One thing I don't get ...

The Indians have won three in a row, which is nice, obviously. It's still only 30% as long as the losing streak that preceded it, so it's not like they're suddenly the '27 Yankees, but we'll take it. I wish it were against Boston or New York, rather than the Rays, because I want the Rays to win the AL East, but it's nice that the Tribe's playing better.

But I have to wonder what Eric Wedge was thinking when he pulled Matt Ginter from last night's game after just five innings and 67 pitches. He had a five-hit shutout going, with five strikeouts and no walks. At that time, the score was 7-0. Ginter was making his first start of the season at the major-league level, but he'd been starting all season in Buffalo. He'd thrown more than 100 pitches as recently as July 3. His last start for the Bisons had been Tuesday, which meant he was making yesterday's start on just three days' rest, but he'd only thrown 41 pitches in Tuesday's start, probably because the Indians knew he'd be needed Saturday. So if you add those two outings together, that's only 108 pitches. He certainly could have gone at least another inning or two.

And let's not forget how bad the Indians' bullpen has been. Sure, you'd like to think the relievers can protect a seven-run lead, but if that's true, wouldn't the same be true of the starter? And the bullpen held true to form yesterday. Rafael Betancourt, who's had a very difficult first half, put in two scoreless innings, but then Juan Rincon gave up four runs in two-thirds of an inning. And suddenly, it was a ballgame again. When you've got a seven-run lead, you surely don't want the game to turn into an actual ballgame.

The decision to pull Ginter notwithstanding, it's nice to see the Tribe offense putting some runs on the board. Except for Kelly Shoppach, everybody in the lineup got at least one hit, and several had two. One of those was Ryan Garko, who's not having a good year, but his three-run double and two-run homer were huge. And Grady Sizemore, the AL's home run leader, hit his 23rd of the year. If he holds on, he'll be the Tribe's first home run champion since Albert Belle in 1995.

Finally!

With a strong start from Aaron Laffey, accompanied by an offensive explosion, the Indians finally snapped their losing streak last night. The 13-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays (it still seems weird not to call them Devil) ended the skid at 10 games, the Tribe's longest losing streak since 1979.

When the Indians beat the Reds on June 27, they were a semi-respectable 37-43. Their pitching staff included not only CC Sabathia, but Joe Borowski and Rick Bauer.

Since then: Two losses to Cincinnati (5-0 and 9-5), three losses to the White Sox (9-7, 3-2 and 6-5 -- all games the Indians could have won), three to the Twins (12-3, 9-6 and 4-3) and two to the Tigers (9-2 and 8-6). The 10th of those losses was the worst of all, as the Tribe got out to a 6-0 lead before the bullpen blew it.

This is obviously a lost season for the Indians. Everybody knows that. They're now 15 games behind the White Sox, and have been in last place for a while. But at least now we know they won't finish 37-125.

By the way, the last time the Indians lost 11 straight games? You've got to go all the way back to 1931. My parents hadn't even been born yet.

This was also the first time since 1992 that the team with the best record in baseball lost to a team that came in with at least a 10-game winning streak. We are a font of useless knowledge here at Of Fair Hooker.

Speaking of Sabathia, The Hardball Times did a very interesting report looking at who got the better of that trade. The prognosis? It's pretty much even. But as a Tribe fan, I know we came out ahead because we got more than a stupid draft pick for him.

What a bunch of Bozos

This has nothing to do with sports, but it seems the Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee has posthumously reinstated Larry Harmon, the man who popularized the character Bozo the Clown. Harmon was originally honored in 1990, but had his plaque taken down after the Hall realized he was not the man who originated the role. He bought the rights to Bozo in the 1950s, then performed as Bozo for decades. The Hall decided he was inducted not for creating the character, but for his body of work while playing said character.

A spokeswoman said the Hall had actually reinstated him last year, but was waiting to make an announcement until a proper ceremony could be scheduled. I don't know when last year he was reinstated, but it's now the seventh month of this year, and it sure seems like they could have scheduled one by now. Harmon died last week at 83.

The lesson? Don't wait too long to honor someone who's on the far side of 80. I don't know what kind of prestige goes along with being a member of the Clown Hall of Fame, but I can promise you it's pretty hard to enjoy that prestige when you're dead.

Sabathia's last stand (in Cleveland)

Like any Indians fan, I wish C.C. Sabathia were still an Indian. I also wish Thome and Manny were still here; yes, both are in their late 30s, and both are showing signs of age. But imagine what we could have done with them in the lineup throughout the current decade.

Baseball doesn't work like that, of course. The teams with the deepest pockets get the best established major-leaguers. The Milwaukee Brewers are not one of those teams, but they're in the same position the Indians would be in if they were contending. They know they're not going to sign C.C. after this year, but they feel they can win this year, and so they're giving up future pieces to help them in the present day. The Brewers are Bud Selig's home team, so it's hard to praise them, but I do think they're doing the right thing. When you haven't been in the playoffs since 1982, and you've got a chance of getting there this year, you've got to go for broke.

Of course, these trades have a way of working out for the seller. Did you happen to notice who the Indians' two All-Stars are this year? Anyone remember how we got Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore? Does the name "Bartolo Colon" ring a bell? If the Sabathia trade works out half as well as the Colon trade did, I'll take it.

Let's take a look at the guys we're getting from the Brewers:

* Matt LaPorta: Seen as the linchpin of the deal, LaPorta is the current home run leader in the Class AA Southern League. He's a power-hitting outfielder, which is obviously something we can use in the coming years. LaPorta, 23, is in his second year of professional baseball, after a brilliant four-year career at Florida in which he hit 74 home runs in 195 games. He has 30 minor-league homers in 350 ABs, which is a pretty doggone good clip. I look forward to seeing him in Cleveland in 2009, if not September 2008.

* Zach Jackson: The lone player with major-league experience to come over in the deal, the 25-year-old has had cups of coffee in Milwaukee in 2006 and earlier this year. He had a decent year in 2007 in Triple-A Nashville, but hasn't done well this year. In his minor-league career, he's registered more than twice as many strikeouts as walks, and given up about one home run every 12 innings. In the majors, he's 2-2 with a 5.36 ERA in 10 games, seven starts. In the minors, he's 32-29 with a 4.55 ERA in 93 games, 82 starts. He's a throw-in, but the Indians must think they see something in him that the numbers don't show. That's a risky proposition, but no riskier than trying to sign your best player one year removed from a Cy Young award. Maybe they're taken in by the fact that he wears his glove on his right hand. It sure gave Jesse Orosco a long career. And the way the Indians' bullpen has gone, adding someone who's roughly a replacement-level major-leaguer can't really hurt.

* Robert Bryson: A 20-year-old right-handed pitcher, Bryson has put up some impressive strikeout numbers in the low minors. He fanned 70 in 54 innings in the Rookie League last year, and 57 in 45 1/3 this year. So he doesn't put a lot of stress on the defense. But like many fireballers, he misses the strike zone a lot. That combination helps him more in the low minors, where hitters don't have a great command of the strike zone. It's a lot tougher in the bigs. But the Indians must feel that if they work with him on his command, he can contribute in a few years.

* A player to be named later: Could be the greatest player you've ever seen. More likely, he'll be someone like Jerry DiPoto. (No offense, Jerry DiPoto, and god bless you on your recovery from cancer.)

At first glance, this is no Colon trade. Of course, we have to remember that when Colon was traded, Montreal Expos GM Omar Minaya had absolutely no reason to consider next year. The Expos were moving after that year, and nobody knew where, but everybody knew Minaya wouldn't be following them there.

Go Gladiators

It nearly escaped my attention that the Cleveland Gladiators of the Arena Football League are in the playoffs. They're playing right now against the Georgia Force, and Georgia's leading 7-0. (I can't imagine what it would be like to have a team in an indoor version of a major sport with the name "Force," by the way. Ahem.) Of course, with the ridiculous quantity of scoring in the AFL, a 7-0 lead is almost like a 2-0 lead in an NBA game. And the Gladiators tied it as I was writing that sentence.

C.C. sweepstakes

I'm referring to it as a "sweepstakes" in the headline, as that's how the national media tends to refer to such things. It's not really a sweepstakes, of course. That implies a certain randomness. There's nothing random about who will get C.C. Sabathia. It'll be the team with the best package to offer in return. (I know, I know, I said "package." Get your mind out of the gutter.)

