I just went on a bit of a Twitter tear, provoked by the avalanche of falsified identity jokes that followed in the wake of the Fausto Carmona news. If you're living under a rock, Carmona's real name is apparently Roberto Hernandez-Heredia and he is actually 31, not 28. It doesn't take much to see how vitally important that downward shift in age was for his major league success—consider how he would've been viewed as a 25 year-old reliever in 2006, instead of as a 22 year-old reliever. There's a very real chance that he never would've even been considered for the rotation, which of course means he never would've earned his big contract, and a butterfly on a tree in the Amazon, etc. I'm sure someone will produce a nice piece of analysis on how this all informs Carmona's professional trajectory and I believe there's something interesting to be mined there.

That said, I don't want to touch on that. I want to simply point out what a shockingly cold bath this is for me, as it surfaces a lot of the strange feelings that come with having been lucky enough to be born on this continent, in this country, at this time in the world's history, to a certain kind of family. All of that simply adds up to privilege and access—the privilege to choose any sort of trajectory for myself, if I could show I could hack it, and access to a number of benefits that I never have cause to consider, like good food, healthcare, utilities, and the like.

Carmona, as was made evident when it was publicized that the Indians had financed dental work to help improve his nutrition, did not grow up in the kind of context. Here, in a blunt instrument sense, is the situation it seems Carmona faced: remain in 3rd-world poverty or falsify his identity, illegally, and give himself a much better chance of changing not only his own life but the lives of those around him. He chose the latter, and it worked out in spades. Did he make the smart choice? Did he make the ethical choice?

Continue reading this post »

A little under halfway through Scott Raab's The Whore of Akron: One Man's Search for the Soul of LeBron James, Raab invokes Frederick Exley. Exley's first book, A Fan's Notes, details the author's addiction, obsession, and insanity, all in the context of cheering on New York Giants star halfback Frank Gifford. A Fan's Notes is one of my favorite books of any genre, and it's an undeniable analog for Raab's own first book, which details the author's tortuous journey through addiction, obsession, and insanity, only now in the context of MIami Heat star forward LeBron James. Raab cuts straight through the literary comparisons, though, and highlights what Exley and he share at their basic cores.

Exley recall[ed] a fan letter from a shrink who, deeply moved, [told] Exley, "he had never before encountered a man so haunted by a sense of place."

I have met such a man. His face fills my mirror every time I brush my teeth.

The place haunting Raab is undoubtedly Cleveland. He still has his ticket stub from December 27, 1964—the day that the Cleveland Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts and delivered the city's last championship, with a 12 year old Raab in the stands—and he writes that the stub is evidence of the day he saw God, the only time God let his light shine on Cleveland's fans. Raab is, by his own admission, an addict, having struggled mightily with substance abuse of all stripes in his life and much of the book is devoted to investigating Raab's addictions, both the history of his substance abuse and the emotional state that led to it. It's through the lens of his addiction that Raab's obsession with place is explained.

Continue reading this post »

Joe Tait: It's Been a Real Ball, by Terry Pluto and Joe Tait

So what am I doing reviewing a Joe Tait biography? Tait, after all, is known for broadcasting Cavaliers games, and is in the media wing of the Basketball Hall of Fame. But he did also broadcast Indians games on the radio on television during the 1970s and early 80s, and those days are covered extensively as well.

The book is not written in first-person, but in third-person form (in other words, in co-author Terry Pluto's voice), which I think was a good move. It allowed Pluto to write a history of that era of Cleveland sports, with Tait as the common thread. Interspersed through the book are collections of anecdotes from fans, as well as short chapters written by those who worked with Joe during his broadcast career.

The most interesting parts of the book for me were those dealing with the 1970s and early 1980s, partly because I wasn't around to experience it, but also because Joe was involved with both the Cavs and Indians at that time. I didn't know about the controversy with Tait and Frank Robinson (Tait filled in for Pete Franklin on WWWE, and Tait was critical of Robinson - and this was while Tait was broadcasting Indians games on the radio) or just how bad the early days of the Cavaliers were. I also didn't know that Bob Neal was such a prima donna (among other things). 

For a time Tait did both Cavaliers and Indians on the radio, which is an amazing feat considering how many games there are to do between the NBA and MLB seasons.  He was the radio voice of the Indians from 1973-1979, and was the play-by-play man on television from 1980-1987 (keeping in mind that usually less than half of the games were on TV). So through the mid 1980s, he was just as involved with the Indians as the Cavaliers.

But of course, his relationship with the Cavaliers defined his broadcast career, and he quickly became synonymous with the team. When it was apparent that Ted Stepien (who has to be the worst owner in the history of American professional sports) would force Joe Tait out, the fans organized an informal "Goodbye Joe Tait" night, drawing over 20,000 fans for the last of the 1980-1981 season, almost double the normal attendance. When Gordon Gund began to pick up the pieces of the franchise two years later, perhaps his most important move was bringing Tait back.

