Bobby Don Southworth hired to lead Tribe

[RebelYell]

Indians look within
to find new manager
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Crash Davis, he ain't.

But the new manager of the Cleveland Indians was a minor-league catcher, married the girl he met while playing AA baseball for the Arkansas Travelers and grew up just a mile north of where the Ohio Turnpike makes its final incision through Cuyahoga County.

He is Bobby Don Southworth.

It's a name that immediately creates an image of a slow-talking Southern gentleman. Southworth is every bit of slow-talking and, away from the dugout, he is a gentleman.

But can he lead a group of youngsters in the second stage of rebuilding toward the glory years of the '90s?

"I guess we'll find out," Southworth said, barely shrugging at all the confusion and conjecture that led him to his new post.

He was simply in the right place at the right time.

"Last week, I was looking forward to another good year at Akron. Now, I'm in the big leagues and I won't even have to find a new house," said Southworth, the architect of a two-year run of championships for the Indians' AA affiliate. In his 14 years of work with the Tribe, every team he has touched has turned to gold. Only one team he was associated with finished under .500 -- a whole two games under -- and he managed four of his six teams to league championships. He was one game short of winning 70 percent of all the games he has managed and quipped that he wanted to play a best-of-7 (instead of the requisite best-of-5) in last year's championship series to get that one more victory.

Is his success mere coincidence? Dumb luck?

Southworth doesn't even seem to know. Nor does he seem to care. He adapts to everything the Indians have thrown at him. His Aeros underwent a complete overhaul last June when the big-league team slumped. Southworth just kept on winning.

He has been painted as some kind of stickball savant, able to get the most out of his players, keep peace in the clubhouse and make the right managerial moves at the right time to win ballgames.

After all, the bottom line is winning, isn't it?

"It's all about winning," Southworth drawled in agreement. "But are you trying to win a game or a series? To me, it's all about building toward championships. I've been fortunate enough to be associated with an organization that sees the big picture. So I feel like I fit right in."

On the morning of his hiring, he seems to be the perfect fit into Cleveland's plans for the future.

But time will only tell.

[RebelYell]

The story that appeared in this morning's paper is what I woke up to on my first day as the Cleveland Indians manager. Just a little commentary from one of the sportswriters who has known me as the Akron manager. He doesn't really know me too well, but he did a pretty good job summing me up for the fans, I guess.

I've got a thing about sportswriters. They're underpaid and they work pretty hard, but they don't really know too much. They think they do and that's how you have to treat them. That's how I treat them. I'm as respectful to them as I ever was to my father and I don't patronize them. They have a job to do and so do baseball managers. It's possible for everybody to get what they want by working together so that's how I approach them.

It's how I approach coaching and playing baseball, too.

Playing and coaching ball is the only thing I've ever done in my life. Funny that the writer mentioned Crash Davis from one of my favorite movies. I'm a movie buff, an amateur songwriter and a daddy to four kids. But what I do for a living is try to win baseball games.

Really, it's all I know.

And it's brought me here. This is home. I grew up here, which is strange to some people when they hear me talk. I was born in Arkansas. A teammate once told me that it didn't matter where I was born in Arkansas because Arkansas is nowhere.

I didn't agree, but I smiled and nodded at him anyway.

I "came alive with the Tribe in '75." That was the theme back then. I figure some marketing genius might dig it up in '05 and wondered, while I've been away, if they used it in '85 or '95. I skipped school and was there the day player-manager Frank Robinson hit a home run on Opening Day. I saw Len Barker's perfect game on a chilly night by Lake Erie. I saw Hank Aaron play for the Brewers. I saw Lou Piniella hit a home run to beat the Indians while I was waving my "I hate the Yankees" hanky.

I was heavily influenced by some motormouth named Pete Franklin.

I went to a lot of baseball games back then. I was there for night games when the attendance at cavernous Municipal Stadium was less than 6,000.

