The only entertaining thing I've said in weeks

A conversation from tonight's Let's Go Tribe Game Thread:

Joe: That's either a single or an out with Gutz.
supermarioelia: Overexaggeration of the night. No way any human catches that.
Gradyforpresident: But Gutz isn't human.
Me: robot baseball players are my favorite.
nickjs21: But this is a game of heart!!!1!
Me: but robots are awesome.
nickjs21: I can't argue with that.
Me: also, i think gutz is one of those neato sci-fi robots who are like "man, i wish i had emotions," failing to realize that tragically wishing for emotions is an emotion. that's totally heart.
nickjs21: If only everyone understood Gutz like you.

Sometimes, like games like tonight's, you have to make your own fun. I think a "Replace everyone with emo sci-fi robots!" campaign is in order. They've already gotten the Indians pitching staff; you just haven't realized it yet.

July 17, 2007: Clinton Lumberkings 0, Fort Wayne Wizards 12

Aside from the very, very cool Indians game on television tonight, I also attended a minor league game this evening, and saw the Fort Wayne Wizards take on the Clinton Lumberkings (Texas Rangers affiliate). The Wizards had been on a bit of a skid the last few days, so I wasn't expecting particularly good ball.

So, surprisingly, I ended up watching Wizards' pitcher Stephen Faris throw 6.1 no-hit innings, and end up with a complete game, one-hit shutout. The one hit was a double down the first-base line given up to John Whittleman. There were at least a hundred umpires in the stands who disagreed with the fair/foul call on the part of umpire Alex Ortiz on that play. I admit, I didn't get a very good look at the play, myself, and generally defer to others as my depth perception is often a bit lacking.


So thus far, I have seen one truly awful pitching performance out of the Wizards: Drew Miller's outing against the Cedar Rapids Kernels on July 13. And two really kind of incredibly good outings: Andy Underwood's one-run on four-hits, eight inning outing against the Lansing Lugnuts on July 8, and now Stephen Faris's one-hitter.

I really wish I could bring myself to go to games more regularly than I do so I could feel more secure in my analyses and feelings about the teams (I admit, I don't look up regular stats on these guys enough, but even being able to look at a stat line isn't the same as seeing a guy pitch every few days, you know?), so I could say "yeah, this is typical Underwood" or "That was a fluke outing from Miller," you know? But I just can't bring myself to spend the money on gas (the tickets themselves aren't too terribly priced), or miss out on that many Indians games.

I do really enjoy these regular baseball outings, though. It's much better to go to Fort Wayne once a home series as opposed to driving out to Cleveland about once a month. I'm much happier seeing regular outdoor baseball, I think.

Photos from tonight's game available here.

Ladies and gentlemen, your back-up catcher!

I was going to upload the post-game interview with Kelly Shoppach, but Google Video is being sassy and there was no Leadership Pie, so I'll just have to live without it.

My point here is that I am freaking out. There's just something about a walk-off, especially when the team scores five runs in the bottom of the ninth that's just...

As depressed as I want to be about this team sometimes, the fact that they keep doing this always leaves that glimmer of hope in me any game I watch. And some of that is just relentless positivity, and some of that is, you know, this team can be really good.

And the best thing I've taken out of these past two games? It looks like Pronk's mojo might be back.

June 25, 2007: Oakland at Cleveland

So, it turns out C.C. started the game on Monday after all. This was a pleasant surprise for me!

Jake Westbrook threw me a ball during batting practice, but I gave it to this nice high school age girl from Maine I'd been talking to.

I have plenty of things to talk about, but for now, here, have some blurry-as-hell photos.

The win tonight brings my personal record to 2-2 all time at Jacobs Field, and 2-1 for the year. Not too bad for someone who's caught three Cliff Lee starts out of four

Pie!

So I've been busy studying for tests and writing up final papers and whatnot because if I do not do these things, I do not finally get my B.A. However, to keep y'all entertained, have some video, now in super-sketchy Pointing The Camera At The TV-vision.

I AM GIDDY

That was one of the most amazing games I have ever seen.

Okay. That's seriously all I got.

Indians vs. Tigers: Round 2

I am loving these games, y'all. And not just because we're winning; although that's nice.

David Dellucci's home run today has exempted him from being called a bum for at least the next couple games. So, if anyone catches me calling Dellucci a bum before the second game of the series with the Red Sox, you're allowed to yell at me.

The liner Garko hit off Grilli's knee was incredibly unfortunate. I always feel bad (because I apparently am all about feeling guilty about things I can't control) when another team sustains an injury or gets a really terrible call from the umps when my team is playing them. Uh. Unless that other team is the White Sox. Or possibly the Yankees, although at this point, it would just be piling on. It does seem that the injury to Grilli is not as terrible as one might have thought upon just seeing the liner. Placido Polanco's oblique spasms also only have him day-to-day, so hopefully for all the Tigers fans out there, he'll be okay soon for you.

