Evaluating Cleveland as a Baseball Town: Part I.

The most important topic addressed by this blog has always been Cleveland as a baseball town. What makes a city a great baseball town; how to understand what that means; how to make our city an even better town for baseball. Along with this my interests focus on the culture of baseball, the role of media and the changes that happen as social media increasingly transforms how we encounter the game, and, ultimately, how we approach and understand the game of baseball.

So I began this afternoon sitting inside on a hot day, listening the the Indians play the Cardinals, and intending to write about the topic of what makes a great baseball town as a response to the interesting interview with Indians President Mark Shapiro published Saturday by the Plain Dealer.  The overwhelming reason I was intending to write about this is because the other post I'm working on focuses on inter-League play, and inevitably that turns into an apocalyptic rant about the irreversible decline of American culture and the inevitable end of our way of life. (I get irrationally negative over the abhorrent abberation of baseball often called inter-League play.)

What attracted me to write about this interview was Shapiro addressing the concept of Cleveland as a baseball town. But I made an all too frequent error as I sat down to write. I scrolled down and read the comments. And now whether I talk about Shapiro and evaluation Cleveland as a baseball town, or the current inter-league nonsense, it's going to go poorly.

So let's hope that the Tribe pulls off a good win as I'm writing in order to lift my spirits.

Reviewing the interview and, unfortunately, looking at the comments, leaves me in a place where I have to admit that right now the front office is stuck doing three things: 1) Deflecting the same idiotic comments time and again (re: ownership, payroll, spending, revenue); 2) Answering inquiries on "evaluating" trades past or present (ranging from Ubaldo way back to the long dead horses of the C.C. / Cliff Lee trades); 3) Expressing some kind of confidence in Cleveland as a team and a worthwhile city for baseball.

Quite frankly, #3 is going to be the only one that matters in the long run; and my unfortunate reading of the comments reinforces that. (I need to block all of the cleveland.com site from my computer and only read it on my phone. The mobile site doesn't display comments.)

These points are really tied into my own central concerns of the cultures of baseball fans, changing roles of media, and what it means to be a baseball town. Why?

The comments following the article were, sadly, what they always are, a random combination of:

• Unfounded statements relying on totalizing language ("we never...",  "This team always...", "No one thinks...", etc.)
• Absolutist statements and ad hominim attacks, frequently amplified by the CAPS LOCK OF RAGE.  (e.g., "Shapiro is a LIAR", "The Dolans make huge profits", and various insults to the intelligence of all parties involved). 
• Direct attacks as rebuttals. (in the vein of "if you disagree, you're an idiot / on drugs / paid by the Dolans to write that")
• And, occasionally, brave souls who challenge the faulty logic, lack of evidence, or sheer idiocy of other commentators. 

Now, I know and hope that anyone reading this knows that comments on a news site do not reflect the general level of discourse. There is a strong inclination toward aggressive trolling and generally hostile interaction that comes from a combination of the security of anonymity and simply the demographics involved. And as I keep discovering, to my constant delight, for all the idiots making these kinds of posts and comments, there are many more who have no part in that discourse and just enjoy the game. I usually meet them on the RTA Red Line going to ballgames. I find them in the stands watching the game. 

Increasingly, and this is a very important point, I'm finding the better fans of the game claiming social media. Even as I write this I'm sending and receiving messages on Twitter from Cleveland fans delighted with a close, tight 1-1 game in the top of the 9th. 

This is why I say that the most important recurring motif I'm seeing in communication by Shapiro and the rest of the Indians Organization is expressing confidence in the fans and in Cleveland as a great city for baseball. Because this speaks directly to people like the fans I talk to on the train and the fans I follow on Twitter. This helps encourage us. 

The reality of the situation is that since the front office, especially Shapiro, are immediately put on the defensive, they've already lost. No amount of fact, no disclosure of information, no dose of reality matters. There is an established narrative that determines and decides what most people think, however idiotic. When you have to react to that, you've already given that narrative control. 

It really remains up to us to reclaim the narrative and redirect it. 

#GoTribe

Important Days in Cleveland History

Today is an off-day, so I'm catching up on other work and tinkering with the site to bring this new Doc Wahoo's blog up to par. But everyone in Cleveland should take a moment today to remember and celebrate one of the most important nights in our history, the anniversary of 10¢ Beer Night.

Paul Tepley, Cleveland Press

Yes, this is Cleveland. We can make terrible mistakes, look like idiots, and look back on it all like you look back on the hazy, halcyon memories of bad life choices in college. Because sometimes all you can do is laugh at yourself.

Meanwhile, we've all grown up, or at least we pretend to. Cleveland, along with its excellent baseball, has become a fabulous center for innovative culinary arts and an unparalleled town for craft beer. Perhaps to celebrate our checkered past and show how we've matured over the years, today is a good day to celebrate some of Cleveland's amazing offerings. Great local craft beer can be had from Market Garden Brewery & Distillery, Great Lakes Brewing Company, Indigo Imp Brewery and several others. We have a thriving local community of bloggers and reviewers to guide you in the ways of local food and beer. And there is no shortage of great local stores to guide you through the offerings in local beer and craft brews, like Rozi's Wine House in Lakewood or the new Lizardville whiskey bar & beer stores.

