Post mortem for Cleveland baseball

With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer.

But there is no joy in muttville.
Chief Wahoo hangs in effigy.
For Eric Wedge mismanaged our Tribe
He choked and lost all three.
"Say it ain't so?"

Afraid the 2007 baseball season with all it's promise is as dead as "Kelsey's nuts". Or perhaps as brain dead as Eric Wedge's 2007 post season ALCS managerial efforts. Back to school on you Eric Wedge! Bone up on your three B's. Bench , Bunt , and Bullpen.

Twenty five players suit up for your games, and you fail to utilize their talents. Shame on you Wedge! It took you until the eigth inning of the seventh and final game to have Grady Sizemore leading off lay down a bunt for a single. Sure wish you might of thought of utilizing the speed on your bench by bunting and running hard against Curt Schilling in game six.

C'mon, a forty year old pitcher on the mound for Boston and you miss the opportunity to make him field his position? Instead you turned game six into a boxing match and the Boston hitters delivered the knockout combination early on and put your team away.

No excuses for not having your bullpen up and ready in the three final games from the fourth inning on. Just what were you saving their arms for? Did you really believe C.C. Sabathia when he told you he still had gas and you sent him out to start the seventh inning in game five? Sabathia was well over one hundred pitches and it did not take a baseball Einstein to figure out he was heading for the showers.

And poor Travis Hafner having to suffer your obdurate and reckless inclusion of him as the three hole hitter while he is mired in an 0 for fourteen slump!

Give Travis a break and bat him down in the lineup and put your hottest hitter in the three slot.Mix up your lineups for heavens sake. Your predictable style of filling in your lineup card played right into Terry Francona's hand. Take up chess over the winter. All this is now water over the dam , and yeah I listened to your pathetic Wedge self offer to the tv talking head after loosing three straight , that Boston had lost three straight to begin the series. No shame Wedge , you and the Wahoo got to go.

Have a great winter , go take a long walk in the woods and consider a more cerebral manner of baseball management for next season. Your efforts expose you as the rube and boob of this post season. Shave off that ridiculous Popeye beard and stop using whatever is causing your nose to twitch like a rodent.

More than a few of us are fed up with your stodgy managerial style and it is high time you are called out on the carpet. In the baseball off season or "hot stove league" as it was once known, a great way to while away an evening while dreaming of spring training is curled up with a book in your lap.

We can suggest two that can help chase away the off season blues. First Lee Allen's THE HOT STOVE LEAGUE, or if you are in the mood to celebrate the last Cleveland American League World Series Championship Franklin Lewis THE CLEVELAND INDIANS, will fit the bill.

In all fairness the 2007 Cleveland baseball season was more than it promised in its snowy April infancy. The post season victory over the New York American League team featured great pitching and play worthy of celebration.

The Boston Red Sox choke difficult to swallow.Those of us born in Cleveland since 1948 have never had the occasion to celebrate a World Series championship season with the Cleveland baseball club. 2007 seemed as good a chance as any for this rare sporting occasion.

Tough to be left at the altar , and tougher to suffer an embarrassingly complacent manager in Wedge , not even strong enough to argue Kenny Lofton's being tossed "out" by Manny Rameriz in the critical early innings of game seven. Chemistry changes from season to season on a baseball team , and I do not see the Cleveland American League team returning to the post seson anytime soon.

Hats of to Zagreb Meats on Saint Clair Avenue, Milan, Sue, Larry, Rie, Drew , Deb, and all the other faithful. John, Kim, and Slim. My wife Deb , my brothers and our Mother, and all the other Cleveland baseball fans who felt that 2007 could have been a special year.

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