Hot Start, Cold Finish: Browns Dump Home Opener to Ravens, 25-20
September 18, 2016Always Positive! An Exercise in Tribe Optimism
September 19, 2016Your Cleveland Indians are just a few more wins—or Detroit Tiger losses—away from their first AL Central crown in far too long. Overcoming headwinds throughout the entire season, this incarnation of the Tribe is inching toward a win total in the 90s, a number in excess of every American League team but one.
The weekend itself brought some mixed results in the way of final scores, but following Saturday night’s walk-off win (yes, win), long-time Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes decided to shake #IndiansTwitter to its core.
Though a game recap, the lede of this piece went as follows:
The Indians won a ballgame Saturday afternoon, but their postseason dreams ended.
Write it down. On Sept. 17, the Indians were eliminated from serious postseason advancement before they even got there.
The idea here is that the Tribe starting rotation lost Carlos Carrasco for the season, the dominating starter taking a line drive from the bat of Ian Kinsler straight to his right wrist just two pitches in. Hoynes tweeted the piece out with the joining text echoing the nut graf in that fans should “remember the date” as it was, by his estimation, the beginning of the end. Their favorite team just had its hopes dashed with one fell swoop.
The piece itself was rooted in solid, poignant items in that this team has gotten as far as they had before losing Carrasco and that it’s difficult—if not a fool’s errand—to extrapolate early success over the course of October and November as several key pieces will not be along for the ride. With Carrasco (and potentially Danny Salazar) on the shelf, the Indians would require a Herculean effort from at least one starter—potentially two. Hoynes adds that the way Terry Francona has been using the bullpen is unsustainable as the playoff rosters go back to 25 men, as opposed to the extended September rosters the skipper has had at his disposal for the last two weeks.
A slew of facts, reported out fairly well by a reporter who has covered more Indians games than any one individual should have to over the course of a lifetime. But the reactions—well, they were something else.
Here’s the Cleveland Indians’ PR cannon. And here’s Jason Kipnis:
Then don't bother showing up the rest of the way… Can write from home if you already know how this one plays out! https://t.co/RmjFCQeAcB
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) September 18, 2016
Here’s Trevor Bauer’s scrum quote following his Sunday afternoon outing:
Trevor Bauer, on how the Indians proceed without Carrasco and Salazar: pic.twitter.com/iH99J5D0N3
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) September 18, 2016
Bauer would add these thoughts from his personal Twitter page:
I notice @hoynsie wasn't at the game today doing his job like the rest of us were. To say what he did then not show up for work? #coward
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) September 18, 2016
hopefully he doesn't come back. No one here has any time for his BS and no one respects him. He's not welcome here
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) September 18, 2016
So, there’s a lot to go over here. Let’s give it a quick reset. Beat reporter speaks with absolutism within a game recap that is laced with opinion. The team—from coaches and players all the way down to the polos in the press box—give the entire story a gigantic WTF? Fan reaction is mixed as the super passionate and oftentimes insecure members of the aforementioned #IndiansTwitter were up in arms because of a variety of reasons ranging from overt pessimism down to perceived ridiculousness of the entire premise.
You can understand a few players pushing back at the concept that their playoff dreams, something which they worked so hard to achieve over the course of a full, grueling season, had suddenly vanished with an injury sustained by one player. After all, there are still two dozen healthy bodies in that clubhouse, and they’d be damned if they were going to fold up shop—mentally or physically—with October less than two weeks away.
Things quickly morphed into a Twilightesque team structure wherein a lot of fans were rallying around the players and others—many media folks, a few contrarians, and some more nuanced individuals—electronically stood behind Hoynes. But given that this is far from a black and white, binary discussion, it’s worth looking at the specific points being addressed by all and reduce them down to variables that could help everyone look a little bit better.
1) The column itself
It was, in fact, a column. That it was written as a game recap by a beat reporter (who is, by definition, supposed to report rather than opine) is a legitimate concern. This could be the fault of the Plain Dealer; it could be Hoynes’. He’d be better suited to change his title to “analyst” or whatever it is Tony Grossi uses these days as the lines are blurry and he’s not helping himself or his outlet by throwing opinion into a story that is sold as a game recap. Had Bill Livingston wrote this story, we wouldn’t be talking about it today.
