2009 Season Wrap-Up
In case you missed it, the season has ended in a sweep. How appropriate.
What should have been the season of dreams turned into the season of nightmares. Over, and over, and over again, the Indians failed one way or another.
In April and May, it was the bullpen. In June, it was the starting rotation and the bats. By July and August, it was the Grind that got to them, and by September, it was the youth. Month after month, day after day, they couldn’t seem to put it all together.
It was Shin-Soo Choo who put it best when he said in early August “when we pitch well, we don’t hit. When we hit, we don’t pitch.”
The season of failed expectations didn't come without consequences either. The Eric Wedge era has ended. The rest of the staff was sent packing too. So was Victor Martinez, Cliff Lee, Rafael Betancourt and Mark DeRosa.
GM, Mark Shapiro says that he plans on having a new coach hired before the end of this year's World Series and for the rebuilding to commence shortly there after.
I'd like to wish Wedgie the best of luck in his future en devours. He was a victim of circumstance. Not everything that happened during his tenure was his fault. Most of the fault needs to be directed at the GM for mis-reading talent, the owner for not having deeper pockets and the players themselves for nor performing early on. I do admit a change of leadership was probably due though.
With all that said, the nightmare of the 2009 season is over. A new era of Indians baseball will begin with a new manager and a stripped down payroll. Get ready for a lot of kids and a lot of rebuilding over the next year or two.
Goodbye 2009. As a lifelong Clevelander, I will continue to believe. I will continue to support. I will continue to hope better days are ahead!
GO TRIBE!!!