The meat of the book is Tait's first decade or so with Cavs, from the days of Bill Fitch to the Ted Stepien debacle, and those chapters alone make the book worth getting. But that isn't a knock on the rest of the book; the sections on Tait's Indians days are fascinating, as is his early career in radio. But the chapters covering Joe's later career were rather sparse, so don't expect to read a lot about the Price/Nance/Daugherty or Mike Fratello teams. LeBron James was covered, though, including Joe's thoughts about "The Decision."

Tait comes across in print just as he did when doing Cavaliers games: he's honest, unpretentious, and at times funny. Pluto deftly balances Joe's life as a broadcaster with the events happening around him, and the result is a memoir that reads like his sports history books.

Joe Tait: It's Been a Real Ball is available at NE Ohio bookstores, Amazon.com, and BN.com. You can visit the book's website here, which includes a schedule of book signings by Joe. I received a free preview copy from the publisher.

Updated 9-8-2011

(2011 Editor's Note): It's been five years since these have been reviewed, so I've made some cosmetic edits to this list (removed the obsolete and now completely inappropriate flaming reference from #3), and made one addition (#10). You can still access these rules under the Essential Links Section on the right sidebar. Oh yeah, about the comments with the subject line: back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, all comments had required subject lines. So please bear with the eye pain. I've kept the comments closed to prevent time-travel paradoxes.

(2006 Editor's Note) There's been a huge increase in readers of this blog since last winter. And while that's fantastic in the sense that more opinions makes for more interesting and stimulating dialog, there are some things which a larger community brings that we wish to stay away from.

1. Political talk. This is a baseball blog, not a political one. Fans who read this blog come from all points in the political spectrum, but have one thing in common: they are Indians fans. That's the community we want to cultivate here at Let's Go Tribe: a group of diverse individuals who love talking to each other about the Indians and baseball. Political debate is not something we want to bring into this community. 
2. Personal attacks. In other words, steer clear of "you're an idiot" or "you suck." A good rule of thumb: attack a poster's ideas, not the poster himself/herself. We want this place to be somewhere where people can debate various topics with civility, not a demolition derby.
3. Trolling/flame-baiting. Trolling shouldn't be too much of an issue now that registration is required, but I wish to avoid flame-baiting as well. Posting incendiary content in order to get a reaction out of other posters will not be tolerated. 
4. Profanity. Avoid the Seven Dirty Words, and you'll be fine.
5. Snobbery. Users are not required to like Arrested Development — neither the TV show nor the hip hop group — and should not be badgered about it.
6. Comment Spam. This is dumping a bunch of links into a comment in order to boost a site's search engine ranking. First offense: banishment.
7. Sock Puppets. These are users with multiple accounts. This hasn't happened all that often, but we'd like to nip this in the bud before it becomes a bigger problem. If you've forgotten your password, e-mail us and we'll send you a reminder. Don't create a new account.
8. Blatant Site Pimping. Don't miscontrue the title; we have absolutely no problem with users mentioning their sites/blogs here, and in particular posting a FanShot with a link to one of your articles. The larger the Indians blogoshere, the better for all involved. But please do not post content verbatim from your website or blog.  Post a proper FanShot link, and you'll get traffic. If you've started a new blog and would like to be added to our Indians Blogroll, please e-mail either of us.  Provided the blog (a) is relevant, (b) has original content, and (c) is updated regularly, we'll be happy to include it.
9. Please do not make your first contribution a FanPost. We feel that it is best to start commenting before posting original content, if only to get a better idea as to what this site is about.
10. Our readers should treat users from other SBN sites with respect, even if they happen to root for the Yankees. In other words, everything that applies to your behavior towards fellow Tribe fans should apply to fans of rival teams; ground rule violations towards fans of other teams will be actively discouraged and moderated just as vehemently as violations against regular readers

These ground rules are meant as a guideline only. Once in a while, we may find it necessary to ban someone from use of the site. Although we tend to be fairly hands-off as moderators, decisions about conduct and banning are entirely at our discretion, and the ground rules above may or may not apply to those decisions. We may suspend a user's account any time we find that, in our judgment, that will make the site more enjoyable, more successful and more fan-friendly overall.

If you have ANY questions about the items on this list, e-mail one of us.

Congratulations to the first and second-place winners, as voted on by the Let's Go Tribe readers:

First place: Antonetti speaks!, by Chemo - $50 Amazon Gift Card

Second place: What I Would Do, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Drew Pom, by nickjs21 - $25 Amazon Gift Card

I'll be contacting the winners shortly via their account e-mail addres.

Again, thanks to all who participated.

Official Contest Rules

First of all, thank you to all who entered.

The entry period is over, and now it's time for the LGT readers to pick the winner of the contest. Because there were five entries, all five will make the final vote.

Please vote for the FanPost that you feel is the best of the finalists. Voting will be closed tonight at midnight. Whoever receives the most votes will receive an Amazon $50 Gift Card, and whoever receives the second-most votes will receive an Amazon $25 Gift Card.

Here, in no particular order, are the five finalists:

To Move or Not to Move, by Joel D:

If there's one thing I've learned from watching the Indians these 26 years of my life - other than perhaps that this is Dad's passive-aggressive revenge on us for all the stress we caused him - it's that "next year" is never guaranteed. Since the last gasp of the great teams of the nineties, the success of the Tribe has been more or less predicated on two things: the development of young players, and the bullpen. This year is no different.

