Bye, Jhonny; roundup

• In case you missed it, the Indians traded Jhonny Peralta to the Tigers just before last night's game against the Yankees. Peralta came up through the Indians system and debuted in the majors in 2003, then replaced the great Omar Vizquel as the Indians' shortstop beginning in 2005. He never really lived up to the expectations the Tribe front office had for him. In '05, at just 23 years old, Peralta hit .292 with 24 home runs (the latter number a team record for a shortstop) and appeared to be a budding superstar. But he's never had another year that good. He's been a good enough hitter for a shortstop, except that he was never a very good defensive shortstop, which is why they moved him to third this year to make way for the slick-fielding Asdrubal Cabrera at short. He is just 28 (barring any forged documentation; he is Dominican, after all) and may have more good years in him, but I wouldn't put money on it. And since he is in the walk year of his contract and the Indians aren't going anywhere, there was really no reason not to move him.

• Coming back from Detroit is Giovanni Soto, who is not to be confused with Cubs catcher Geovany Soto. This Soto is a 19-year-old minor league pitcher who hails from Puerto Rico, and is 6-6 with a 2.61 ERA in A-ball. He's a long way from the majors, but his early results are promising. He's struck out more than three times as many hitters as he's walked, and he's given up just two home runs in 82 innings. Still, though, a lot can happen to a young arm, and the proverbial streets are proverbially littered with the proverbial bodies of many promising young pitchers who never made it because their young elbows and shoulders couldn't handle the strain they were putting on them. I'd have thought the Indians could have gotten more than that for an established major league infielder who can play short or third and has some pop in his bat.

• I love this a lot more than I feel I should: Some douchebag showed up at the Indians-Yankees game last night wearing a Miami Heat LeBron James jersey, and got screamed at and taunted so much, he had to leave. The police escorted him out. I don't know if he left voluntarily or what, but he probably should have known better than to pull that crap. Nobody seems to know who he is, but he looks young, which, as anyone who's lived through adolescence and is old enough to reflect on it knows, equals stupid. He probably intentionally showed up in that to get attention, but he's lucky he didn't receive that attention in the form of fists to the face.

• Oh, yeah, the Indians lost 8-0 to the Yankees. Fausto Carmona had his worst outing of the season. The Tribe offense couldn't get anything going. Alex Rodriguez didn't homer, so he's still stuck on 599. The end.

• But how about Tuesday night's game! Josh Tomlin beats the freaking New York Yankees in his major league debut! That's fantastic. Tomlin outpitched former Indian (and Cy Young winner) CC Sabathia, taking a shutout into the eighth inning, then came out after giving a leadoff double to Robinson Cano. He held the Yankees to three hits and zero walks in his seven innings of work. Bully for you, Josh! Keep up the good work! (Oh, and he struck out just two. Now, don't be negative.)

• Rest in peace, Jack Tatum, 1948-2010. The Ohio State great is best known for paralyzing a guy on a hit in an NFL game, but it was a perfectly clean, legal hit. That's just the nature of football. He wasn't a dirty player, he was just a hard hitter.

Baseball season is over

It had been nine years since the Yankees were able to spend their way to a championship. They came close in a couple of epic World Series — that 2001 series against the Diamondbacks was probably the best World Series I can remember — but fell each year to a team that had a lower payroll. Usually a much lower payroll. Last year, they didn't even make the playoffs, thanks to a bunch of young upstarts from Tampa Bay.

But these Yankees, the most expensive team ever assembled, would not be denied. All their high-priced stars contributed somewhere along the way, from A-Rod to CC to Jeter to Godzilla, the series MVP. (Speaking of which, they say he's got to go ...)

It's kind of hard for me to reflect on this series in any meaningful way, because (a) there wasn't much late-game drama, and (b) though I tried my best, I didn't manage to get through one single game without falling asleep, because they started so late and I get up early. I did wake up for the ends of a couple of them, including last night, but ... well, I won't belabor the point. (See my October 30 post for more thoughts about the time the games started; I would add that last night's game ended at almost midnight.)

And the New York Yankees have won their 27th title. I suppose we should be glad to have had eight seasons in there with someone else hoisting the trophy. May we go at least eight years before their next one.

Hall of Fame adds an Indian

The great Joe Gordon was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame today, which surprised me only because I thought he was already in. He was a power-hitting, slick-fielding second basemen, which in his day was a far more unusual combination than it is now. And it's not common now either. There's Chase Utley, our old friend Brandon Phillips, ... and that's about it. AL MVP Dustin Pedroia hit 17 home runs and won a Gold Glove award this year, but Gordon routinely hit more than 20 a year in an era when that kind of power from a second baseman was almost unheard of. But Pedroia's only 25, so he's got a chance to become that kind of player.

Gordon played from 1938 to 1950, losing two prime seasons to World War II, as so many of his contemporaries did. He missed his age 29 and age 30 seasons, 1944-45. He was reportedly very strong in the field, and while they didn't have Gold Gloves in those days, the blunt defensive numbers support his reputation. He led the American League in assists four times and double plays three times.

"Flash" (a nickname anyone named Gordon is destined to be stuck with for all eternity) was the first American League second baseman to hit 20 home runs in a season -- and he did it seven times! He finished with 253 career homers in 11 seasons, which works out to exactly 23 a year, on average. If you were to suppose he'd hit 23 each of the two seasons he missed, that would have put him at 299, which is an awful lot for a second baseman in the '30s and '40s.

Gordon, of course, is not around to enjoy the honor, having died 30 years ago. That's unfortunate, but at least his family and those who remember his career can enjoy it.

