Well, the Indians made another move to try and improve their roster. By doing so, they added another big name. By doing so, they brought back someone from the dynasty (yes, I’m calling the teams of the 90s a dynasty even if they don’t have any rings to show for it) a la Kenny Lofton in ‘07. They brought back someone who was going to end his career with the Indians one way or another. Jim Thome is back and batting cleanup tonight. Thome’s numbers this year are well below his career averages (.243 BA compared to .277 career and a measly 12 homers), but he’s still productive (.351 OBP this year) and can make an immediate impact for our depleted lineup. This will be very surreal for him as well as the fans. I, as I’m sure every Cleveland fan is, am very excited to watch him in the uniform he belongs in.
That being said, I’m skeptical as to Chris Antonetti’s motives. When we played Detroit at home earlier this month, we averaged about 26,000 in attendance. Just a few weeks later, at Detroit when we visited, they had their biggest three day crowd in history (according to Rick Manning, so who knows how reliable that is) with about 44,000 per game. That’s a lot more people stuffed into a stadium, a lot. I am aware that the series in Detroit was a weekend series and the one in Cleveland was during the middle of the week but it’s still a crapload more people. Further, the Tribe ranks somewhere around 25th in attendance this year, in a year that we’re in contention. Antonetti said during the trade deadline that money was not the issue, when dealing for players. He said that the team had extra capital due to the increase in attendance compared to what they had expected. I would assume Antonetti had projected the team to maintain their attendance and presumably projected it to increase as the team inched closer to the finish line IN CONTENTION. Right now, it’s hard to consider us in contention, being under .500 and have more players on the DL than the active roster and 6.5 games back against a team that is absolutely on fire right now. Hard for me to realistically (I’m extremely pessimistic) think the team is still seriously in the playoff hunt.
Because of all that, I think Antonetti and staff were jumping with joy when they found out they were awarded their claim for Thome. The storyline of him coming back to where it all began is to help boost attendance this year (tonight’s going to be a sellout and we’re playing Kansas City). That being said, Hafner, along with every other starter, is on the DL and he might be lost for the year. I applaud and am very happy to see the front office’s continuous effort to improve the squad. That being said, it might be too little too late. Then again, it might be enough of a spark to bring this team back from the dead. It was on Thome’s birthday (which by the way, is tomorrow, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM) that everyone on the team wore high socks, seemingly bringing that group together to go on and make their run to the 1997 World Series. Maybe lightning will strike twice. Even if we don’t make the playoffs, this year has been a hell of a ride and an incredible amount of experience for these young guys. Hopefully, Jim can pass on a thing or two he has learned about playing and especially about playing when the pressure’s on.
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