Word is the Milwaukee Brewers seem to have taken the lead in this race, reportedly offering a package (stop giggling, you moron) involving top prospect Matt LaPorta. This Mr. LaPorta is hitting .288 in Class AA Huntsville, with 20 home runs and 66 RBIs. That home run number is good enough for tops in the Southern League. He's had a pretty good first half, but he's probably not ready for the majors yet.

The Tribe is allegedly also trying to get Double-A shortstop Alcides Escobar, who is currently third in the SL in the batting race. It bears mentioning that the top four all play for Huntsville, so one must wonder whether the home ballpark has something to do with that. I haven't seen any research on the subject of the ballpark at Double-A Huntsville, but you can bet Mark Shapiro has.

So that seems to be what's going on. Of course, it's easy to go off half-cocked about trade rumors. I blogged a few months ago about the rumors of the Cavaliers getting Matt Miller in a trade, and that apparently never even came close to happening; we wound up getting Wally Szczqzxzerbiak, Ben Wallace, et al instead. So we'll see what happens. Any National League team that picks C.C. will have the added advantage of his bat. He's hit two home runs in interleague games, so he can handle the lumber.

I know many fans are seeing this as a bad time because we're almost certainly about to give up one of our best players, and a guy who's spent his whole career with the Indians up to this point. The same was true of Albert Belle, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez, all of whom brought the Tribe nothing but supplemental draft picks. A strong Double-A prospect is worth at least three or four supplemental draft pick. So let's not feel too bad about this.

UPDATE: It seems C.C. has been traded to the Brewers, just as I was publishing this post. We don't know the details yet, but they're saying on Baseball Tonight that it's a done deal. I'm assuming we got LaPorta; don't know about Escobar.

Breaking Bonds

So the ball Barry Bonds hit for his 756th home run last year, tainting the biggest record in North American professional sports, is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Fashion designer Mark Ecko paid three-quarters of a million dollars for the right to put an asterisk on the ball and donate it to the Hall.

I don't believe in asterisks in the books, because what happened in games must be accurately reflected in the historical record. But this is not a record book, it's a ball. And if ever a ball deserved to be marked with an asterisk, it's this one.

In the unlikely event that anyone cares what Bonds thinks of the situation, he has said he will boycott the Hall, were it to accept the defaced ball. Of course, the Hall might boycott him too, in a way, if enough voters think his juicing is sufficient reason not to vote him in.

Maybe next year

A few thoughts on the current baseball season, which is now past the halfway point:

On May 19, the Indians were 22-19, good enough for first place in the AL Central. Today, they are 37-46, bad enough for last place, 10 1/2 games behind the first-place White Sox. Their odds of playing into October are slim indeed, according to the Interweb computer types -- coolstandings.com gives them a 3.2% chance of getting to the playoffs, which is far more optimistic than Baseball Prospectus' postseason odds page, which put them at 0.8% even before last night's loss to the Chicagos (it takes them a while to update their page in the morning).

What happened? Well, during the early portion of that 15-37 stretch, the Tribe pitchers were typically doing the job, but the Tribe hitters were failing to give them anything to work with. Then the offense picked up -- just as Fausto Carmona and Jake Westbrook got hurt, Paul Byrd seemed to forget how to pitch, and the bullpen started to fall apart. Last night's 9-7 loss was kind of a microcosm of how things have been going for the Erie Warriors. Jeremy Sowers, the former future star, was terrible. In three innings, he gave up eight runs on six hits and two walks against two strikeouts. Every hitter who reached base against him scored, which is often what happens when you can't keep the ball in the park. The offense fought back and made it interesting, with 14 hits, five of which were off the bat of Jhonny Peralta. But they had too far to come back. You have to be able to win when you score seven runs.

Bottom line: This team is not going anywhere. It's time to start looking toward next season and beyond. Obviously, that means entertaining offers for C.C. Sabathia. It also means listening to any GM who is interested in any of the other Indians who aren't signed past this year -- a list that includes Byrd, Casey Blake and Joe Borowski. Neither Byrd nor Borowski is likely to bring A1 prospects, but if they can bring a B-level pitching prospect, I'd make that trade. Blake is no All-Star, but he's quietly having a pretty good year, and he could help a team that needs a good glove at third or in the outfield. He's one of my favorite players, because I like his attitude, but like any fan, I care more about wins and losses. If he can bring a decent prospect or two, you've got to make that deal.

So with the Indians pretty much out of the race, I've picked a new horse to root for, and it probably won't surprise too many people to see it's the Tampa Bay Rays. The team with the worst record in baseball last year is now a game and a half ahead of the Red Sox in first place in the AL East. They're a likable young team, led by such emerging stars as Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and James Shields, with veterans such as Carlos Pena, Troy Percival and Carl Crawford mixed in. And best of all, they could be the first team not named the Yankees or Red Sox to win the AL East since 1997.

One other thing about last night's Tribe-Sox game: I was glad to see home-plate umpire Eric Cooper deny Toby Hall's request for time out in the bottom of the eighth. I'd like to see more of that. The powers that be in Major League Baseball wring their hands about how long games are getting, and here's a pretty simple thing that could shave some time off. There's no reason a hitter needs time out unless he's got a bee in his eye or something. It made for kind of a comical sight, as Hall asked for time, assumed it was granted, and stepped out of the box. The next time he looked up, Borowski was delivering the pitch. Hall quickly got back into the box and took a half-hearted hack at the ball, which appeared to be low and outside. He went on to fly out to end the White Sox' eighth.

No-hitter rules

Two Angels pitchers combined to hold the Dodgers without a hit last night -- but it's not officially a no-hitter, according to Major League Baseball, because the Dodgers were the home team and went into the bottom of the ninth with a 1-0 lead, so they didn't have to bat. So Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo held them without a hit for eight innings, in a game that went the regulation nine, but do not get credit for a no-hitter.

I think that's wrong. It might not matter terribly much to Weaver and Arredondo, because they lost the game anyway, but it seems to me that if a team fails to get a hit in a nine-inning game, that's a no-hitter. When Matt Young went the distance in a loss to the Indians in 1992, it was considered a no-hitter at the time, even though the Tribe didn't bat in the bottom of the ninth. But baseball tightened up its no-hitter rules after that, and Young's was taken away, along with a few others.

I know there were a few no-hitters in games that got rained out after five or six innings, and I understand taking those away. There were also a few games in which the starter held the other team hitless in a game that went into extra innings, then gave up a hit in the 10th or later. Those were considered no-hitters for years, but no longer. I understand that too, even though it strikes me as a bit inconsistent. (Is nine innings the magic number, or isn't it?) But this is a game that went exactly nine innings. I say it's a no-hitter.

Omar's Hall of Fame chances

I don't have a whole lot of time this morning, but I wanted to post this link, in which aspiring sportswriters debate the Hall of Fame credentials of Omar Vizquel, who of course had his best years in Cleveland (and is here right now, with the Giants).

My own view? I think Omar will eventually get there. He's no first-balloter, and it might take him a few years, but I think he's in. The closest approximation I can think of is Bill Mazeroski, widely considered the greatest defensive second baseman of all time. Maz was first eligible in 1977, but it took until 2001 before the Veterans Committee finally gave him his Hall pass. Mazeroski was a lifetime .260 hitter with 138 home runs -- plus the only walk-off World Series-winning home run in a Game 7. Omar is a .277 hitter with 77 dingers, so he's got a better average with less power. But he's an obvious parallel with the glove.

Does he deserve to get in? I honestly don't know. The sophisticated defensive metrics that have evolved over the last few years seem to indicate he's no longer a great glove man, and hasn't been for 10 years or so. I don't have time to look them up, because I've got a job, but that's what I've read. I've also read, however, that he was the best in the game in his 20s, by any measure. And he's done things defensively that I've never seen anyone else do. So I think he'd get my vote, were I lucky enough to have one. But I make no pretense of being unbiased.

USA! USA!

Big surprise: Our man LeBron is on the Olympic basketball team. Other notables selected to play include Kobe Bryant, making his Olympic debut; Carmelo Anthony, who, like LeBron, was on the 2004 team that brought home a bronze medal; and Dwyane Wade, who missed the end of the NBA season due to injury but is apparently feeling better.

Rounding out the team are Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Michael Redd, Tayshaun Prince, Chris Bosh and Worthless Loser.

You know, when the "Dream Team" hit the floor in Barcelona in 1992, it looked like the USA couldn't possibly ever lose another Olympic basketball game. Heck, we'd won most of the gold medals available over the few decades prior, using college players. But the rest of the world caught up a lot faster than we could have expected, and the USA has been hurt by the fact that many of our top players have chosen to sit out.

