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Old 06-05-2005, 04:52 PM   #41
RebelYell
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Bad news travels fast

Murder Committed
In Indians' Hotel

SEATTLE -- The Cleveland Indians had Thursday off from the toils of an early-season pennant race.

But they didn't get to enjoy it.

Detectives from Seattle have acknowledged that they spoke with members of the team and its management as part of an investigation into a murder that occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Katrina A. Ford, a part-time model from Bellevue, Wash., was found dead at the hotel where the Indians spent three days during their series with the Seattle Mariners. The 19-year-old girl's half-nude body was found in the stairwell of the hotel, less than a floor up from the lobby.

Reports are that the entire Cleveland entourage resided on the ninth floor.

"We have a horrible crime that has been committed and our list of suspects consists of everyone who was staying in the hotel Wednesday night and Thursday morning," said Seattle senior detective Mario Caravella. "We have to be very careful early in our investigation because, while we have a list of, say, 100 potential suspects, 99 of those people are completely innocent of any wrongdoing."

Asked if his statement indicated there was only one perpetrator, Caravella replied "no comment."

The Indians have returned home with a five-game losing streak. They have a three-game lead over this weekend's opponent, the Detroit Tigers, who are in town for a four-game series.
Caravella said that he would want to speak with a few more members of the team over the weekend.

"We got the initial information we needed to do some follow-up work," Caravella said. "We have a crime to solve and a heinous one at that. The sooner we can get all the information we need, the sooner we can find the culprit and put him where he belongs."
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-05-2005, 05:03 PM   #42
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The day after ... and a new beginning

Thursday sucked. Make no bones about it, it was one of the worst days of my life.

I didn't sleep Wednesday night because our team wasn't playing good baseball and was kept up all day Thursday because of what I had witnessed in that stairwell.

Friday, I promised Amanda I would take care of the kids. School is almost out and I make an effort, whenever I'm home, to cart them all to school. It's only two stops right now. The oldest two go to the junior high and the next two both go to an elementary school nearby.

It's good therapy for me and the kids love the change of pace.

Finally, thanks to the normalcy of being home and around the kids, I was able to get some sleep before Friday's big game.

But not much.

About 2 p.m., I got a call from the newspaper under the guise of getting my weekly column done. Of course, the real purpose of the call was to find out who all had been involved with the police following the murder in our hotel. I didn't say much and even asked if we couldn't scratch the Q&A with the coach -- for the time being anyway. The questions have been dull and I had already gotten in trouble with one of my players for something I said.

The newspaper editor agreed. We decided that laying low right now was the best thing to do.

At least something went right today.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-05-2005, 05:26 PM   #43
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Streak ends, but losing ways continue

Tribe Tamed
Detroit sweeps doubleheader,
Trims Cleveland's lead to 1 game

Jeff Inglin delivered two game-winning hits in extra innings and Magglio Ordonez flared up with a 3-for-5 outing before getting ejected in Sunday's finale as Detroit continued to close in on Cleveland for the AL Central lead.

After dropping Friday's game to the Indians and C.C. Sabathia, Detroit roared back with good pitching and clutch hitting from Inglin.

Cleveland has now lost eight of its last nine games and travels to Baltimore to meet the first team to win a series from the Indians this season.

"It's been a rough week," Cleveland rookie manager Bobby Don Southworth understated. "We still have the lead, though, so not all is lost. We just have to regroup and find the good things we were doing in the first month of the season to win the close ballgames."

Ronnie Belliard's two-run double in the sixth inning of Friday's game was the last of Cleveland's big hits for the series. Belliard put Sabathia and the Tribe ahead, 4-2, and Chad Zerbe came on to finish off the Tigers.

The bats went quiet on Saturday and Sunday, however.

Inglin's two-run homer in the 11th broke a 1-1 tie and spoiled another good showing by rookie phenom Jeremy Sowers. The Vanderbilt product allowed five hits and one earned run through 6 1/3 innings.

In Sunday's first game of a twinbill, Jake Westbrook was strong through eight innings, but Detroit tied the game in the ninth and won it on a two-out, two-RBI single by Inglin in the 10th. The Tigers won, 4-2.

In the nightcap, Ordonez cracked three hits and knocked in three runs en route to a 7-4 victory. In the ninth, the Detroit right fielder made an early exit when he argued balls and strikes calls with home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley.

