“Who are these guys?”
That’s the persistent theme during the first 20 minutes or so of the classic baseball movie, “Major League”. Nobody, from the team’s directors to the coaches to the stadium groundskeepers to the diehard fans in the local bars recognize the players on the Cleveland Indians’ roster as they go through spring training and move north to start the season.
That’s kind of how I feel about this year’s Tribe. Wasn’t it just yesterday that a series with Cleveland meant facing off with Captain Cheeseburger and Cliff Lee? Where’s Victor Martinez and what happened to Casey Blake, Kenny Lofton and Jhonny Peralta? Those were guys you could take some pride in beating!
OK, yes, technically, Peralta is still an Indian. But he kind of reminds me of another quote from “Major League”…
Manager (seeing Roger Dorn arrive at spring training): “I thought you said we didn’t have any high-priced talent on this team.”
GM: “Forgot Dorn ’cause he’s only high priced.”
And yes, I realize our old friend Mike “Naked Batting Practce” Redmond, is with Cleveland. But honestly, if you’re as big a fan of the movie as I am, you have to be able to imagine Red Dog sprawled across a bed (a la Tom Berenger’s “Jake Taylor”), and answering the Indians’ phone call with, “Is that you, Tolbert? This isn’t very funny yanno. I’m hungover, my knees are killing me and if you’re going to pull this shit, at least you coulda said you you were with the Yankees.”
(This is where I planned on saying something clever and yet condescending toward Cleveland regarding how the makers of both Major League and the sequel, Major League II, didn’t even want to actually film the movies IN Cleveland. Instead, they used Milwaukee County Stadium in the original movie and Baltimore’s Camden Yards in the sequel. But then I recalled reading that the movie “Cedar Rapids”, scheduled for release later this year, was filmed in Ann Arbor MI. Here in Hawkeye country, that’s tough to accept. As hundreds of t-shirts in Columbus OH will tell you, “Ann Arbor is a w****”)In any event, our guys are in Cleveland tonight to take on the Tribe. In Babs’ absence, I’m going to try to post the line ups and set up the GameChat. If you come here and you see neither, blame me (though you may have to wait a while to yell at me cuz I’m probably watching at least the first few innings in a bar). – JC
| Minnesota |
@ |
Cleveland |
| Span, CF |
|
Cabrera, A, SS |
| Hudson, O, 2B |
|
Sizemore, CF |
| Mauer, C |
|
Choo, RF |
| Morneau, 1B |
|
Kearns, LF |
| Cuddyer, RF |
|
Hafner, DH |
| Kubel, DH |
|
Peralta, J, 3B |
| Young, D, LF |
|
LaPorta, 1B |
| Hardy, SS |
|
Valbuena, 2B |
| Harris, B, 3B |
|
Redmond, M, C |
| Slowey, P |
|
Carmona, F, P |
Well THAT was a heck of a lot more fun to watch than any of the Detroit series. Good to have the M&M boys back in the lineup.
And the chat group was UNANIMOUS in it’s support for BOD for Orlando Hudson. Big ol’ cookie for Justin for coming back with style though!
