Pronk Needs You!

Cleveland Indians pitching and broadcasting legend Herb Score has died.  He was 75.  He, more than anyone else, was the voice of the Indians for me growing up.  He will be missed by all Indians fans. 

I tuned in the Indians’ radio broadcast on WTAM in the 9th inning of the 7th game of the 1997 World Series because I wanted to hear Herb Score call an Indians World Series victory.  I lived in an apartment in downtown Columbus and got scratchy reception at best.  We all know what happened next.  It still makes me sad that I never got to hear Herb make the call that the Indians had won the World Series after all he suffered as the voice of mediocre and awful teams through most of his career calling Tribe games.

I’d like to take some time away from Cleveland sports to tell you a little bit about my grandmother, Luella Grant, who died on Tuesday. That’s her, at the right, in a photo from 1935.

Luella Martin was born in Pliny, West Virginia, the 18th and final child of John Franklin Martin, who was 67 when she was born. Her mother was Martin’s third wife, the previous two having died in childbirth. The family lived a hardscrabble life, farming tobacco and other subsistence crops on a rocky farm on a bend in the Kanawha River, where they also tended a light on the river bank, which they were expected to light every evening.

Luella was one of two girls her age (her sister Mary being the other) to attend the local high school, which was across the river in Buffalo, West Virginia. She and Mary made the daily trip to Buffalo High School via rowboat across the river. After paddling across, they left the boat and walked a mile-and-a-half to the school building. When it was rainy, they had to wear rubber boots over their shoes. The girls didn’t like to leave their boots in the boat-an easy target for anyone needing a pair of boots–and they didn’t like to wear them to school. Luella remembers a woman who lived on the Buffalo side of the river who told the girls they could leave their boots with her.

She graduated high school as the salutatorian in the height of the Great Depression; however, the Pliny area was so poor already that she wasn’t able to tell any difference. She and her sister Mary took turns taking care of her elderly father, who was in poor shape, until her half-brother lost his job and moved back to the farm to tend it and take care of her father, who died in 1939 at the age of 91. Freed to find a job outside the farm, she left for Akron, Ohio, where her half-brother Dio Cletian (C.D., or Cleasy) Martin had found a job working at a rubber mill.

She found a job as a nanny for the Rose family. a wealthy family in the Fairlawn area of Akron, taking care of their young son, Joel (Joel Rose would later go on to become a TV personality in Cleveland.) She was set up on a blind date with Elner Grant, a shy, handsome young man who worked at a gas station and had played football at school. They married and bought a dilapidated home without indoor plumbing on the edge of Lakemore, Ohio.

Before the Depression, Lakemore, on Springfield Lake, was a resort community full of summer cottages for the affluent, who fished and bathed on the lake. After the Crash, however, Lakemore became a refuge for the less-affluent, where those who could bought these summer cabins and winterized them the best they could. The small Grant home, far from the lake, had enough land to garden, several fruit trees and proximity to berry bushes. A root cellar was dug in the backyard near the outhouse.

Eventually, the house got remodeled, a bathroom was added on, and four kids were raised there, including my father. Elner never made a lot of money, and the family learned to live frugally and appreciate what they had. I remember their small house being so full of family on holidays that there was little room for anyone to move around. Since Luella canned everything that came out of the garden, there was always something that she grew - green beans, strawberry jam, the best apple butter I’ve ever tasted. Every Christmas, she made several batches of hard candy in many flavors and colors, including cinnamon.

When Elner died in 1983, Luella learned to drive at age 68. You could see her driving very cautiously around Lakemore to Lakemore United Methodist Church (where she and Elner had been the custodians, and where she continued as the custodian for quite some time after his death) or to the grocery store in a 1976 AMC Pacer (Elner was always a big fan of AMC cars - he had a Nash Rambler for many years back in the day).

Luella loved Lakemore UMC and served in a variety of ways, including taking the bulletins and church service tapes to the shut-ins well into her 80s. When Jesus said that the two most important commandments were to love God with all your heart and soul and love your neighbor as yourself, I think he was talking about Luella. She had a quiet strength that came from her faith in God, and was eager to learn, taking the rigorous 33-week Disciple Bible Study course in her mid-80s. She liked it so much, that she took Disciple II the next year. Her favorite authors were Max Lucado and Norman Vincent Peale.

She never met a stranger, and if you were lucky enough to run across Luella Grant, she neighbored you. In fact, she neighbored so many people that the Village of Lakemore created an award, the Good Neighbor Award, and made Luella the first recipient a few years ago.