"I thought that might spark us," Southworth said. "Actually, my first thought was 'I bet (Chicago White Sox manager) Ozzie Guillen gets a kick out of this when he reads it in the paper tomorrow.'
"At least somebody is going to like the article. But it won't be us."
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-06-2005, 08:03 PM   #44
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Clubhouse meeting

After Friday’s win over Detroit, I met with the players about the off-the-field issues. I told them part of what I knew without telling any of them that I had discovered the crime scene and made the 911 call. The detectives were aware of my part in the case and, following my initial interview with them, I felt there was an unspoken understanding that their best path to the players was through me.

So, as the conduit for the Seattle detectives, I told my players that I would take in any information they might have had about the case and relay it to the detectives in complete confidentiality. I knew it was a long shot. I wouldn’t have told anybody about my part in the case and I didn’t expect these guys, many of whom had only known me for a couple of months, to put much trust in me.

But my little fishing expedition did have one bite.

Following Sunday’s doubleheader, one of the guys who was in the room with the girl two days before her murder came into my office and shut the door.

“B.D., I was with that girl who got killed,” he said. “I saw her picture in the paper Friday morning and that girl was in my room Monday afternoon.”

This wasn’t news to me. I had seen him there with two other players.

This guy was scared. He was married less than two years and his fear wasn’t that he had done anything inconceivable, like killing girl. No, he was concerned about his reputation. He thought word could get around about him being in the presence of the girl.

It was understandable for him to be a little scared.

I asked him what happened in the room.

“We were down in the lobby messing around and this girl came over to talk to us. We didn’t shy away and Grady or Jody -- one of 'em -- asked her if she wanted to come up and have a soda. She said sure and came up to our floor.
We just talked for 30 minutes and then she had to go.”

Did she say where she was going?

“No, she just thanked us for the soda and headed back to the elevator. I guess she went back down to the lobby.”

I had a lot of questions. Did she say anything about herself? Why she was there? Was she meeting somebody? What did she do for a living?

But I didn’t say anything for a minute. And then I asked:
Did you see her again or make plans to see her again?

He bit his lip a little. Not a good poker face.

“She gave Grady her phone number. I suppose it was her cell phone.”

I frowned a little bit and then nodded.
But you didn’t see her again the whole trip?

“No sir. I wasn’t looking for her, but I think I would have noticed her. Even if she had been at the game in the crowd.”

All right, I said. You better go home and get some rest. We’ve got to head out for Baltimore in the morning.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-06-2005, 11:43 PM   #45
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Hail, Hail to the Victor

Indians Eke Out
Win over Orioles

BALTIMORE – Victor Martinez is trying to remove the “light-hitting” tag from his name.
The only Cleveland player in the lineup with a batting average under .250, Martinez gave C.C. Sabathia and the Indians a big lift in the opening game of a three-game set with a grand slam to account for all the runs in a 4-0 victory.

The two teams then split the next two games, including an 11-inning thriller on Wednesday, won by the Indians on Juan Gonzalez’s home run.

Sidney Ponson cuffed the Tribe in the middle game, a 6-2 victory by the Orioles.

“It’s good to kind of get the monkey off our back,” Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth said. “Baltimore was the first team to beat us in a series at our place and it was nice to kind of even things up a little bit this time around.”

Cleveland demonstrated strength in its starting pitching as Sabathia combined with the bullpen for a shutout in Monday’s opener. Martinez supplied all the runs the Indians would need with his clout, but the Indians paid for the victory in a four-run loss the following day.

In the finale, left-hander Jeremy Sowers was effective over 7 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs and five hits. The Indians could not get Sowers the win, though, and had to turn things over to the tag-team combination of Bob Wickman and Chad Zerbe.

Gonzalez’s homer in the 11th gave the Tribe a 3-2 triumph.

“I just wish we could get some of the runs we were getting for Jeremy (Sowers) in his first couple of outings,” Southworth said. “He’s pitched better and better every time out and he’s not getting the wins he deserves for it.

“At the same time, I think we’ve got to consider ourselves kind of lucky to win two out of three from a team when we scored just nine runs in 29 innings against them,” Southworth said. “We scored 15 in three games at home against them and only won once.
Baseball is a funny game sometimes.”
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-07-2005, 07:57 PM   #46
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One-on-one with Sizemore

Ask people around the league and Grady Sizemore is going to be a surefire 10-year guy with a lot of productivity. He’s got four outstanding tools and he’s the kind of kid I like because he’s a good character guy.

Come to think of it, all of my young ones are good character guys. They handle themselves well; They mind their manners in public; They treat people with respect.

They’re the kind of guys I want going to war with me.

