With the national media attention focused on the violent actions of two sociopaths after a recent Dodgers/Giants game I thought I might share this little piece I wrote for Let’s Go Tribe detailing my recent experience as a visiting fan to your beautiful city:

 The Trip              

Left Umatilla Oregon at about 2:30 and headed towards Seattle.  Turned on the local ESPN AM station to fill the time and heard about Manny’s forced retirement.  Pretty unexpected – timing wise – but completely understandable.  Got the usual huffing and puffing from the ESPN scribes but I was struck by the complete lack of talk about Manny’s time as an Indian.  I guess if it doesn’t happen on one of the Coasts it just is not of any interest to ESPN. 

Since this was more or less spur of the moment - wasn’t sure if I’d be going alone or not – I hadn’t completed my due diligence.  Like, where’s the ball park?  I punched "Safeco Field" in my Garmin and no joy.  So I called my brother up – while I was driving - and he googled it for me.  While we where on the phone together we got to talking about brother stuff and the conversation eventually rolled around to our childhood and our sainted mother and what a rock she was raising her idiot sons by herself.  Somehow baseball tied it all together and I just remembered once again how much I miss my Mom, my Dad, my brothers and baseball.  Which made seeing my first game in months – even if it was in Seattle – all the more important.

Outside the Park

Found a place to park for 12 bucks at a parking garage at 2nd and James.  Got directions to Safeco from a couple headed to one of the night clubs.  It was pretty clear to me that the boy was only going "clubbing" instead of the ball game cuz that’s what his squeeze wanted to do.  Walked about two blocks looking for some tickets and got to talking to a couple of the fans.  Talked to one guy for about three blocks and told him I was from Cleveland.  He said that he had heard a lot of good things about Cleveland and that it sounded like a pretty cool city.  Said he liked the Tribe and the Browns and the Cavs just not when they were playing the Mariners, the ‘Hawks or the Thunder nee Sonics.  He said he thought LeBron was a jerk and that he hated the Yankees.   Clearly a kindred spirit.  Met two guys from Ohio – one with a OSU hoodie and one with an Indians jersey under his Mariners windbreaker - and we did the O-H……I-O thing.  All and all the Mariners fans were very, very friendly and made the game very, very enjoyable.

 Fashion Alert!!!  Evidently really, really tight, really, really short skirts are in vogue in Seattle.  Careful while driving. 

Bought a field box ticket from a scalper riding a bike and shouting through an improvised megaphone made out of a Vende sized Starbucks cup and a coat hanger.  He got me for $84 for a ticket he said cost 70 bucks.  There wasn’t a price on the ticket but I thought "what the hell".

At the Park

Got to the stadium pretty quickly and you could feel the excitement.  Folks where laughing and talking and just enjoying themselves.  Got to my seat and found out I was sitting on the end of the row– my preferred location – next to three Japanese guys.  After awhile I spoke to one of them and he replied to me in perfect American-English.  I asked him – trying to demonstrate my Hawaiian acquired command of Japanese culture – if he was Nisei or Sansei, he said, "neither, we’re all Issei".  I complimented him on his English and we talked baseball – both Japanese and American baseball.  The guy definitely knew his stuff and told me he’d been to over a dozen parks but had not yet seen his favorite team play in their park – Fenway.  In order to further the cause of international relations I let that go.

Turned out the couple sitting right in front of me were from Cleveland.  She from W45th and Fulton and he was from Painesville.  Then I discovered that he graduated from Cleveland State, joined the Navy, retired as an Admiral and was now working for the same company I do.  Got his business card and will definitely be shooting him a resume.  There were about two dozen Indians fans in the immediate sections but you had to look to find them.