Me and my buddies started the Eduardo Rodriguez fan club because we got to the ballpark for batting practice and he was the first guy who ever tossed us a baseball. We followed his career as if he were Gehrig and we always sat just above the visiting team bullpen, heckling the relievers.

We tossed pennies to the unfortunate Oakland A's after their dynasty had been dismantled (Pick it up and double your salary, we yelled) and glared at Al Hrabosky when he would stare at one of our group for saying something offensive.

And now I'm back. As far as I'm concerned, I've made it.

But it's a weird feeling. I've made it and I have 100 things to do and I don't know where to start.
I feel like Robert Redford after he won the election in "The Candidate."

He looks at his campaign manager and, pleading with his eyes, moves his lips in the crowded room.
"What do I do now" is what he asks.

I think I know exactly how he feels.

[RebelYell]

Tribe exits spring training
with 12 pitchers on roster
WINTERHAVEN, Fla. -- At first glance, the opening-day roster for the Cleveland Indians appears to be in perfect order. A couple of catchers, four outfielders, and, wait a minute.
Twleve pitchers?

That's right, the Indians will suit up 12 pitchers when they open the season in Texas this evening. Evidently, rookie manager Bobby Don Southworth kept tabs on the Tribe and their harrowingly ineffective bullpen in 2004.

"The problems they had last year weren't even on my mind when I thought about who I wanted on the roster," Southworth said. "I do want enough pitching to get us started on the right foot. We've got some talented starters, but I don't expect any of them to go more than 6 or 7 innings in April.
"That's why we're starting off with a lot of arms."

C.C. Sabathia will get the start against the Rangers. That sets up Kevin Millwood as the Indians' opening-day starter at Jacobs Field.

"I like the arms we've got and we're not going to tire anybody out," Southworth said. "(Jake) Westbrook and (Cliff) Lee are in the rotation and we'll look for a fifth starter after we get a few games under our belt. I feel comfortable with the middle guys like (Arthur) Rhodes and (David) Riske and I am extremely confident in Chad Zerbe as our closer."

Cleveland upgraded its pitching staff over the winter and has a strong crop of young arms stationed in Buffalo and Akron. Word around the Winterhaven camp has been that youngsters like Fausto Carmona, Francisco Cruceta and Jeremy Sowers will see time in an Indians uniform sooner than some might think.

"I'm excited about our pitching," Southworth said. "And I'm not worried about our hitting. I like the feel of this team heading into the season."

There will be holes created by the 12-man pitching corps. The Indians will have two catchers, utilizing Josh Bard to back up 108-RBI man Victor Martinez. But Travis Hafner's role as designated hitter leaves only 10 players to cover the other six positions. The potential for the Tribe to be lacking in the department of leather is great.

"The biggest disappointment I have in this club right now is its defense," Southworth admitted. "It's not a team that's going to make a lot of errors, but it seems to me that we don't get to a lot of balls that big-league teams usually get to."

Hafner is the best the Indians have at first base, ahead of Ben Broussard; Alex Cora is solid at second, but will give way to Ron Belliard; Brandon Phillips won the hotly-contested shortstop prize from Jhonny Peralta and flashy Jose Morban -- both of whom are flying to Buffalo; and Aaron Boone is all Cleveland has at third base on the opening-day roster.

Grady Sizemore is good in left field or right, but may have to start in center with incumbent Coco Crisp lagging this spring. Jody Gerut is above average in left field, forcing Juan Gonzalez into duty in right field.

"There's some patchwork to be done," Southworth said. "We're not a World Series team in April.
"But then again, nobody's supposed to be great in April."

[YankeeFanatic04]

Very Good start I'll follow...

[RebelYell]

Mench's HR grounds Cleveland
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- The series began with Ryan Drese giving the Texas Rangers an opening-day victory and it ended with Kevin Mench giving Chan Ho Park all the run support he needed in a rubber-game win over the Cleveland Indians.