Finally, if you can't laugh off the shame from our youthful failings, I highly recommend a visit to Lilly Handmade Chocolates in Tremont.  Lilly is a great destination for finding outstanding craft beers and specialty wines, but the unbelievable chocolate has magical healing and uplifting powers if you need to forget your own role in the events of June 4, 1974.

Vintage Baseball, Cleveland Style

As dearly as I love the Tribe, they aren't the only game in town. This afternoon I went out to League Park to watch the Cleveland Blues play a match of vintage baseball against the visiting Rochester Grangers. Playing with period equipment according to rules from the 1860's, the Blues recreate an earlier stage in the development of the sport.

Perhaps the most charming aspect was the respect and good will shared by all the players and fans. Sitting by the first base bag, every "striker" to reach base was greeted with a complement from the first baseman and a handshake. After the visiting team won 9-8, both teams thanked and cheered each other, including the visiting Rochester nine joining in singing "For Love of the Game" to praise the Cleveland Blues.

The original Blues were Cleveland's team in the National League from 1878-1884. Perhaps most notably, the Blues were the hosts of the first ever perfect game in baseball. The current Blues play at the site of League Park, which will soon be renovated and hopefully continue to provide a focal point for Cleveland's baseball history and an appropriate home park for the Blues vintage base ball games.

So a delightful afternoon in the park and a fun game to watch. Good to see this group's dedication to both the history of the game and to having a good time playing! The Blues have a schedule posted with a number of upcoming games this summer, and members of both the Blues and the visiting Rochester Grangers will be out at the Rally Alley before tonight's Indians game. So if you're at the game, go meet some of our other Cleveland team and find out about the history of vintage baseball, or go check them out on the field.

Behind Enemy Lines

I recently came across this excellent post by Andrew Clayman at The Cleveland Fan, where he writes about coming out to watch the Indians while they're on the road. Besides the well written and often amusing account of cheering for the visiting team at a rival's home field, it made me ask a question relating more to who we, in Cleveland, are as fans and how people experience visits to our park.

Most of the year I actually live much closer to Chicago than Cleveland, and earlier this season I made my first visit to U.S. Cellular Field to see the Tribe on the road. By and large I have to say it was a miserable game. First, it rained most of the afternoon and the game was delayed by an hour or so. The crowd was sparse to say the least. Then, the game itself wasn't much to write about. Without digging out my scorecard, I can remember that Ubaldo imploded. The most memorable moments of the game came when our own defense made some of the most spectacular errors I've ever seen, including loosing the ball in the lingering firework smoke following a Chicago home run and the subsequent "exploding scoreboard." Granted, the next two nights we won in Chicago, making me wish I had come to one of those games. Nevertheless, I had a good time. Yes, i enjoyed myself in spite of rain, bad play, and a loss. I actually met quite a few Tribe fans there and had fun chatting with them during the delay.

Luckily, unlike Clayman I didn't have to suffer the kind of adolescent ignorance of locals declaring that our team, our players, and our city suck Somewhere around the 7th inning a teenager sat at the end of my row in the front of the upper deck (there were no more than a few hundred people that night), and, dressed head-to-toe in White Sox gear. Like I said, for the Indians, it was a pretty bad game. With each plate appearance, my remote neighbor began shouting over the railing at each Sox player with a plaintive, nasal voice. "Come ooooon, Aaay-Jaaaay!" We were loosing badly and playing worse and I admit I was getting annoyed. "Come oooooooon, Aaaadaam Dunnn!"

But I quickly recognized my annoyance was petty and pointless. I got up between innings and went over and talked with him. Honestly, he seemed a little scared by the approach of someone in an Indians hat confronting him in the wet and empty stands... but I just went over and said hello and talked a bit about the game. Yeah, we were playing bad that night. Yes, he was cheering his guys. He had never seen a scorecard, so I showed him mine and gave him an extra. The Tribe got pummeled. I enjoyed some Great Lakes Brewing Co. beer. We all had a good, if damp, time.

I love baseball and I love visiting ballparks, and soon I hope to include some comments and pictures of my ballpark visits on this site (still a work in progress). I've visited ballparks where I hold a deep-seated, irrational hatred of the home team. Growing up as an NL fan and in a household devoted to the Cardinals, my loathing of the Cubs runs deep as any historic blood feud. But when I've visited Wrigley the crowd has always been great. Fans I meet have always been a class act. I've always had a good time.

On the other hand, I've gone to games at Yankee Stadium. Yes, I hate the Yankees. Passionately. Beyond reason or reality. Typically, I hate most Yankee fans (though I make a distinction between those who grew up with the old Yankee teams and suffered the bad teams of the 80's, versus younger fans who neither seem to know the game nor hesitate to tell me how much my team sucks). I've been at games in Yankee Stadium where I'm alternately disgusted by the ignorance of attendees, fearing for my life, or laughing at the sheer stupidity I encounter.