The Game

My first thought was: Who the hell are these guys?  Everybody – and I mean everybody – was stinging the ball.  That shot Asdrubal hit?  Low trajectory goner.  And Hannahan? The boy was smackin’ ropes – and can field a little too.  I’ll bet that you guys’ll start bitchin’ about him "blocking" Chiz in a month or two.  Gotta luv you some Santana.  A little shorter than I imagined – especially standing next to Sandy – but he doesn’t get cheated at the plate.  And I can see what the scouts see in Brantley.  Nice compact swing, great legs and smokin’ liners.  If he bulks up a little he could smack 20+ dingers a year.  LaPorta crushed a fast ball from Vargas that was just barely foul.  Looks like he’ll get his hits this year too.  OCab is smooth as a Prom Queen’s thigh.  Everything he does looks natural and not forced – including swing a bat. Choo was making decent contact; you can see that he’s coming around.   And finally Hafner – I don’t dare call him Pronk yet – he looks like I remember him from’06.  Compact swing, covers the entire plate and drives the ball hard every time he makes contact – as evidenced by that three-run moon shot in the fourth.  I don’t see him starting his swing early or lunging at that outside pitch.  What if?

And Carrasco – Holy Crap – Carrasco!!!  Just flat bringin’ it.  Commanded all of his pitches with good velocity and location.  This kid doesn’t really look like the guy I saw last year.  Confident, controlled and in command.  Herrman was tossin’ seeds too, just got one up to Cust a little bit.  He’ll be fine.

After the Game

All the fans – each and every one – were cordial to me after the game.  Made my usual post-game pit stop.  Some of the fans were – literally – pissing and moaning about the Mariners poor opener performance.  I told one of ‘em, "You take that fourth inning out and you guys win 3 to 2".  He laughed and said, "Too bad we can’t, but we’ll get you tomorrow". 

And you know what?  That’s one of the great things about baseball.  You can always get them tomorrow.

This piece is as it appears – with a coupla vanity edits – in Let’s Go Tribe.   As anyone who has followed LGT will attest, I don’t blow a whole lotta smoke.  The city of Seattle and the fans of the Seattle Mariners could not have been nicer to me, despite my overt support of a team that just cleaned their clock on their Opening Day.

 Thank you Seattle for a great time and I hope your team wins every game – except, of course, when they’re playin’ my Tribe.

The Trip              

Left Umatilla Oregon at about 2:30 and headed towards Seattle.  Turned on the local ESPN AM station to fill the time and heard about Manny’s forced retirement.  Pretty unexpected – timing wise – but completely understandable.  Got the usual huffing and puffing from the ESPN scribes but I was struck by the complete lack of talk about Manny’s time as an Indian.  I guess if it doesn’t happen on one of the Coasts it just is not of any interest to ESPN. 

Since this was more or less spur of the moment - wasn’t sure if I’d be going alone or not – I hadn’t completed my due diligence.  Like, where’s the ball park?  I punched "Safeco Field" in my Garmin and no joy.  So I called my brother up – while I was driving - and he googled it for me.  While we where on the phone together we got to talking about brother stuff and the conversation eventually rolled around to our childhood and our sainted mother and what a rock she was raising her idiot sons by herself.  Somehow baseball tied it all together and I just remembered once again how much I miss my Mom, my Dad, my brothers and baseball.  Which made seeing my first game in months – even if it was in Seattle – all the more important.

Outside the Park

Found a place to park for 12 bucks at a parking garage at 2nd and James.  Got directions to Safeco from a couple headed to one of the night clubs.  It was pretty clear to me that the boy was only going "clubbing" instead of the ball game cuz that’s what his squeeze wanted to do.  Walked about two blocks looking for some tickets and got to talking to a couple of the fans.  Talked to one guy for about three blocks and told him I was from Cleveland.  He said that he had heard a lot of good things about Cleveland and that it sounded like a pretty cool city.  Said he liked the Tribe and the Browns and the Cavs just not when they were playing the Mariners, the ‘Hawks or the Thunder nee Sonics.  He said he thought LeBron was a jerk and that he hated the Yankees.   Clearly a kindred spirit.  Met two guys from Ohio – one with a OSU hoodie and one with an Indians jersey under his Mariners wind breaker (photo to follow)- did the O-H……I-O thing.  All and all the Mariners fans were very, very friendly and made the game very, very enjoyable.

 Fashion Alert!!!  Evidently very, very tight, very, very, short skirts are in vogue in Seattle.  Careful while driving. 

Bought a field box ticket from a scalper riding a bike and shouting through an improvised megaphone made out of a Vende sized Starbucks cup and a coat hanger.  He got me for $84 for a ticket he said cost 70 bucks.  There wasn’t a price on the ticket but I thought "what the hell".