But if this group doesn't win gold, I'll eat my hat. All right, I'm bluffing, but you know what I mean.

A sad, sad day

This post is only tangentially about sports, though it involves one of the greatest athletes Newbury High School has ever produced. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards his senior year, was a starter on the Black Knights basketball team that went to the Ohio Division IV elite eight that year, was a fine pole vaulter on the track team, and in his younger years, was a pretty fair baseball player in summer leagues.

His name was Mike Gerber, and he was a classmate of mine. I'm proud to say I was one of the offensive linemen who opened those holes for him in that 1,000-yard season of 1988, and I'll never forget some of the plays he made for that great basketball team. But Mike was more than a great athlete. He was a bright, talented guy in many areas, and he was friends with everyone who knew him.

Most of you undoubtedly can figure out where this is going, as I keep referring to Mike in the past tense. And you're right. Mike died on April 24, after a decade-plus-long struggle with drug addiction. It was a heroin overdose that got him. I attended a memorial service yesterday for Mike, and it was so very sad. I heard dozens and dozens of stories about him, both from the days when I knew him, and from the years since graduation. He apparently took a lot of fellow addicts under his wing, helping them to beat the demons that he himself ultimately proved unable to overcome.

There are two lessons in this tragic tale. The first is obvious and has been illustrated over and over again by all the famous people who have suffered fates similar to Mike's, but it bears repeating: Stay away from the drugs. They can kill you.

The other lesson is also an important one. I'm sorry to say I hadn't seen him or spoken to Mike since graduation, 19 years ago. When you're in your 30s, you always think you'll have more opportunities to see the people you grew up with. So I guess that's the second lesson. You just can't take that for granted.

At the memorial service yesterday, and at a subsequent impromptu gathering last night, I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen for a long time, and it was really great to be able to catch up with them. Eleven of us from Newbury's class of 1989 sat up into the wee hours, sharing memories of our high school days and chatting about our lives since then. It was fantastic. But I'd trade it in a second for the opportunity to see Mike Gerber, alive and well, at our 20-year reunion next year.

Mediation required

I don't have a whole lot to say about the oddly named Rocco Mediate -- many others have that subject covered pretty well. But I do have a little bit to say about him. This is a 45-year-old man with chronic back trouble, who has won exactly five PGA Tour events in his career, and four non-PGA events. He hasn't won a PGA event since 2002 (the much-heralded Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic). And over the past weekend, he matched the great Tiger Woods stroke-for-stroke for 90 holes in the U.S. Open, one of the PGA's cornerstone events. It wasn't until the 91st that Tiger finally got the better of him.

What better David-and-Goliath story is there? Mediate would have been the oldest U.S. Open champion of all time. Even Tiger admitted he would have been rooting for Rocco, had he been a fan instead of a participant. It would have been golf's upset of the century.

Rocco seems to be a likable guy, too. Boos were heard when someone's cell phone went off in the gallery as Tiger got ready to tee off on the first hole. Rocco was asked about it later, and said: "It wasn't mine."

He'll probably never get another opportunity like this. But we can all remember this one.

Bring on the replay

It seems Major League Baseball is trying to implement an instant replay system to ensure that every ball that's a home run is called a home run, and every ball that isn't a home run isn't called a home run.

My response: What the *#^& took them so long?

Baseball is the only major North American professional sport that doesn't have some sort of replay system. I'd like to see it used for close calls on the bases, fair vs. foul, fly balls that may or may not have been caught before they hit the ground, etc., but this is a good start. I'm very surprised that it's apparently going to happen in the middle of the season, but also very pleased.

Indians' MASH unit

My friend John Arthur Hutchison and I were discussing the Indians' disappointing season yesterday, and we pretty much agreed that it's time to start entertaining offers for C.C. Sabathia. Our guys are only 6 1/2 games out of first place, but seem to keep adding guys to the disabled list on a daily basis. Yesterday, it was Victor Martinez and Josh Barfield (which especially stinks for Barfield, since he just got called up from Buffalo a couple of days before). Jake Westbrook won't pitch again this year; Fausto Carmona, who was pitching very well, is out for at least a couple of weeks longer; and Travis Hafner might go on a rehab assignment soon, but wasn't hitting at all before he got shelved.

But there is some cause for optimism. Even not counting injuries, the Indians have been somewhat unlucky this year. Despite their 31-36 record, they've outscored their opponents 301-282 on the season, and as any sabermetrician can tell you, that's a sign that they're likely to turn it around going forward. The starting rotation is still very strong, judging by the recent strong outings by Mr. Cy himself, along with the brilliance of Aaron Laffey (pictured) since his call-up, and of course Cliff Lee's All-Star-starter-worthy numbers. And the offense has started to pick it up again. They absolutely battered Livan Hernandez in last night's 12-2 win. But can we count on guys like Jamey Carroll, Shin-Soo Choo and Ben Francisco to carry the offense going forward? I'm not saying we definitely can't, but I'd rather be counting on the guys who got us there last year.

All that said, the White Sox are clearly a better team right now, and as much as I like Kelly Shoppach as a backup catcher, I don't know if we can turn it around without Victor. I'm not saying Mark Shapiro should take the best offer he can get right now -- there's still more than six weeks before the trading deadline -- but he should at least start sniffing around. And he is. The man knows what he's doing.

Let's not fool ourselves into thinking C.C.'s not going to walk after this season. So the only question is whether we're going to contend this season. It's too soon to give up completely, but it sure looks like the answer's going to be no.

Congratulations, Junior

Last night, Ken Griffey Jr. became the sixth player in major league history to hit 600 career home runs. Congratulations to him; it's no small accomplishment, even though Griffey came along in the biggest home-run-hitting era in baseball history.

But I think it's likely that we've been underestimating Junior's career for a long time. Because he's only the third player of his era to get to 600 -- which doubles the size of the 600 club -- the number seems to have lost a bit of its luster. But look at the top five guys who have played the bulk of their careers in the last 20 years or so. The list includes Barry Bonds (762), Sammy Sosa (609), Griffey (600 and counting), Mark McGwire (583) and Rafael Palmeiro (569). What do all those guys have in common, but for Kenny-boy? That's right: They're all at least strongly suspected of steroid use. Palmeiro was actually caught at it, and if anyone thinks Bonds, McGwire or Sosa innocent of juicing, they're fooling themselves. Especially Bonds.

Obviously, we don't know for sure that Griffey hasn't shot up either, but we have very little evidence that would support such a theory. Unlike the Testosterone Bunch, Griffey's career has followed the same type of progression that players have followed for decades. He first came up in his early 20s, took a while to find his power, but hit 45 home runs at 23, on his way to peaking in his late 20s (with back-to-back 56-HR seasons at 27 and 28). After hitting 48 at age 29, he left Seattle for Cincinnati (probably my two favorite cities outside of Cleveland, by the way), and immediately started to struggle with injuries. He's retained pretty good power when he's been healthy, but he's only topped 140 games twice: in 2000, at age 30, when he hit 40 HRs; and in 2007, at age 37, when he hit 35. But he'll never threaten 50 again, unlike certain other aging hitters I could name.

So if Griffey is clean, that makes him probably the fourth guy to get to 600 legitimately. So I say, let's celebrate his accomplishment in those terms.

Bless you, Brian Brennan

I listen to WTAM-1100 on my way to and from work every day, at least a little bit, because I live on the East Side and now work on the West Side, and I need to hear the traffic reports every ten minutes. This means I hear Mike Trivisonno every afternoon, which is a mixed blessing at best. He and his cast of characters are often entertaining, but he has something of a jackass streak too. He's very opinionated, which can make him hard to take when he's wrong. But I think he has a good heart, as the following story will illustrate.

On Thursday afternoon, a gentleman called to tell Triv that he had recently met a man from Tampa whose brother happens to be named Brian Brennan. It seems this Brian Brennan is a U.S. serviceman, and lost both his legs to a land mine in Afghanistan. The fellow who was telling this story to Trivisonno says he didn't tell the guy he was from Cleveland, but he did say "Brian Brennan, Cleveland Browns." Brian's brother said he was, in fact, named after the former Browns' wide receiver. The caller, knowing that Triv has connections with the Browns, wondered if he might be able to reach that Brian Brennan on the phone -- and he was.