The downside about today's game is that the Fox network's blackout rules are really, really stupid, since they only have regional coverage, so people in, say, California who might be transplanted Indians fans can't watch the Indians game on MLB.tv because they're blacked out, even though the game Fox is showing in their area was Cubs vs. Dodgers.

Then again, I think blackout rules in general are dumb, so maybe I shouldn't say anything anyway.

Tomorrow, however, is real life national coverage on ESPN's Sunday night baseball. Be psyched, y'all. Be freakin' psyched.

(And in other news, how far do the Yankees have to fall out of the AL East race before ESPN stops the daily Roger Clemens announcements? "And for the next five minutes, we will discuss the hat Roger Clemens bought at the mall today!")

Indians vs. Tigers: Round 1

Ohio vs. Michigan is a time-honored tradition. Sure, this isn't any OSU vs. UofM, but the Cavaliers playing the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals at the same time the Indians are playing the Tigers for control of the AL Central sure is pretty exciting.

I don't really feel about the Tigers the same way I feel about, say, the White Sox. This is possibly just because I have friends who root for the Tigers. That said, I want this to be a rivalry, and I want this rivalry, while friendly, to be huge.

Tonight's game was a good start. Jason Michaels robbed a Craig Monroe home run (which you've surely seen on ESPN by now), Barfield hit a home run, and Travis Hafner hit a triple of all things. Not to mention the Cobra¹ being the Cobra.

Casey Blake's beard seems to be working for him, so I guess I forgive him for the mountain man facial hair.

Really, the high point of this game for me was being shamed at the game thread at Let's Go Tribe when I declared that I do, in fact, find Nate Robertson attractive. Look, guys, if I understood it, I could make it stop. He's just got this... wolfy thing goin' on. But with glasses.

Tomorrow: We're on Fox! National coverage, baby.

¹ The Cobra may be better known by his civilian identity of "Paul Byrd." Context can be found here.

He's aliiiiiive!

Tonight, over a week into the season, Indians manager Eric Wedge finally put some of our younger relievers into the game. Fernando Cabrera pitched in the seventh and eighth innings tonight against the Angels.

Here are a few things you need to know about Fernando Cabrera:

1. Sometimes, finding the strike zone is hard for him.
2. His slider is filthy.
3. He gives up a lot of fly-outs, which sometimes translates to giving up a lot of home runs.
4. No, seriously. His slider is filthy.
5. He was amazing in 2005.
6. He was the exact opposite of amazing in 2006.
7. In between those two extremes, he was the closer for Team Puerto Rico in the WBC last spring.
8. A scout once described him pitching as looking like "an octopus falling out of a tree."
9. Sometime in September of 2005, I declared him my boyfriend, and I am sticking to it.

He looked pretty good tonight, considering he hasn't pitched in a game situation since spring training.

Also, well, I'm not going to argue about having a guy who looks like that showing up on my TV screen.

Me and F-Cab, man. We're like crossed fingers.

Sure, the Indians lost 4-1, and the infield defense made the kind of mistakes that made me spend all last year watching Indians games through my fingers, but F-Cab figured out how to pitch again, and Jhonny looked a little like he can still hit, and Josh Barfield and Kelly Shoppach have won my devotion so far, so I think I can deal with this.

Just so long as it doesn't become a trend.

This is starting to get ridiculous

This picture is from this article about Sunday's doubleheader against the Mariners being yet again postponed. That is some crazy lake effect snow we've got going there.

Around the blogosphere (and on the worldwide leader), people have been talking smack about the schedulers, and how horrible this scheduling is. On one level I agree, but given that there's an odd number of teams in the AL Central, someone always has to be playing someone out-of-division. The suggestion of the first week all taking place in the southern US also makes sense, but, as has been noted on various blogs, there is the problem of those southern/dome-stadium teams having complaints about loss of revenue, because the summer is where all the revenue is, not the spring.

However, there are a few things that could still be done to try to prevent this from happening again:

1) If we have to play someone out of division, that team should not be on the other side of the country, in the pacific time zone. The Indians should be playing the Yankees or the Orioles or the Blue Jays right now, not a team from across the country. The AL west is a 4-team division, and they can all play each other the first week or two of the season.

2) This four-game series should be two two-game series. It's much easier to make up two games than four.

In any case, this is giving me the chance to watch some Reds games, and whenever I get too cranky about not having an Indians game to watch all weekend, I try to visualize this, from the previously linked article:

"I've never seen this much snow," said C.C. Sabathia, who grew up and spends his offseasons near Oakland. "Never. My wife and I were just outside taking pictures of the house, because nobody in California is going to believe us."

I also try to be grateful that I didn't wake up early and make the four-hour drive to Cleveland for today's doubleheader, only to find myself stranded in Cleveland with no game to attend.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye - Seattle @ Cleveland 4/06

Today's game got called with one strike (well, one out) left before it became an official game. This basically means that Victor Martinez got seriously injured for no good reason. I am so irritated with... I don't even know. Someone right now.