A Night at the Indians Game

Yesterday was alot of fun as my buddy Potts and I went to go see an Indians game at Progressive field (You shall always be Jacob's field in my heart). We got there exceptionally early, over 2 hours prior to game time because I wanted to camp out on the homerun porch and snag homeruns during batting practice. Unfortunately, my carefully crafted plans went awry as the majority of the ballpark was closed until six so we were forced to sit in the right field seats to have any hope whatsoever of catching a batting practice homerun. It was exceptionally hot there, but it was quite close to the baseball players down on the field.

We sat there in the sun, munching on peanuts for about an hour. It was definitely not boring though as there was an older woman leaning over the wall and shouting down onto the field for Omar Vizquel to, and I quote (though I would rather not) "get his sweet bod over here". This woman was yelling so loudly that I could have sworn that the entire stadium could probably here her. Before the giants got into the outfield, they were stretching near their dugout on the first base line and to a man they all looked over when she yelled at them from the outfield. She was definitely not shy about welcoming Omar back to the ballpark for the first time since he was traded.

Prior to the game, there was a tribute to Omar that was actually quite touching. As someone who grew up watching the Indians in their heyday in the nineties, Omar and his fellow teammates from those years embodied what baseball truly meant. They really played as a team, which I am sad to say is sorely lacking not only in the current Tribe but also throughout baseball. Unfortunately, there are far too many people who seem to be hitting to get their personal numbers up that they negatively impact the team. It is amazing that the Indians this year have scored three runs or less in half of their games! That is an absolutely astounding number for major league hitters. Especially in the American league with the DH rule.

This game ended with a 3-2 win for the Giants, but the Indians had plenty of opportunities yet failed to capitalize. A strange thing occurred in Giants ninth when Omar came up to bat with men on first and third. He performed one of the best squeeze bunts down third base that I have ever seen, and all kudos to him. He performed it with such alacrity that the man from third scored and he was also safe at first base. The strange part of this incidence is that probably half of the stadium cheered because Omar did his job. I have a feeling that Omar was probably a little bit saddened by the lack in compassion for the modern incarnation of the Tribe. When he was playing, during a five year stretch that saw daily sellouts, this would never have happened. To have half of the park cheer when the opposing team scores a run is just very strange. I mean, I was happy to see Omar play, and the tribute before the game was really nice, but once that game starts he is the enemy for the majority of the park. We are a long way from San Francisco, so there really weren't that many Giants fans in the crowd.

So this was yet another loss for the struggling Indians. I am fast losing my patience with this team, and really don't see any way for them to come out of this hole unless they completely change the ways in which they have been playing baseball. They need to drop their pride and start playing together as a team. The talent is definitely there, but I fear that the motivation is missing. If I had bet in Vegas before this season started that both the Indians and Tigers would be playing sub-500 baseball this late into the season I could probably retire quite easily to some nice beach house down in the Caribbean with half of the attendance at last night's game.