Stellar on opening day, Drese held Cleveland's production to a single run and the Rangers walked away with a 6-1 victory. The Indians came back with a 6-3 win behind Jake Westbrook in Wednesday's game, giving Bobby Don Southworth his first managerial victory.

Mench's three-run homer in the first spurred Texas to an 8-2 win behind Park in the finale.

"We wanted to win all three, hoped we could get two and expected to win one," said Southworth. "Their pitching did a good job on us and pitchers who are sharp at this time of the year are going to be a little ahead of the hitters.
"Give credit to their pitching."

C.C. Sabathia suffered the loss in the opener. Cliff Lee was roughed up for three innings in the 8-2 defeat.

"I saw a lot of good stuff out of C.C. and his performance doesn't worry me at all," Southworth said. "Westbrook was nails and gave us the seven innings we asked for.
"Lee was a different story. He just never got it going."

The Indians open their 2005 home campaign today against Toronto. Kevin Millwood will start and Southworth has announced that Sabathia and Westbrook will get the nod on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

"It's a quick turnaround for them, I know," Southworth said. "I don't have any reservations about starting out with a four-man rotation, though. We're going to utilize our bullpen as best we can. They combined for 12 innings in the first three games and we plan to get another 10 to 12 innings out of them against Toronto."

Chad Zerbe was perfect in his one inning of work to notch his first save of the year.

[jaykno14]

I am going to begin to follow this dynasty also. Looks good so far..

[RebelYell]

To my family --
So the first three games are in the books and we're off to a 1-2 start. The good news is that the pitching wasn't really THAT bad and Westbrook pitched well to win us the middle game.
The bad news was our production -- 9 runs in three games -- and the fact we were never in two of the games.
This team can win close games, I'm thinking, but not if we're never in the game to begin with!

Hope I didn't embarrass the kids by doing something stupid while standing in the dugout. The weather down here in Texas was pretty mild, not too hot. I just wish we had played a little better.

Amanda, can't wait to see you and the kids. We'll be home early in the morning so don't wait up.
See you soon.
BD

PS - Hope it's a sellout at the Jake!

[RebelYell]

Sweepin' Tribe!
Westbrook, Wickman combine to put Jays down for third time
How sweep it is.

The Cleveland Indians did everything right in front of less-than-capacity crowds all weekend and came away with a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays.

In opening their 2005 home campaign, the Indians have their first winning streak, a 4-2 record and a very familiar foe coming to town this evening.

Kevin Millwood turned in seven fabulous innings and Ryan Ludwick launched a 450-foot bomb to start the Indians off on the right foot Friday. Aaron Boone broked a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning with his first home run of the year and Cleveland came out on top, 5-1, Saturday.

C.C. Sabathia, coming off a shaky start and three days rest, gave the Tribe six good innings and the bullpen was even better in a 2-1 victory. Chad Zerbe notched his second save and Ronnie Belliard went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Cleveland closed out the Blue Jays with a 6-4 victory on Sunday. Jake Westbrook and Bob Wickman performed the tag-team suplex on the mound and Juan Gonzalez cranked a home run while driving in three.

"There's no place like home," smiled Indians rookie manager Bobby Don Southworth while clicking his heels and winking at reporters. "Great way to treat the fans and the fans treated us great. We got some good pitching and timely hitting ... Don't know of any better recipe for putting wins on the board."

Despite scoring two runs or less in three of their first six games, the Indians found a way to win four times in their first six outings. Southworth, though, did not express much disappointment in his team's lack of hitting.

"They made up for it with defense," Southworth said. "Boone was a wall at third and Brandon Phillips has had just one error in six games at shortstop. The outfielders have made the plays and Victor [Martinez] has denied both Texas and Toronto any kind of a running game.
"The hitting," Southworth shrugged, "it's gonna come."

Chicago begins a three-game set at Jacobs Field beginning tonight. First pitch from left-hander Cliff Lee is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

[RebelYell]

ChiSox swept!!!
Indians put everything together to finish off White Sox
Something very strange is happening at Jacobs Field.

