C.C. Sabathia: No Friend of Chief Wahoo

While we were on vacation, C.C. Sabathia and his family took out a full page ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer to thank Cleveland Indians fans and others for their support during his 10+ years in Cleveland. As Coachie Ballgames of Shea Hey! points out, this was a classy move by the big fella, made much moreso by what appears to have been a conscious decision to keep the image of Chief Wahoo out of the ad. A Google image search of "C.C. Sabathia" reveals that the C.C. had lots of good photos to choose from to include in this ad, and the great majority of them prominently depict Wahoo on his hat and/or sleeve. We appreciate the subtle political statement by Sabathia, and that while he no longer takes the hill for our Tribe, is nonetheless helping to bring us that much closer to a championship by doing at least a small part to reverse The Curse of Chief Wahoo. Once these Cleveland Frowns ad revenues start coming in, we might take out a full page ad ourselves to thank him.

Relatedly?: According to U.S. Justice Department Statistics, "American Indian women who live on tribal lands are more than twice as likely to be raped or sexually assaulted as other women in the United States. . . . More than 80 percent of Indian victims identify their attacker as non-Indian." These "rapes against American Indian women are also exceedingly violent; weapons are used at rates three times that for all other reported rapes."

Perhaps not coincidentally, "exceedingly violent" also describes the nature of the dry heaves that are induced when we think of how empty Progressive Field will be when October rolls around.

Cee...Cee...See Ya' Later!

We haven’t been motivated to post about the Sabathia trade because we don’t think there’s much to say about it that we and others haven’t already said.

Yeah, it’s great that the Indians got something for the big fella rather than see him walk for nothing like Belle, Manny, and Thome did. And they appear to have done well to get the seventh overall pick from the 2007 draft, Brewers top prospect Matt LaPorta, who looks like he can mash.

But the situations with Belle, Manny, and Thome were all different. The Tribe was either contending, and didn’t want to give the guys up for the stretch run, and/or had other reasons to think they would stay. C.C. gave no indication that he would stay. We suppose this is a little sad, and it has us thinking about things like loyalty, and a salary cap.


But -- and despite the fact that he was throwing at a tiny tiny strike zone against the Red Sox -- we’re also thinking of Cy-Cy’s 8.80 ERA in last year’s playoffs and wondering if he has the mental toughness to get it done when it counts the most. We’re also thinking that Sabathia’s physique doesn’t exactly call the phrase “world class athlete” to mind, and whatever implications that might have on his mental toughness, it certainly calls his durability into question.

The trade is also nice for Tribe GM Mark Shapiro because it has everyone talking about the time when Shapiro traded Bartolo Colon for three young All-Stars (and one superstud) to be, Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and the since departed Brandon Phillips. Good job there Mark, yes, but not enough to get you out from under the Curse of Wahoo. This one won't be either.

But speaking of getting out from under The Curse, we have to be happy for the big fella on that point. What could be better than going from Wahoo to Bernie Brewer? So cheers to C.C. -- all the best to ya' Big Fella. Better bring us a couple, Bernie B. We're prone to spillin' that first one.

Salty Saturday

The weather has been beautiful this week and we’re still salty. The curse of Chief Wahoo is really wrecking sh*t these days.

The Tribe is now 5-9 after dropping two straight to Boston in the ninth inning. Oh, by the way, hope you didn’t want to see Boston play in Cleveland any more this season, because after that two game series this week, they won’t be back 2009. That’s right. Our old American League rival, and last year’s opponent in the ALCS only plays in Cleveland twice this season, in April. The outdoor temperature in these games ranged from between 25 and 50 degrees. The San Diego Padres play more games in Cleveland this year than the Red Sox do. So FOX can make more money on Red Sox/Yankees and Yankees/Mets? Retarded. Oh, and hope you’re not busy next weekend if you wanted to catch the Yankees this year. They won’t be back until next season either. Retarded. Just like our retarded muscle-bound closer who finally figured out that his triceps hurt after Manny took him deep in the ninth on Monday. You pitch baseballs for a living. You are wrecking your bones, joints, and ligaments by lifting weights and that is why you can’t throw. Dummy. We will ask again. Who the f*ck is training these guys?

On to the Cavs, who are in even worse shape, as they head into a postseason that has disaster written all over it. The options appear to be twofold: First there is the potential epic embarrassment of going down to the Wizards who will be bloodthirsty for revenge after being bounced from the playoffs by Cavs in each of the last two seasons. With LeBron’s bad back, the Wizards’ chances are better than ever. The thought of Deshawn “Soulja Boy” Stevenson getting over on the King makes us cringe. What’s worse is that LeBron is likely to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening, and is liable to cause serious long term damage in the process. We said before LeBron’s back injury surfaced, that his duck-toed gait was a recipe for future long term back problems. These back issues are likely much more serious than LeBron realizes.

