Cleveland has finally done it, they have made a clean sweep from their Manager, Hitting Coach and Trainer as the team looks to go in a new direction after starting the season 17-40.
"It is about damn time!" Fredrick Mitchell, a long time Steamer fan said. Mitchell can remember the tough days when the team moved to Cleveland from Covington way back in 2012. "We stunk back then and now we are back to the level of stink that you can only expect from a Cleveland Steamer."
It is true back in 2013 the team went 61-101 and finished a staggering 51.5 games behind the division winning RIver Cities. The team only drew just under 672,000 fans that season, but things were looking bright as the team was young with then 3B John Grondin looking strong in his rookie season and future Cy Young Award winner SP Kendrick Kaller about to join him in the big leagues.
Things did turn around quickly as the next season, 2014, the Steamers finished 4 games out of first and actually made it to the playoffs nearly shocked the world by beating heavy weight River Cities 4 games to 3 in the League Championship series and pushing the defending Cecil Cup champion Seattle Monarchs to 7 games in the Series before losing. They would return to the series in 2015 after winning in 100 games but fell to Saskatoon in 5 games. In 2016, they won the most games in franchise history, 104, but failed to get out of the LCS losing to Seattle in 6 games.
Then the wheels started to come off and for the last 3.5 seasons the team has been on a steep downhill slide. Someone eventually had to take the fall and that person was Manager Roger Johnston. Johnston is the all-time winningest Steamer Manager with 570 wins, but finishes his tenure in Cleveland with a career .479 winning percentage. He has some harsh words for GM Jeremy Goldman on the way out the door. "I won more games with less talent than any other manager in the history. The last couple seasons you gave me crap and I still won over 60 games each year. Good Luck with finding someone that can do that for you going forward, you have a 20 win a year team on you hands. Enjoy."
It is true that the team has struggled with injuries especially to their starting pitching which is one of the reasons that the team is making a move on the trainer front as well. GM Jeremy Goldman said in a statement to the press, "the excuses stop here. This is my team and I will make it work. This is the first step to turning this train wreck around. If you think this is the last change you are flat out wrong. We are going to take this team and get back to the playoffs where we deserve to be."
When will that happen? Probably not anytime soon as the manager, coaches and trainers cannot get out on the field and play and there is very little starting pitching in the organization, but at least they are trying something and maybe they can add a few wins to this season and in the future.
