Looking Forward

After spending Friday and Sunday watching the debacle of the Yankees’ series at the Jake, I’ve simply decided that it’s time to turn the page. Having LeBron James sit 2 sections over from us on Friday night (he did stand and cheer for Barfield’s HR) didn’t have the same lasting good feelings that it should have as the Tribe offense (and Paul Byrd) sabotaged the weekend. The series was awful in every way imaginable, but the Indians need to put this weekend in their rearview mirror and not dwell on missed opportunities (there were many), mental mistakes (um…Jhon?), or stacking themselves up against the charging Yankees.

Certainly lessons can be learned, but what’s done is done.

Larger matters are at hand after a day off Monday as the Tigers come into town on Tuesday with a ½ game lead in the Central. It’s time to focus on the Tigers and slotting The Hefty Lefty against a scuffling Jeremy Bonderman on Tuesday and Carmona against the ol’ TBD on Wednesday.

Taking two from the Tigers would put the Indians back in the driver’s seat in the Central and could go a long way to building some momentum going forward. Of course, if the offense fails to show up against the Tigers and the Motor City Kitties take two, the Tribe will find themselves in a veritable tailspin with any remaining confidence and momentum slipping further away.

After snapping the rearview mirror off the windshield, not much happening by way of a Lazy Sunday as most columns are devoted to either some guy in an abnormally huge San Francisco Giants uniform (He Who Must Not Be Named) or basically say that the Indians’ offense is struggling…and they don’t know why.

The first topic will not have words wasted on it in this space (the last few issues of Sports Illustrated with The Hammer and The King of The Clear and The Cream on the covers and the latest episode of Costas NOW sum up my feelings pretty adequately) and the second topic has been examined here for the last two weeks.

Regardless, a few spots to hit:
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News identifies the voice behind the Tribe pre-game show on the radio, Jim Rosenhaus, the former Bison play-by-play man. Rosenhaus does a nice job on the pre-game show and, while Hammy and Hegan block him in the radio booth, he could be an option if the increasingly error-filled broadcasts of Matt Underwood continue.

Underwood seems like a nice enough guy who has his moments, but he hasn’t found his footing in the TV booth, often being corrected by Rick Manning. Too often, Underwood tries to be Hammy Lite and, while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, there can only be one Hammy.

While I know it could be worse (DJ and The Hawk, anyone?), Underwood has not been much of an upgrade over the perpetually vanilla John Sanders (only a year removed from him, do you even remember him?).
And don’t get me started on “Souvenir City”.

In roster news, in case you missed it, Jason Stanford and Mike Rouse have returned to Buffalo (looks like Stanford’s desirability to other teams was vastly overestimated) and F-Cab will be added to another team’s roster (possibly the D-Rays) tomorrow.

Tigers in town on Tuesday.
Quoth the aCCe last Tuesday, “There’s no doubt in my mind that we are going to win this division. I don’t think there’s anyone in this clubhouse who doesn’t believe that. …When we get hot, we’re going to be hard to beat. We haven’t even played our best ball yet.”

God, I hope he’s right.
Right now, it’s hard to see.