Grady Sizemore is no different. In fact, being kind of hockey-minded, I would project him to be the guy who would wear a captain’s sweater. At the very least, I’d give him an “A” on that sweater.

While Grady is a great kid, good ballplayer and, right now, an outstanding leadoff man, he’s got a habit of wandering off the beaten path every now and then. He’s not quirky, but he’s a little absent-minded. He doesn’t always think before he acts – something that would be a problem for a less considerate ballplayer – but he has a good heart to make up for it.

The thing that stands out most about Grady Sizemore, though, is that the girls love him.

So I wasn’t surprised at all when Ben Broussard came into the office the other day and said that Grady had gotten the “digits” of the girl who was in their room Monday.

I asked Grady to stop by my hotel room in Baltimore before we headed back to Cleveland.

“Hey coach, what’s up?”
Hey Grady. Great job today. You’re doing a terrific job for us, I said.

After a couple more minutes of baseball gibberish and idle talk, I told him I had something serious to ask him.

Grady smiled, sensing a joke.

You remember that girl in Seattle? The one who was murdered?
He immediately became somber.
“Yeah, I heard about that,” Sizemore said. “In-freaking-credible. I had just seen her like the day before.”

I queried: You saw her the day before she died?
“Yeah, I guess it was the day before. Maybe two days before … ”

And from there, Grady Sizemore’s story matched up pretty close to Broussard’s. When the girl left their room, as Broussard had said, the guys had never seen her again.

“She was hot,” Sizemore said, “and she had asked me if she could call me next time we were in town. I lied to her and told her I didn’t have a phone on the road and that I didn’t know where we would be staying … But she gave me her phone number.”

You keep it?
“Shoot, are you kidding?” he said, the smile coming back. “I get a dozen phone numbers a day when we’re on the road.

I laughed. Of course. How dumb of me. What girl wouldn’t want Grady Sizemore to call them?

So you don’t call any of them, I take it.
“C'mon Coach, what do you think?”

I smiled again and shook my head, the universal signal for taking back a dumb question.

Just to be clear on the facts, though, I reiterated what Grady had told me.

So on the Monday afternoon when you saw her for the first time and went upstairs with her to your room with the other guys, that’s the only time you ever saw her.

“First and last time, Coach.”
Works for me, I said.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-08-2005, 09:37 AM   #47
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What a stupid name for a baseball team

A day off and a weekend series at The Jake would be good for the club. Still hanging on to first place by a couple of games, we’re hosting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

What a stupid name. That’s like the Cleveland Indians of Shaker Heights or the St. Louis Cardinals of Wentzville or the New York Yankees of the Bronx.

OK, I guess that third one is a possibility.

What looms on the horizon for us, though, is a visit from Seattle starting on Monday. Among the more important messages I had to answer when I returned to my Jacobs Field office was one from “M. Cavaretta.”

I knew what it meant. The name wasn’t spelled right on the note, but that’s what I get for having a secretary who still believed baseball’s heyday was the post-WWII 1940s.

It seems the detective and his partner were going to be attending next week’s series. I made sure he would have tickets to all three games.

The Angels from wherever, were another problem. They were going to bring the best group of three pitchers that we had seen this season. We were going to counter with our three veterans: Jake Westbrook (5-1), Kevin Millwood and C.C. Sabathia.

Jarrod Washburn and Kelvim Escobar are two guys who are as good as anybody we’ve seen. We’d better have the whippin’ sticks ready.

Should be a great series.

Also had another call from the local newspaper. They’re still getting calls and questions for me and wanted to know if they could do my column bi-weekly.

I try to stay away from anything that’s got “bi” in it. I don’t like the connotation. “Bi” or “buy” or however you want to put it is usually something I don’t want to be a part of.

But I gave in. I’ll continue to help out.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-08-2005, 10:01 PM   #48
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Letters to the manager

Q: B.D., how are things going in the minors. Do we have many prospects?

A: We’re loaded. Bottom line, no watering it down, we’ve got a lot of great young players at Buffalo, Akron and Kinston. Buffalo is just blistering everybody in the International League right now. They’re 18 games over .500 and they have so many starting pitchers that we’ve already called a couple of them up just to keep them working every five days. Akron is not doing as well, but they’ve got some good ballplayers down there and Kinston is doing a good job of developing our rookies and second-year players. I’d say you’ll see a lot more of some of these guys in the next few months and I can’t wait until the roster expands in September when we can get 40 of them in here.


Q: Coach, I was reading somewhere that you wanted to manage in the National League. What’s up with that?

