After the Indians made the announcement that he had been signed and that he’d be in the starting lineup on Friday evening they sold 8,500 additional tickets for the game.  In my mind that just goes to show how much Jim Thome means to the city of Cleveland.  I’ve heard many people talk bad about Thome for leaving Cleveland the way he did back in 2002 and even though he’s my all time fav I can’t fault a guy for taking an EXTRA 27 million dollars to do his job.  I also recently heard from someone that would know that he was pressured by the union to take the deal and that he really didn’t want to leave Cleveland.  But I digress…  

I hadn’t planned on going to the game, but as the opening pitch grew nearer I just couldn’t stand that thought of not seeing him come back. I called the wife and we decided last minute to go to the game.  We got about the worst seats in the park (section 507, two rows from the top) but we were THERE!

Huge props to the Indians for pulling all this together in 12 hours! Signs, audio, video packages, etc. Well done guys!

My favorite fans cheering for my favorite player!

A Beautiful Night In Cleveland

Even though Jimmy didn’t get a hit on his first night back (0-4) it was absolutely awesome for this Thome fan to have Jim back “home”.  Not sure how the Tribe is going to do for the rest of the season but I’m super happy to say that they’re going to make the stretch run with future hall of famer Thome in the lineup!  Welcome home Jimmy!

I was working on Friday and Al had the day off, so he was nice enough to give Pip a ride downtown.  After work, I rode the RTA into town to meet up with the boys.  Needless to say, I felt like a sardine riding the RTA to the stadium.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one with that brilliant idea.  We met up at Cadillac Ranch for some awesome pre-game grub.

Opening Day in Cleveland is essentially a holiday… second only to St. Patrick’s Day.  That said, there were a TON of people who were WAY ahead of us in the drinking department – including this guy who was busting a move to Footloose.  I can’t be hyper critical though… Pip and I did the same thing at his wedding.

We made our way to Jacob’s Field which was beautiful as always.  Yes… I know it’s called Progressive Field these days.  I don’t care… it’ll always be “The Jake” to me.  The Indians did a great job during the pregame and honored recently deceased Bob Feller with a very touching video.

After the game, we headed out to celebrate my buddy Brad’s birthday for a while.  Through many protests, we called it a night before going “next door” and headed home.  In retrospect a very good decision.

Saturday we hung out with the boys during the day and then met up with one of Pip’s high school classmates and her husband for dinner and some drinks.  SUPER cool people that I’m so happy to have met.  After meeting up with them, Pip had to make his annual trek to the Annex.  Even if its for one beer (which this year it was) it’s nice to be back “home”.  We continued our rounds of local bars with a stop at Legends to check out some of the scenery… and a very talented band.  Knowing that Sunday was going to be a big day we headed home rather early.

Sunday – WrestleMania day.  Marko got in on this year’s action and came over at around 5:00 for the 7:00 show.  We got ourselves some food and we were ready for the evening’s festivities.  I’m certainly not a “foodie” by the traditional sense of the word, but I have to say we did a pretty damn good job in the food department.

I won’t go into the details of the show here but if you’re interested in my thoughts you can find them here.  The Beeramid as per usual was a tall challenge but I’m thrilled to report that we once again were up to the task.

If you want the blow by blow details of the Beeramid challenge you can find them here.  Suffice to say it was once again A-W-E-S-O-M-E.  Monday morning rolled around rather quickly and just like that the weekend was over.  Miraculously I was at the office right around normal time on Monday morning and Pip was out the door and on the road by 9:00 as well.  We don’t have a date yet for my trip to visit the Pips but it’s typically in the fall.  I absolutely can’t wait (though my liver does need a bit of a rest).  See you soon brother!

As I kept making my way toward the field, and as I said I just couldn’t believe just how foggy it was so I took a couple more shots as I went.  This one was particularly crazy.  For non-Clevelanders who may be reading, this is the famous wall in downtown where a former Cleveland icon was outstretched in his “Witness” pose.  *cough* Dick *cough*  (Not that I’m bitter).   In all seriousness, if you’re interested my take on the whole LeBron situation from a while back check these out:

• Seriously? A Prime Time Press Conference?!?!
• A Non-Sports Look At The LeBron Situation
• And Just Like That, King James Is No More
• My Final Sign Off On LeBron

When I finally made it to the Indians Team Shop I couldn’t help but stop and snap one more picture.  I sure hope we’ve got better weather (and more visibility) on Opening Day!

I had a bittersweet experience with actually buying my tickets.  It was completely awesome because I did in fact get tickets to Opening Day which regardless of the weather is going to rock.  I was a little bit surprised (and actually kind of proud) that Progressive Field was nearly sold out!  There will be three of us going and my only options for a block of 3 seats were in the $70 club level or section 509 – the nosebleeds.  Note that I chose the nosebleeds. I found out a couple of days later that I’m about the world’s worst big brother as I was supposed to get a 4th ticket for my brother and failed miserably.  FML.  Marko, I promise to make it up to you.  After all, WrestleMania 27 IS that Sunday!

