Cleveland Sports Forum

Speaking of the Dolans, where has our physician-poster been lately, during the Tribe's success?

This is from a daily series in the PD:
http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ss ... _trib.html

Here is a link to the entire series:
http://topics.cleveland.com/tag/fan%20m ... index.html

Avatar check -- Tribe forum has a larger file size allowed than the Browns forum...

Try it now, VIC.

J.R. wrote:Speaking of the Dolans, where has our physician-poster been lately, during the Tribe's success?

wait till they lose 2 or three in a row...that'll bring him around

Speaking of avatars, I recognize TFIR's new one quite well!

Baron wrote:

J.R. wrote:Speaking of the Dolans, where has our physician-poster been lately, during the Tribe's success?

wait till they lose 2 or three in a row...that'll bring him around

I think kenm does much of his posting by smartphone.

Me personally, I'm having a learning process to be able to quickly read and navigate here when on my iPhone.

Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:

Baron wrote:

J.R. wrote:Speaking of the Dolans, where has our physician-poster been lately, during the Tribe's success?

wait till they lose 2 or three in a row...that'll bring him around

I think kenm does much of his posting by smartphone.

Me personally, I'm having a learning process to be able to quickly read and navigate here when on my iPhone.

Reading isn't too bad....posting can be a pain in the butt.

The town deserves nothing.

I had not heard much about this until I just heard Ray Fosse talking about the details as he was doing color on the A's game at present. If I caught him right, the change affects 904 former MLB players between 1947 and 1980.


MLB, MLBPA Announce Expanded Pension, Benefits to Retired Players From 1947-1980




Thursday, 21 April 2011 13:51

This is breaking news...

While the NFL and NFLPA have battled over how best to address retired players, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have made news of their own today by offering pension and other benefits to players that retired before 1980.

At a press conference held today, MLB and the MLBPA offered expanded pension and other health benefits to players that played from 1947-1980 and were not fully vested in the pension plan and had less than 4 years of Major League service time.

Among those in attendance today in New York were Commissioner Selig; Michael Weiner, the Executive Director of the MLBPA; Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball’s Executive Vice President for Labor Relations; Dan Foster, Chief Executive Officer of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association; and Eddie Robinson, the former All-Star Major League first baseman and the former general manager of the Atlanta Braves and the Texas Rangers.

Since the 1980 season, all Major League Players have vested as members of the benefit plan after just one day of service in the Major Leagues. Prior to 1980, Players secured a pension benefit only after completing at least four years of Major League Service. Under this new agreement, Players who retired between January 1, 1947 and January 1, 1980 with no retirement benefits for their Major League Service will receive an annual payment of up to $10,000, jointly funded by the Commissioner’s Office and the MLBPA. The collective bargaining parties have committed to these payments for an initial period of two years. Payments beyond the initial period will be discussed in collective bargaining.

Commissioner Selig said: “Very simply, we felt that this was the right thing to do for these former players, who contributed to our game’s unparalleled history. I am very pleased that we have partnered with the Players Association to take this step.”

Weiner said: "Today's players appreciate the contributions made by former players to the game's success and to the union's efforts. The MLBPA has worked for many years with the Alumni Association on this effort, and we're excited to announce this significant agreement with Major League Baseball."

Foster said: “Today is a day of celebration and appreciation. The payments to these former players not only acknowledge their role in the evolution of the game but also honor the men who developed the great American pastime. The MLBPAA is grateful to Major League Baseball and the Players Association for their dedication to support and assist this group of former Major Leaguers.”

Robinson said: “This decision is the culmination of 14 years of concerted effort by the Major League Alumni Services Board of Directors and the former Major Leaguers who have served on our pension committee over the years. The owners and current players have shown great willingness to come together and agree on important issues.”

Longtime Major Leaguer Craig Counsell, a member of the Milwaukee Brewers and an Association Representative for the MLBPA, said: “As a current player it is truly an honor to be able to take this step and help pre-1980 players.