The Brian Brennan who played for the Browns is still in the Cleveland area, and is now an executive at Key Bank. He seemed genuinely appreciative to hear that a young man from Florida had been named after him -- particularly one who would go on to serve his country in the Army -- and expressed willingness to go visit him as he recovers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Bless you, Brian Brennan. You too, Brian Brennan.

Incidentally, the photo above is from Brennan's days at Boston College. It's surprisingly difficult to find one from his Browns years. And there is apparently a man named Brian Brennan who directs gay porno movies, so some stuff comes up on a Google image search for Brian Brennan that I'd just as soon have not seen. Fair warning, if you feel the urge to go looking for a Brian Brennan photo.

Mayor?

Quick: Which former Cavalier is leading the mayor's race in a major American city? No, it's not Shawn Kemp, surprisingly enough. And no, it isn't World B. Free, though that would be a great name for a politician.

It's Kevin Johnson, who has 47 percent of the vote in Sacramento. Apparently, if the absentee votes can put him over 50, he'll avoid a runoff election in November, but it's pretty unlikely that he'll make up three points. Any statistician will tell you that. Still, though, he's leading incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo by seven points. So as long as he doesn't accidentally decapitate a baby while driving drunk, or something along those lines, he's probably golden.

For those who may not remember, the Cavaliers drafted Johnson out of California-Berkeley in 1987, and as Mark Price's backup at the point guard position. At that time in his career, Price looked like a potential future Hall of Famer -- and he might have been, had he not struggled with injuries as his career wore on. Still, Price is the Cavaliers' all-time greatest point guard, and probably one of their three or four greatest players of any position. When he was at the top of his game, he could just about rule the court. That Price-Daugherty-Nance team was something else. (More on Larry Nance in just a moment.)

Johnson would go on to NBA stardom, of course, but not in Cleveland. The Cavs traded him to Phoenix midway through his rookie season. And it was that rare trade that actually benefited both teams. Johnson, backup power-forward center Mark West and backup swingman Tyrone Corbin went to the Suns in exchange for two guys who would be starters for the Cavaliers: Mike Sanders and Larry Nance. Nance was an established NBA starter -- and a champion of the slam-dunk competition at a time when that actually meant something -- but it wasn't until he got to Cleveland that he became a star. And Johnson would immediately excel as the starter in Phoenix. Both would be key players on teams that went deep into the playoffs, though of course, both teams would fall short. This was the Jordan-Olajuwon era, after all.

Kevin Johnson always seemed to me like a personable, intelligent man, but I never dreamed he would ever run for mayor of a major city -- though I would have thought it more likely than Jesse Ventura or Arnold Schwarzennegger being elected governors. And yes, Sacramento IS a major city. Its current estimated population is about 475,000. Cleveland's is about 478,000. So if Cleveland's a major city (which it is), then Sacramento is too.

I have no idea what Kevin Johnson's political leanings are, but regardless, I wish him well, and as a Cavalier fan, I'm proud of him.

Incidentally, it seems a tree branch fell on Heather Fargo's election-night gathering last night. One of her supporters had to be taken to the hospital. Were one the sort to take that as a sign, one would have to conclude that it bodes ill for Fargo.

We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat.

Following is a complete list of Cleveland Indians who have had two 7-RBI games in the last fifty years:

Casey Blake

On July 5, 2003, Casey Blake went five-for-five in a 13-2 defeat of the Minnesota Twins. Two of those hits were home runs, his 9th and 10th of the season (one in the seventh off Grant Balfour, the other in the ninth off J.C. Romero). Of the other three hits, two were doubles. I have no doubt you can do the math, but allow me to save you the trouble: That's 13 total bases. He scored three runs, and yes, he knocked in seven.

That game was never in doubt; the Tribe scored four in the top of the first off starter Joe Mays (thanks in part to a Matt Lawton round-tripper), and later scored four in three innings against a young reliever named Johan Santana. Brian Anderson was the winner, and Milton Bradley also got four hits, one of which left the yard. Besides Blake, the only other Indian who played that day and is still on the team was rookie shortstop Jhonny Peralta, filling in for the injured Omar Vizquel.

Incidentally, the above information was all obtained quite easily from Retrosheet. If you've enjoyed reading this and have not yet visited Retrosheet, you've got to click that link RIGHT NOW. Well, after you finish reading this. The depth and breadth of statistical information there is mind-boggling.

Blake had never been a regular in the majors before that '03 season, and had spent most of the previous four-year period in the Twins' organization. So the Indians gave him the opportunity his former employer never did, and he took advantage of the chance to stick it to that former employer. God bless him for it. It had to feel pretty good.

Fast-forward to June 2, 2008. Casey Blake is in the lineup as the Indians' third basemen again, but only after spending a couple of years as a right fielder/first baseman in the interim. He moved off the hot corner to make way for Andy Marte. But Marte has shown few signs of being able to hold down a job in the major leagues, and so Blake has returned to his former position.

He has always been one of those guys who will do whatever his manager asks of him. Want me to play third? Fine, I'll play third. Oh, you want to put me in right? OK, who wants to fungo me some fly balls? Need a shortstop? I can do that. Want me to sit for two weeks and then pinch-hit? Hey, it's still the major leagues.

Casey Blake is a yeoman ballplayer, and I appreciate that. And wherever you put him in the field, he will do a yeoman's job. He's an above-average third baseman, he's an above-average first baseman, and he's an above-average right fielder. Check out the fielding stats. I'm not going to go to the trouble of looking them up right now, but trust me.

Blake has never been thought of as a great hitter, however. That's because he's not a great hitter, and I'm sure he'd be the first to tell you that. His career batting average is .261, and he has hit 113 home runs. So he's one-seventh of the way to breaking Barry Bonds' record. Blake entered last night's game hitting .225 with four home runs in 2008. Could he be declining, at age 34? It's possible. I know I started declining around age 34.

But last night in Arlington, Texas, Casey Blake was Barry Bonds, without the steroids and the surliness and the weak knees. And this time, the Tribe needed his heroics, as he was the key to a 13-9 victory. He hit a pair of two-run homers and a three-run double to post his second career 7-RBI game.

And that, my friends, is why I love baseball.

For the gol-dern of it, these are the Indians who have done it once in the last half-century:

Toby Harrah (7, 1980)
Chris James (9, 1991)
Manny Ramirez (8, 1999 -- the year he drove in 165)
Victor Martinez (7, 2004)
Ben Broussard (8, 2006)

The major-league record is 12, shared by two St. Louis Cardinals, decades apart. Sunny Jim Bottomley did it in 1924, and Hard Hittin' Mark Whiten did it in a four-homer game in 1993. But you knew that.

Congratulations, Manny

One of the greatest hitters ever to wear an Indians uniform, Manny Ramirez, reached the 500-homer club yesterday. He did it in his 16th major-league season, eighth with the Boston Red Sox. Most of the Indians fans I've talked to in recent years have come to hate the Red Sox, which is understandable considering they've become the team that outspends everybody but the Yankees, and many of us still resent the way Manny left. Personally, I've long since forgiven him, and I generally wish him well, though I do almost always root for the Red Sox to lose these days. (I think you Red Sox fans can understand that, as your team has become a kind of Yankees Jr. And I know you guys are reading this, because every time I post something about a Boston team, I get about 10 times as many hits as when I stick to the Browns, Cavs and Indians. Which makes me think I should just make this a Boston blog. But I can't do that, so forget it.)

When Ramirez signed with the BoSox, I told some friends that I just hoped he would be wearing an Indians hat on his Hall of Fame plaque. But I think we all know now -- as some of my friends told me then -- that's not going to happen. And that's OK. I can't speak for all Tribe fans, but I'm content with the memories of Manny's years in Cleveland. His bat was one of the main reasons the Indians won five straight AL Central titles, reached two World Series in the '90s, and scored 1,000 runs in 1999 (still the only team that's done that since 1950). He hit 236 home runs for the Tribe, good for third on the team's all-time list, behind former teammates Jim Thome and Albert Belle. All three of those guys left Cleveland because someone else offered them more money. And I can't blame any one of them.

So congratulations, Manny. I know I don't speak for all Indians fans on this count, but I'll always love you, in a platonic baseball kind of way.

Royals show why they're in last place

The Indians beat the Royals last night, in part, because the Royals made two mental baserunning errors on the same play. Sure, Grady Sizemore's two home runs and sensational catch to end the game had a lot to do with it; and yes, Casey Blake's two-run shot in the top of the sixth that scored the last two runs of the game obviously contributed to the victory; and of course, Clifton Lee's gutty performance helped (though in giving up four runs in six innings, his ERA ballooned to 1.89).