Despite a view of too many empty seats, the Cleveland Indians are taking on the form that made them the talk of the town in the mid-90s. Cliff Lee, Kevin Millwood and C.C. Sabathia all gave Tribe manager Bobby Don Southworth seven-inning starts and even the struggling offense came around to record a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox.

"Great way to start at home," Southworth said. "Six straight. You can't beat it."

The Indians carry a six-game winning streak on the road to Tampa Bay for a weekend series and then make their way to the west coast to take on the Oakland Athletics.

"I don't know where they came up with this schedule," Southworth smiled, "but I don't mind where we go right now. I don't think this team cares who we play either."

It's still early, but the Indians have sped off to a 7-2 start, good enough for second place, one game behind the Minnesota Twins.

Lee recuperated nicely from his shortened first-game outing in Texas, going seven innings to get the victory in the opener with the White Sox, 7-4. Ben Broussard went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs and Scott Elarton picked up his second save.

"That was nice to see," Southworth said. "Cliff and I go way back. We're a couple of Arkansas boys and I've seen him go through a lot in his young career. I have to admit there's a little bit more excitement to see somebody like him, who you've known a long time, go out and pitch his guts out for you."

In the second game, Millwood duplicated Lee's effort and Chad Zerbe recorded the save. Josh Bard, in his first start at catcher, belted out three hits, knocked in two runs and scored twice.
"Victor (Martinez) has been struggling at the plate and he's going to get a rest every so often, anyway," Southworth said. "I was just glad to see Bard answer the bell the way he did."

Sabathia, starting for the third time in nine outings, finally ran out of fuel in the eighth inning of a scoreless tie in Wednesday's contest. Matt Miller, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound smoke-thrower, got Sabathia off the hook in the top of the eighth and the Indians came up with two runs in their half of the inning to claim a 2-0 verdict.

Bob Wickman got the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

"Everything went well," Southworth said. "We had three close, competitive ballgames with the White Sox and won all three of them. I was a little wary about how we would do in close games in the late innings, but our bullpen was stout and we got a lot more hitting than we've been getting.
And I can't say enough about C.C. ... He's given us a lot of innings already and then, despite short rest, he holds a pretty good-hitting ballclub to five hits and doesn't walk anybody through seven-plus (innings)."

Sabathia's reward will be to stay at home for a few days and then rejoin the club in Oakland where he will pitch the first or second game against the A's.

"We've got a day off, three games in Florida and then C.C. will be scheduled to go again," Southworth said. "He should be well rested."

[RebelYell]

Dear Amanda --
Win a few games and, wham, you're a hot item!

So the newspaper has asked me to do a Q&A column for them every week for people to write in and ask me their questions. Stuff like what I think of their favorite team or favorite players, behind-the-scenes stuff about the players in our clubhouse, how a minor-leaguer might be progressing ... you know, junk like that.

I told them I'd do it. They just have a writer call me once a week, shoot the questions they've selected to me over the phone and then he does all the typing, quoting my answer. I can even pass on questions I don't want to answer. They're guessing they'll get a pretty good response initially and I can pick and choose what I want to answer.

Hopefully, the guy getting my answers will get them verbatim

The press has been pretty good so far. I never thought ill of any of the guys in the Cleveland papers anyway. It's a long way from here to New York where those guys use blood-soaked razor blades to take their notes. Keep up for me, will you?

Miss you already,
BD
========= ===========
From the Plain Dealer:
(Editor's Note: Beginning next week, fans can send their questions for Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth to the newspaper [through a pm, please]. Answers to selected questions will appear in a weekly column from Southworth.)

[RebelYell]

When you're coming up through major-league baseball's farm systems, you get to know a lot of different people. There are a lot of scouts. They are transients, just like the players every summer.
You can know a guy for 10 years and not recognize him in a small crowd in Bozeman, Montana, because you're not used to seeing him there. But that guy is a scout.
Some of these scouts you get to be friends with -- at least as much as their job and yours will allow. They're really in the same boat. If their territory is the Rookie League you're playing in, then they're having to work their way up the ladder just like you are.
So there's some camraderie in the business.