Retirement benefits were the primary concern in 1966 when the players hired Marvin Miller and the modern-day Players Association was born. Over the ensuing 45 years every player experiences the same feeling of indebtedness to those who came before him. It is with that in mind that I personally thank everyone involved for their determination in making this happen.”

See Marvin Miller's comments on the pension plan and pre-1980 players from the 2004 Biz of Baseball interview

http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=81

I was away for a week. Not some sinister plot. Inlaws are living in 1999 and have dial up and only after I lost my cruddy 5 generation old phone several days ago and bought a iphone-was going to wait for the 5- can I post by smartphone. Also my Ipad 2 finally arrived. Not clear still what you do with it. Guess I have to buy a subscription to the NYTimes.

Maybe It Will Blend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USiaeXzYkOE

Sizemore's hard-charging style a conundrum

Images of what Erstad could have been are called to mind

By Peter Gammons | MLB.com Columnist |

04/23/11 3:25 PM ET

Grady Sizemore was 24, and he was a star on the rise, a Sports Illustrated cover boy, a Cleveland matinee idol and the centerpiece of a team that would get to within a game of reaching the World Series.

His trademark was crashing into walls and diving for fly balls. He was the intrepid warrior and because -- at the time -- his wrist and knee and shoulder were sore, he was asked: "Do you ever wonder that if you keep playing as hard as you play that you will become Darin Erstad?"

Sizemore stared at the person who asked the question. "What do you mean?" he shrugged.

He actually knew that Erstad's self-sacrifice had dramatically shortened what looked to be a brilliant career. Yet he stood there, blank.

"There is only one way to play," he said. "I don't ever intend to change."

In 2007, when the Indians were that one win from the World Series, Sizemore had 63 extra-base hits and a .852 OPS and was the poster boy for the rise of baseball in Cleveland in the '90s. He played 157 games in 2008, but between a spring groin injury and a left elbow problem that eventually required surgery, he fell to 106 games in 2009. Then came the left knee injury last year, the complex microfracture surgery and the end of his season at 33 games. 139 games in two seasons in what should have been the prime of his career.

This spring, he realized he wouldn't be ready to open the season, and when he talked about his comeback he said: "The one area I have to be cautious as I prepare is sliding. But I'll get past that. The way I play will not be any different, I hope."

Sizemore opened the season on the DL, and soon was on rehab in Akron. In his hotel room one night, Toronto manager John Farrell was checking on the internet for his son Jeremy's game for the Pirates' Double-A club in Altoona. He checked the box score, then he got the call. Jeremy told his father that Sizemore had robbed him of a homer, crashing into the fence.

Farrell laughed. He was the Indians farm director when Mark Shapiro made the franchise-altering deal that brought Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips from Montreal for Bartolo Colon -- and watched Grady play his way up the ladder from the Carolina League to the American League Central. "Grady is back to normal," Farrell said. Then came Sizemore's return to Cleveland, a home run in his first game back and an 8-for-19 start.

Scouts watching the Indians didn't expect Sizemore to be running at 100 percent less than a year from the surgery, but he is already an above-average runner, hustling all the time, telling reporters he's thankful to be back.

Because he is such an unusual person and player, and because the Indians and Cleveland deserve good fortune, everyone in the game roots for Sizemore to make it back. The point here is not to judge whether Cleveland's starting pitching will hold up for six months. The good start -- and the appreciation that they have third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall and second baseman Jason Kipnis to fill in the puzzle; that catcher Lou Marson shows flashes of the promise that he showed in the Phillies organization; and that the Tribe have two serious power arms on the horizon in Alex White and Drew Pomeranz -- restores hope to the economically-challenged Cleveland area.

But Sizemore raises a broader issue: As much as everyone -- fans, managers, teammates -- appreciates players like Grady who go everyday as if it's the last day of the postseason, is it not dangerous? Hitting is a precise, delicate art, one that cannot be performed at a concertmaster level with a jammed wrist or damaged elbow, mangled fingers, strained shoulder or crumpled foot. Can Sizemore from the ages of 28 through 33 play with the same special teams abandon that he did before he turned 26?

