready for Game 1 vs Beckett, with CC against their #3 or 4.
And the beautiful unpredictability of sports — this time embodied by Paul Byrd — comes and bites this post in the butt. There’s plenty of logic here, the same logic that lines baseball previews and predictions at the beginning of the season. All works on paper, but goes out the window on the field. Scores of Paul Byrd’s litter the playoffs, reminding us it’s not just about the stars. It takes 5, or 25 … or however many you got. That’s why they play. That’s why we watch. The day you/we figure it out, is the day it no longer matters. Lucky us.
TRIBE WINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nuff said
[...] at throwing out the book and doing what needs to be done to win. A fine example of this comes from a long blog post that Joe Posnanski did this week. Primarily it’s about the baseball playoffs (Joe is the [...]