At the Park

Got to the stadium pretty quickly and you could feel the excitement.  Folks where laughing and talking and just enjoying themselves.  Got to my seat and found out I was sitting on the end – my preferred location – next to three Japanese guys.  After a while I spoke to one of them and he replied to me in perfect American-English.  I asked him – trying to demonstrate my Hawaiian learned command of Japanese culture – if he was Nisei or Sansei, he said, "neither, we’re all Issei".  I complimented him on his English and he talked baseball – both Japanese baseball and American.  The guy definitely knew his stuff and told me he’d been to over a dozen parks but had not yet seen his favorite team play in their park – Fenway.  In order to further the cause of international relations I let that go.

Turned out the couple sitting right in front of me were from Cleveland.  She from W45th and Fulton and he was from Painesville.  Then I discovered that he graduated from CSU, joined the Navy, retired as an Admiral and was now working for the same company I do.  Got his business card and will definitely be shooting him a resume.  There were about two dozen Indians fans in the immediate sections but you had to look to find them.

The Game

My first thought was: Who the hell are these guys?  Everybody – and I mean everybody – was stinging the ball.  That shot Asdrubal hit?  Low trajectory goner.  And Hannahan? The boy was smackin’ ropes – and can field a little too.  I’ll bet that you guys’ll start bitchin’ about him "blocking" Chiz in a month or two.  Gotta luv you some Santana.  A little shorter than I imagined – especially standing next to Sandy – but he doesn’t get cheated at the plate.  And I can see what the scouts see in Brantley.  Nice compact swing, great legs and smokin’ liners.  If he bulks up a little he could smack 20+ dingers a year.  LaPorta just crushed a fast ball from Vargas that was just barely foul.  Looks like he’ll get his hits this year too.  OCab is smooth as a Prom Queen’s thigh.  Everything he does looks natural and not forced – including swing a bat. Choo was making decent contact; you can see that he’s coming around.   And finally Hafner – I don’t dare call him Pronk yet – he looks like I remember him from’06.  Compact swing, covers the entire plate and drives the ball hard every time he makes contact.  I don’t see him starting his swing early or lunging at that outside pitch.  What if?

And Carrasco – Holy Crap – Carrasco.  Just flat bringin’ it.  Commanded all of his pitches with good velocity and location.  This kid doesn’t really look like the guy I saw last year.  Confident, controlled and in command.  Herrman was tossin’ seeds too, just got one up to Cust a little bit.  He’ll be fine.

After the Game

All the fans – each and every one – were cordial to me after the game.  Made my usual post-game pit stop.  Some of the fans were – literally – pissing and moaning about the Mariners poor opener performance.  I told one of ‘em, "you take that fourth inning out and you guys win 3 to 2".  He laughed and said, "too bad we can’t but we’ll get you tomorrow". 

And you know what?  That’s one of the great things about baseball.  You can always get them tomorrow.

So the Cavs stink, the Browns are gasping to the finish, the Buckeye's football coach has proven to be a spineless wimp and I'm freezing my ass off in the frigid Northwest. What better time to plan a baseball outing and forget your Ohio sports miseries?  

The Tribe is playing our favorite trading patsy - the Mariners - the weekend of April 8th.  I figured I could round up Portland Vinnie - I was in his joint a few weeks ago on Lesbian Night and now know how Margaret Mead felt among the Samoans - and any other LGTer whose interested.  So, any of you West Coast/Frozen NW/Idaho Militia Men wanna go to a game?  Let me know and I'll scrounge up some tickets.

BTW, I made this a Fanpost cuz I figured at the current rate it would be on the front page right up until game time.

So I guess you've all seen this: http://iwl.me/ (can't get the link command to work) the program that purports to analyze your writing - it uses statistics and everything! - so that you can flatter yourself into thinking that your prose is exactly like some famous writer .  And all of us here - myself included - think that we've got some skill; otherwise we wouldn't be posting here at all.  So I thought it would be fun to run some of our posts through this literary meat grinder and see what came out.  I thought I'd start with Andrew's new opus "Late Returns".   And what do you think the "I Write Like" program spit out?  Go on, I'll give you a minute to contemplate the possibilities..........why Stephen King of course.