It makes one have an even greater appreciation for Pete Rose's durability, and when one talks to an 18-year-old Bryce Harper and understands that is the way he wants to play his career, there is an undeniable drive to "play the game the right way," as Harper puts it.

The question about Erstad to Sizemore, posed four years ago, echoes. Erstad played as hard as anyone in the business. He was one of Tom Osborne's all-time favorite special teams players at Nebraska, he may be the single most popular player of the last 20 years in the Cape Cod League for his two summers in Falmouth. In 2000-02, Erstad played 157, 157 and 150 games for the Angels. His crushing home run in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series was an emotional charge in the rally that eventually won it all. Yet sacrificing his body on the bases, against walls and crashing to the turf limited him to 67 games in 2003 and 40 games in 2006, and his career came to a premature end.

"I don't regret anything," Erstad said in 2009, by then a role player for the Astros. "If I had played any differently, then I'd have regrets."

Which is reminiscent of the chain of injuries that slowed Junior Griffey's glorious career. "At least what I left, I left on the field," he said after one serious hamstring injury. "At least I got hurt trying."

When one broadcaster suggested he shouldn't play as hard, Griffey responded: "How else can I play but the way I've always played?"

One wonders what Kirk Gibson would have been had he not played so hard. Gibson terrorized middle infielders, as well as outfield walls. Yes, he hit a pitch by Mike Brown over the transformer above the right-field roof of Tiger Stadium that Reggie Jackson hit in the 1971 All-Star Game -- and cleared that transformer by a good 20 feet en route to the back of a lumber yard across Woodward Avenue. Yes, he hit the dramatic homers off Hall of Famers Goose Gossage and Dennis Eckersley in the 1984 and '88 World Series. Yes, he was the '88 NL MVP.

But that 1988 season was one of the two seasons in his 17-year Major League career that Gibson played as many as 150 games. After winning the Dodgers' last World Series ring, Gibson played more than 116 games once and retired without ever being on an All-Star roster. All because he played so hard he bashed his body.

Thursday afternoon, the Red Sox got the same scare when one of their prized prospects, Ryan Kalish, dove for a ball in Pawtucket and injured his left (throwing) shoulder. A day later, the Sox knew that there was no tear or fracture, but they did not know what it would take in terms of rehab for Kalish to return to playing. And they worry that his kamikaze style could sometime catch up to him, a style that he will not change.

It's too bad we even think about injuries shortening the careers of the Sizemores and Gibsons and Kalishes who play the way we wish everyone would, or could. But injuries and their ramifications in baseball are very different than football or hockey; Brian Jordan and Deion Sanders got hurt far more often in baseball than football.

We think about this. Sizemore clearly does not. Kalish will not. Gibson never did. All the more reason to admire them.

Pluto:

About the Tribe ...

1. Yes, people are paying attention. Team president Mark Shapiro said television ratings are up at least 50 percent from a year ago. The 3-2 loss Thursday night at Kansas City drew a 20 percent audience share, which is outstanding. Emails, Facebook posts and other forms of social media have shown "a real uptick" in terms of Tribe talk.

2. While the Indians have never announced it, they have about 7,500 season tickets. That's the lowest since they moved into the new stadium in 1994. They are averaging 14,391 fans, lowest in the majors.

3. "It really hasn't been fair to the fans [to criticize them for the small crowds]," said Shapiro. "The weather has been awful. We've had only one game where it was above 50, and two in the 30s. It's rained a lot. I really think we will see an increase in the next few homestands."

4. The Indians sold 8,000 tickets in 24 hours before the April 15 game with Baltimore. They averaged 2,500-5,000 tickets sold within 24 hours of all three games against the Orioles last weekend. The weather has been an issue all over baseball. The Reds made the playoffs last season, but they are averaging only 22,504.
5. Shapiro said, "It makes more sense to buy tickets ahead because they are cheaper and deals are better -- and we will have some lines before some games. We want to get everyone in the park as fast as possible."

