Sunday, May 28, 2006

Where's the Fire?

After another listless loss on Saturday night, in which the Tribe wasted a solid outing by Paul Byrd as Justin Verlander handcuffed them, it’s time to play some “Who Said It?”

Who came through with this beauty on Saturday night?

"The execution was terrible, horrible. We didn't lose this game because of a home run, we lost this game because we didn't do what we're supposed to do on the field from the first inning," he said. "If they want to be a bad team, they can continue to do that, I'll play somebody else. I don't care who they are and what they do. My job is to try and win games and that's what I'm going to do. If they don't like what I say, they can leave and do whatever they want to do," he said. "We're better than this. We're way better than this. If you want to be in second place, keep playing like that. If you want to win, we have to be better and that starts right now. It's not because Detroit is winning."

The answer is Ozzie Guillen, after a 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday night in extra frames. Look, Guillen – to me – is a blowhard who incredibly keeps pressing the right buttons over and over, but wouldn’t it be nice to see some emotion from our manager to fire up this team?

Make threats, call players out…do what needs to be done.

I know that comparing Guillen and Wedge is like comparing apples to oranges, in terms of attitude and managerial style; but how applicable is that quote to the Tribe right now?

Incidentally, those comments were made about a team that sits at 31-17, or a full 8 games ahead of the Tribe in the Central.

In a bit of Lazy Sunday, Shelly Ocker weighs in on Jason Johnson’s role as the 5th starter, and how he came to be an Indian.

Speaking of Johnson, we’ll see if he can out-pitch Kenny Rogers and avoid the sweep by Detroit.

If he can't, the Indians are looking at being 12 1/2 games back by Memorial Day, a feat they didn't accomplish until June 24th of last year.

1 comment:

Rockdawg said...

Sure enough, every time I call for a player's head (Jason Johnson), they go out and prove their worth (albeit, temporarily). it also works the opposite way for me....any time I buy a player's jersey, that player almost always has turmoil with his present team. (I own a Browns Andre Rison jersey, a Jets Keyshawn Johnson, an Ohio State #13, and a Mavs Mashburn)

Maybe that pounding of the Tigers yesterday will get the Tribe going!!