But in the bottom of the sixth, the Royals really put on a clinic for how not to play the game of baseball. With two outs in the inning, Joey Gathright was on second, David DeJesus was on first, and Esteban German singled to right field. As Ben Francisco fielded the ball, Gathright rounded third at full speed, then glanced back and determined he was certain to score easily, so he started jogging toward the plate. DeJesus, apparently assuming the throw would go to the plate, rounded second -- and Francisco threw there. DeJesus was tagged out diving back into second base, and Gathright had not scored. Inning over, no runs for the Royals. There is no question whatsoever that if Gathright had been running hard, he'd have scored, and the game would have been tied. And for a million a year, or half a million, or whatever he makes, it sure seems like running hard is not too much to ask. If I were a Royals fan, I'd sure be bothered that my team lost its 12th straight game in that fashion.

Buster blogs about C.C.

If you follow this link, you can read some thoughts by ESPN's Buster Olney about what the Indians might do later this year, if the offense continues to struggle. Here's a hint: It involves trading a Cy Young winner who's not signed for the rest of this season. I'm so very cagey.

My thoughts? If the Tribe is out of the playoff hunt by late July, Mark Shapiro would be a fool not to get something for C.C. We know he's not going to sign before the offseason, and we know what happens to big-name Indians who reach free agency (see Thome, Jim; Ramirez, Manny; Belle, Albert; et al.).

But Olney seems to feel the Indians might be able to trade Sabathia for hitters who can help them reach the playoffs this year:

The Cleveland Indians have tremendous depth in their starting pitching, at a time when their offense continues to struggle, and it's within the realm of possibility that sometime in late July, they could dangle C.C. Sabathia on the trade market, leaving them with a rotation of Fausto Carmona, Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers.

That's assuming everybody stays healthy, of course, which you can never, ever assume. But I just can't see this happening. A playoff contender does not trade the defending Cy Young in the middle of the season.

Sammy, Sammy, Sammy

I see that Sammy Sosa has announced that he might retire at the end of the 2009 World Baseball Classic. That's right, folks. All those home runs he'll hit this year will be the last home runs he ever hits. If anybody picks him up. The first two paragraphs of the story:

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Sports Network) - Sammy Sosa will reportedly retire from baseball after the World Baseball Classic in March of 2009, according to the Dominican Republic newspaper Hoy.

Sosa, currently a free agent, is planning to play for his native Dominican Republic next March before hanging up the cleats for good.

This has got to be the first time I've ever heard of someone announcing his retirement at some future date when he's not even playing in the present. And there are 30 major league teams. Sosa will turn 40 between now and then. If he can't make one of those 30 teams at age 39, why is he so sure he'll make the Dominican team at the World Baseball Classic? I'm not going to go through and count all the Dominicans in the majors right now, but it seems like every team has at least one or two. The Indians currently have three (Rafael Perez, Fausto Carmona and Jhonny Peralta).

So let's say there are 50 major-leaguers born in the Dominican Republic (and that's a conservative estimate). And Sammy's not one of them. There are 25 guys on a team. I know I don't have to do the math for you. Sure, he might steal one of those outfield spots, but to announce your retirement at the end of playing for a team you're not all that likely to make seems a bit presumptuous.

Today in sports history

On this date 90 years ago, future Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski pitched a complete game for the Cleveland Indians in a 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees. Sure, in 1918, pitchers went the distance all the time. But this game went 19 innings. Smoky Joe Wood, a former pitcher who'd become an outfielder after he hurt his arm, won the game with a home run in the 19th.

Stanislaus Coveleski was one of the best pitchers of the dead-ball era, winning 215 games with a career ERA of 2.89. He spent most of his career in Cleveland, and would have been the MVP of the 1920 World Series, had such an award existed at that time. Coveleski won three games in that series (out of the five the Indians won against the Brooklyn Robins; they played a best-of-nine in those days), and only gave up two runs in the 27 innings he pitched, for a 0.67 ERA. That's what you call pitching dominance, ladies and gentlemen. He would not fare so well in the 1925 Series, in which he lost two games as his Washington Senators fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Coveleski was the No. 2 man in that rotation, behind a fellow named Walter Johnson.

Wood, incidentally, is about the nearest historical approximation to Rick Ankiel, who is having a fine year as the Cardinals' center fielder, after Steve Blass disease forced him to give up pitching. Babe Ruth, of course, is the classic pitcher-turned hitter, but he became an outfielder because he was such a great hitter, not because he couldn't pitch anymore. Obviously, neither Ankiel nor Wood was as good a hitter as Ruth -- very few men have even been close. But it's also worth mentioning that neither was as good as Ruth on the mound, either. Ruth could possibly have been a Hall of Famer if he'd never hit a home run in his life.

Speaking of Babe Ruth, in 1918, he was still playing for the Red Sox, and still pitching, though he started playing a lot of outfield that year. No one had any idea he'd ever play his home games in New York. And the Yankees team that Coveleski and Wood's boys beat had never won a World Series. How I yearn for those days.

The Indians would win their first championship in 1920, and the Yankees would follow them to the winner's circle in 1921. Since then, the Indians have won one more World Series (1948) and lost three (1954, 1995 and 1997). The Yankees? Let's not talk about that.

Doesn't it just figure?

The Indians finally show some offense, and the pitching falls apart. Ladies and gentlemen, after last night's 13-9 loss, your defending AL Central champion Cleveland Indians have lost seven in a row, and one of your best pitchers is hurt. I can't seem to find any information about what's wrong with Fausto Carmona or how long he'll be out, but he obviously didn't have his good stuff last night, as he gave up six runs in 2+ innings of work. That's not the Fausto we know. In the photo at right, it looks like the trainer is checking out his hip, which would explain why Fausto didn't beat the hitter to first base on the previous play.

And Ben Francisco got cheated out of a home run because the umpires aren't allowed to look at the same footage the rest of us can see. Instant replay has been a hot topic in baseball this year, and word is they'll experiment with it in the Arizona Fall League. It's about freaking time.

The arguments I've heard against it are ridiculously stupid. People say it'll slow down the game. Are you telling me it'll take longer for an umpire to take a look at a replay than it takes right now for a manager to argue about the call?

Tim Kurkjian, speaking on SportsCenter the other day, parroted a mantra that I've heard so many times I think my head might explode: "The human element has always been a part of baseball." Tim, I can accept that the players will make mistakes that affect the outcome of the game, BUT NOT THE UMPIRES.

The game should be decided by the players, period. Instant replay simply gives the umpires the ability to give the game back to the players to decide. It's absurd that the millions of people who are watching a particular game on TV can know exactly what the correct call is, but the umpires aren't allowed to watch what those TV viewers saw.

Anyone who saw that game on TV was able to see quite clearly that Francisco's shot bounced off the railing above the fence, then bounced back onto the field. The umpires are all stationed near bases, and they did their best, but they just couldn't see precisely what happened to the ball a couple of hundred feet away. A camera could. An umpire watching the ball from short left field cannot see a ball as well as an umpire watching the ball on a TV screen. It's really pretty simple.

I think I've made my point. I didn't start writing this post intending for it to turn into a rant, but I just want the calls to be right. This game probably wasn't decided by that call (it cost the Tribe two runs, so maybe we would have lost 13-11), but it could have been. And games have unquestionably been decided by bad calls. That's not good for the losing team, it's not good for the umpires, and it's not good for baseball.

One other thing: On an unrelated matter, I dearly wish someone at ESPN would send out a directive to all its on-air personalities that Xavier Nady's first name only has three syllables, and does not start with the word "egg."

Where's the offense?!?

The Indians' 7-2 loss to the White Sox last night seems like it was almost inevitable, which is not the kind of thing you want to feel about an alleged playoff contender.

The surging Sox have now won seven in a row, and the tumbling Tribe has lost five straight. The Sox are in first place, 3 1/2 ahead of the Indians. The 23-23 Twins are ahead of us also. The starting pitching has generally been great (even last night, Paul Byrd was cruising until the sixth), but they've had bupkis for offense. Since beating Toronto 12-0 on May 10, the Indians have scored 2.5 runs a game (25 runs in 10 games). That, my friends, is pathetic. Miraculously, they've won four of those 10 games, thanks to the pitching staff.