A: I think you read something long before I got here, but yes, I had always wanted to manage in the National League before getting to Cleveland. Primarily, I believe you do a lot more game managing and series planning in the National League. The designated hitter takes some of the strategy out of the game. You can’t pitch around the 8-hole guy to get to the pitcher and you have to yank your starter a little early sometimes to get a good bat into the lineup in the later innings. I’ve been known to walk an 8-hole batter to tempt the other manager into playing for a big inning instead of leaving his pitcher in the game who may still be pretty effective. I’ve always enjoyed all those “game within the game” facets of baseball.


Q: What’s the rush with Jeremy Sowers? He shouldn’t be in the big leagues yet. He was still pitching college ball on this day one year ago.

A: Jeremy Sowers is special and he’s handled the change from college ball to rookie league to the majors with a lot of poise and presence. Yes, he was playing college baseball at this time last year, but he was playing for a team in a powerhouse conference. I think the Southeastern Conference is the best in the nation and every bit as good for player development – especially pitchers – as the rookie leagues.

That’s not a putdown to our system, but the rookie leagues can only play so many ballplayers in a season and give you an accurate assessment of where they stand. College baseball has produced a lot of major-league ready talent – Don’t forget that Mark Prior went to the same school as Sowers – and Jeremy has proven in his first month that he is definitely ready to play major-league baseball.

He’s scheduled to start in the first game of the Seattle series.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-09-2005, 09:33 AM   #49
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Lead Disappears

Angels’ Escobar Topples Tribe;
Indians Tied with Tigers for 1st
Kelvim Escobar held Cleveland to a single run and bad baserunning kept the Indians from a ninth-inning comeback in Sunday’s 4-1 loss at Jacobs Field.

Jody Gerut’s ninth-inning double put Indians at second and third with one out. Ronnie Belliard then laced a liner into left-center field that resulted in the game’s final action. Angels center fielder Garret Anderson made a knee-high snag and threw to second base to double off Gerut.

“What were we doing?” Cleveland manager Bobby Don Southworth, still soaking from the remnants of a 66-minute rain delay, said in disgust. “Down three runs with one out and the trail runner gets doubled up on a fly ball. That’s not even Little League. That’s bad baseball.”

The loss left the Indians tied with Detroit for first place. Because the Tribe has Thursday off, the Tigers can dart into first place with a win against Texas.

Los Angeles stormed to a 10-1 victory behind Jarrod Washburn in the series opener. The Angels scored three times in the fifth and three more in the sixth to chase Cleveland starter Jake Westbrook (5-2) in front of a Friday night crowd of 27,286. Juan Gonzalez’s solo shot in the sixth was Cleveland’s lone consolation.

Runs were hard to come by for both teams on Saturday. Ben Broussard crunched his third dinger of the season and Grady Sizemore went 2-for-3 with a walk, stolen base and a run scored in a 2-1 victory. Kevin Millwood yielded six hits in seven innings and allowed just one earned run to post the win. Chad Zerbe slammed the door in the ninth for his 12th save.

Escobar (5-2) kept the Indians at bay in the finale, besting C.C. Sabathia.

“It all goes to our lack of run production,” Southworth said. “Four runs in the three games. That’s a new low. We scored five runs in Seattle and got swept; 11 runs in four games against the Tigers and lost three of them and now we’re very lucky to get a win in this three-game set on just four runs.

“We’ve got to find more ways to score some runs.”

The Indians welcome the Seattle Mariners for a three-game set beginning Tuesday. The Mariners swept the Tribe just two weeks ago.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-09-2005, 08:58 PM   #50
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Meeting the Fuzz

Following Sunday’s disappointing loss, I informed the team that they needed to be at the ballpark an hour earlier than normal for Tuesday’s game. I didn’t care if they played ping pong or Xbox or just sat around and watched television, but I wanted them to all be around for the Seattle detectives who were going to pay us a visit.

From what little I had heard – and even less that had been reported in the newspaper – Kristina A. Ford’s case was not moving along very well. It had come out that she worked for not just one, but several call-girl agencies and escort services. The list of possible suspects was quite lengthy – longer than the list of names of the people who were staying at our hotel from May 8-10.

There were ex-boyfriends, illegitimate family members and, the latest revelation, an estranged husband named Ford.

Honestly, I felt better about the whole thing. For a few days, off and on, I was really upset that any scope of the case had fallen on my ballclub. It had taken a toll on the young team. There were guys whose slumps seemed to have started with the trip to Seattle or the return home shortly afterward. We were 4-9 since going to Seattle and were only in first place – by half a game at 24-19 – because the Rangers had beaten the Tigers.