Because she was the last of many children, Luella had few souvenirs from which to remember her family. She was determined that this would not be the case for her own children and grandchildren. For many years, until she was too old to do it with much skill, Luella would make cast ceramic objects for each of her relatives, painstakingly painting them. Many of the objects featured lights. Since my father was a minister, his gifts very often were religious in nature - light-up churches, or angels, or Christmas trees or wreaths. The figures were very often notmatching the tastes of the recipient, but they were, until the last few years, painted with great skill, and always made with love. I have one of the figures she made for me, a cardinal, on my desk at work.

When she was 89, and visiting my parents in Florida, Luella took a class in oil painting. So, for the past few years, as she was able, she spent some of her free time painting landscapes so that she could give them to all of her family members for Christmas.

Luella lived on her own until she was 90. We had a big birthday party, and all the family came from all over the country to celebrate the occasion, and then she sold the house and moved to Copeland Oaks, a retirement community in Sebring, Ohio, where she has spent the last 3+ years. As her body continued to fail, her mind remained sharp, and she spent much of her time reading an average of two books a week.

When she went into the hospital last weekend, my wife and I drove up to Alliance to visit her. “I’ve lived a good long life,” she told us. “I’d love to stick around and see my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but if I don’t, then I know I’m going to a better place.”

(Also posted on FolkBlog.)

Hey, crimestoppers!  I haven’t forgotten about Cleveland sports.  I’ve had a killer work project that I just finished recently, not to mention fighting a wicked cold that left me speechless for a couple days. 

I do plan to get back to pontificating with some final thoughts on what the Indians should do in the offseason in a few days.

When we last left the Tribe, they had just swept the Twinkies, and were about to start a three-game set with the Motor City Kitties.  Since then, we’ve seen the following:

• The Indians swept a dispirited Motor City Kitties team.
• More bad blood between the MCK and the Tribe.  In Game 2 of the series, Fausto Carmona plunked Gary Sheffield.  Sheffield, who continues to display paranoid delusional tendencies, jawed with Carmona all the way down to first base, while carrying his bat.  Carmona threw to first base.  Sheffield jawed some more and then charged the mound.  From first base.  A baseball fight ensued, with Sheffield getting the worst of it, Carmona getting him in a headlock and pounding him with several shots to the face.  After the smoke cleared, Sheffield, Carmona, Polanco, The Beaded One, and Victor Martinez were tossed.  The suspension damage: Carmona - 6 games (starting pitcher penalties are generally higher and set so they miss or postpone a start), Sheffield - 4 games, Martinez and Cabrera (3 games).  Sheffield’s penalty, given he clearly instigated the whole thing, is clearly out of line when compared to Martinez and Cabrera.  A hilarious retelling of the fight is located here.  The Indians went on to win the game in the 9th.  Gary Sheffield, meanwhile, vows revenge.
• The fight from the STO feed:
• Scott Lewis’ scoreless streak ended at 15, but the Indians won Game 3 anyway, 10-5 behind 4 hits and 5 RBI by Ryan Garko.  He hit a triple.  Honest to God, Ryan Garko hit a triple.  There have been no reports of Hell freezing over, but it’s still early.
• The Indians ended the Tigers’ series 1 game over .500.   The Indians finished 11-7 versus the MCK.
• Dontrelle Willis gave up 6 runs in 2.1 innings, with 3 wild pitches and 6 walks.  That 3-year, $29 million extension is looking like a bad investment. Mike Ilich needs you to eat lots of pizza.  Lots and lots of pizza. 
• Justin Verlander has hit 40 batters in his major league career.  14 of them (35.0%) have been Cleveland Indians.  In only 15 starts.  In those starts, Verlander is 4-10 with a 6.70 ERA.
• The Tribe then went to Boston, riding a 6-game winning streak, hoping to postpone Boston’s celebration for clinching a playoff spot.  They managed to postpone it by one day, as Zach Jackson outpitched Josh Beckett to get his first win for the Tribe.  I am going to repeat the key phrase again: Zach Jackson outpitched Josh Beckett.  They were helped by one of those freak baseball plays where, with runners on first and second, a ball hit down the third base line hit the umpire and ricocheted into short left field.  The runner from second base, Jason Bay, held up between third and home and tried to return to third.  The runner from first, assuming double all the way, did not stop, and was standing on third base by the time Bay got there.  Bay was tagged out.
• However, Cliff Lee failed in his second attempt at win 23 last night, and the Indians could not get to the Boston bullpen, leaving the bases loaded twice in the late innings and Boston celebrated their inclusion in the playoffs with a 5-4 victory.  Andy Marte pulled up lame with what is being called a calf injury.  He has likely played his last game of the year.
• Shin-Soo Choo remains a beast.  In the last 28 days, here is his line: .430 / .495 / .767.  His BABIP over that period is .469. 
• FEDBU Stadium closed this weekend.  There was much self-indulgent rumination by New York media blowhards.  The rest of the baseball world yawned and went on playing baseball.
• The MCK and Kansas City are currently battling for fourth place.  The Royals took last night’s game 5-0 to pull into a virtual tie.  It is possible for the Tigers, whose bold off-season moves led many baseball pundits to pick them as AL Central champs, will finish below the KC Royals.