Next, since he's almost inimitable, I took YoDaddyWags profile poem, which goes:

With wife, I own and operate
A small town bookshop: Hamish & Henry.
Before, we had big city life; then we
Threw it in for what has, to date,
Been a smidgen of Mayberry and a drop of country estate.

(One overrun with cats and dogs.)
When it's time to turn from recession's woes,
Or restocking shelves with more deathless prose,
LGT is first among blogs,
Though my BABIP, OPS and WARP studies are mocked by the peeping frogs

Dutifully turned the crank and got................James Joyce.  Now ya gotta admit, that's just about perfect.

Then of course I hadda pick out one of my posts, so I chose this one, posted during the 2007 ALCS (cleaned it up a bit since it was posted back before Jay got religion)

WooooooooWeeeeeeeee!!

What an inning!

Yankees fans at the hotel:  

The Indians aren't winning - the Yankee's are blowin' it

Torre's an idiot - he shoulda taken Wang our long ago!

The Yankee's bull pen is much better than the Indians!

All those long faces in the Yankee's dugout

And LeBron with the same look on his face as when the Spurs stomped a mud hole in his ass.

Man, this is even better than I imagined!

My [redacted] so hard right now a cat couldn't scratch it!

And got: Bram Stoker! 

And what would an analysis of LGT prose would be complete without parsing Jay's work.  So I took Jays write up of Game 58 and got: H. P. Lovecraft.  Who wouldda guessed?

Any way, I encourage all LGTers to try this on your favorite fan posts and see what you get.  It's probably at least as accurate as predicting the future of Lake County prospects

We spend a great deal of time on this site discussing contracts and such – all of which are an important part of the business side of baseball.  But lately we’ve been ignoring the Culone in the parlor – attendance.  We’re dead last in average attendance so far this year and not by a little bit.  The next-to-last team, Toronto, is drawing 4% more fans than we are.  The team with currently has the best attendance in baseball, Philly, has an attendance average that is more than 300% of the Tribes gate.

Here’s the grim numbers:

And here’s why it’s important – as if you didn’t all ready know – the Indians’ ability to compete is related to its income.  Attendance is awful, income plummets, the quality of the product on the field declines and our record gets worse which leads to falling attendance etc.  In other words a baseball death spiral.

I have no idea how to turn this around, all I know is that it's bad for Indians baseball.

So here we are, the first week of October, at least 30 games under .500 and guaranteed to finish 20 games out of first place in the – ugh – AL Central.  To us old timers this feels very familiar. 

But now the play-offs are upon us and we need to ask the question: who are you rooting for to win it all?  Lots of ex-Indians out there to provide a modicum of rooting interest for Tribe fans:  CC on the Yankees, Manny, Casey, Thome, and Ronnie on the Dodgers, Pavano with the Twins, Vic with the BoSox, Cliff and BenFran with the Phillies (and Victorino too!), DeRosa and Ludwick (OK that’s a stretch) with the Cards, Maicer Izturis – another stretch – with the Angels, Raffie B– along with Dan O’Dowd - with the Rockies, so there’s plenty of reasons to root for one team or another.  Or root against ‘em for that matter.

So here’s what I wanna know: who you pullin’ for and why?

Just how bad is the current Indian’s team?  I put it at the bottom of all Cleveland baseball teams for the last 50 years – and that’s bad, real bad.   In fact the only Cleveland team that was clearly worse than the current bunch would be the ’99 Cleveland Spiders.  Other than that collection of stiffs, this team can compete with any other Indians team in total ineptness.

Now you can disagree with me here as to whether this is the worst club in 50 years – I think it’s futile, but you can give it a shot – but here’s my point.  The last two truly awful Cleveland teams – ’85 and ’91 – were better baseball clubs than the Indians as currently constituted.  The ’85 club was just a little dip in the Tribe’s ongoing journey of Horribleness only to be followed by a struggle for mediocrity  The ’91 club though had the seeds of a Juggernaut growing below the surface.  Belle, Baerga and (Sandy) Alomar were already on the big club, Thome had been called up for a cuppa coffee, the sainted Hank Peters was about to draft the savant know as Manny Ramirez and Hart was a step away from two of the biggest talent heists in club history – Taubensee for Lofton, followed by Fermin for Omar.   In other words many of the pieces needed to produce one of the longest runs in Cleveland history were in place or on the way.  But still it took three more years for the Tribe to compete for a Championship.