Meanwhile, Chicago has snapped out of its early-season doldrums and has won eight in a row. The White Sox still trail by four games.

We took the day off Monday and I was the second one in the clubhouse – beaten only by Travis Hafner, who was always the first one to arrive.

Thirty minutes later, a pair of Seattle police officers arrived, one wearing a Mariners cap and the other whom I had met before, Detective Caravella.

The pair could have passed for ordinary fans, dressed very casually. They were taken in by the surroundings of the clubhouse and, particularly, by my office. Baseball bats, photos, a large Indians mural surrounded them on the walls. On the desk and filing cabinets were baseballs in different shaped cases.

Caravella’s partner was bold enough to pick up a couple of the items. He found my 11-year-old’s championship game ball most interesting.

“This your team?” he asked, genuinely curious about the poor handwriting and first-name-only signatures that he had assumed were made by my team.

No, I smiled, that’s my son’s Little League team. They won their division this year. Jonathan thought it would be pretty cool for me to have the baseball his coach gave him.

Obviously, the sincerity of my son’s donation to my office décor had been too deep for this second-in-command protector of the common people.

“Got any news for us?” Caravella asked me.
No, don’t know anything that I haven’t seen in the newspapers.

Caravella shot me a quick look that delivered the message: “Are you sure about that?” and then looked at his partner, who was still immersed in the memorabilia around the office.

Instead, Caravella looked at me and said that he had some new information for me.
Go ahead, shoot, I told him.

“We have a name on the room where the girl was held hostage for at least a day before she was killed,” Caravella said.

A name? And a room? Lots of thoughts were running through my head, but I wasn’t going to say anything. But I did wonder aloud: So she had stayed in the hotel.

“That’s right, Mr. Southworth. She stayed in room 406. Found her DNA all over the place along with the DNA of several other people.”

There was more than one killer?
“No, the room just wasn’t very clean. We’re pretty sure it was just one perp, though.”

And the name?
That question caused Caravella to chuckle.
“Oh, it’s not the killer’s name. I’d bet you on that. But it’s a name that led us back here to talk to you and maybe some of your players,” Caravella said.

Oh? I was really in the dark now.
“Yeah, seems our killer is a baseball fan. Or maybe even a baseball player. He used an alias.

"Tris Speaker.”
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-10-2005, 08:18 PM   #51
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In the wake of Tris Speaker

Caravella had dropped a bombshell on me without even knowing it.

By using an alias of a famous baseball player – and one of the most famous Cleveland Indians at that – we both knew that the killer probably had some sort of baseball knowledge. It’s also reasonable to believe that the killer was well aware that the Indians were in town for the days when he was there.

Or, worse yet, Caravella and I both knew there was the possibility that the killer was a current Indian with a sick sense of humor.

That’s one possibility that was keeping me up at night.

I did finally fall asleep Monday night, but I must have tossed and turned and kept Amanda awake. When I awoke, it was 3 a.m. and I was alone. I heard something that sounded like it came from our basement or garage and I walked through the kitchen to see what was going on. When I got to the door, it seemed heavier than usual. I looked down the stairs and they seemed different, too. Before I knew it, I was walking down the flights of steps of the Seattle hotel where, just two weeks before, I had discovered a horrible crime scene.

I walked cautiously down the steps. When I reached the fourth floor, there was again the baseball bat propped in the corner. For a second, I could almost feel someone’s eyes on me, but I was preoccupied with the baseball bat.

I walked even more slowly as I rounded the next flight of stairs. When I turned the corner at the second floor, I peered expectantly toward where a young girl’s body should have been. But it wasn’t there.

I heard a door below open and I began sprinting up the steps. The shuffle of the feet behind me was much quicker and I felt as if they were gaining on me. At the fourth-floor door, I made my escape. I entered the corridor and looked ahead of me.

Halfway down the hallway was a man running away from me in an Indians’ jersey. I didn’t see him long enough before he disappeared into an open room.

But I did see the back of his uniform. It had the bold number “1” on the back and above were the sewn on letters:

SPEAKER

I woke up in a cold sweat.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-12-2005, 01:39 AM   #52
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Scuttled by Seattle

Mariners make it 6 straight over Tribe
The Cleveland Indians might have had better luck with wiffleball bats.

Former Indian Richie Sexon hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning and Aaron Sele picked up where Seattle’s outstanding starters left off by holding the punchless Tribe hitless over 1 2/3 innings as the Mariners completed their second sweep of Cleveland with a 5-3 victory.