The Indians can continue to endear themselves to Rays fans with two more games against Boston and then can totally wreck the White Sox season with three games at Portable Phone Field.  Currently, the Indians stand at 79-78, with a good chance to have a winning season and finish low enough in the overall standings to have a protected draft slot in the event they sign a Type A free agent.

The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the Columbus Clippers have signed a four-year agreement with the Cleveland Indians to serve as their AAA franchise.

Buffalo, it appears, will be the new AAA home of the Mets, not the Blue Jays as many have speculated.

After mailing it in over the weekend against the Royals, the Indians showed some interest in baseball again to start the week, sweeping the contending Twinkies.

Series summary:

• Scott Lewis is good.  Or major league batters have not seen enough of the soft-tossing lefty to figure him out.  Or a combination of both.  He pitched the Indians to a 3-1 victory in game 1 of this series, extending his scoreless inning streak to start his career to 14.  Shoppach and Choo went deep to provide the offense.  We’ll see more of Lewis down the stretch, as Anthony Reyes has been shut down for the season.
• Zachson is not so good.  After being spotted to an 8-1 lead in game 2 when the Indians busted out the whuppin’ sticks on Francisco Liriano, Zachson promptly gave most of it back, giving up a total of 7 runs in 5.1 innings.  Betancourt came on to pour more gasoline on the fire, giving up 2 runs in 0.2 innings which put the Twinkies ahead 9-8 in the top of the eighth.  Grady Sizemore hit a mighty clout halfway up the right-field foul pole to tie the game at 9 in the bottom of the eighth.  That’s where things stood when Joe Nathan came in the bottom of the 11th.  After Gutierrez opened the inning with a bloop single, Francisco bunted him to second and Jhonny dhrew a whalk.  With two on, Victor Martinez hit a walk-off shot to right centerfield for the 12-9 victory.  It was Martinez’ first walk-off homer in his entire baseball playing lifetime, and the Indians’ first walk-off homer of the year.  In other news, there was a full moon and Ryan Garko hit a home run.  Those two facts may or may not be related.
• Cliff Lee went for #23 in game 3, and just missed it.  He had a 4-2 lead in the 7th, but Jamey Carroll (grr - don’t get me started) muffed an easy grounder at third base, and then a Mauer double put runners at second and third.  Morneau grounded out, scoring the guy at third base who should have been out, and then Delmon Young hit a game-tying single.  The Twins failed to take advantage of the Indians’ sporting attempt to give them the game by bringing in Eddie Moo, who closed out the inning.  The Indians wen on to get the game-winning runs in the bottom of the seventh after a bizarre sequence of events.  Grady Sizemore beat out an infield single.  Jamey Carroll (grr - don’t get me started) sacrifice-bunted directly to the pitcher who threw Sizemore out at second.  Carroll barely beat the throw to first.  Carroll then attempted to steal second.  The throw was into centerfield.  Carroll, meanwhile, was totally deked and stood on second base while Joel Skinner nearly blew out a rotator cuff windmilling him to third.  The ball then got by centerfielder Carlos Gomez.  Eventually, Carroll looked around, saw that the ball was in deep centerfield and got to third base.  Had Carroll looked for the ball sooner, he most likely would have scored.  However, the point became moot when Jhonny Peralta and Victor Martinez hit back-to-back doubles to create the final 6-4 margin.  Perez tight-roped through the 8th and J-Lew closed it out with his 10th save.  In other news, Pronk hit his first home run since returning from the DL, a 430-foot-no-doubter that sounded like a mighty clout off the bat.  I like this Pronk. 