Now I recognize that the AL Central was measurably stronger than the current division.  And I know that the ’93 Indians had to deal with the sudden, unexpected loss of three of its players but still.  Given were we’re at and what we have, I think we’ll be lucky if it takes just  three more years to assemble the talent needed to get back into the play-offs. 

I’d like to know what the rest of the LGTers think.

Well I finally made it to Yankee Stadium last night.  Took New Jersey Transit up from Princeton Junction to Penn Station and then the "D" Train to Fordham Rd., got off at 181st St. and walked about 10 blocks to Mario’s on Arthur Ave.  Met up with Gradysmanlady and a couple of his buddies – ate a little pasta and drank a little vino. All a perfect prelude to a perfect night.  GML's a pretty good dude, and for some unknown  reason the baseball god’s elected to put us right behind one another waaaaay up in the upper deck.  Unfortunately my buddy from Philly was having a hard time – cuz of his knees – making it all the way up to the Himalayan reaches of the stadium so we caged a coupla seats near some NYC secretarial types and their Manhattan real estate agent goomba – he spent most of the game trying to impress the young things with how much he knew about Manhattan real estate – whatta maroon.  Later JulioBernarzard showed up after the sixth and we watched most of the remainder of the game together. 

Anyway suffice it to say that watching Delucci hit that three run pinch- hit shot offa Chamberlain in the eighth was awful sweet.  You could feel the air go outta the stadium as it cleared the fences.  We were sitting with about half a dozen or so other Tribe fans from Connecticut.  We were all screaming and yelling and high-fiving one another amidst a throng of Yankee partisans – all of which gave us their best version of the ol’ stink-eye.  But so what?  The Tribe had just taken the lead over the vaunted Yankees offa the unhittable Mr. Chamberlain.  What could possibly be better – other than listening to about 2 or 300 other Tribe fans screaming their joy at the Yankee’s misfortune?  Like the noted fourteenth century B.C. philosopher Conan the Barbarian usta say, "Good is crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and listening to the lamentations of their women".  Truer words were never spoken.

Some observations:

• Fausto is having trouble locating the plate – duh.  And it’s not just that batters are laying off the low stuff.  He has stretches were he can’t locate the plate side-to-side or up and down.  But then he throws that heater up there at 96 and all seems right.  I think he just needs a little work on the side with the pitching coach.
• Marte’s a player.  There I said it.  His defense is excellent.  That tag he made in the bottom of the fifth – on Abreu, I think – was an old school veteran play.  He stood stone still acting like nothing was happening until, at the last instant he caught the ball and tagged out the runner.  Very impressive.  He also looked like he had an idea at the plate.  The boy at least looks like a hitter, which is more than I can say for most of the line-up.
• Hafner looks ab – so – lute – lee lost at the plate.  It looks like he’s guessing on every pitch.  I don’t know if his stance is too wide, or if he’s over-striding or what, but until he starts to recognize pitches he’s gonna struggle.
• Jamie Carroll on the other hand looks like he knows what he's doing with a bat.  He takes good swings at good pitches and plays a pretty decent second base – not a good as Asdrubal – but pretty decent.  Which is why I think that Cabrera is gonna end up in Buffalo soon.  There’s no need to keep him up in the majors and having him struggle when there’s a good replacement available.
• Garko, Peralta and Shoppach all look a little confused at the plate.  And yes I know Peralta hit that homer.  But still they look tentative.  These guys will come around but it’s gonna take some work.
• Gotta love Raffie L – wicked delivery makes his stuff look harder than it is.  Same with Jensen Lewis – if he had a more conventional delivery he’d be getting killed.  As it is the hitters are having a tough time finding his stuff.
• Alert the media!  Yankee fans are a bunch of douche nozzles.   I must admit we were treated politely by almost all of the NY fans but in the end their baseball knowledge, for the most part is limited to, "well we’ve won 26 WS, so this year’s team is gonna be great too".  I had one older fan tell me that the Tribe hasn’t had a good pitcher since Sam McDowell.  Evidently last year’s Cy Young results haven’t been announced yet in Gotham.