6. If the Indians do need another starter, Alex White could be the one. In his first three starts at Class AAA Columbus, White is 0-0 with a 2.00 ERA. In 18 innings, he has struck out 20, walking only three. His fastball has been up to 95 mph, and averaging 92 mph. He also has shown progress with his off-speed pitches. White was the team's No. 1 pick in 2009.

7. The Indians are really excited about Nick Hagadone, who has been dominating at Class AA Akron. Coming out of the bullpen, the lefty has thrown 10 2/3 scoreless innings, fanning 14 and walking only one. Picked up from Boston in the Victor Martinez/Justin Masterson deal, Hagadone has been held back by control problems before. Now, he's getting that 95 mph fastball over the plate, and he could be headed to Columbus soon.

8. So far, everything with Grady Sizemore's surgically repaired knee has been a wild success. He has had no real pain, no swelling. His legs are strong enough to produce a powerful swing. They are not ready to play him three days in a row just yet -- but that could be coming soon. The idea is not to put too much strain on the knee. Why take any chances for a setback when there has been so much progress?

9. The Indians' internal statistics and the Web site www.fangraphs.com have Jack Hannahan rated as baseball's top defensive third baseman. He also has delivered some clutch hits. The Indians are excited that Hannahan (and veteran Adam Everett) are producing, because it has stabilized the defense and allows Lonnie Chisenhall (.222 at Columbus) time to develop as the third baseman of the future.

10. Josh Tomlin has made 15 starts since coming to the Tribe in late July. Most fans know that he's pitched at least five innings in every start. He is 9-4 with a 3.96 ERA. It's 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA this season as opposing batters are hitting only .181. Maybe the opposition will figure out Tomlin, and the right-hander with the below-average fastball will be in trouble. But this is a guy who was 51-24 with a 3.20 ERA in the minors and a knack for pitching deep into games and coming away with victories.

A Tribe fan in Afghanistan

I received this email from SGT Michael Geist, stationed at Kandahar Airfield. He often posts on my Facebook page and loves reading Cleveland sports stories on-line. What a blessing the Internet is to women and men in the military.

Geist wrote: "My father and aunt had the 20-game packages for Tribe games. I was at the Boston [playoff] game in the 1995 playoffs when Tony Pena hit the homer to win it. I was at the game against Seattle where Cleveland was down 11 by the third inning and (eventually) won.

"I joined the army in 2006 and went to Germany, got deployed to Iraq. I came home for my son's first birthday. That's when I asked my wife to go to a game with me -- the first Indians game we went to together.

"It was the third game of the season vs. Chicago in 2008. It was so cold that night. I definitely didn't dress appropriately. I gave my wife my jacket. We bought the expensive Indians winter gloves to keep our hands warm. We bought 5-6 hot chocolates throughout the game.

"I bought seats on the third base side, about 10 rows from the field -- the best seats that I ever had.

"Before the game, we got great pictures of the players -- especially Ryan Garko, her favorite Indian. I enjoyed sharing memories of sharing the game with my wife. It was a great release. I got to spend three hours with my beautiful wife. I'm pretty sure they lost a close, low-scoring game. But that's not what mattered.

"For my wife and I, it was a chance to go out on a date and spend time with each other."

9. The Indians' internal statistics and the Web site www.fangraphs.com have Jack Hannahan rated as baseball's top defensive third baseman. He also has delivered some clutch hits. The Indians are excited that Hannahan (and veteran Adam Everett) are producing, because it has stabilized the defense and allows Lonnie Chisenhall (.222 at Columbus) time to develop as the third baseman of the future.

I don't know what Hannahan's final numbers are going to look like at the end of the season or if he'll be playing with us next year but somebody did a good job scouting him...