It really doesn't matter who the Indians name as their manager. If they don't improve their starting pitching to add more quality instead of quantity, they're going to bow out in the playoffs every year, no matter who they have in their lineup.
Of course, all the other teams know this, and no team will trade a Curt Schilling or a David Wells to the Tribe unless they get a king's ransom in return. No other team wants to hand the 2000 World Series trophy to the Indians by filling their only weakness. The Yankees' David Cone is rumored to be on the trading block; no way the Yankees will cut their own throats by sending him to Cleveland.
Item: Mike Hargrove, the deposed Cleveland manager, is interested in the vacant Baltimore job.
This might be the best place for Hargrove. He'd work well with a veteran (overage) club, and he's good at soothing the egos that they have on the roster in Baltimore. If anyone can get production out of Albert Belle, Hargrove is the man.
Item: The Indians scored 1,009 runs in 1999, the most in the majors since 1950.
The Indians have the best starting eight in baseball, and a team with their starting lineup and Atlanta's pitching might go 150-12 over the course of a season. However, I think that Manny Ramirez has gotten a bit too much attention for the year he had. Sure, he drove in 165 runs - an astounding total, the most in the majors since 1937 - but look at the guys hitting in front of him. With Lofton and Alomar batting at the head of the lineup, I have the feeling that the Tribe could put Dame Edna Everage in the cleanup spot and she'd drive in 100 runs. She'd field and run the bases better than Ramirez, too.
Item : Pete Rose is named to the All-Century team.
They named 10 outfielders to the team - Ruth, Cobb, DiMaggio, Williams, Musial, Griffey, Mays, Aaron, Mantle, and Rose.
I'd definitely remove Rose and put in Frank Robinson, who hit 586 homers in his career and won two MVP Awards. Anyway, I watched the broadcast last night, when Jim Gray "interviewed" Rose after the ceremony. "Ambushed" is more like it.
Gray asked Rose if he felt he should finally confess that he bet on baseball. Pete looked terribly uncomfortable, upset with Gray for ruining what was, until then, a very special moment. I don't blame Rose a bit. Whether or not you think he bet on the game or not, you had to feel for the guy. I think Rose showed remarkable self-control in not storming off the field in mid-interview or punching Gray right in the jaw.
I did find out one thing, though. I didn't realize before that one of the biggest obstacles to Rose's election to the Hall of Fame is the opposition of the present members of the Hall. Johnny Bench, Warren Spahn, and Brooks Robinson all either stated their displeasure at Rose's possible election or, in Spahn's case, diplomatically turned the question aside. Someone mentioned that if Rose ever got into the Hall, the other members might not show up to his induction ceremony.
Frank Deford, in Sports Illustrated, offered a compromise. Pete did all his baseball gambling as a manager, didn't he? So, elect him to the Hall of Fame as a player, and keep him suspended from baseball as a manager. Works for me.