A Lovely Evening...Until...

Once again, the Erie Warriors have responded well to a crushing 9th inning defeat (first against TB after the A-Rod/JoeBo fiasco and now after the GameBoy/Jack Cust debacle), as they’ve cruised to two straight against those rotten Twinkies. In the first 2 games against their divisional rivals, the offense is simply rolling, the starting pitching has been dominant, and the bullpen (K-Brera not included) has done their job in preserving leads in two blowouts.

After spending the first 6 innings at the Jake tonight, watching C.C.’s Crew in the Bleachers put K’s on the board (inexplicably they refuse to post C’s) and enjoying a tremendously balanced offense that went deep into counts against noted strike-thrower Carlos Silva before going off on an ineffective Denys Reyes, I left the Tribe game to catch the 2nd half of the Cavs game. Only to have my night ruined…by one Mr. Joe Tait.

Nothing against Tait (how could anyone hold anything against the 2nd most popular figure in the organization…and 1st before the 2005 Draft), as he was simply the bearer of bad news as the Cavs laid an egg in Game 5 against the Nets.

So, I moved back to the Tribe on WMMS and good ol’ Hammy, who took me to my “Happy Place” for the drive home.

The Indians have an opportunity to sweep the series in the 3rd game tomorrow with Fausto Carmona taking on Johan Santana. In March, that would have seemed like a certain loss.
But, it is not March and much has changed with both El Diablo and Santana.

On the clerical front, the dust has settled (somewhat, as more changes are certainly possible) here at The DiaTribe, and I’m excited about the new look and some new features. The most notable new feature is the tab labeled “Smoke Signals” on the sidebar that links all Google News that pertains to the Indians.

After each game, “Smoke Signals” will have a link to the game-wrap from all of the papers that cover the Tribe, the AP game-wrap, as well as any other newspaper that may be covering the Tribe (like the St. Paul Pioneer Press coverage of the Tribe-Twinkies series), so it is quite convenient.
Prior to each game, it will provide links to the game previews from the same sources.

It also will show the “Notes” sections from most of the print media that covers the Tribe every day, despite that it may only display one story. Any time that there is a “Related Articles” link, it will show all coverage of similar ilk. For instance, when each paper had a piece this morning on how a decision will need to be made on whether to bring Marte to Cleveland or option him to Buffalo when he gets off of the DL, “Smoke Signals” linked the story from the ABJ, but you could access the similar pieces from the PD, the Canton Repository, the Columbus Dispatch, and Rotoworld, among others.

Basically, it updates all day long with new and different Tribe stories from a TON of sources, and since I am unable to provide all of the news that happens with the Indians when it happens (as many of you already know) and prefer to post every few days with thoughts, opinions, and observations this new “Smoke Signals” feature could not complete the site any better.

Also, I’ll now be able to provide “tags” or “labels” from each post that will link to any other time that subject has been broached here on The DiaTribe. That is, at the end of a story that discusses Fausto Carmona, you’ll be able to hit a link at the end of the post that provides a link to EVERY single story that contains a reference to Fausto. So, when the Jason Dangerously trade to Seattle is completed (it has to be done by may 20th), you’ll be able to track through all of the posts going back 2 years to see the exact moment that JD ceased being Jason Davis and became Jason Dangerously. It’s not automatically done, so it is a bit of a project to create that history on the site. When the project is complete, I’ll let you know. For now, be aware that it is a work in progress to provide some history and continuity to the site.

Much more to come on the state of the site (and a giant shout-out to T-Bone who did a lot of the legwork and design work as we were THOSE guys glued to a laptop at a bar on a Tuesday night) and I certainly welcome any comments or criticism as I really am trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone to find all things Tribe in one place (while enjoying some choice witticisms for your humble captain); so if there’s a link that you check every day that might be interesting to include (no need to mention Paul’s Byrdies, as it’s been linked), let me know via the comments section.