And the Browns have three Monday night games next season. This is bullsh*t. Football is for Sundays. Monday nights are for sleeping. Sometimes the Monday night games last until 1am. That f*cks up the whole week. And the Monday night announcers suck.

Finally, and worst of all, it looks like the Curse of Wahoo has spread to New York, probably due to our affiliation with Shea Hey. Has anything sadder than this happened at a ballpark recently? Ever? F*ck.

We’re going to the game tonight so we'll make a pick. Since Sabathia is pitching tonight, we’re taking the over. 87% of the bettors at Sportsbook.com like the under. These dummies obviously don’t understand what a mess big CC is this year. We do. The pick: Indians and Tigers OVER 9.5.


Also, if you think we care that it's not Saturday you are dumber than Borowski.

They Would Have Built a Statue

4/12/08 Update: Sabathia smoked again by Oakland. Three and a third innings, TWELVE hits, NINE earned runs. His ERA is now 11.57 on the season.

After being touched up by a weak Oakland lineup for four runs, six hits, and four walks in 5 1/3 innings yesterday, Tribe ace and reigning AL Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia is 0-1 with a 7.59 ERA after his first two starts this season. We believe that this slow start is substantially a result of Sabathia’s inner conflict over his impending decision to either remain an Indian, or leave Cleveland to take more money to pitch elsewhere. We expect more of the same from C.C. this season until this inner conflict is resolved.

We hope that C.C. has the chance to speak with his old teammate Jim Thome about this decision, as Thome was the last Indians superstar who was confronted with the same choice. Sabathia might take note of how comfortable Thome looked back in Cleveland when he took him deep twice on opening day at Progressive Field. Thome decided to leave Cleveland for Philadelphia in 2002 for what amounted to a difference of a few million dollars. At the time, Thome was the Tribe’s all time home run leader, and one of the most beloved Cleveland Indians in the team’s history. Thome broke down in tears at the press conference where he announced his decision to leave Cleveland. His decision broke the hearts of Indians fans everywhere.

Things didn’t exactly work out for Thome in Philadelphia, and he was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 2006. Thome is probably the best hitter on a mediocre Sox team, but he has not been, and odds are that he will never be, embraced by the city of Chicago as a hero the way he was here in Cleveland.

We don’t think it’s stretch to say that Thome would make a different decision today if he could do it over again. We know that he still lives in Northeast Ohio. He and his wife liked the area so much that they have decided to raise their children here. It might have been more fun to raise them in an area where their father was the most beloved player in Cleveland baseball history. We have to wonder whether that’s not worth the difference between $85 and $80 million alone. We also have to wonder what Thome would have meant to the Tribe’s playoff run last year. Regardless of the answer to that question, we know that Thome would have rather been playing in the postseason than sitting at home. He will probably feel the same way this fall.

They almost certainly would have built a statue of Thome outside of Progressive Field if he had stayed. Maybe he could have made up the extra millions in endorsements alone, or maybe those millions would be worth it simply to buy the peace of mind that would have come with staying home with the franchise that drafted him and raised him; the peace of mind that would have come with being a legitimate hero to a region of millions of people who are fiercely loyal to their hometown ballplayers; and the motivation that would have come with the chance to bring those people their first championship in 50 or so years. And there’s no telling what it would be worth to actually bring that championship home.

Thome had a chance at all of that, and he sold it for a few million. We have reason to think that it might have been worth a lot more than that. C.C. now has a chance at the same thing, but his opportunity might be worth even more than Thome’s was, given the nucleus of young talent that now surrounds Sabathia on the Indians roster. Could this chance possibly be worth less than going to New York or somewhere else to be a hired gun on a roster full of imported high priced talent? Has any player earned 'all-time great'/'face of the franchise' status on any major league club after being brought in after spending ten years of his career somewhere else? In view of all of this, we enjoyed Thome’s home runs against Sabathia on Opening Day as signifying something more meaningful than the resulting runs on the scoreboard. We can only hope that somewhere inside of him, C.C. was aware of what Thome gave up to leave Cleveland. Of course, C.C. will face tremendous pressure to do the same thing, if not from the MLB players union, then at least from the other teams who will try to lure him away. Whatever C.C. decides to do, we look forward to the day that we in Cleveland have our own Cal Ripken, or Tony Gwynn, or Kirby Puckett, or John Smoltz, or Chipper Jones, or even a Biggio or Bagwell (damn this list is short) who will turn down more money for something less tangible, but seemingly more important.