Joe Gordon will no doubt be wearing a Yankee hat on his plaque, as he played seven seasons for them and just four in Cleveland. He also won four World Series in the Bronx, and one on the shores of Lake Erie. So objectively, I admit he's got to have the Yankee hat on. But I don't have to like it.

Cliff Lee gets hammered

Taken from the Associated Press story about the Indians' 6-4 loss to Charlie Manuel's Phillies yesterday:

Despite giving up 11 hits and six runs in four innings, Cleveland pitcher Cliff Lee was content with his performance.

"As far as locating pitches and throwing my off-speed stuff, I felt good," Lee said. "I threw a couple pitches that hit a little too much of the plate for the counts that I was in and they got hits. For the most part, a lot of the hits they got, I threw the pitch right where I wanted to."

As Lee, the former future superstar, battles Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey for the fifth spot in the rotation, you'd think Lee would be less satisfied with this kind of performance. But Sowers and Laffey are both struggling too, even worse than Lee. As Gerry Fraley of The Sporting News notes, Lee's spring ERA is a hideous 8.30, but it's still three runs better than Sowers or Laffey, who are both at 11.25.

C.C. Sabathia has his spot in the rotation nailed down, obviously. But he made some headlines the other day, simply because of questions he was asked by the New York media. He's a free agent after this season, and some idiot writers asked him if he might like to play for the Yankees next year. C.C. was too smart to fall into that trap, which is yet another reason to love C.C.

I understand speculation about what free agents are going to sign where next season, but do we have to be talking about it before this one has even started? And does anyone really think that a superstar who's on a contending team is going to say something stupid like "Yes, I'm looking forward to changing teams next year"?

We all know the Yankees are going to make C.C. an offer next year, and that offer will be worth a lot of money. But we really don't need to be reminded of it now.

Today in sports history -- Steve Howe

Had he lived, today would have been Steve Howe's 50th birthday. Howe is sadly remembered as an extremely talented pitcher who couldn't stick in the major leagues because he couldn't get his drug habit under control.

Howe, the 1980 National League Rookie of the Year at age 22, helped the Dodgers win the World Series that year, saving 17 games that year. But it was all downhill from there. He first checked himself into a substance abuse clinic in 1983 -- which probably means he'd been struggling with it for at least a couple of years before then.

Howe's failure to stay off the drugs led to a major league record he'd surely rather not have had. He was suspended seven times in his career for drug abuse. Still, he had a pretty good career. He might have been one of the all-time greats, had he not had such a taste for cocaine. In 12 years with the Dodgers, Twins, Rangers and Yankees, Howe went 47-41 with a 3.03 ERA.

Howe was killed in a one-car crash in 2006. He had methamphetamine in his system. He was 48.

Today in sports history -- Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich

On this date 35 years ago, New York Yankees lefty pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, close friends since 1969, announced that they had switched wives the previous October. In fact, they essentially traded off-the-field lives, moving into each other's houses, raising each other's kids and feeding each other's dogs.

Surprisingly enough, Peterson and Kekich's ex-wife, Susanne, are still married to this very day. Kekich and Peterson's ex-wife, Marilyn, never actually married; she got cold feet. Peterson later became a preacher, of all things, and Kekich became an insurance adjuster. They are no longer close, and have not been for some time.

There is a Cleveland connection to this bizarre story. Peterson was never the same after this swap, and the Yankees started looking to unload him. During Phil Seghi's early days as the Tribe's general manager, Seghi acquired Peterson in a very bad trade, sending future All-Star first baseman Chris Chambliss and pitcher Dick Tidrow to the Yankees for Peterson and three guys you've never heard of. Seghi would go on to preside over more than a decade of losing baseball in Cleveland, before stepping down in early 1986.

Today in sports history

Happy 40th birthday, longtime major league first baseman Jack Thomas Snow Jr., aka J.T. Snow.

J.T., the son of former NFL wide receiver Jack Snow, was drafted by the Yankees in 1989 after three years at Arizona, and broke into the majors with that hated franchise in 1992. He was then traded to the Angels (with two other players) for Jim Abbott, and played four years in Anaheim. The Angels dealt him to the Giants for two players you've never heard of, Allen Watson and Fausto Macey.

Snow played nine years in San Francisco, and he had some good years there, even finishing 26th in the MVP voting in 1997. He then finished up with a rough partial season with the Red Sox in 2006. He played in 1,715 games, and never played a defensive position other than first base. A career .268 hitter, he finished with 1,509 hits, 189 home runs and 877 RBIs.

He was a rare animal, a slick-fielding, light-hitting first baseman. He won Gold Gloves in six straight years, 1995 to 2000. And he did once lead the league in an offensive category -- sacrifice flies, with 14 in 2000.

Baseball fans will never forget how Snow may have saved 3-year-old Darren Baker, son of manager Dusty Baker, from injury during Game 5 of the 2002 World Series. Darren was toiling as a bat boy, and on Kenny Lofton's triple that scored Snow, the little guy ran out onto the field to collect Lofton's bat before the play had concluded. Snow picked him up by his jacket and carried him off to safety. The look on Dusty's face was priceless. He was mortified.

Today in sports history

Ten years ago today, Brian Cashman was named to the easiest, and yet most difficult, job in North American professional sports ― general manager of the New York Yankees. For a full decade now, he has been able to cover up all his mistakes by spending more of George Steinbrenner's money. But with that power comes the extreme pressure of being expected to build a World Series champion every single year. By that measure, Cashman has failed for seven years in a row, even though the Yankees have gotten to the playoffs all of those years.