"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.

A sweep... but what's in it for me?

After last night's amazing game and taking a series from the Tigers, I couldn't resist coming out to see Masterson face off against one of the best pitchers in the game. I'll admit that I rationally did not expect a win. Like many people have said, since we already won the series, we were "playing with house money." All the better, just go enjoy the game, see a great pitching match-up, and enjoy a beautiful day.

Needless to say it was a great game, from Choo's lead off homerun that landed just a few seats away from me in the mezzanine through Chris Perez's third save of the series. Verlander was amazing, and you can only respect him as a pitcher. Anyone who not only goes the distance in a loss, but somehow throws harder at the end of the game, deserves respect and admiration.

So I went to the game not expecting to win. Even when we went to the 9th leading 2-1, I was willing to concede a blown save and a loss. Not that I didn't think we could win, but because I recognized that this is baseball. As much as I wanted the win, I know the Tiger fans who drove down to Progressive Field were just as fervently hoping for a comeback.

Something about this raises a question about how we approach the game, our expectations and the realities of being a fan. So many of the negative voices sound like they feel like they deserve a World Series winning team for the price of their tickets. So much of the rhetoric they repeat about the ownership and the management sounds like they think unless we win, and win everything, and win all the time, then they've been cheated and refuse to spend a dime seeing a game.

And yes, it's a long season. There's a lot of baseball still to go. A sweep in may isn't a statement in a pennant race. But what does it say, and more to the point, what's in it for me?

We did win, but it would have been no less enjoyable of a game if it ended with a Tiger win. We swept, but it would still have been a win in the series without today's victory.

Really, if I knew my ticket money was buying a guaranteed victory, like the AL-Central Pennant most commentators awarded Detroit for signing Prince Fielder to a quarter-billion dollar contract, why bother going? What fun is it?

The tribe swept, beyond my expectations. What's in it for me? A great day of baseball, two days of games with great crowds who were excited and behind their team, a little sunburn and a sore throat.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012: Det 2, Cle 4

For what it's worth, I try not to miss Dollar Dog Nights. The hot dogs are sub-par, and my body never likes me for it, but still. So I had my tickets to last night's game long before Chris Perez called out booing fans or before low attendance became the big story of our division-leading Cleveland Indians.

Besides the hot dogs, last night's win over the Motor City Kitties may have been one of the best games I've seen at Progressive Field. Zach McAllister pitched a great game from the beginning, throwing first pitch strikes and challenging hitters throughout the game. There were more miscues on the field than I wanted to see, but a 2-run Pronk bomb tied the game at 2-2 in the 6th.

Things got interesting in the 8th. With Prince Fielder up, Tony Sipp came in. Prince got to first despite a perfect shift with Kipnis playing short right field. Vinnie Pestano came charging in with his usual hustle, but Young and Boesch both reached on singles. Bases loaded, no outs, and 22,000 screaming got the Bullpen Mafia into form. A three pitch strikeout got he first out, a grounder to first got Fielder out at the plate and saved a run, then the inning closed with a full count swinging strikeout. At some point I realized I had already screamed myself hoarse, but more to come...

Jason Kipnis went 3 for 4 with singles in the 1st, 6th, & 8th -- undoubtedly the result of a pre-game offering of sacrificial rum to Jobu. In the 8th Kipnis broke the tie when he came around to score on a fielder's choice and a bad throw from the Tiger's mammoth first baseman and Cabby scored an insurance run on a Santana sacrifice.

Enter Chris Perez in the 9th, who has been nothing but class since his comments last week about negativity and poor attendance. The highlight of the night, for me, was after his last pitch when he saw the ball pop up he just walked straight off the mound toward Santana at the plate. Pure class and confidence.

This may have been the best game I've ever seen. Not just for the excitement of a nail-biter, but because the crowd was engaged. The people around me knew their baseball and were behind the players -- far better than nights when I'm surrounded by the bros who catch SportsCenter every now and then and check with the batting averages on the scoreboard before insulting the players.

Now all we can do is hold on and go for the sweep.