The problem with building a team around the bullpen is that it is just about the most volatile element of a baseball team. If a bullpen goes bad, a decent ball club can look horrible through little fault of its own. In high-leverage situations, a relatively small number of runs surrendered can have a huge impact on a team's record. We all saw that happen in 2006, when a bad bullpen went a long way towards making our actual records 11 games worse than our pythagorean record and erasing the promise of the 2005 campaign.the team regrouped in 2007 with Raffies L and R carrying the mail, a stunningly effective season from Aaron Fultz, and the 29.1 innings of Jensen Lewis's life......

What I Would Do, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Drew Pom, by nickjs21

So: I’m GM of the Cleveland Indians, and with five days left before the trading deadline I am absolutely sweating through my breathable polos. I probably wasted the better part of two weeks haggling with men like Ed Wade and Andrew Friedman for players that are going to end up being far more expensive than they’re worth to my team. And during that time, the likelihood that the 2011 Indians just aren’t a playoff team grew closer and closer to reality.

My position is one that most of us seem to share and baseball writers have hinted at: The Indians aren’t going to break the bank this year. The targeted move would appear to be one that costs little in terms of prospects, especially prospects reasonably close to contributing. This is not to say the Indians aren’t going for it; they very much are. Shapiro recently said that as promising as the foundation looks, he doesn’t want to make the mistake of assuming this the beginning of a window. I’m paraphrasing, but he was very direct that a team must take advantage of every opportunity available to make the playoffs. Not only has history suggested that overmatched teams can still make deep playoff runs, but there’s a huge long-term financial incentive for a low-revenue team to win this division....

The Big Deals, by Gradyforpresident

For an inexplicable reason I'm leaning toward the Indians making a bigger splash than we expect. It's obvious that the Indians have vast problems in run producing, but I wouldn't shy away from saying there is also a lot of value to gain in terms of additional run prevention.

That being said, I do expect Antonetti to make a move for some sort of offensive piece. Nick has put forth a very strong case for Melky Cabrera and I'm inclined to think he's spot on, which in reality means it probably won't happen. Honestly, I haven't looked at any rumors at all so I'm not certain who we've been linked with, but I would guess any move the front office is making is off the media's radar....

Antonetti speaks!, by Chemo

I’m Chris Antonetti, ladies, and I'm here to save this team. Believe me when I say I’ve done all I could do for these losers so far. Oh, I’ve tried everything. I cajoled some big hits out of Orlando Cabrera. I picked Travis Buck off the scrap heap and proved that there was a 78 OPS+ lurking inside that kid. I took a middling relief prospect named Vinnie and taught him an ancient Antonetti family secret – how to hide a fastball. I punched Larry Dolan over and over until one last nickel crawled out of his 80-year-old pocket, and then I used that nickel to sign an eight-year-old Dominican boy who can take a walk. I traded my left kidney to put a voodoo curse on Adam Dunn, and I got the witch doctor to throw in a couple months of decent production from Jack Hanahan, because I’m that damn good....

Matt Y. as Armchair GM, by Matt Y.

So here we are, a game out of first place in late July. We are contending a year earlier than we had planned; however, the team's play over the past two months has put a big damper on our hopes. As the Indians' GM, I want to improve the team and give us as strong a chance to make the playoffs as possible, without crippling our farm system's ability to supply us with talent in future seasons. Even if we improve the team, we may not succeed this season, and if the farm system has been decimated, then I as the GM will really be in a pickle. On the other hand, you must make an effort to take advantage of the opportunities that you have, for you cannot count on the future. While we think this is the beginning of a window, 2007 was also supposed to be the beginning of a window, and we know what happened after that.

What to do?

Official Contest Rules

I'm pleased to announce that beginning this Friday, we'll be holding a FanPost contest, with prizes for the winner and runner-up.

Here's how the contest works. Beginning this Friday (July 22) at midnight and ending next Thursday (July 28) at 11:59 PM, you can enter the contest by a submitting a FanPost detailing what moves you would make if you were GM of the Indians for the rest of the 2011 season. Emphasis should be placed on the upcoming July 31 trade deadline, though you can also touch on contract extensions, roster construction, minor-league callups, etc. Otherwise, there are no other restrictions on the FanPost, so be as analytical, creative, or wacky as you want. After the entry period, we (Jay, Adam, Andrew, and myself) will select 3-5 finalists based on the quality of writing, and the LGT readers will select the winner and runner-up by a vote on Friday, July 29th.

So what can you win? First prize is an Amazon $50 gift card, and the runner-up gets a $25 Amazon gift card.

A couple of other details:

• You can only enter once.
• Please include the word "Contest" in your submission so it will be easier for us to see your entry. For example, "Contest: Winning the AL Central" or "Bring Andy Marte Home (Contest)".
  
• If you are the winner or runner-up, you will be notified via the e-mail listed in your user profile, and the prizes will be sent to the same e-mail address.
  
• All participants are subject to the official rules found here.

I'll be happy to answer any other questions below, or via e-mail.

Good luck!

The Draft is now complete.