That he was “negative” or provided an outlook that was not so good should have no bearing on any of this. Hoynes’ job isn’t to make anyone feel better about the team’s situation. Where he could have helped himself would have been in a discussion of relative odds and likelihood. When proclamations are made with so many variables still waiting to settle in, there is little to be gained. When folks wrote off the Cavs when they were down 3-1, they were playing odds. In hindsight, they look incredibly dumb, speaking in absolutes when in fact there was a slight chance of fortunes changing. (Those who look even worse are those who wrote the Cavs off following the team’s Christmas Day game, but those folks aren’t even worthy of an address.) There’s a way to speak with nuance about things like probabilities, and Hoynes used none of such ingredient, which brings us to…
2) Absolutism and Baseball
As much as we can use hindsight to look back and point at those who were drawing chalk outlines around the Cavaliers before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, we can use history and probabilities to give the tone of Hoynes’ piece the side eye. There is rarely anything to gain from absolute proclamations—that’s the sewage that permeates sports talk radio entirely too often. Factor in the sport in question and such mountain top bellowing looks even more absurd.
There is no professional sport with a postseason that provides as many random outcomes as baseball. The team with the best record is rarely awarded the same fortunes of the top seeds in the NBA or NFL. The variables that led to each team getting to the postseason are much different than those that decide how far a team goes once October hits. Football rarely sees a Wild Card team win a division let alone a Super Bowl while not being a top-two seed in the Eastern or Western Conference places you on the wrong side of the NBA’s history when it comes to the Larry O’Brien trophy. Meanwhile, the following teams have won the World Series as a wild card team: The Marlins (1997 and 2003), Angels (2002), Red Sox (2004), Cardinals (2011) and Giants (2014). This means that three consecutive titles were won by a wild card (2002–2004) teams while a wild card team appeared in the World Series each year from 2002–2007. Because baseball.
Will the Indians be going into the postseason with a max-impact arsenal of players? No. But what’s to say another team—the Rangers, Orioles, Blue Jays, whomever—doesn’t experience a similar, potentially catastrophic injury? Is it unlikely? Sure. But that’s how probabilities work. Just as some will argue that Hoynes has the right to say what he wishes, readers have just as much of a right to tear said opinion to shreds based on the merits of the argument.
2a) Twitter
In what is quickly becoming 2017, a part of one’s professional duties as a sportswriter is engaging with his or her audience through various mediums. Hardcore fans (and those who are a bit more seasoned by Father Time) know what Paul Hoynes means to the city of Cleveland from a career standpoint. Teenagers and those at the early end of the target demographic could not care less about his tenure, or how other writers feel about his presence in the clubhouse or press box. For him to lob that grenade out on Twitter just as many folks’ Saturday nights were getting underway, and then not replying until late Sunday evening, merely fueled the fire.
When you’re a sportswriter who, as recent as this decade, argued that a pitcher deserved the Cy Young because he had more wins (the most arcane statistic in pitching), you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt. Hoynes has an obligation to have nuanced discussions with thoughtful individuals and there was none had.
3) Trevor Bauer
There is no bigger proponent for athletes speaking their mind than this author. The last thing I believe any fan should want is a canned response pep rally mixed with cliches and empty thoughts. Jason Kipnis led the charge in telling Hoynes to not show up for the rest of the season, but it was Bauer who took the baton and ran it several miles further in calling the column “bullshit” and airing some dirty laundry about the team’s feelings of the individual in question.
There is an argument to be made regarding professionalism and personal attacks. Had he left with just the quote, I don’t think anyone is saying much. Once Bauer took to Twitter, however, lines started being drawn in the sand. Not helping matters was that these tweets came off Bauer’s second consecutive rough start, and folks will give athletes a little more leeway when they’re performing at a high level. This is a bit of a double-standard given the subject matter above, but it’s the imbalance that exists between athletes and those who watch and/or cover them.
We should also remember that Bauer is speaking as a member of the clubhouse that was just told they no longer have a shot at ultimate glory. If he has to take one on the e-chin from fans or talking heads, I’m sure he’s fine with it if it serves to galvanize the rest of the roster. The Indians’ official PR cannon retweeted Bauer’s quotes, to they’re certainly not wishing he worded things differently.
It also turns out Hoynes was not in the clubhouse due to a scheduled day off. This calls in to question the ethics behind doing what he did Saturday night knowing he would not be around on Sunday (with the team off on Monday), but according to him, he wasn’t hiding.
I wrote what I wrote because that's what I believe. Had a scheduled day off Sunday and I took. I'll be there Tuesday.