I always have big fun at the ballpark – always.  But last night was special.  Got to meet some of my LGT colleagues, watch the current Yankee HoF designate blow-up and listen to Yankee fans kvetch and flop around – perfect.  And, oh yeah, LeStunod choked big time with the game on the line.  Two for eighteen indeed!

Well, that might be my last visit to old Yankee Stadium – unless of course those dipwads some how buy a seat at this year’s play-offs.  In which case I’ll be back to watch the Tribe pound them into sawdust and break a few balls.

This ain't really a fanpost, cuz I don't expect any discussion.  But here it is: me and some of the other LGT guys are goin to watch the Tribe massacre the Yankees Tuesday night in NYC.  Anybody else wanna join up?  Yous can reach me at cghardy@maui.net or on my cell at (808) 268-5220.  Oh yeah here's sixteen more words to make it 75 word total - ya know so it's 75 words.

OK, I’m organizing a little soiree to Yankee Stadium for the May 6th Yankees/Indians game.  It looks like Turk, jhon, Julio and a coupla of the New Jersey guys are interested.  Anyway I figure we can meet up at Mario’s on Arthur Ave. in the Bronx prior to the game or somewhere else if this isn’t convenient. 

If you haven’t got tickets or need tickets, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.  Just drop me a line at cghardy@maui.net.

I just read this the other day and it helps explain alot about my/our favorite TV program.  Actually it lives up to HBO's motto - it's not just TV - it's the best fictional work I can remember in quite some time.  

Anyhow, I thought we could talk about our expectations for the finale prior to its airing this Sunday. Clearly McNulty's in deep kim chee along with the other cops.  Our reporter at the Sun might just survive his whole "fiction as reporting" thing with the editor getting the ax for questioning the fair-haired boy's work.  The mayor's toast as well as Chris I suspect, with Marlo being the instrument of Chris's demise.

I'd like to hear what the rest of you boyz think -  that includes you Tribe Time - so let 'er rip!

Well, nobody else would do it so I thought I'd start another "Wire" diary.  I couldn't participate in the last one cuz I couldn't get HBO where I was and didn't wanna spoil the surprises.  Any way here's my feeble attempt to get another diary started.

First off does anyone else find it disconcerting that many of the actors in "The Wire" - as well as other HBO dramas like, "Oz" and "Deadwood" - seem to cycle between HBO and the Dick Wolfe stuff?   You kinda identify with what's his name - the black police colonel in "The Wire" and then you realize he was the undercover cop in "Oz" faking the Jamaican accent.  Just a thought.  And is anybody else tired of Richard Belzar?

More to the point, the plot line is beginning to spin outta control.  It's a race between three forces trying to bring justice to Chris and Snoop.  One, McNulty has a loopy scheme to catch the vacant house killers that is having unforeseeable consequences - the only way to do real police work is to flim-flam the system.  Omar is working feverishly to bring street justice to Marlo and his crew.  And Bunk is using old fashion police work to find the killers.  Since this is structured fiction the author can choose whichever method he wants to catch the killers to illustrate his point - if he has a point.  In real life my money would be on Omar - cuz I think he'd be only one to bring any passion to his work.

I was following the back and forth between Jay and Voltaire and was reminded of something.  Let me do a little "self-hating" here and note that the Cleveland fan base - in general - has become less "fanatic" over the past few decades.

In the 50's and 60's all of Cleveland's fans for all the sports were, for the most part, working class guys - note the guys part.  Tickets were inexpensive, back when the minimum wage was $1.50 an hour you could get a ticket to an Indians game for about two bucks and a Browns game for about five.  Parking for a Tribe game was often free - if you didn't mind parking just north of the railroad tracks between W3rd and W9th.  You might get held up for two bucks to park there during a Brown's game, but I always thought that was some kinda scam run by a couple a guys who had the balls to charge you to park on a lot they didn't own.  But as the prices rose, attending baseball and football and basketball games became more a leisure activity for those who had more "disposable income".  That and the fact that all of the high paying blue collar jobs at the mill or the GM diesel yard or Sherman Williams or a host of other now defunct and vanished plants withered up and died and left fewer and fewer working class guys with enough money to actually go to the games.  So now an activity that was almost exclusively played by the working class and watched by the working class became less and less their province.  They hadn't been priced out of playing it, but they have been priced out of watching it.