I don't know what the answer is, but something's got to happen. They can't expect to win like this.

But hey, on the bright side, Michael Aubrey hit his second career home run last night. Too bad nobody was on base.

Yawn

The New Orleans Hornets were the last hope for us fans of the underdog in this year's NBA playoffs. The day after the title-less Cavaliers were eliminated, the zero-championship Hornets failed to close out their series against the Spurs.

So now we're left with:

• The Celtics, who have won 16 titles -- though none since 1986. It's amazing to me that there are people who are old enough to drink and have never seen the Celtics win a championship. But they're still the Celtics, and I still generally want them to lose.
  
• The Lakers, who have won 15 championships, counting their days in Minneapolis. Their most recent title was in 2002, when the Shaq-n-Kobes swept the Nets to win their third straight title. They have won nine since moving to LA.
  
• The Spurs, who have won four in the last decade, including last year's sweep of the Cavs.
• The Pistons, who have five rings, including their time as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons. They have won three in Detroit, most recently in 2004. They lost the 2005 Finals to the Spurs.
  

I want them all to lose. That's impossible, of course. So I have no idea what to root for. Is it too late for a player strike? Can we cancel the rest of the playoffs, just because, you know, what's the point?

The only possible Finals matchup that's never happened before would be the Celtics and Spurs, simply because they've dominated different eras. Going for the less-recent winners would give us another stupid Celtics-Lakers series, all these years after Bird and Magic retired.

Depressing.

Too many mistakes

The Cavaliers could have won that game yesterday in Boston. The national media will always remember it for the epic individual battle between Paul Pierce and LeBron James, and rightly so. But I'll remember it for the many mistakes the Cavaliers made -- missed foul shots, failure to box out for rebounds, sloppiness with the ball, etc., etc.

Pierce and James played about even. Our guy got 45 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals; their guy put in 41 points, along with four rebounds, five assists and two steals. Beyond the box score, Pierce deserves credit for coming up with that jump ball in the waning seconds, but don't forget about the play a minute or so earlier when LeBron picked Pierce's pocket. What it came down to is, the other Celtics played better than the other Cavaliers.

Just look at the foul shooting. The Cavs hit 25 of 35, the Celtics 28 of 34. If the Cavs had shot from the line at the same clip as the Celtics, they'd have hit 29 of 35. The Celtics won by five. Add those four points to the Cavs' total, and it's a totally different ending. I'm not saying we'd have won, but who knows.

Boston out-rebounded us 39 to 29. Even up the glass stats, and that would give us five more rebounds. If we could have kept them from hitting five second-chance shots, we're looking at a completely different ballgame.

The Cavaliers turned the ball over 14 times, to the Celtics' 10. If we'd held onto the ball long enough to get four more shots off, ... well, you get the idea.

It's amazing that the Cavaliers were able to hang around so well in that game, given how many miscues they made. And it's all due to one man, who wears his age on his jersey.

I'll have some thoughts on the Cavs' future later this week, but right now, I just have to shake my head.

Game Seven

Turns out the Cavaliers and Celtics are each incapable of winning on the other's home floor. That's been the trend in this round of the 2008 NBA postseason, in which, adding up all four series, the home team is 21-2. (In case anyone's wondering, the home team was 30-13 in the first round.) Of course, the national media is making a big deal about how the Celtics have won all their home games but lost all their road games against the Cavs and, in the first round, the Hawks. And that is a very odd thing. In just one completed series so far in this postseason has the home team gone undefeated, and that was that Celtics-Hawks series. If the Celtics win today, that'll make two. The one Western Conference semifinal that's still going on will also fit that description if the Hornets beat the Spurs on Monday night in New Orleans.

So it all comes down to today's game. The natural favorite, obviously, is the Celtics, and for good reason. They had the NBA's best regular-season record, and as previously mentioned, they're undefeated at home in the playoffs.

But they don't have LeBron. They've got three superstars, and yes, three superstars would seem to be better than one. And LeBron's been pretty mortal in this series, though he's picked it up considerably over the last couple of games; and he played better in the early games of this series than his point totals would seem to suggest. But it's painfully obvious that if the Cavaliers are going to win this game and this series, LeBron James is the guy who's going to win it for them. But we know he can do it, because we have witnessed it. (That's as close as I'm going to come to advertising Nike in this space. Well, besides mentioning it by name just now.)

The game starts at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, on your local ABC affiliate (Channel 5 here in Cleveland). I can hardly wait.

Tribe starters still humming, but ...

The bullpen -- perhaps the Indians' greatest strength last year -- has been dreadful. And they're just not scoring runs, either. But let's tackle the bullpen first.

Fausto Carmona turned in 7 1/3 innings yesterday in Cincinnati, leaving with a 2-1 lead. His personal ERA for the day was 1.23. Rafael Perez came in and struck out Ken Griffey Jr., the only hitter he faced, and then Masa Kobayashi took over. He got Brandon Phillips on a fly ball to center to end the eighth, and that would be the Reds' last out of the game. Kobayashi came out to protect that 2-1 lead in the ninth, and promptly gave up a single, hit a batter, and then served up Adam Dunn's walk-off three-run homer. The bullpen ERA for the day: 40.50.

On Friday, Jeremy Sowers made his first big-league start of the season. He turned in the worst start by an Indian in a couple of weeks -- which isn't to say he was bad. The Indians' starters have been unbelievable. Sowers gave up three runs in five innings. So the starters have given up four runs in 12 1/3 over the last two games, an ERA of 2.92. Jorge Julio and Rafael Perez put in 2 1/3 scoreless between them, and then Jensen Lewis walked three, including one that sent what turned out to be the game-winning run jogging across home plate -- which should NEVER happen. So in those same two games, the bullpen has given up four runs in 3 2/3, an ERA of 9.82.

On Thursday, Aaron Laffey turned in what was possibly his best start of the season, giving up just one unearned run in seven innings, and striking out six. That's four runs over the last 19 1/3 innings for the starters (1.86). Laffey's unearned run was the first run an Indians starter had given up in the previous 43 1/3 innings, so you'll see that number continue to shrink as we go back in time for a while. Anyway, the Tribe won that game, completing the sweep of Oakland, but not before Rafael Betancourt continued his disappointing season by giving up a run on two hits, and getting just one out. So that's five runs over the last 5 2/3 innings for the bullpen (7.94).

On Wednesday, C.C. Sabathia pitched a five-hit, complete-game shutout over the A's, who (as we've covered in a previous post), have historically battered him. So that's four earned runs over the last 28 1/3 for the starters, or 1.27. The bullpen, mercifully, was spared having to so much as get up and stretch. Incidentally, that got C.C.'s season ERA down to 5.47, which is pretty good when you consider it was 13.50 after four starts. It's also worth mentioning that it was the Indians' major-league-leading seventh shutout as a staff.

The staff's sixth shutout came the previous day, also against Oakland. Paul Byrd was fantastic, striking out seven and giving up five hits in 7 1/3. Starters' ERA in the past five games: 1.01 (four runs in 35 2/3). The bullpen, obviously, did the job in that game, with 1 2/3 scoreless innings, between Perez and Kobayashi. So that's five runs in 7 1/3, or 5.87.

The Tribe's previous game was the nightcap of a doubleheader against Toronto, and Cliff Lee was unbelievably good, as he's been all year. He gave them nine scoreless innings, but it wasn't enough, as the game went into 10. So over the last six, the starters have given up four runs in 44 2/3 innings, or 0.81. Betancourt came in for the 10th and was lousy, giving up three runs in one inning. That's eight runs in 8 1/3 for the bullpen, or 8.64.

In the first game of that twinbill, Fausto Carmona tossed a complete-game shutout, so in the last seven games, the rotation has allowed four runs in 53 2/3, or 0.67 (which, coincidentally, happens to be Lee's eye-popping season ERA right now, going into this afternoon's game against the Reds).

On May 10, Laffey and little-used Craig Breslow combined to shut out the Blue Jays. Laffey went seven innings (eight games, four runs in 60 2/3, 0.59), and Breslow finished (eight runs in 10 1/3, 6.97). Incidentally, Breslow has given up just two runs in his eight innings this year. Given how the rest of the bullpen's been doing, why have we not seen him in over a week? Why keep trotting guys out there who haven't been successful lately, when you've got a guy sitting out there who's been nothing but successful so far? One other note on that game, which the Indians won 12-0: That's the last time they've scored more than four runs in a game. They've scored 18 runs in the seven games since, about 2 1/2 runs a game. It's a tribute to the pitchers (and the defense, to be fair) that they've gone 4-3 in those games.

