Champs, sure, but Indians must start anew

First nights at the ballpark are all about infinite horizons – at least in the minor leagues. Here the question isn’t “What have you done for me lately?” but “What will you do for me eventually?”

It’s not necessarily kinder, gentler baseball, but there is a clean slate for the players who need one.

There is also a regrettable side effect.

No glow.

Your Spokane Indians were champions of the Northwest League in 2005 in one of the more charmingly cockeyed developments in baseball, that being the fact that they lost more games than they won. Despite a 37-39 record in the regular season, the Indians still won the Eastern Division by a game and then beat Vancouver three games to two in the playoffs, winning the last two on the road with a lineup that could barely field the requisite number of position players.

And everybody was on a stagecoach out of Dodge to their hometowns the next day.

Naturally, the achievement was acknowledged on Opening Night 2006, but by now the Indians have changed managers – twice, in fact – and on Monday night the starting lineup included exactly one alumnus from last year, and even he was only here for a month.

“I did miss all the excitement, but that’s OK,” said designated hitter Wally Backman Jr. “I felt like I helped the team when I was here and that’s all that counts. And I still got my ring.”

Ah, yes, the rock. The parent Texas Rangers cover the basic design and Indians management kicks in the extras, and together they give good bling.

“They’re gorgeous, man,” said pitcher Brett Zamzow.

Zamzow and infielder Julio Santana pulled a full shift in Spokane last year, and utilityman Johnny Washington was here for a couple weeks, but that’s where last summer ends and this one begins. Minor league baseball moves on with a cold reason and no guarantees. The four holdovers couldn’t have been all that thrilled with being reassigned to Spokane when the whole concept of the farm system is to move up – but it certainly beats the other alternative.

“As long as I’m still playing,” Washington smiled, “I’m still happy.”

Zamzow betrayed a little more sentiment about the whole thing.

“That was such a great season,” he said. “We all got to be pretty good friends. It’s always a little difficult not moving up with some of your teammates who did move up – and it’s hard to see some of them that weren’t fortunate enough to make the ballclub this year have to leave.”

One, pitcher Paul Kometani, made it all the way to Double-A. But another dozen ‘05 Indians have been released, including Kellan McConnell, who was only the winning pitcher in the title game.

Hmm. The game ball may go on his shelf someday, but the feeling’s probably a little raw at the moment.

But that’s baseball. Maybe you’d like your organization to have a longer memory, but a player needs a short one – the Indians got knocked around pretty good in losing 10-3 to Salem-Keizer on Monday, but there’s another game tonight and 74 more after that.

Which is not to say the four returnees can’t carry over some lessons from that championship season and pass them on to the new kids in town.

There are those things basic to any minor league experience, of course – the speed of the game, the wooden bats (“like learning to hit all over again,” Backman said) and the rigors of the road.

“Coming back from a five-day trip and trying to sleep on a bus for nine hours and then having to start a home game in front of 6,000 fans and your legs feel like they’re still on the bus,” Zamzow said. “That was different.”

The other journey was considerably more fun.

“It was always a fight, but the attitude never changed,” he said. “Everybody went out and had a good time with everything we did. We never got down – even when we had a nine-game losing streak in the middle of the season and even when we were down 2-1 in the final series.

“We always thought we had a chance. Actually, we thought we were better than everybody – not better people or necessarily more talented, but a better team. Even Vancouver with that great record – we always felt we were supposed to win.”

Washington didn’t get a big hit of that attitude – he was moved up to Clinton in the Midwest League after playing 10 games here.

“When I heard they won the championship, I was in shock,” he said. “But maybe I shouldn’t have been. We had good character, good team camaraderie and good coaching. They kept the team together. That team had a lot of fight.”

And it managed to channel all that individual desire to impress and to jump on that elevator to the big leagues into something they’ll remember even if they never get there.

“Everybody who signs a contract was a star somewhere along the line,” Washington said. “The team last year, everybody took a role and did their jobs. I’m thinking a team with a lot of guys who think they’re stars don’t win too much. Chemistry gets built when everybody’s on the same page.”

At the Fairgrounds on Monday night, they turned the page. But it won’t hurt to keep the ‘05 Indians as a reference book.