Catching Up - Day 7

I know what you are thinking. Where has the blog been the last 3 days. Well, the whirlwind, 72 hour homestand got the best of me and the blog paid the price. But after 3 days of setting up, unpacking, repacking and watching the Tribe get in the win column on Sunday, Indians Inside Pitch is back in business from Kansas City.

Sad Day in Baseball: Monday was one of those sad days in baseball where you put away the box scores and remember that baseball truly is a people game. How else can you explain the reaction to the sad news that two of the games most colorful characters (for different reasons) passed away.

Longtime voice of the Phillies, Harry Kalas, collapsed in the radio booth in Washington, where the Phillies were 2 hours away from taking on the Nationals. He was 73. I tuned into the Phillies broadcast toward the tail end of the pre game show and they paid tribute to Harry by playing his call of the 9th inning of last years World Series victory for the Phils and then followed that with his historic call of Mike Schmidt's 500th home run. Perfect on both fronts. How Scott Franske and Larry Anderson called the game less then 3 hours after their friend passed away I'll never know, but they did and should be commended. My good friend Scott Lesher, the Buffalo Bisons Director of Baseball Operations, is a Philly guy through and through. We talked after the news broke and he summed up his thoughts by saying Harry Kalas was the last of the great voices he grew up with as a Philadelphia sports fan. With legendary Gene Hart (Flyers) and 76ers Public Address announcer Dave Zinkoff also having passed, Philly sports has a huge void to fill as most fans have never listened to a Phillies game without hearing Harry.

Mark "the bird" Fidrych also died yesterday in an apparent accident while working on a truck. The Bird burst on the scene in 1976 winning the AL Rookie of the Year award with the Tigers. But lets face it, as good as he was on the mound, for a young baseball fan, the fact that Fidrych talked to the baseball, smoothed out the mound dirt with his hands and had what seemed like a million other idiosyncrasies was what made him special. Injuries cut his career short, but he left behind a long list of memories

Tribe Getting Closer: The first week of the season has been anything but easy for the Tribe after falling to 1-6 following last night's 4-2 loss here in KC. But the pitching has been showing better signs. Anthony Reyes looked very sharp in win on Sunday and Fausto Carmona settled down after a difficult first last night. Offensively the Indians are struggling to bring runners home when they are in scoring position, but the upside is they are getting plenty of opportunities.

The New K: 250 million dollars worth of renovations were done to Kauffman Stadium here in KC and they are now complete. I'll have a full review tomorrow.