The three runs by Cleveland were the most it has scored against Seattle in six games. The Indians were held to six runs in the series and fell into second place, a game behind Detroit in the AL Central.

“This is a low point in our season,” Cleveland manager Bobby Don Southworth said. “It’s like we’ve plum forgotten how to hit the baseball. Their pitchers weren’t extraordinary or anything like that, but we sure made them look awfully darn good.”

Southworth was again haunted by one of his own former Arkansas brethren, Kit Pellow.

“I’m glad we could help Kit get out of his batting slump,” Southworth said. “I guess he’s only in their lineup against left-handers and we did him a favor by starting two of them.”

Pellow went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer in the first game of the series, a 6-1 Seattle victory. He raised his ailing batting average to .213.

The loss went to Cleveland southpaw Jeremy Sowers, the first home defeat for the rookie.
Seattle’s Jamie Pineiro earned the win by throwing four-hit baseball at the Tribe over seven-plus innings.

Gil Meche picked up right where Pineiro left off in a 6-2 victory on Wednesday. Meche also held Cleveland to four hits and struck out 10 to best Cliff Lee.

The Indians made a valiant attempt to avoid the sweep, battling the Mariners to a 3-3 tie after eight innings. Sexon yanked a 400-foot shot down the line to make a loser out of Cleveland reliever David Riske.

Cleveland fell to 4-11 against teams from the West.

“If you just look at the first two months of the season, you’d have to say that a playoff team from our division is going to be a lot better off getting paired up with a team from the East,” Southworth said. “I know in our case that we’ve played five series against teams from the West Division and we’ve only won one of them.”

For now, the Indians’ attention will turn to opponents outside the American League. The Indians entertain Philadelphia in a weekend series at Jacobs Field and then travel to Washington to play the Senators.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-12-2005, 08:21 PM   #53
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Wow, just started checking this dynasty today and, let me just say as someone who is usually more into the on-field aspects, I have found myself skipping the on-field part to read ahead and find out what's going on with B.D. and the whole Seattle girl.

You sir, have gotten me immersed into the off-field aspects, and for that, I salute you.
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Old 06-13-2005, 08:51 PM   #54
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Interleague play

I hate interleague play. To me, it’s stupid. It’s exhibition baseball in the middle of the season that counts in the standings.

And the very fact that it counts in the standings is stupid.

We’ll play Philadelphia and Washington in the next week. Philadelphia leads the NL East. Washington is terrible. It all balances out for us.

But it’s not equitable to every team in the league to play just a handful of teams from the other league. True interleague play would have us playing every team in the other league six times apiece – three home and three away. Then everybody has had the same number of games against every other team on the schedule.

Tell me how fair it is for one team to play St. Louis and Atlanta and another team in the same division gets to play Milwaukee and Washington. It’s not right. And if you look at the division standings at the end of the year, you’ll probably find a division champ or wild-card winner decided by their success against teams outside the division.

What’s good about interleague play? Well, fans in New York and Chicago get to watch their teams play for bragging rights. Boston and St. Louis will have a rematch of their World Series. The Dodgers and Angels can fight over Los Angeles.

Big deal. Give me another Giants-Dodgers series and let the A’s play the Angels another extra game or two. They’re the teams that have to compete against each other to win a division title.
And on top of all that, you’ve got to play by the other league’s rules when you play interleague games on the road. I don’t like the designated hitter, but my team basically loses a roster spot on the road because we play more than 90 percent of our games with a DH.

Listening to people like Harold Reynolds and John Kruk debate the topic is almost as bad as having to play the games. But Kruk’s an idiot anyway. They put him in the studio so he wouldn’t hurt ESPN’s credibility in the field.

Give me Vin Scully any day.

And here’s the pitch to Kruk ...
It’s a ball ... outside and high.
Kruk has one ball …


Dead silence follows as Vin turns off the microphone to hide the laughter of his engineer in the booth.

I’ll probably think about that a couple of times when I see the Phillies this weekend. And we’ll do our best to get off this skid we’re on. At the end of the year, I won't mind if teams are griping about how we won our division because of our good interleague record.

It wouldn’t hurt my feelings any.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-13-2005, 08:52 PM   #55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoCubsAndJays
Wow, just started checking this dynasty today and, let me just say as someone who is usually more into the on-field aspects, I have found myself skipping the on-field part to read ahead and find out what's going on with B.D. and the whole Seattle girl.