— paul hoynes (@hoynsie) September 19, 2016
Lest anyone think Hoynes should be worried about not making friends in the Indians clubhouse, I should remind you that there was a time in the mid-90s where Bud Shaw, the local columnist, was being berated by Albert Belle. Belle had accused Shaw of going through his locker due to some items that had been mentioned in a story (which Shaw vehemently denies) and the scene quickly turned into one that had a non-zero probability of getting physical. It was Hoynes who positioned himself at Belle’s four or five o’clock just in case he would have to step in and defend his colleague from being assaulted by a professional athlete. Given Belle’s mixture of strength and instability at the time, it’s safe to say he won’t be hiding from anyone on the current roster.
Which leads to reactions about the reactions, which may be a sign that this story has reach next level absurdity.
Guy gives up 6 earned with a 2 WHIP on the day & has the stones to criticize someone else's performance #NeverChange https://t.co/YK80eztdAN
— Nicholas Wilson (@NickWilsonWFNZ) September 19, 2016
Trevor Bauer's poor outing kept Indians from sweeping Tigers. And then he tweets about a true pro of a writer. #priorities #focus
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) September 19, 2016
These reactions are no worse than the “STICK TO SPORTS!” rhetoric that only serves to make the individual saying it look that much worse. Just as Trevor Bauer may have wanted to word things a bit differently, there is nothing that can be said in 140 characters that will provide the color needed for the entire topic. Bauer isn’t any less focused on his craft because he tweeted after a game than any other individual who tweets about something not in their direct line of daily coverage. Stop it.1
By all accounts, the Indians clubhouse was less than thrilled to have a story with such certainty surrounding their demise published by the city’s most read outlet. It’s a team that has overcome so much adversity throughout the season—injuries to key members of the team and vetoed trades among them—yet has still managed to be on the right side of 85 wins. Who can blame them for reacting the way they did; they’re professional competitors who were just told they’re fighting a losing battle. Fans should want their team to react the way they did.
The Indians have rolled out the #RallyTogether hashtag for much of the second half of the season, fueled by walk-offs and come-from-behind wins. While this may not be the exact equivalent of the Major League cast ripping a cheetah-print dress off of Rachel Phelps, it may be the closest we get over this home stretch.
- It’s also worth noting that being right eventually does not equate to early conclusions being any more sound. They are nothing more than good guesses at that point; there’s no glory to be had. [↩]
68 Comments
that’s right, don’t cast out unless you are prepared for what you might catch!
Wait…the Warriors blew a 3-1 NBA Finals lead? To whom?
Amen. If anyone can appreciate the small silver lining of the Browns games this season it’s him.
Considering the reaction to the Hoynes article, I’d say a bit fewer than 99% of fans were saying the same thing. And, of course, there’s a huge difference between a casual fan and someone paid to cover the team and provide useful information to said casual fans. If Hoynes cant provide more than nuance than the people who watched the Browns instead of the Indians yesterday, that speaks incredibly poorly of him.
I don’t disagree with Hoynes, but I also like the players and team taking exception. The Tribe’s predicament reminds me a good deal of the Cavs in 2015: team that looks championship-worthy, undone by poorly-timed injuries.
http://media.giphy.com/media/iGGHjzCxell2o/giphy.gif
Hey, Hoynes can write whatever he wants, but….in my opinion, this would have been a better way to cap off an ACTUAL Indians exit from the playoffs. I think it would have been more appropriate to say that the road ahead looks uncertain, rather than, mark it on your calendar, this is the day hope died. You have to work in that locker room. They might not like what you write about what you see, but why get them mad writing about what hasn’t happened yet?
Sorry, I don’t remember but the internet keeps telling me it was to some team with Harambe on it coached by a guy named Crian Jordan
Question: does a reporter for a MSM outlet need to have a higher standard for reactions than the average fan?
(not sure there is a true answer here as different outlets do this in all types of ways)
Warriors blew a 3-1 lead and Hoynes is out here calling the season in September.
Some dudes never learn.
This should be comment of the day.
Tony Grossi?
He rambles on and can be more negative than most Browns fans.
I enjoy the Indians Twitter. They’re clearly not being told to only post ‘x’ about the game and keep it safe, which is tremendously refreshing. I think they are typically hilarious, and yes stoking a bit of a fire w/ RTs from Bauer. Hopefully it does in fact rally the team with the recent injuries and poor starting.
Not @Indians… the Indians Twitter community.
Ah. Important distinction.
Shhhhhh…that’s in tomorrow’s post !
🙂
Well said!
Thank you!