(Once in a rain delay I stayed unmoving for 45 minutes in my seat. Everything I had on bore Chief Wahoo or said "Indians", I was not about to crowd under the upper deck awning with the enemy. Three very drunk men came over and surrounded me where I waited. One put his arm around me and said he was proud to see someone like me who's a true Yankee fan, not running from some rain. I don't know if he was illiterate or colorblind or both.)

But, my point is this: What do visitors to Progressive Field experience? I've talked to people who visited in the heady days of the 90's and had a great time. I hope we're still as welcoming as we were then. Last week when we completed a sweep of the Tigers, I crossed paths with a group of teens leaving the park changing "Detroit Sucks!" and I did walk into them and tell them, "Knock it off, guys. We have more class than that." They continued chanting.

It's one thing to come to a game "behind enemy lines" dressed to cheer for your visiting team and simply be obnoxious. But I rarely encounter that. Most of my life I did not live in a place with a major league team, and seeing a game meant a special trip. I've gone to see the Indians in Chicago, New York, and Oakland, and I don't go to disrespect those cities or those fans in their house.

And usually when I see visiting fans in Cleveland, dressed in the caps and jerseys and jackets of a visitor, I try to go up to them and say hello. Ask them if they drove in for the game and if they're enjoying their visit. Usually I meet a father with a young son taking him to see his first game of his dad's favorite team. I want those fans to leave with a great experience. I want those kids visiting with their fathers to grow up thinking that baseball is a game of respect and that Cleveland is a great baseball town.

Because Cleveland is a great baseball town. And it's up to us to keep it that way.

Off-Day Miscellaney

Well, if nothing else, the last two series saw some gorgeous weather. It's early enough in the season and the summer that I can focus on that and ignore injuries, pitching problems, missed offensive opportunities, and the mysteries of left-handed pitching vs. the Tribe.

In other matters, some items of note off twitter this week. It has not been a good week for Cleveland and the Indians' fans, despite Nick Camino's deft work in getting the hashtag #LopeyTime trending during Jose Lopez's plate appearances, with some help from the Indians' pressbox.

My work here is done. Well done Tweeps! You guys are passionate and enjoy a good laugh. Yes, it's confirmed: We got #LopeyTime trending.
— Nick Camino (@CaminoTribe) May 24, 2012

The only item that really made me concerned this week -- even including Hannahan's return to the DL, news of Hafner's likely absence for 4-6 weeks, continued injuries to our catchers, and a flurry of roster moves -- came from Indians President Mark Shapiro:

Sorry for the silence but had a bunker mentality since injuries hit. 3,4 + 5 hitters and mid diamond players out. Guys will need to step up!
— Mark Shapiro (@MarkShapiro) May 28, 2012

We're going to loose games; it's baseball. Injuries happen, and it may be better that they're coming earlier this year so we have more time to adapt, not to mention having enough time to insure solid recoveries and not end up with a revolving door on our disabled list. But falling into a bunker mentality? That's something we need to avoid.

Meanwhile, at the risk of this blog turning into a Chris Perez fan-page, even after the drama surrounding his comments a few weeks ago, subsequent reactions,  and more recent "controversy", CP continues to impress this author. Following the comments on attendance, he backed his words with actions by buying three pair of season tickets to be given away daily. So on home game days, CP usually tweets a trivia question for the chance to win tickets.

So far, so good, right? Not just backing up his words, but directly interacting with the fans. And if there is anything I excel at, it is amassing useless information. Bring on the trivia. But today was an off-day, and instead of a trivia question, Perez sent out the following:

I will be at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame today around lunchtime; The first three people to introduce themselves will win 2 tix for tomorrow
— Chris Perez (@ChrisPerez54) May 31, 2012

Alas, my store of useless knowledge is, well, useless. I'm nowhere near the Rock Hall, and I wouldn't make a trip out to introduce myself just because I think think everyone deserves a day off and time him- or herself. Growing up in another city where "celebrity sightings" were a constant experience I'm kind of sensitive to letting people live their lives and just be people. But I wanted to comment on this nonetheless. Not only has Perez stood by his words respectfully and articulately, not only has he backed them up with four knock-out innings since speaking and by giving away tickets, he's just going on doing what he enjoys in the city I live in and the town I love.

The two qualities I've always admired in Perez as a player and a closer are his willingness to take responsibility for his performance whether good or bad, and his "short memory" that allows him to go out the next day and neither resting on past successes nor wallowing in prior failures. All those media questions and twitter trolls asking about whether he worries about "fan backlash?" Forgotten already.

So an off-day tip of the cap to Chris Perez, who continues to impress me with his integrity and his willingness to stand up, speak out, and keep reaching out to and welcoming his fans.