You sir, have gotten me immersed into the off-field aspects, and for that, I salute you.
Thank you very much. I hope it doesn't disappoint and I appreciate everybody who has followed along.
RY
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball
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Old 06-14-2005, 09:37 AM   #56
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Phillies take it on both cheeks and the chin

Indians off to perfect start
in interleague play vs. Phils

Cleveland’s vastly improved bullpen earned two victories and a save and Juan Gonzalez belted his 10th and 11th home runs of the year as the Indians swept the Philadelphia Phillies.

In their first taste of interleague play in 2005, the Indians came up with wins of 7-5, 9-4 and 5-4 to regain the lead in the AL Central by two games over Detroit.

“We beat a good ballclub,” Tribe skipper Bobby Don Southworth said. “Philadelphia has a good team and we were fortunate to win a couple of close ballgames. I was especially pleased with our bullpen and our hitting. It was nice to see some crooked numbers up on the board this weekend.”

Gonzalez cranked a home run and Coco Crisp knocked in a pair of runs to help Kevin Millwood post a win in Friday’s opener. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak and set Cleveland up for its first series victory in two weeks and only its third series victory of May.

“It’s been a tough month,” Southworth said. “We’ve had a lot of things happen that we could never have prepared for and we’ve done some things to ourselves that haven’t helped. All in all, though, I’m pretty impressed with this team’s resilience. It’s a good quality about this team."

The Indians won the series with a 9-4 triumph on Saturday. Gonzalez, pinch-hitting in the seventh, launched a three-run homer to put Cleveland in command. Bob Wickman got credit for the win, coming on in the top of the seventh to relieve Jeremy Sowers.

“Having a guy like Juan is what hurts us when we get into National League parks,” Southworth said. “He’s going to end up having to pinch-hit some and, with his power, that’s not getting the maximum out of him. We’re going to miss having him swing the bat 8 or 10 extra times in Washington.”

There are other Indians that can provide home run punch and a flare for the dramatic.

Ben Broussard went 3-for-4 and broke a seventh-inning tie to boost Cleveland to its first sweep in a month.

Trevor Young picked up the win in relief and Chad Zerbe notched his 13th save.

The Indians make the short trek to the nation’s capitol for a three-game series with the Nationals starting Monday.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-15-2005, 05:38 PM   #57
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Southern Man on Tour

I’m not a big fan of looking like a tourist and carting around a camera, but Washington is one of those places where I wanted to get pictures.

My excuse, like all daddies, was that I wanted to show my kids what I saw in Washington D.C. But I’m really pretty interested in Washington. I guess I’m pretty patriotic and there’s a lot to see in this town if patriotism is your thing.

I wore myself out walking around the city Tuesday. I saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, the White House … you name it. I was there. My favorite place, though, was the Smithsonian Institute. I spent all day there on Wednesday before our finale with the Nationals. I even spent some time at the zoo, although it deserves an entire day for itself.

As for the team, we’re hanging in there. C.C. Sabathia had some elbow trouble following his win in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago and I think he made it worse in that 4-1 loss to Los Angeles a week ago Sunday. We’ve skipped his turn and are even going to give him another day or two of rest by slipping Cliff Lee into the rotation again.

Cross your fingers. Lee has been, in a word, undependable.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-17-2005, 01:22 PM   #58
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The two-month mark

Races tight as teams approach 1/3 mark of season
By Associated Press
Nearly one-third of the 2005 season is complete and only two things are certain:

1) Nobody is a lock for the World Series and nobody is locked out of it.
The races are tight throughout Major League Baseball and especially so in the West Divisions of both leagues.
And 2) The way things are going, there could be just two cities represented when championship-series time rolls around in October. Both the Yankees and Mets lead their divisions while the Dodgers and Angels both lead their divisions.

Here’s a rundown through 50-plus games:
In the AL East, the Yankees hold a four-game lead over Toronto, an early-season surprise with Boston and Baltimore both figuring to challenge for a wild-card berth.

Cleveland leads the AL Central by 2½ games over Detroit with Chicago down by four games. The White Sox sport the best Pythagorean record of any team in the division.

Los Angeles holds a slim, ½-game lead over Seattle in what many are predicting will be a see-saw race all year. The second-place team in the West also has the upper hand on gaining a wild card, but there’s no telling which team will end up second. Last-place Oakland is only six games back.

In the National League, the New York Mets lead the East by 1½ games over Philadelphia. Both Atlanta and Florida are 5½ games back.

Cincinnati is maintaining a slim lead over St. Louis. The Cardinals are 1½ games behind while Houston is another three back of them. Pittsburgh, sixth in a six-team division, trails the leader by only six games.

