No-Rain Delay Leaves Indians Looking Silly

It has been said that baseball must be a great game because it has survived all these years in spite of those who have run it.

So dumb and dumber moves by the people with fancy offices and impressive-sounding titles is nothing new. Still, the last week has provided some amazing examples of stupidity at work.

Let’s start our tour in Cleveland, where Indians management postponed the start of Wednesday’s game against the Twins for nearly an hour. Not because of rain. Because of the forecast for rain.

Finally, the grounds crew was ordered to take the tarp off the field. The storm hit in the top of the third. After an hour-and-a-half, the game was called.

Had the game started on time, they surely would have been able to get in enough innings to make the game official.

And because the Indians sell out every game and they are already at their limit of two day-night double-headers, that means they’ll have to refund about a million bucks to ticketholders.

That’s 1 million smackeroos because of some dots on a radar screen. And Cleveland is widely considered a model franchise.

Meanwhile, down in Houston, owner Drayton McLane was so happy that his attendance for interleague games was up 39 percent that he’s already pushing to increase those games next season. It seems not to have occurred to him that the more interleague games are played, the less of a novelty they become. The less a novelty they are, the fewer people will show up.

But our cleanup hitter in this confederacy of dunces continues to be Florida’s Wayne Huizenga, who announced Thursday that he’s putting the Marlins up for sale because he stands to lose $30 million this year.

This is the same Huizenga who spent so much money coming into the season that he admitted he’d lose at least $15 million even if Pro Player Stadium was sold out for every home game. But now, even though attendance is up more than 30 percent and the Marlins have baseball’s third-best record, he’s ready to throw in the towel.

Baseball will really prove what a great sport it is if it can survive guys like this.

The scoop

As if the Dodgers didn’t have enough problems, there is a real concern that No. 1 starter Ramon Martinez, on the disabled list with a sore shoulder, might require rotator-cuff surgery that would end his season.

There are rumors that the Expos could trade second baseman Mike Lansing to the Dodgers for Wilton Guerrero. Could trade David Segui to the Orioles. Could trade Pedro Martinez to any number of teams looking for a No. 1 starter. None of this pleases manager Felipe Alou. “I hear rumors. I just don’t hear anybody denying rumors,” he observed. “Sooner or later, rumors become fact. We lose people. We always do. I can’t deny anything.”

The Blue Jays’ payroll jumped from $28 million to $45 million this year. But the team isn’t winning and that has led to speculation that manager Cito Gaston is in trouble. Adding fuel to the rumor is the fact that Gaston’s top supporter, club president Paul Beeston, is leaving the organization.

The Mets, desperately seeking bullpen help, have asked Milwaukee about Mike Fetters and Bob Wickman, Toronto about Mike Timlin and Cincinnati about Jeff Shaw. They are offering outfielder Alex Ochoa.

Here’s one reason to believe the Tampa Bay Devil Rays won’t end up in the American League West after all: The players union, which must approve any schedule, is adamantly opposed to the travel that would be involved for the expansion team. “It’s not going to happen,” said Gene Orza, the union’s associate general counsel. “We refuse to deal with it.”

By the numbers

After getting off to a 21-9 start, the Rockies were 21-29 after Saturday night’s game against the Giants at Coors Field.

The Giants were 11 games over .500 despite being outscored 363-344 for the season.

Pirates lefty Steve Cooke has a 5-9 record. But that’s not bad considering he’s faced Bobby Jones, Kevin Appier, Pedro Martinez, Alex Fernandez, Shawn Estes, Darryl Kile and Curt Schilling twice. Those pitchers combined are 62-30.

When the Cubs lost to the Cardinals on Wednesday, they fell 18 games under .500 for the first time since 1986.

Quote-unquote

Cincinnati second baseman Bret Boone, on being briefly demoted to Triple-A Indianapolis last week: “I read in the papers about (former Reds outfielder Eric Davis) having cancer and I thought, ‘Compared to that, three days in the minors is no big deal.’ I decided to relax, work on my hitting, enjoy myself and smile at the world. It certainly wasn’t the worst thing in my life.”

Royals manager Bob Boone on having son Aaron promoted to the Reds, taking brother Bret’s place on the roster: “I’m about ready for the nut house.”

Yankees manager Joe Torre on out-of-favor second baseman Mariano Duncan: “I’m going to play him a couple of games so people stop looking for his name in the obituaries.”

Brewers general manager Sal Bando squelched rumors that he was about to trade several players, including third baseman Jeff Cirillo, to the Royals for outfielder Jon Nunnally. “I wouldn’t give up Cirillo for anyone on that team,” he said.

Finally

It looks as if White Sox slugger Albert Belle isn’t going to be voted onto the American League All-Star team. So, if you’re A.L. manager Joe Torre and league president Gene Budig, do you select him as an extra player?

On one hand, it would be kind of embarrassing not to have a guy who makes more money than the entire Pirates roster passed over. On the other hand, Belle’s return to Cleveland earlier this month caused an ugly scene when the normally placid Indians fans let him know how they felt about his taking the money to run to the South Side of Chicago.

It just so happens that this summer’s classic will be played at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field.

Decisions, decisions.