The day before that, Sabathia gave up one run in seven innings of a 6-1 win over Toronto. So in the last nine games, the starters have yielded five earned runs in 67 2/3 innings, for a shiny 0.66 ERA. Lewis and Kobayashi got the job done in that one, so the bullpen ERA over those nine games is 5.84 (eight runs in 12 1/3).

So the bullpen's got to shape up. The Indians might have the best starting rotation in the majors right now, but they're not going to be this good all year. They're going to need better support from the relievers. And they're going to need more offense. Hear that, Travis Hafner? Casey Blake? Jhonny Peralta? Everybody?

Of Asdrubal, Fausto and Cliff

Asdrubal Cabrera turned the 14th unassisted triple play in major league history in game two last night -- and yet, that might not be the most notable thing about yesterday's doubleheader.

If the Indians could have put a single run across in that game -- and they had their chances -- they'd have had complete-game shutouts thrown by their two starting pitchers. Cliff Lee didn't come out for the 10th in the scoreless tie, and Rafael Betancourt laid an egg, leading to a 3-0 win by the Blue Jays. Fausto Carmona tossed a shutout in the first game. Carmona and Lee became the first teammates to throw nine shutout innings in the same doubleheader since 1977. (Don Aase and Reggie Cleveland turned the trick for the Red Sox, against the expansion Blue Jays.) The last unassisted triple play was just last year. So at least in those terms, this was a rarer feat.

Asdrubal also hit his first home run of the season in the first game, making him just the fourth player to go deep on the same day he turned a UTP. So, yeah, that's pretty special, though there's a lot of luck involved in an unassisted triple play. Make no mistake, it took a great play for Asdrubal to turn that triple. He made a diving catch. That was the hard part. Then he touched second and tagged the runner coming from first. That was the easy part, because the runners were off with the pitch. But Cabrera also made some outstanding defensive plays in the first game. If he can hit like he did last year, he'll be a fine major leaguer for a long time.

Incidentally, this makes the Indians the first team to have turned three unassisted triple plays. But it's unlikely anyone who's reading this remembers the first two: Neal Ball turned the first one in major league history in 1909, and Bill Wambsganss got one in the 1920 World Series.

One other thing: After Asdrubal turned that triple, he threw the ball into the stands. What could he have been thinking? Why wouldn't he want to save that ball?

Oh, and by the way, Cliffy's ERA is now 0.67, after seven starts. That gives him the third-lowest ERA in the majors after seven starts in 50 years. And he spent part of last year in the minors. Unbelievable.

Oh, and across the street, the Cavaliers tied the series against the Celtics last night. So that was pretty cool too.

Offense! Pitching! Defense!

The Tribe was firing on all cylinders last night in beating the Blue Jays 12-0. You don't have to look past the final score to see it was a strong overall performance. Obviously, when you win 12-0, you don't need Bill James to tell you you've done a few things right.

Aaron Laffey finally got his first major-league win of 2008, in his third strong start. The Indians scored just two runs for him in his first two starts. They'd matched that before even making an out Saturday, and by the time Laffey took the mound for the second inning, he was working with a 6-0 lead. Laffey recorded seven scoreless innings, and his ERA is down to 1.83. Not bad for a guy who opened the season in Buffalo.

And the offense! Let's be honest, the Indians' offense has been disappointing so far this season. Even after last night's outburst, the Tribe has scored fewer runs than all but four American League teams. So it's always good to see a double-digit number on the scoreboard. Grady Sizemore, who has had a fairly slow start, had his best game of the year last night, on Grady Sizemore Fleece Blanket Night. He hit two homers, including one to lead off the first inning. Grady wound up with three hits, three runs scored and five RBIs.

Victor Martinez got two hits to raise his batting average to .346, which now leads the AL. Asdrubal Cabrera and Casey Blake, who have started very slowly, each had two hits as well. Now, if we can just get Pronk going ...

Well, that's another matter for another time. Let's just enjoy this one.

Now that's more like it

LeBron seemingly still can't hit the broad side of a barn, but it didn't matter in last night's blowout win over the Celtics. Mr. James did hit 3-of-5 three-pointers, but was just 2-of-11 from inside the arc. But it should be pointed out that LeBron didn't exactly lay an egg -- he did rack up eight assists and five rebounds, and he led the team with four steals and three blocked shots to go along with his 21 points. He's still LeBron, even when he's not hitting his shots.

The midseason blockbuster Danny Ferry pulled off bore fruit in that game. The four guys he got were all keys to the strong performance last night.

• Delonte West had 21 points, five rebounds and seven assists.
• Joe Smith came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
• Ben Wallace, who nearly didn't play at all because of an inner-ear infection, had nine rebounds and two blocks, along with nine points.
• Wally Szczerbiak put in 16 points in 43 minutes.

The Cavs played stifling team defense, especially in getting off to a 32-13 lead after one quarter. The Celtics outscored us in the second and third quarters (by three points total), and then our boys outscored the green men 29-21 in the fourth, for the final 24-point margin.

So the guys from Boston now have a 2-1 lead. They haven't lost a game at home yet in the playoffs, but they also haven't won a game on the road. If that trend holds, they'll win every series 4-3 because they have home-court advantage throughout the postseason. But the Cavs nearly stole Game 1 in Boston, and we have reason to hope they'll pull out Game 5 or Game 7, if they can get there.

There's one other thing I'd like to address. No matter what anyone else says, I say James Posey's tackling LeBron by the neck as he drove to the hole was a dirty play, and I cannot believe it almost wasn't called a flagrant foul. Yes, it seems clear he didn't mean to put a choke-hold on LeBron, but he clearly was trying to grab him, and he made no attempt at getting the ball away from him. I'm not going to say Posey should have been thrown out of the game or should be suspended for the next one, but there's no place in the sport for a play like that.

It's a lovely, sunny Saturday

I haven't been able to post in a while because I just got back from Chicago, where I spent four days at a nursing conference. I'm not a nurse, in case anyone was wondering, but there's certainly no shame in being a male nurse.

Anyway, I'm going to round up all my recent thoughts in a fun little package of vignettes. I hope you enjoy them.

• Yeah, the Cavs' loss to the Celtics on Thursday was disheartening. The Fighting LeBrons had a chance to steal Game 1, but Game 2 was over long before it was over. Of the six games the two teams have played this year, including the regular season, that was the first blowout. The Celtics have done it with defense, holding Mr. James to just 19% shooting (8-for-42) in the first two games. Clearly, LeBron's going to have to either figure out how to get open or let his teammates take some of those shots. I would like to point out the home team is still undefeated in the season series, and the next two games are in Cleveland. So all is not lost. But these Celtics are tough.
• C.C. Sabathia is looking like he's back to his old self, thank goodness. C.C. was fantastic last night against the Blue Jays, giving up one run on six hits in seven innings, and striking out nine. He won the battle between Cy Young winners, beating Roy Halladay, who was cruising until getting battered in the seventh. C.C. has now made eight starts this season. In his first four, he went 0-3 with an ugly, ugly 13.50 ERA. In his last four, he's 2-2 with a 1.98 ERA. In one of those losses, he only gave up one run in eight innings. So he's now 2-5, 6.55. That's not great, obviously, but recent signs are encouraging.
• It sure was good to see the Tribe offense break out last night, putting a 6 on the scoreboard in the seventh. Travis Hafner and Casey Blake each had two hits in the game, bringing their batting averages up to .220 and .221, respectively. One of Blake's came just a few feet from being a grand slam, going for a two-run double instead. The offense has been struggling, Victor Martinez's hot start notwithstanding. I hope to see them do this kind of thing more often.
• Speaking of Victor, he'd be second in the AL batting race at .340, except he doesn't have quite enough plate appearances to qualify. Remember, of course, that Victor has missed a handful of games due to various ailments, most recently a stiff neck. That's what tends to happen to catchers as they get older. Yes, Victor is only 29, but 29 is fairly old for a catcher. Around this point in their career, most catchers start playing first base or DH-ing (both of which Victor has dabbled in). In any case, when he has been well enough to play, he's been the Indians' most consistent threat at the plate. Interestingly, the leader is Twins' catcher Joe Mauer, and I don't know if catchers have ever finished 1-2 in a batting race, but I doubt it.
  