And the National League West has another Los Angeles entry on top of the leader board. The Dodgers are 34-21 and boast baseball’s best record. San Francisco is 6½ games behind.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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Old 06-18-2005, 01:29 AM   #59
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Arizona makes trip to Jacobs Field

Diamondbacks escape with series win over Indians
With runners at first and third and one out in the ninth, the Cleveland Indians had their biggest stick at the plate and a good chance at overcoming a 6-5 deficit.

But Travis Hafner grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and the Arizona Diamondbacks took the rubber game of their three-game interleague series against the Tribe.

“We had two chances to win it in the ninth,” Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth said. “We could have won it in the top of the ninth with our closer (Chad Zerbe) on the mound and then we had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth when two of our first three batters got on base.”

The Indians fell to 21-3 in games where they have scored five runs or more.

“We’ve done pretty well when we’ve scored some runs,” Southworth said. “You know, it wasn’t but a month ago that we went three weeks without scoring five runs in a single game.”

Southworth’s club, which in fact went 18 consecutive games without hitting the five-run mark during an anemic stretch in May, showed some spark in the lineup. First baseman Ben Broussard smashed a pair of home runs and knocked in four runs. Yet, the Diamondbacks scored twice in the top of the ninth against Zerbe and then turned the twin-killing to subdue the Indians.

“This one is a pretty tough one to take,” Southworth said. “The team is showing some signs of life and one pitch that’s just a little too high up in the zone and another ball that’s blistered right at somebody cost us the ballgame.”

Still, the Tribe remains in first place in the American League Central Division.
The Indians won the middle game in the series, 5-2, behind Jake Westbrook. The right-hander went 7 1/3 innings and allowed one run on six hits to improve to 6-3 on the season.
Cleveland only rapped out six hits, but three of those were home runs. Juan Gonzalez swatted his 12th of the year.

Arizona started the series on a winning note with a 7-2 verdict. Victor Hall went 3-for-4 and dropped his first home run of the season. Juan Brito broke open a tight game in the eighth with a grand slam off Bob Wickman.

The Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb was aboard for the win.

“We’ve got three more games at home so we’ll set out to get some momentum built up and try to get a little padding on our division lead,” Southworth said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint. We’re doing a lot of walking right now, but maybe we can start picking up the pace here pretty soon.”

Cleveland welcomes Tampa Bay for three games beginning this evening and then goes on the road to meet the second-place Detroit Tigers for a three-game set beginning Friday.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

Last edited by RebelYell; 04-01-2006 at 02:52 PM.
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Old 06-18-2005, 10:45 AM   #60
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The bitter taste of losing

When you play a game of pinball or a video game and don’t feel like you’ve given it your best effort, you just drop another quarter in the machine and play it again. You can quit on a good showing. You can leave satisfied.

Too many times, you leave the ballpark feeling empty. A loss like Sunday’s 6-5 defeat at the hands of a mediocre National League club, Arizona, makes you want to say “Hey, get back over here. We want to play again.”

The window of opportunity isn’t a very large one. Sometimes it’s not even open for you. But when you see a chance, you’ve got to take it.

It’s that kind of attitude that led me to this level in the management game. I don’t like to settle for second best. Second in a game of baseball is last place. There ain’t no silver medals.

The past month, I’ve been kicking myself a little harder, doing a lot of second-guessing. Should we have started the runner with Hafner at the plate to avoid a double play? Ronnie Belliard’s got some speed. We’ve started runners, bunted … done a lot of things a team that is this slow shouldn’t even bother with doing. We just can’t seem to create enough runs. It’s putting a lot of pressure on our pitching staff and some of the seams are starting to show some wear.

I was told when I took this team over that the bullpen would be our weakness. The bullpen blew about 20 games last year. I felt like we could cut that number in half at least. So far, we’re doing all right. The guys have confidence and they’re all developing into their roles. Trouble is, we may have used them a little more than we would have liked at this point because our starters aren’t giving us more than about six innings an outing.

While I hate leaving the ballpark after a loss, I look ahead and like how we’re set up over the next week. Millwood, Lee and Sowers are scheduled to pitch against Tampa Bay, a team we beat twice in Florida back in April. Then Westbrook and Sabathia will be on the hump in Detroit. I don’t expect us to win them all.

I just want to win more than the other four teams in our division.
__________________
Bobby Don Southworth -- Cleveland Indians, first place American League Central
Yoda55 gave it

And coming soon:
The World Cup of Baseball

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