And finally… the whole point of this post.  Opening Day baby!  Go Tribe!!!

According to Reuters, Cleveland is already the “Most Miserable City In The USA” – and that’s WITH King James here leading the Cavs.  Can you even imagine what would happen when he leaves?  I can very easily see the following scenario unfold over the next 2-3 years.

1. James leaves and the Cavs turn into the Clippers of the east.
2. Dan Gilbert, a great businessman, knows when to cut his losses and sells the team.  New owner not nearly as willing to spend money to build a winner.
3. Fans stop coming downtown cause they’re too bitter about losing James and can’t stand to see a team that no longer has a chance to win, let alone bring any free agents.
4. The Indians are still miles away from being a contender having an ownership that simply will not spend money and gets pissed at the fans for not supporting them.
5. The Browns, even though they have a “loyal to a fault” fan base, STILL only have 8 home games a year.
6. Businesses continue to leave downtown Cleveland and it begins to share more and more similarities with Detroit.
7. We finally get our casino, but it’s about 10 years too late.

Perhaps I’ve missed it, but has Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson said ANYTHING about LeBron?  If it were me I’d be on his doorstep offering him anything he wanted.  Key to the city?  You got it.  LeBron James Avenue?  No problem.  You want a helipad added to the Q so you can fly from Akron to Cleveland on game day?  Yessir.  I’m not going to go into a “Frank Jackson sucks” rant here, but if he’s NOT doing this kind of stuff, it just tells me that he has absolutely no idea how important LeBron is to his city’s viability.

I sure do hope I’m wrong, but I’m not seeing great things on the horizon for the city I love so much.

• Tonight’s poker night for the Cleveland Poker League – that makes me happy.  I hope I play better than I did last game but even if I don’t it’ll still be a good night.
• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  These things are here to stay people.  I tried for a long time to stay “off the grid”.  At this point I’m so on the grid that I’ve got grid marks on my ass.  Standard case of “it is what it is”.  Get used to it.
• Amanda’s going to be gone pretty much all day on Saturday so I’ve got Daddy Duty again!!!  I’m guessing it’s won’t be nearly as interesting as last weekend but you never can tell.
• I hope I get to a point in my career one day where I can simply cancel a meeting if I’m late for it.  That would be cool.
• I’ve been thinking for years about getting a tattoo – I’ve always said that when the Indians win the World Series I’d get Chief Wahoo.  Doesn’t look like that’s going to be happening any time soon cause, “they’re shitty again”.  That said I think I’ve come up with a design that just might change my mind.
• SPAM is funny.  Just about every morning I’ve got between 20 and 100 spam comments on this blog.  When will they learn?

1. People don’t recognize the importance of Memorial Day nearly often enough.  One day per year is not often enough to thank the men and women who’ve died defending this country.  Each and every time I see someone in uniform I attempt to stop and shake their hand and say “Thanks”.  My boys are being taught to do this too.  It’s very important to me.  One quote sums it up pretty well for me – “All game some, some gave all.”  Thank you.
2. Memorial Day is not political in nature.  Fuck you if that’s what you turn it into.  Regardless of your party affiliation, stance on war, love/hate relationship with the current/past president it’s a day for remembering.  Honor those people who’ve died to give you the right to your opinion.  Take one day off from shoving your agenda down my throat.
3. Summer colds suck.  I can understand a cold in the winter.  It’s almost par for the course.  But being stuffed up and coughing when it’s beautiful outside just blows.  This happens to me a couple of times a year.
4. Carnivals are awesome… you get to eat some really bad food, ride really bad rides, smell really bad smells and pay way too much for it.  Oh, and you get to meet some of the most interesting people on the planet.  If this sounds sarcastic it’s not… I really enjoy stuff like this.  We attended Blossom in Chagrin Falls this weekend.  It really pumped me up for this summer’s Solon Home Days.  The boys LOVED it.
5. The time between poker games is always way too long.  The time during poker games is always way too short.
6. Little G is obsessed with the lawn mower.  He’s equally obsessed with the blower, the edger and the chainsaw.  This isn’t something that I learned this weekend but it was really on display.  We probably made things worse when we bought him his very own Little Black & Decker blower at Wal-Mart… we’re not very smart parents.  (OK, I’m not a smart dad).
7. The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t nearly as good as they think they are.  They really better pull their collective heads out of the asses or it’s going to be a long summer. (See point #8 below)
8. The Cleveland Indians are worse than they think they are.  I don’t understand why… but they’re really bad.  I’ve been a big Wedge fan for a long time, but it’s time for him to go.