Many of the scouts are former players. Some are high-school or American Legion coaches just trying to make an extra few bucks.
They've got to be accurate and precise with their reports or they won't be scouting very long.

My favorite scout was the very guy who "discovered" me playing in the sandlots of Cleveland, Ohio.
His name was Father John. Yeah, he had a last name, too, but he was always just Father John to me.
He umpired Hot Stove baseball -- Babe Ruth or Cal Ripken level ball for 14 and 15-year-olds -- and I caught many a game that he umped behind the plate.
Didn't think he knew who I was.

You see, I was the opposite of a prototype catcher. Especially the guys who catch these days.
Catchers are big and strong with great arms. They can hit for power. They're not, on the whole, great defensively, but they can hose a runner trying to steal if they get a good pitch to handle.
I lacked bat speed, arm strength, size ... you name it.

I was tiny by any standard as a catcher. But I was quick. I had leadoff ability as a hitter because I got on base and I could steal off even the craftiest left-handers.

I was a smart baserunner and good at handling pitchers. Our pitchers were never scared to throw a forkball or 12-6 curve with two strikes. They knew I would come up with the ball somehow and whisk it to first for the out if I had to.

I was also wily.
I had learned from my first Hot Stove manager, Pat Mahoney, that there were five more reasons to throw the ball around from home to first to short to second to third than to do it the other way around.
The most obvious reason: You made the throw to first all the time and got better at it with repetition. When I guy struck out and didn't know if the ball was in the dirt, he didn't know if you were throwing it around or not. They just all loped back to the dugout.

Father John saw a lot of me and, by the time I was old enough to move into the 16- and 17-year-old ranks, I had a pretty solid game.
But I was never a good gap or power hitter. I knew I could play at some level, but I also knew early on that I wouldn't be going very far.

When I got the chance to change tracks and become one of those scouts, I saw a fastlane to where I wanted to be: The Bigs.

[RebelYell]

Tribe winning streak stopped at 8
ST. PETERSBURG -- Jorge Sosa did what nobody had done in over a week when he beat the Cleveland Indians.

Sosa outdueled Indians rookie Fausto Carmona and the Devil Rays avoided becoming the third consecutive team to be swept in a three-game series by Cleveland with a 6-5 victory.

Cleveland had its eight-game winning streak halted in Sunday's finale. The loss spoiled a 3-for-5 day at the plate by Ben Broussard. The left-handed hitting first baseman had a double, a triple and knocked in three of the Tribe's five runs.

Cleveland won the opener, 4-3, as Jake Westbrook pitched 5 2/3 innings and turned his fate to the Indians' surprisingly impressive bullpen. Travis Hafner belted his second home run of the season.

In the second game, another early Cleveland call-up, Denny Stark, was strong over the last four innings and the Indians banged out a 9-7 triumph. Ronnie Belliard went 3-for-5 and finished the game with a league-leading .463 batting average.

"We were tearing it up this weekend," Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth said. "This is the best we've hit the ball so far and I hope it continues."

Southworth went on to heap credit on his coaching staff, which includes Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray and pitching coach Woody Terrell.

"Eddie's got the bats clicking and Woody's hitting all the right buttons with the pitching staff right now. We've had to run some guys up and down between [Cleveland] and Buffalo, but we feel pretty good about how everything has gone so far."

Carmona, called up when Cliff Lee was sent down for a short rehabilitation stint, kept Tampa Bay from a big inning through the first five frames. A late Indians comeback, however, fell short.

Yet, the Indians were able to keep the heat on Minnesota for first place in the American League's Central Division. Cleveland will attempt to keep up the hot pace in Oakland.

Kevin Millwood is scheduled to start Monday's game and a well-rested C.C. Sabathia is slated to throw Tuesday.

