Mark Shapiro Six Flags or Cleveland Indians

This morning I had about a half an hour before I have to go to drivers ed and I turned on ESPN to see a guy named Mark Shapiro GM of the Cleveland Indians and thought to myself is this the same guy as the guy for SF and for the Indians well I dont think he is after running his name with SF after it and Cleveland Indians after it and they are two different guys, but does anyone else find this very odd that both guys trying to turn around organizations have the same name?

I do find that funny. To give Mark Shapiro (of the Cleveland Indians) credit, I think he's doing a good job turning the organization around. John Hart (the old GM) bailed out after all the fan favorites of the 90's started to leave the team. What was worse is that not much was done to the minor league teams during those years to ensure that we would have successful players in the future. Shapiro is doing a great job building up the 'farm system' in the minor league teams so that they could eventually move up to the Indians.

Another complaint has been the pitching. For as long as I can remember we've had 2 maybe 3 solid starters and 2 or 3 developing ones. The last two seasons we've seen 4 consistent and solid pitchers with one developing, now they need to keep up with the closing guys.

Some of the big things they Mark has done around the ball park has been positive as well. For example, they jacked up the prices of club seats in exchange for "free food & drink." We got a state of the art scoreboard a few years back. This year, they are greatly improving food service and having hot dogs at every food stand. Which is nice because I had to go to 5 different stands last year just to get a friggen hot dog, ended up getting nachos instead.

But oh yeah, this is Coasterbuzz, not Baseballbuzz ;)

We'll see what SF's Mark Shapiro has in store for Six Flags. To me, I think he's at the very least a step in the right direction. Fix the customer service and get the rides running, then look at expanding afterwards. I'm still not sure about wanting to go to a SF park this year, I might stick to the famous Cleveland Sports phrase.

"Wait'l next year!"

~Rob Willi

Let's not forget, the Indians are much better than there record indicated last year. They scored more runs than any other team in the American League (including Detroit, Chicago and Boston) with the exception of the New York Yankees. Obviously, pitching was the problem, and hopefully that was addressed in the off season. Paul Byrd has a no-hitter going Friday night in the 5th Inning. AAARR!!! 1 more strike, and would have been another in the W column.

...which defies what former NFL coach Bill Parcells always says- you are what your record says you are ;)

Seriously, as a baseball fan, I admire what mark Shapiro did. His move to get rid of the remaining big-name players wasn't very popular but by making the team younger, he made them more competitive than they were, and with a lot of regularity. As a Yankees fan I definitely do not want to see the Cleveland Indians win, but if this were an alternate reality and the Yankees somehow disappeared, I'd be rooting for the Indians. Plus they have a very nice stadium!

^ Now if ONLY we could get Da Tuna to take over SF....even Mickey would be looking to save his tail...LOL!

Well, the Tribe has a new name for the next 3 games. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will be travelling to play the Cleveland Indians of Milwaukee for the next 3 days. Stupid two feet of snow in Cleveland this past weekend screwed up the whole 4 game Mariners series and made them move our next 3 home games to Milwaukee!!

Ok, this is like has gone WAY off topic I think, I see a lockdown coming! :)

Tom

^^ Despite being a Giants fan, I have little love for Parcells. The guy's basically a big windbag that can't finish anything he starts. To me, that's not the kind of guy I want running my company... besides, he won two Superbowls with the Giants but never repeated, despite almost doing it ;)

LdScotsman,

I was glad the game ended up cancelled on Sunday. I was given tickets to the game as a Christmas gift for the game on Easter Sunday, plus, who in their right mind would want to sit through a baseball game in 30 degree weather?

Football is another story, and a different kind of fan.

Thankfully I was able to exchange them for a warmer June 29th.

~Rob Willi *** Edited 4/10/2007 6:34:57 PM UTC by HeyIsntThatRob?***

Rob, back 10-12 years ago I had my own 20 game plan and was in with 8 other guys on season tickets. This, of course, was back when they were selling out 500+ consecutive games. I had NO problem getting people to sit in 30 degree weather! :) I also am proud to have sat through the coldest world series game ever with my father back in 1997. There are some nuts out there, me included! :0

Tom

Still waiting for that lockdown...