Pure Rage

Chris “Pure Rage” Perez gave one of the best closes I've seen in Saturday's 2-0 win over the Miami Marlins. 10 pitches. 3 called strikeouts. 1-2-3: ballgame. The only recent close I've enjoyed more was the bottom of the 10th save in KC on April 14 where the game ended on a 2-0 pitch that Chris Getz batted right back to CP's own glove. That was a fitting, dramatic end to a wild game (how else can you top Hannahan taking on the entire KC bench?), but Saturday's 10-pitch shutdown was just filthy good pitching.

But to be honest, his comments after the game pissed me off.

“I’m tired of getting booed at home,” Perez said. “So I figured I’d throw some strikes today. You can quote that.”

I'm not angry at him. I'm not angry at what he said. I'm angry because he is right. I was at that game, Thursday May 17. Tied at 4-4 in the ninth, Sipp struck out Seager for the first out, then Perez came in to face Smoak, Wells, and Jaso. His control seemed off. Smoak singled to left on a 3-1 pitch, the crowd groaned. Then Wells drew a walk on 4 pitches and the crowd booed our closer.

It was a beautiful day, pretty good attendance given most of our recent day games, probably about 6 or 7 thousand in the seats. I was pretty shocked to hear the home crowd booing, and with a small crowd it was that much louder.

Jordan Bastian responded to the heckling over twitter,

Hitters have a .182 average vs. Chris Perez in tie games, .191 average in non-save situations throughout his career. Calm down, folks.

Perez then got Jaso to hit a 2-1 pitch to Damon for the 2nd out, and struck out Montero to end the inning. Got the job done. I stood and cheered. Unfortunately, it probably blended in with the Bronx Cheer of the loudmouths who were heckling him.
Perez's comments and his follow-ups since are dead on. Right now, this is not a good town for baseball. It isn't a good environment. Following up on his comments, Perez explained,

It’s not a good atmosphere. It’s not fun to be here. Especially when you’re not playing well or not getting that many hits or you’re not pitching well. Baseball is supposed to be fun. At the end of the day, this is a game. It’s a child’s game, I understand that. But if you have the choice to go an atmosphere where it’s fun every day, like Philadelphia or some place like that where every day it’s fun just to go there, that helps you get through some seasons sometimes, some games.

He's right. And we should all be angry. Not at him, but at the fact that a city with such a long history in baseball has become such a bad place for the game. People will respond, as they often do, “Too bad, this is Browns Town.” That's not helpful. Nor is it an intelligent nor even logical response. Seriously: I don't care about the Browns. I really don't care about football. I don't have the slightest interest whatsoever. But I will not jump into a conversation about the Brown's draft picks and just shout “Hey! I don't care, listen to me talk about the Tribe!”

Historically, this has been a great town for baseball when baseball did well. Everyone looks back to the very brief span of Bill Veeck's ownership as the golden age, but attendance only flared for a few years. People talk about the 90's and venerate Dick Jacobs while excoriating Larry Dolan, but they have no idea what they're talking about. Quite seriously, in a town I once found the best baseball fans, fans who followed and understood the game, we now have people who just shout, as loudly as they can, the most idiotic and ignorant things possible.

I've tried to argue with them. I've met people who say “You know why we lost opening day? Because Perez sucks!” I point out the percentage of saves he converted, his success in shutting the door, the numbers and statistics to support that. The response, “Bull----, he just sucks!” I've compared his performance with other closers, again, the response, “Bull----, he just sucks!” Clearly we have a very well spoken braintrust as our “fan” base.

I heard a father explain to his kids – at a game! – that in the 90's we had the highest payroll in all of baseball, and now the owners pay next to nothing and pocket millions of dollars a year. After three innings of this (and much more, it was a family of four generations spouting ignorance and whining the entire game), I finally pointed out that, no, in fact, Cleveland never had the highest payroll. In the 90's we had fairly low payrolls with players locked into long term contracts, and the highest payrolls in Cleveland history were during the Dolans' ownership. Not surprisingly, the response followed the same insightful and analytic profanity-laced pattern described above. Along with the accusation that I must, clearly, be part of the Dolan family. This must involve very high order logic, were I related to the owners, why would I sit in the cheapest upper reserve seats? But neither fact nor reality seem to interfere. I can call up the payrolls for the last 20 years on my smartphone, only to hear the same profanities shouted back at me.

When I think of the best games I've seen in my life, I really can't remember if we won or lost. I remember some of the plays I've seen. I remember some of the pitching performances, some unexpected and amazing plate appearances. But the best and worst games I remember have more to do with us, the fans, at the games. The worst games I'm surrounded by idiots who are shouting nonsense, like the attendees last Thursday who booed Perez. The best games I'm sharing in an experience I love with thousands of others.

Pure Rage Perez spoke the truth, Cleveland.
It's entirely up to us to step up and be the kind of town we all deserve.
Learn the game, learn to watch the game, learn to love the game.