[RebelYell]

Dear Amanda --
We got on a roll there, didn't we? Tough loss today. No regrets, though.

Well, I take that back. I do have one regret. They're going to fire the equipment manager when we get back home later this week. We went through a few too many bats and needed to order some more and he evidently didn't do it.

It's not going to be pretty. The guys all seem to like Charlie. I think you've met him a couple of times. He's like a second bench coach. Knows the game. Just didn't keep up with some things and we had guys having to use other peoples' custom bats in St. Pete. Guys usually don't like to share the bats they shell out thousands of dollars to buy themselves and Charlie's job was to keep the shelves stocked with the "back-up" bats.

Anyway, it's off to Oakland. I still want to meet the genius who put this schedule together.

See you Thursday,
BD

[RebelYell]

Indians leave Oakland with share of first
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Cleveland and Oakland split a pair of one-run games and the Tribe won the pivotal second game, 11-1, behind a complete-game performance from C.C. Sabathia to grab a share of first place in the American League Central Division.

Athletics leadoff man Brian Sellier started the series off on a good note, going 3-for-4 and knocking in three runs during a 5-4 victory. Juan Cruz was the winner for Oakland; Kevin Millwood took the loss.

But that's where Oakland's good fortune ended.

Sabathia went the distance, hurling the Indians' first complete game of the season, and the Cleveland bats were red hot in the 11-1 trampling of the A's. Aaron Boone went 4-for-5 and knocked in a career-best six runs. Boone did his damage with a pair of doubles and a home run. He raised his batting average to .255 in the process.

While Boone heated up, Ronnie Belliard stayed hot, raising his average to a stratospheric .475 by the end of the series. Belliard had a good day in Cleveland's 7-6 win over Oakland ace Barry Zito, but saw his batting average drop on a 2-for-5 afternoon.

David Riske picked up the win in relief and Chad Zerbe registered his fifth save -- one in each of the Indians' first five series.

The Indians enjoy an off day at home before entertaining the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox for a weekend set at Jacobs Field.

[RebelYell]

Most guys show up at the ballpark three hours before a game. You figure a game takes three hours and then you've got the duties with the radio and press people and you've basically put in an eight-hour work day 162 days out of the year.

It's fun or I wouldn't do it.

Even more fun is the life on the road.

I've always enjoyed staying in motels. You can multiply how much I liked the minor-league dives by about 10 times when you look at the places we stay in now. There are about 40 of us counting all the players, the coaches, the bullpen catchers ... and the equipment manager.

I guess I'm the only one who knows about Charlie. I went down the hallway -- I love walking around these high-dollar places in just my shorts -- and peaked into a couple of the rooms where the doors were propped open. Most of the guys play cards. There's a too-rich-for-my-blood poker game every night it seems and there's a couple of young'uns who cart along their Playstations. I think a few of them have a football league or something and one of them is always playing Halo.

Charlie and a few of the coaches play spades most of the time. I don't know if it's for money or not. All I know is I feel kind of bad about this deal with him. He's a good man.

I even get this weird thought about who they're going to get to be the fourth man in their little game when Charlie's gone.

Tonight, our last night in Oakland before an early flight tomorrow morning, I made a point to stop and say hey to the spades game. Charlie was sitting across from the pitching coach and our two bullpen catchers made up the other team.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves with ESPN on the tube as they waited for the baseball highlights to come on.

I just gave Charlie a wink and he smiled at me.

"Things are going great, BD," he said.

"They sure are." And with that I nodded and wandered back down the hallway to my room.

[seth70liz76]

Originally Posted by RebelYell

Athletics leadoff man Brian Sellier started the series off on a good note, going 3-for-4 and knocking in three runs during a 5-4 victory. Juan Cruz was the winner for Oakland; Kevin Millwood took the loss.

Former Gateway Grizzlie Brian Sellier! Good to see one of our boys doing well, even if it is only in a virtural world.

