Rick Vaughn is a folk hero of sorts for anyone who cared about baseball for any amount of time in the 1980s. Charlie Sheen’s character in Major League, known affectionately as “Wild Thing,” came out of prison to serve as the catalyst for the Indians’ rise out of mediocrity.

Of course, all the 103 mph cheddar in Rick Vaughn’s arm won’t do the Indians a lick of good this year as they toil away in Brinson-picked-them-to-be-good-patheticness. However, Indians fans get a brief respite of hope tonight as it’s officially Rick Vaughn Bobblehead Night at Progressive Field. So that’s … something.

The evening is a celebration of the 20th year anniversary of Major League, and honestly, it’s one of the better promotions that any baseball team has pulled off in a while. Of course, the bad news is that it’s made all that much better by the fact that the team stinks — if they were decent, this would just be a blip in the road of a championship season.

Instead, Grady Sizemore is hurt, Travis Hafner had a potential (albeit unlikely) comeback season derailed, Cliff Lee is not pitching like he did last year and Fausto Carmona can’t get right.

And of course, there’s the small matter of the Indians starter tonight: Carl Pavano. Yes, that Carl Pavano. The team, and the city of Cleveland, somehow desperately needs an irony-fueled evening from Carl in which he replicates the pitching of Vaughn in order to make this a true success. Well, either that or Randy Quaid posting up in the outfield and yelling obscenities at Shin-Soo Choo.

Randy Johnson’s pitch where he nailed a bird still rules all, but Shin-Soo Choo’s RBI single that nailed a bird in the tenth inning last evening in Cleveland’s  4-3 win over the Royals wasn’t too shabby either.

See here (via LBS), at the end of the video:

Coincidentally enough, Choo is a huge Flock of Seagulls fans, and appeared distraught in the locker room after the game*.

*I made this up.

I’ve made clear my feelings on the Cleveland Indians’ logo, Chief Wahoo, before. It’s racist. It’s dumb. And it’s like rubbing salt into the considerable wounds of the many proud Native American cultures we white folks raped and pillaged on our way to building the wealthiest society in the history of the world. We’ve screwed over Native Americans enough, right? Do we really need to cling to a racist sports mascot? (For a far more eloquent take, visit the estimable JoePo’s archives.)

There have been some efforts by the Indians to tamp down Wahoo’s presence, but nothing as overt as this: Wahoo wasn’t anywhere to be seen at the Indians’ training facility in Arizona this spring. A large part of that is due to “sensitivity,” as team president Paul Dolan said, about offending Arizona’s Native American population. But could another part be an eventual phasing-out of all things Wahoo?

A city spokesperson said they followed the Indians’ marketing lead. Since the team used the script ‘I’ as its main “identifier” by putting it in front of the player development complex, the city followed suit at the ballpark . . . “We aren’t phasing Chief Wahoo out,” said Dolan. “We are introducing alternative trademarks - the script ‘I’, script ‘Indians’ and the block ‘C’. They may have had a diluting effect on Chief Wahoo, but we have no plans in place to eliminate Wahoo.”

Keep reading →

The movie adaptation of Watchmen opens tomorrow. The story features dozens of peculiar, fascinating elements, one of which is that of its six primary superheroes, only Dr. Manhattan possesses supernatural powers. And, in fact, Manhattan’s powers are nearly limitless. As the source material puts it, “God exists, and he’s American.”

So who’s the Dr. Manhattan of baseball? To ask another way, which players’ performances are far above and beyond those of his teammates? First, let’s take a look at the hitters.

The values you see here represent the difference between the 2008 adjusted OPS (OPS+)of the player in question, and the next-best OPS+ on the player’s current team. For example, Albert Pujols’ 2008 OPS+ was 190. The second-highest OPS+ performer on the Cardinals (Ryan Ludwick) posted an OPS+ of 150, so the difference is 40. A couple of notes: first, there’s no such thing as a single definitive baseball statistic, but OPS+ is pretty telling of a hitter’s ability. Second, I set the minimum number of at-bats of all parties involved at 400.

Keep reading →

Once Barack Obama hunkered down into office and got to work on the stimulus bill, one would think some of his sports dalliances — the college football playoff he’s endorsing, his White Sox chatter — might die down a bit. But, that certainly hasn’t been the case. The sports world still loves them some Barry Obama. He was gracious enough to record a video message for the terrific Johnny “Red Kerr” ceremony last week and he popped up in another video message at halftime of the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday. Oh, and some reporter thought it would be a good idea to ask him about Alex Rodriguez.

For his potential next trick? With a scheduled stop at a high school in Mesa, the Cubs have invited our die-hard Sox fan president to Spring Training. (Though, he ain’t going.)

And if he’s unwilling to show the North Siders any love, Lou Piniella has a plan.

”We got to get him a Cub hat over there,” Piniella said. ”We can sneak Chief Wahoo over there.”

Huh?

”Who is it?” Piniella said, grasping for the right character. ”Yeah, Ronnie Wahoo.”

Or maybe even Ronnie Woo-Woo. Close enough.

Nah, he didn’t mean Ronnie Woo Woo. He actually did mean Chief Wahoo. You know, of Cleveland Indians fame:

Because if Obama can’t learn to love the Cubs, a division rival is the next step down, right?

Kerry Wood is one of the most beloved sports figures in modern Chicago history. No, seriously. He’s covered every base: He was a rising prodigy who flirted with (and eventually tied) records, then he was a tragic icon, disfigured mentally and physically by the evil Dusty Baker. He was always the charitable figure in the community, and finally, he was basically let go — against his wishes — by the organization that he fought back to join.

And now, he’s close to signing with the Cleveland Indians. Sigh.

Talks with free-agent right-hander Kerry Wood have gained momentum this week, MLB.com has learned, and the two sides are close to coming to agreement on a two-year contract with an option for a third year.

The financial terms being discussed were not immediately known. But multiple sources confirmed the talks are substantive and a deal might be consummated soon — perhaps as early as Tuesday. Wood, of course, would have to pass a physical before the deal is officially done.

Keep reading →