It's always touchy when a team replaces a coach, especially when the coach has been with the team … oh … the last 44 years. So when Eric Wedge told a media gathering on Tuesday that he had fired bullpen coach Luis Isaac and he would not be reassigned within the team eyebrows were raised.
Isaac had been with the team for 44 years. He'd worked as bullpen coach Wedge's entire time as manager. He was universally liked, and always had a friendly smile and greeting. Wedge even talked how Isaac was "as loyal as the day is long" after saying he had fired him. Interesting juxtaposition.
But Isaac was not angry or bitter.
"How am I going to be angry when I've been 44 years with the Indians?" he said from his home in Puerto Rico.
Isaac will look for a coaching job with another team, but he said GM Mark Shapiro had talked to him about taking a different job with the Indians.
"I haven't made up my mind," Isaac said. "We'll see what happens. I think I know baseball and I can help people. I'll maybe do that. If not, maybe I'll stay in Puerto Rico and play golf."
Wedge said he wanted a "different dynamic" in the bullpen job. Apparently Isaac taught some things differently than the way Wedge and pitching coach Carl Willis taught. That had been happening for some time, and Wedge had thought about making a move for a few years. He didn't, in part because he knew Isaac's tenure with the team. This season, he finally decided it had to happen.
It's never a pretty thing when a manager makes a change. Consider Ned Yost, manager of Milwaukee, being fired with a month left in the season. Butch Davis went through coordinators like butter when he was Browns coach. Wedge actually replaced his first pitching coach, Mike Brown, early in his first season.
But Isaac refused to be bitter, angry or disappointed.
"If the Indians go to the World Series again, I'm going to think I'm there even if I'm watching on TV," he said. "For 44 years I loved the Indians and the Indians are still my team."
if anyone missed the chance to listen to hoynes's comments on his podcast–go check it out. the disgust in his voice oozes through the speakers. i hate eric wedge.
it's hard to be positive about cleveland sports these days. it's pretty much lebron or bust.
I am glad the Indians did not cut him off cold. From earlier stories I had the impression that there was no possibility of hime staying with the organization.
What does a bullpen coach do, anyway? Seriously. And what could any bullpen coach possibly say or do that would warrant him to be initally booted out of the same organization he's been with since the Ulysses S. Grant Administration? "Hey, Betancourt, you sleazy South American lizard. Stop looking at that chick's huge honkers and keep away from the white women!"
Speaking of Wedge, what's with that crazy involuntary tick of his, where he squishes up his nose and face about a billion times a game? I remember when he grew that silly porn-star mustache. Whenever the camera pointed at his face, it was like watching Bugs Bunny dressed up like Charlie Chaplin on Halloween.
Yeah, there's something about this dismissal that carries a bad stench. If Luis was going to be offered another job within the organization (and frankly, why WOULDN'T he?….he's been there longer than Wedgie has been alive), couldn't it have been handled behind-the-scenes more smoothly?
I guess loyalty and 50-cents will buy you a Coke these days. Let's see what "dynamic" personality Weggie brings in to oversee his bullpen. I'm sure he'll put the Tribe over the top next year, aren't you?
I think that Wedge has needed to make a change for a long time. Unfortunately, that change isn't Luis Isaac, it's hitting coach Derek Shelton. That guy has been doing a terrible job for 2 years now.
Change is good, especially for a team coming off a disappointing season. But if Wedge is getting rid of people, he should start with Shelton.
Oh, come on. As a rule of thumb, baseball coaches are fall guys. It's not like NFL offensive and defensive coaches, now known as "coordinators" these days, who actually are in deep during practices and call the plays during the actual games. Precisely what Indians hitting coach told Hafner to get off the steroids and/or his undetectable human growth hormone, and then hit like an average everyday stiff? Does Shelton acquire the in-the-park type hitters? Is Paul Byrd's dentist now a Tribe hitting coach, too? Wow, I did not know that.
With the exception of the resident North Dakota pharmacy major, unless I'm missing somebody, I really didn't see any notable examples of guys not hitting like they're supposed to. I'll give Martinez a free pass for this past season, he's always had large seasonal peaks and valleys, hurt or not. But no hitting coach is going to turn banjo hitters into Willie Mays. Who knows, maybe that kid acquired in the Sabathia deal will have some major league power.
Tony Gwynn said that a hitting coach is 50% comedian, 25% psychologist and 25% teacher. So let's all blame Shelton, he obviously wasn't funny enough. But on the bright side, I suppose this means Shapiro won't be interviewing Joe Piscopo.
Lack of average, not lack of power, was the real problem this year as the team got off to its lousy start. I'm not even saying that Shelton was the whole problem, but I'm pretty sure that anyone off the street could have led the Indians to the second-worst batting average in the American League (.250 to Okland's .249) before the All-Star break.
The Indians flushed a season down the toilet because they failed to make a single adjustment over the first 10 weeks of the season. Firing Shelton might not have been the answer, but I am certain that keeping him around wasn't the answer either.
Uh, actually the Indians didn't replace him (unless I missed that announcement).
They fired him.
Sure, it's classless that some low-key guy named "Luis Isaac" is the local pro sports franchise scapegoat of the week. You want classy? Then take a gander at this video of a young vivacious Pat before he even knew what the words "layoffs at his newspaper" meant!
http://www.google.com/search?q=palin%20swimsuit&invocationType=AOLEXP15SBox&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Oops. Forget that above link, bad link. Here's the young vivacious Pat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSdFIDygFwM
On second thought, I demand an update here. Brian Windhorst accepted the Beacon Journal's buyoff offer, which means George Thomas now takes over the Cavs beat. That Windhorst is pretty slick, like Terry Pluto, abandoning a sinking ship to jump to the Plain Dealer. Which means the Beacon Journal, while it's still breathing, still needs a columnist. I demand an update here. Is my favorite Beacon Journal token Irish sportswriter still going, or is he now staying?
Did I write "buyoff offer?" Obviously I meant buyout. I'm not sure what a buyoff is. Sounds like a bribe.
What in the world is going on with the Indians how do you get so close and up so far away. My opinon I was never a fan of shelton, he has an ego that do big even for him, I would take Charlie Manuel sorry if I spelled his name wrong that guy got a raw deal in cleveland and what about hard grove would he have gotten away with some of the blunders as wege got away with. How Long is that so called owner going to allow them to hang on to a right fielder how can not hit to save his life and a inconsitance left fielder and a third basemen and a second basemen that can't hit what a wast of money. Oh and I disagree with Bruce Brennen and Rick Manning I would take Manny back in a hart beat. Man have you guys look at the batting ave lately, what gives with you people oh what about the way Garko plays first Man were not just reloading were rebuilding weather they want to admit or not it's time to open yor eye's or will right back were the Indians left off.