In other news,

• The Rays demolished Tim Wakefield last night to drop the FEDBU-Lite to two games back in the AL East, 7 games ahead of the Twinkies in the Wild Card race.  The FEDBU-Lite would really have to crash hard to screw up the Wild Card.  The good news is that the Indians have 4 games against them next week and can help make that happen.  If the Twinkies want to get into the playoffs, they’ll most likely have to beat the Whine Sox to get there. 
• The Indians new Spring Training facility in Goodyear, Arizona has opened for the Arizona Fall League.
• The Indians schedule for 2009 has been released.  They’ll open in Texas, back home for 3 against Toronto, and then go on the road for a week, opening New FEDBU Stadium in the process.  They play 10 of their first 13 games on the road.  I suppose that’s better than being at home a lot in early April, but it still seems like a bit of a raw deal.
• The Tribe has signed Taiwanese pitcher Chen-Chang Lee to a minor league contract. 
• A 6-4 finish against the Motor City Kitties, FEDBU-Lite and Whine Sox would leave the Indians at .500 to end the season.  The Indians have a prime chance to continue to be spoilers the last week of the season in both the AL East and AL Central.

Chez Woodsmeister?  Power restored Tuesday night.  We’re one of the lucky ones - much of Central Ohio is still without power.

Indians - Terrible.  Lost 3 out of 4 to the Royals.  Quick recap of the horror show:

• Sunday - Sowers leaves early and the bullpen gets bombed.  For completely unfathomable reasons, Eddie Moo was the first guy out of the bullpen.  Four runs later, inexplicably, the next guy out is Juan Rincon.  Betancourt would later get pummelled, but not as badly as Tom Mastny.  Bannister has shaky first but then rolls.  Indians 3, Royals 13.
• Saturday game 2: Brian Bullington started and gave up 6 in 4.3 innings.  Mark Teahen went deep TWICE.  Indians waste Garko home run and lose to Robinson Tejeda.  Indians pitching so bad that Ryan Shealy looked like a major league hitter, going 4 for 5.  Indians 4, Royals 8
• Saturday game 1: Carmona gives up 7.  Greinke looks like Greinke.  Indians lose 8-3.
• Friday: Cliff Lee wins #22.  Not seriously challenged.  Indians 3, Royals 1.

Browns - Well, the good news is that they didn’t suck nearly as badly as they did in Week 1.  The bad news is that they lost to the !!@#$!@#$%! Pittsburgh Steelers for the 10th time in a row, this time 10-6.  The wind was gusting up to 50 mph and it took both teams out of their general offensive game plans, but the Browns were clearly more affected, making stupid penalties that led to Pittsburgh’s only touchdown.  Once again, Romeo Crennel chose to kick a meaningless field goal late.  His team got the ball back this time, unlike last week, but not with enough time for the offense to do something.  Clock management was also a problem on the last drive of the first half, where they squandered time and then threw a late interception that precluded them kicking a field goal.  Romeo, dude, get your head in the game.  You too,  Braylon Edwards - if you’re half as great as you think you are, then you would catch the damn ball.  Winslow catches everything thrown at him - be like Winslow. 

Buckeyes - No Beanie, no offense.  We all suspected after the Ohio University game that the Buckeyes might be looking ahead.  Now, I think we all realize that they only have a couple guys who are top-rank talent and that a really good, really big, really fast team will light them up like a Christmas tree.  Every time.  Pryor, C Wells, Lauranitis, Freeman.  That may be just about it for top-rank talent on this current team.  The line was porous, Boeckman looked like a deer caught in headlights and consistently made poor decisions.  The offense looked like they paid more attention when Pryor was in the game.  USC certainly played a little more tentatively on defense with Pryor in the game.    Boeckman has clearly lost the confidence of everyone on this team, with the possible exception of Tressel.  Bottom line:  Men of Troy 35, Boys of Ohio 3.  And it really wasn’t even THAT close.

Chez Woodsmeister - Power out as of about 5:30 p.m. yesterday.  AEP says that power might not be restored in all parts of its service area for up to a week.  At least there’s power at work.

Pronk made his return from three months on the disabled list a victorious one, and Jeremy Sowers pitched his best game of the year as the Indians beat the Orioles 6-1 last night.

Pronk singled in his first two at-bats and drew an intentional walk, finishing 2 for 4 with a strikeout and a walk.

Sowers went 8 full innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits on only 96 pitches, finishing off batters when he got ahead in the count, instead of wasting pitches nibbling.  He finished the game with 7 strikeouts and was not really challenged.  The way the Orioles were swinging and not getting good contact, it seemed as if his pitches had some late movement, which, if true, is a very good sign and indicates some good progress from Sowers. The Indians put up single runs in 6 different innings.

Andy Marte was 2 for 5 with an RBI, including an RBI double, bringing his average back up to .207.