[RebelYell]

Fans ask 'Where are league's prettiest girls'
(Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a weekly feature where fans can send their questions to Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth. Answers to selected questions will appear in a weekly column from Southworth.)

Q: Coach, great start! Are we going to be able to keep it up? And who besides the Twins worries you the most in the Central Division.

A: I don't want to sound like Hulk Hogan or something, but if we keep doing the things we've done so far, we should be all right. We're hitting well, tops in the league, and our pitching has been good enough.
As for the Central Division, I'm worried all the time! The Twins are good; The White Sox are much better than you saw last week and the Tigers have improved a lot. Right now, the team I'm most concerned about (outside of our own) is Kansas City because that's who we go play next week.


Q: What's Cliff Lee's status? He looked fine to me when he threw seven innings to beat the White Sox last week.

A: Without going into too much detail, he's got some mechanical things he wanted to work on and [pitching] Coach [Terry J.] Wood didn't want him to be experimenting on the mound during major-league games. Cliff will be back. You can't keep us Arkansas boys down long.


Q: Where are the fans? Got a local boy managing the team and some greats like Eddie Murray and Buddy Bell on the coaching staff and some pretty good young players and The Jake doesn't have a sellout.

A: It's our job to bring the fans back to Jacobs Field and it won't happen overnight. Our front office put up 455 consecutive sellouts and they know how to keep you coming back once we get you there. Getting that first one is going to be the key and you can help!


Q: Coach, where are the best looking women from your baseball travels?

A: Man, first question and I'm risking big trouble at home! I've not been all over the major leagues and I'd be stupid if I didn't say the best looking women were in Little Rock, Ark., where I met my wife.
But from the stories I've heard on the road and from a good friend who played for the Cardinals (whose name I won't mention!) I'd have to say San Diego. No doubt about it. You're talking about real Southern California girls, a big city and a naval base. From what I've heard, no major-league city can compete with San Diego.
(I hear Cleveland rates way up there, too, ladies!)

[RebelYell]

Indians outduel Schilling, BoSox to take weekend set
Chad Zerbe needed to get just one batter out in the ninth and the left-handed closer did just that Sunday afternoon, giving Cleveland a 3-2 victory and a rubber-game victory over the 2004 World Series champions.

The Indians moved to 13-5 despite a near implosion on Saturday that was created by some of first-year manager Bobby Don Southworth's comments in a new column run by The Plain Dealer.

"Yeah, I was a little premature about some of the things I said," Southworth explained. "As a coaching staff, we had made some decisions about a couple of pitchers and I spoke out of turn on the issue."

The turmoil swirled around Cliff Lee, who had been penciled in to start Saturday's game unbeknownst to Southworth.

"I wasn't aware of the time frame on Lee being sent down," Southworth said. "Saturday morning, I show up at the park and I've got a pitcher and a pitching coach waiting in the office with the newspaper.
"I had to do some damage control. Had to do a little craw-daddin'."

Lee convinced the manager that he needed one more chance and was bombed by the Red Sox. In six innings, Boston racked up 10 runs off Lee and the Red Sox won the middle game of the series, 11-2.

"That's a day we're glad to have in our rear-view mirror," Southworth said.

The weekend started on the right foot with Cleveland surviving an 11-hit onslaught and 42-minute rain delay to defeat Boston, 5-3. Jake Westbrook and five relievers kept the Red Sox in check. Grady Sizemore was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and a stolen base.

Saturday's tale was told by the first batter of the game.
"Johnny 'Bleepin' Damon," said Southworth. "That guy hasn't done a dang thing all season and he comes in here and beats us almost single-handedly."

Damon was 3-for-4 with four runs scored. He raised his average to .203 by pelting Lee for all three of his hits.

"And we might ought to go out and check for more missing bases," Southworth said. "He's probably still out there stealing 'em off of us."

But order was restored for the Indian Nation when Ronnie Belliard kept his batting average at a hefty .463 with a pair of hits off Schilling in a 3-2 triumph.

