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.

"You Can't See Me!"

Memorial Day as the "unofficial start of summer" did not disappoint at Progressive Field. The Justin Masterson jersey and the afternoon holiday game drew a good-sized crowd of just over 25,000. Following the rather ill-advertised links on the Indians' web site let me register for a pre-game photoshoot with Joe Smith. And a hot, sunny day made me appreciate the freezer-pop vendors more than ever.

Tomlin's return from the DL went as well as could be expected with a limited pitch count, lasting 5 innings and making 4 strike-outs while yielding 2 walks, 4 hits, and 4 runs. Kipnis continued his recent offensive tear going  scoring two runs and going 3 for 4. With Hannahan on the DL, Lonnie Chisenhall made his return to the show and hit a single homerun on his third Major League pitch of the year. #LopeyTime continued as Jose Lopez singled twice and reached on an error. It was not always pretty baseball, but it was certainly fun.

Chris Perez cheering last out.
Photo by Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer.

An 8-5 lead after 8 innings brought Chris Perez charging in from the bullpen. A fun game and an energetic crowd met him with standing cheers, well deserved both for his ongoing streak of 17 consecutive saves and for his comments that did just as much to energize Cleveland's fans. Perez continued to dominate the 9th, throwing only 9 pitches and each one a strike. Facing the bottom of KC's order, Perez got a groundout on an 0-2 pitch to Brayan Pena, a 3 pitch strikeout facing Jarrod Dyson, and then two called strikes on Alcides Escobar. The 0-2 pitch was hit weakly on the ground to first, and, although Kotchman probably could have made the put-out unassisted, he lobbed the ball to Perez who was covering first. Perez exploded cheering, nearly tripped over himself while screaming and celebrating, and managed to add controversy when striking out Jarrod Dyson by waving his hand in front of his face  with the "You Can't See Me" move of professional wrestler John Cena.

Apparently, Jarrod Dyson didn't like this. According to Jordan Bastian's write-up on mlb.com, some in KC were not happy that in his comments on attendance and attitude Perez pointed out that Cleveland was leading the AL central, unlike KC

Perez had heard from Tony Sipp that after Perez's comments on attendance

"Dyson said their team's coming for me," Perez said. "So I said, All right, you're coming for me? I'm coming for you. If I strike you out, you're going to get the 'can't-see-me face.' That's what happened. Three pitches, and you can't see me."

Dyson said it was a good thing he did not see Perez's gesture while on the field.

The tough talk was echoed by other Royals players.  Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star writes that catcher Brayan Peña reacted by saying

"That is just a sorry guy looking to be loved... Nobody pays any attention to him so he has to do stuff like that. You don't see guys who people know, guys like Mariano Rivera, do that, do you?"

My first thought was "Brayan who...?" Luckily I keep score -- cause you can't tell the players without a scorecard -- and he was the recipient of Perez's first three strikes that inning. Right.

There is much intelligent debate about Perez, ranging from discussion of his mentality going into games to statistical analysis of his pitching peripherals as predictors of future performance. Dyson and Peña aren't contibuting to such intelligent conversation.

Ok, Perez also tweeted that we're going to retaliate if your pitchers go after our players, and that the KC promotional slogan "Our Time" needs to be ignored because it's Tribe Time.

But one the greatest gifts Perez brings to the game is the simple fact that he enjoys it. He plays hard and enjoys winning. He cheers for and with his team. Winning is a thrill and he's not going to hide that. I sometimes wonder if he's having more fun that we are in the stands -- not that he shouldn't! I only wish we all could get that excited over an out.

Perez, to his credit, pretty much brushed this off. According to Dutton's article, Perez responded

“What, they’re not trying to get me now? . . . Every ninth inning, they’re trying to get me. I’m the closer. They’re trying to win the game. … It could work to my advantage, because they might try to do too much. . . . I really don’t care. The way I look at it is, every time I pitch, they’re trying to get me. And if they’re not, it’s on them. They should try to get me every time."

Ok, Royals. Come and get him. We're ready, waiting, and excited.

Go Tribe.

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.