• Remember Jody Gerut, Tribe fans? He finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2003, while wearing our smiling chief on his hat. He slid in '04, got traded twice in '05 (we got Jason DuBois for him, for those who don't remember), then never reached the majors again ... until this year. He opened the season on the Padres' big-league roster, went 1-for-6 in the first week of the season, then got sent down again. But when the Daddies released Jim Edmonds yesterday, Gerut was the guy they called up. May he prosper.
• Speaking of former Indians, Richie Sexson embarrassed himself when he charged the mound against Kason Gabbard on Thursday night, and nailed Gabbard with his batting helmet. Sexson, now with the Mariners, was obviously anticipating some payback after M's pitcher Felix Hernandez hit two Rangers, including Ian Kinsler in Kinsler's next at-bat after hitting a home run off him. I think we can all understand that Sexson might have been on guard. But the pitch to which Sexson took exception was not inside. It was up around his eyes, but it was over the plate. It didn't even come close to hitting him. Sexson's former teammate Eduardo Perez, now a commentator on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight," points out that Richie had spent the previous night in the hospital with his sick 2-year-old son, and that he apologized afterward. Those are mitigating factors, but they don't make it less ridiculous that he charged the mound and threw his helmet at the pitcher after a pitch that was over the plate.
• Danica Patrick ran over somebody on the racetrack yesterday. Like most people I know, I don't care the least bit about auto racing, but I saw the footage on SportsCenter, and it was hard to watch (though I admit I couldn't look away). It was a member of another driver's pit crew, and she got him with both left tires. His injuries were not serious. Racing great Mario Andretti saw it happen right in front of him, and said it "wasn't anybody's fault." I'm sorry, but if a guy gets run over on pit row, there has to have been a serious error somewhere. Either he shouldn't have been standing there, or she shouldn't have been driving there.

Boston, here we come

An espn.com poll found that 65% of the country believes the Celtics will win the seven-game playoff series against the Cavaliers that starts tonight. And there's certainly good reason to think so. The Celtics had the NBA's best record this year, at 66-16. They started the season strong, struggled a bit in January and February, and then finished the regular season strong. Yes, Atlanta surprisingly took them to seven games, but Boston dominated its home games. And the Cavaliers struggled after making the mega-trade that brought them more talent than they gave up, but altered their team chemistry.

But the Cavs did beat Washington pretty handily in two games, and pulled out two others, which was enough to take the series. Sure, the Celtics are a better team than the Wizards, but let's not forget the Cavaliers did win two of four games against Boston this year. Each team won both home games, but it's not like the Celtics blew us out.

And one other thing. Yes, the Celtics clearly have more overall talent than the Cavaliers. But we do have one thing they can't match: LeBron. He showed us last year against the Pistons that he's capable of winning a playoff game practically singlehandedly.

It should be an interesting series. Go Cavs.

Clifton Phifer Lee

ESPN's Rob Neyer, one of my favorite baseball writers of all (and yes, I'm the sort of person who has a handful of favorite baseball writers), wrote a column the other day opining that ... well, I'll let HIM say it, after I set it up for him. Since it requires an ESPN Insider membership to read the whole thing, I'll give you the gist of it.

Neyer's column is titled "What's weird in April?" beginning with the fact that the Braves are in fourth place despite having the best run differential in their division. That's mostly explained by their 0-9 record in one-run games, which indicates bad luck more than anything. But I don't really care about the Braves or the National League East.

Then he moves on to what he calls "individually, the weirdest story of April," our Cliff Lee. Neyer points links to a column by Rany Jazayerli of Baseball Prospectus (posted April 26, so it's a week old, but still), which contains the following passage:

In 31.2 innings, he has allowed 11 hits, walked 2, struck out 29, and has a 0.28 ERA. I’d venture to say that half the pitchers in the majors today would struggle to put up those numbers if they got four starts in the Midwest League.

Just focus on his last three starts. On three consecutive occasions Lee has pitched 8 innings or more, allowed no more than 3 hits, walked no more than one batter, and struck out at least 8 batters.

We have game logs going back to 1956, courtesy of Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference.com. Since 1956, do you know how many pitchers had made three straight starts with 8+ innings, <=3 hits, <=1 walk, and 8+ strikeouts? Here's the list, which I have put in alphabetical order for your convenience:

Cliff Lee.

Here's that list again, sorted by last name:

Lee, Cliff.

That's it. Lee's stretch of pitching is unmatched in at least 50 years, and quite possibly ever, when you consider that strikeouts tend to decrease in frequency as you go back in time.

Yes, it's impressive. Since then, in his last start, Wednesday night, Lee gave up three runs, all on the last pitch he threw in the game, and his ERA ballooned to 0.96. Before that swing, he was at 0.24. Lee's obviously not quite this good -- no pitcher is -- but it's fantastic to see him get off to this kind of start, especially when you consider how bad he was last year.

Anyway, Neyer believes (and rightly so, I'd say) that Lee is fundamentally a much better pitcher than he showed last year, and a much lesser pitcher than he's shown thus far in '08. Were the Cy Young given out in early May, he'd have it locked up -- but, of course, there are five months left to go in the season, and Lee will struggle from time to time. Every pitcher does. Baseball simply isn't this easy.

Neyer also notes, quoting another blogger, that Lee's batting average on balls in play (kind of an egghead statistic, but it does serve as a fairly reliable predictor of future success) is .153. He's not going to be able to keep that up, because no defense is that good.

Neyer's conclusion, which is what I was setting up in my first paragraph:

So is Cliff Lee for real? I think all we can say is that he's really healthy. He's going to give up a higher batting average on balls in play, and some reasonable percentage of the fly balls he gives up will fly over the fence. So no, he probably doesn't wind up winning the Cy Young Award. But I'll bet he's better than average. And considering how well C.C. Sabathia's pitched in his last two starts, suddenly the Indians would seem to have the best rotation in the majors.

Sabathia struggled a bit last night against the Royals, and took the loss, but still, he appears to have largely turned it around. And while the Indians are off to a bit of a disappointing start as a team, at 14-16, they're still only a game and a half out of first place. I feel pretty optimistic.

Interesting series

The Cavaliers absolutely dominated that game last night in Washington. It's hard to believe the Wizards were actually winning after the first quarter, and extended the lead to six in the second. But after Boobie Gibson's three-pointer with 5:35 to go in the first half gave the Cavs a 43-41 lead, they never looked back. Our guys outscored the Wiz 21-7 the rest of the quarter, and the Washingtonians never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

After that domination, it's hard to believe these same two teams played such an up-and-down series. The margins of victory were: Cavs by 7, Cavs by 30, Wizards by 36, Cavs by 3, Wizards by 1, Cavs by 17. And Cleveland eliminates Washington for the third year in a row. It was a real battle, marked by hard fouls (of which LeBron James took most of the brunt), 13 technicals, one ejection and one suspension.

Of course, LeBron atoned for his missed shot that would have won Game 5, scoring his third career playoff triple-double (27 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists). He was a monster in that game. As Zydrunas Ilgauskas put it, the Cavs always have a chance because "We have LeBron on our team, and there are 30 other teams, or 29, who don't. That's the biggest difference."

Wally Szczqzxzerbiak, who couldn't buy a basket for a couple of months after the Cavs traded for him, seemingly couldn't miss last night, and wound up with 26 points. He and Boobie (22 points) combined for 10 treys.

And maybe DeShawn Stevenson and Caron Butler will learn to keep their mouths shut. But I'm guessing not.

It's also hard to believe we don't know who we're playing next yet. Really, the HAWKS taking the CELTICS to seven games? If Atlanta were to win somehow, this would be the biggest series upset in NBA history. Remember 1994, when Dikembe Mutombo's Nuggets became the first eight-seed to beat a one-seed, and it was Shawn Kemp's Supersonics? Remember the image of Mutombo lying on the floor at the end of the deciding game, holding the ball over his head in unbridled glee? Those Nuggets went 42-40 that year, to Seattle's 63-19, a 21-game difference in the standings. That's a big upset, no question.

But these Hawks went 37-45, to Boston's 66-16. That's a 29-game spread, for those who aren't good at subtraction. The Hawks are one of the worst teams to even make the playoffs in recent memory, and the Celtics basically ran roughshod over the league. The fact that Garnett, Allen, Pierce and company didn't send the Hawks home a few days ago is incredible by itself; never mind the idea that the Hawks might actually win. That's why they play the games, I suppose. But whoever wins Game 7 tomorrow, we can at least hope they'll be worn out when the Cavs get them.