Saturday afternoon - My wife is a graduate of Adrian College, in Adrian, Michigan and they were in town to play football at Capital University.  As an Otterbein graduate, I don’t need much coercion to go somewhere and root against Capital, so we went to the game and watched Adrian look unorganized and uncreative on offense, while Capital pretty much took them apart defensively.  Final score: Capital 34, Adrian 14 and much sunburn.

Saturday evening - An alumna of Adrian works for the Columbus Crew, so it was Adrian Night at Crew Stadium, though there was not much of an Adrian College turnout.  The game was fantastic - the first-place Crew, without their leading scorer (Alejandro Moreno) and national teamer Frankie Hejduk, totally dismantled the second-place New England Revolution 4-0, outshooting them 27-4.  And, as much of a beatdown as 4-0 is in soccer terms, it could easily have been 5 or 6 to 0, as the Crew hit two crossbars and New England goalkeeper Matt Reis made several impressive saves.  The Crew has a legitimate shot at the MLS Cup this year, for the first time in perhaps a decade.

Early Sunday afternoon - watched Cliff Lee win number 21 on the television to take two of three from the Royals.

Later Sunday afternoon - watched the Browns totally stink up the joint against Dallas.  Braylon Edwards had a bad case of the dropsies, but even worse, the defense couldn’t get any pressure on Romo at all, which pretty much doomed them to defeat.  The secondary isn’t good enough to cover the arsenal of receivers that Dallas runs out there for that long.  Do the Browns have linebackers?  It was hard to tell yesterday.  Based on yesterday’s performance, the off-season moves the Browns made to bolster their defense have not yet paid off.  Was Corey Williams on the field at all?

Actually, the Browns had the misfortune of playing what may be the best team in the NFL right now in their opening game, so they will not be as bad as they appeared yesterday all season; however, they have serious work to do if they want to even be competitive against the Steelers next week, on both sides of the ball.

Indians notes:

• Anthony Reyes was pulled from his start on Friday night with “a strained right elbow.”  Scott Lewis will make his major league debut in Reyes’ place on Wednesday in Baltimore.
• Pronk helped power Akron to the next round of the playoffs with a grand slam in Game 3.  His rehab stint has ended and he is expected to meet the team in Baltimore and enter the lineup once again as the starting DH.
• Gil Meche is good.  Too bad for him that he pitches for the Royals.  He held the Indians to 1 run on Saturday, snapping the team’s 10-game road winning streak.
• In the last 14 days, according to B-Ref, Shin-Soo Choo’s line is .526 / .581 / .921. Really. He’s reached base in 27 straight games now.
• Andy Marte’s consecutive games with a hit streak ended at 9 in the last game of the White Sox series.  Inexplicably, perhaps as punishment for not getting a hit, Marte only started one game of the Royals series.  Unfortunately, it was the Saturday game when he and his teammates got shut down by Meche.  So, because he could not punish the entire team for its poor performance, Wedge sat Andy Marte out on Sunday, starting Jamey Carroll at third base.

The Indians formally announced yesterday that they have severed their player development contract (PDC) with the Buffalo Bison.  Although it has not been officially announced, it is expected that the Columbus Clippers will announce shortly that they have severed their player development contract with the Washington Nationals.  It will then likely follow that sometime between September 15 and the end of the month that the Clippers management and Cleveland management will hold a gala press conference in Columbus to announce that the Clippers and Cleveland have signed a player development contract for 2009-2010 to coincide with the opening of the new Clippers stadium, Huntington Park, to open in 2009.

The combination of affiliation with the nearby Cleveland Indians, as well as the new park, located next door to Nationwide Arena in the nightspot-laden Arena District, will create a significant spike in attendance.  The Clippers’ previous home, Cooper Stadium, is over 70 years old and in a deteriorating urban neighborhood perceived by locals as being unsafe, with nowhere nearby to go before the game for a nice dinner or after the game for a few rounds.

I know that, as a Columbus resident, I will be attending many more Clippers games due to the affiliation and the new stadium.  I can say that the Clippers’ past affiliation with the FEDBU has kept me from attending games in the past, as I found it difficult to root for future Yankees.

It is rumored that Toronto is eying moving their AAA affiliate from Syracuse across the Niagara River to Buffalo, a move which would make perfect sense for both franchises.  It is also rumored that Syracuse will affiliate with the New York Mets.

Oh, and last night the Indians kicked some White Sox butt again, 9-3, behind a good performance from Fausto Carmona and some actual clutch hitting from the Tribe, who blew the game wide open with five runs in the 7th inning. Oh, and Victor Martinez homered, finally.

In other news, Aaron Laffey has been shut down for the year.

Businessman’s special today at 12:05.  Sowers vs. Vaxquez.