This was brought home to me when my brother and I got tickets to a Seahawks/Browns game.  The seats were in the second row of the upper deck exactly on the 50 yard line.  One seat left or right of where we were sitting woulda put you on the 49.  My brother and I were usta sitting with the maniacs in lower corners or the bleachers.  Here guys would be falling outta the stands when the Brown's gotta first down - all hell would break lose if they actually scored a touchdown.  But up here, surrounded by doctors and lawyers and captain's of industry on the 50 you'd get that polite golf clap when the Brown's scored.  Half the time they were too busy smoozing or talking on their cell phone to actually see what the hell was going on.  

So when the Indians left the old Cleveland Municipal to the Jake I think something else left the team also.  When going to Tribe games became "hip" the warp and woof of the crowd changed too.  Gone where the leather-lunged steel workers with the profane Noel Coward wit and the bleacher bums too into the game to worry about being pelted with freezing rain.  Of course the losing left too, that might have something to do with it - I'm not sure.  All I know is it ain't the same crowd there now that was there when I was a kid.

Our favorite PD columnist, Paul Hoynes, plays Michael to the Tribe's Fredo and picks the Indians to win the Central Division which makes me real nervous.  It's kinda like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx thing.  Anyway there's a response from one of the PD bloggers that I think is perfect.

Hey Hoynsie, thanks for taking ten minutes to scribble this on a bar napkin. Very analytical.

I'm back in Maui and my biologic clock is still on Eastern Standard Time.  So it's 4:15 AM and I'm up and trying not to wake the rest of the household, cuz they'll be hell to pay if I wake up Mauidaisy or any of the Maui-ettes.  So anywho I was pondering the lack of respect given to one of Cleveland's great brewery's - no not Great Lakes - but the Carling Brewery once located on E93rd and Quincy.  Now I know you're thinking, "What the hell has this gotta do with the Indians?"  Well the answer is obvious to us old timers.  Carling - and specifically Black Label beer - was the long time sponsor of Cleveland Indians baseball on WJW Channel 8 in the late `50's to early `70's and the only beer served at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium during Indians baseball for a long time  
Here's the Carling website.  You'll note that neither Guinness nor Harp's nor Whitbread are the number one beers in the UK - Carling's Black Label is.  (Let me know if this ain't true TribeFanInLondon)

I've included a coupla other old time beer websites so you guys can read about beers and brewery's that existed before the monoliths like Bud and Miller took over.  Some of these beers were truly swill and some were surprisingly good - especially if you plan a drinking a whole case.  

You can see how often brewery's changed hands and how some "local" beers were actually produced by one of the big, national brewers.  Similar labeling schemes are going on now.  You'll note that this Sam Adams character outta Boston seems to be like the Borg -absorbing every small to medium size brewery in America.  

This micro-brewery thing is really not new - just old beer in new bottles.

Here's a far from complete list of websites focused on Cleveland area beers of the past and present.  It's a mishmash of sources and in some cases I hadda use that resource of last resort - Wikipedia.  

Blatz Beer
Duke Beer
Falstaff Beer
Genesee Cream Ale
Hudepohl Beer
Iron City Beer
Old Dutch Beer
Old Frothingslosh Boch Beer
Old Vienna Ale
P.O.C. Beer
Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
Rolling Rock
Schaefer Beer
Schlitz Beer
Schoenling Little Kings Ale
Strohs Beer
Wiedemann Beer

Here's a little ray of sunshine from LGT's favorite beat writer to warm your morning.  Seems like Mr. Hoynes(ie) thinks it's gonna take a five- to six-year deal worth between $130 million and $150 million to keep our favorite endomorphic pitcher in tacos.  

My guess about a month ago was $20M a year plus, there's been a number of convincing arguments saying that was way outta line.  I'm interested in what's the current LGT thinking is.