"This helps make some of the hurt go away from Saturday," Southworth said. "But hurting peoples' feelings is a lot different than hurting from a loss. It can last longer. I just hope this doesn't hurt Cliff for too long and I hope he comes back better than ever."

Lee left the clubhouse soon after being lifted from Saturday's game and was scheduled to report to Buffalo on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Indians have Monday off before going to Kansas City to take on the last-place Royals.

[RebelYell]

On our way to Kansas City and glad to have had a day off.

Man, talk about your drama.

We get back to town and Thursday evening I've got all the coaches in my office there to console Charlie Bossard, our equipment manager who has been with the team for 30 years.

So Buddy Bell, who was here 30 years ago when Charlie started as a clubhouse guy, was pretty hurt by the news. Eddie Murray and all the guys who have been here more than a couple of years love Charlie, too.

And the whole deal about this is they say Charlie didn't make mistakes like this. They say Charlie was meticulous. He checked and double-checked everything.

Heck, if somebody didn't like Charlie, they would say he was controlling and anal. He was really good at this job.

Then we've got Charlie's family. They're like our family. The pitching coach, Woody Terrell, dated Charlie's oldest daughter. She's on the verge of being what we call a BW. It's not a nice term ... just one of the many nicknames you come across in this game.

Anyway, Woody and Charlie were awfully close from what I can tell.

Saturday comes along and I've really screwed up. I was under the impression that we were going to bring up a left-hander, Jeremy Sowers, to take Lee's spot.

The conversation before the final decision was about how we wanted to throw three right-handers at Boston. So I thought Lee was going down and said so. Somehow, the message got lost between my mouth and a few other ears. It got discussed even more outside my office and the thought became "Well, if we're bringing up a lefty to take Cliff's place, then why don't we just let Cliff stay up for another start?"

Seemed to make sense to them and when the call was made to make the move, Terrell indicated that we wouldn't be sending Cliff down until Monday.

So I look like an idiot for giving the paper a little scoop on what's going to happen. Instead of being told that he's being sent down by his coach, Cliff Lee gets to read about it in the paper.
Now you see why people don't release victims of car accidents until immediate family members have been contacted.

Nothing like reading your own obituary.

[RebelYell]

Tribe thumps Royals to complete first road sweep
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Jeremy Sowers was a lot more relaxed than most players making their first start in the majors.

The reason: Sowers had four runs to work with before taking the mound against the Kansas City Royals.

Sowers, making the big jump from Class A Kinston, turned in six innings of work and was rewarded with his first big-league victory in the Indians' 11-2 scalping.

"We couldn't have scripted his first start any better," Indians manager Bobby Don Southworth said. "We got him a four-run lead and he never even had to face the tying run."

Aaron Boone slugged a pair of home runs to lead the Cleveland onslaught.

Sowers, who was playing baseball at Vanderbilt University this time last year, has already been announced as a starter for next week's home series with the New York Yankees.

The Indians will return home riding a four-game winning streak and they've opened a comfortable lead over their American League Central Division foes. Minnesota and Kansas City are sliding while Chicago and Detroit are beginning to surge.

Cleveland opened the series with a 5-1 victory behind C.C. Sabathia. The big left-hander went seven innings and got help from Travis Hafner's fourth home run of the season. Chad Zerbe picked up an easy save when the Tribe scored a couple of insurance runs in the ninth.

In an 8-5 conquest, Arthur Rhodes was the winner in relief of David Riske. Brandon Phillips was 3-for-5 with a double, home run and 3 RBIs. Phillips is among the first six Indians in the batting order who are all hitting over .325.

"The hitting is really coming around now," Southworth said. "The run production still isn't consistent, but we've got guys getting on base. Here in Kansas City, we were able to get more of those runners home."

Most of all, Southworth continues to be pleased with his pitching.

"How about that. Three games in KC and we get wins for three different lefties," he said. "We couldn't have drawn it up any better."

The Indians are back home for a weekend set with Baltimore and then will host the Yankees beginning Monday night.