The opening volley in the war between the White Sox and Cleveland Indians landed a month ago, though no one in Chicago was paying much attention.
In June, the White Sox lost 12 of 15 games while Cleveland refused to drop a home game during an eventual club-record 18-game win streak at Jacobs Field. The Indians moved six games ahead in the American League Central.
During that dramatic swing of the baseball pendulum, Sox General Manager Ron Schueler made what seemed like a matter-of-fact statement about the Indians that echoed all over Cleveland while ignored in Chicago.
“They’re not this good,” Schueler said. “There is going to be a time when they’ll go through something like we’re going through now. . . . they still haven’t proven they can beat us.”
Statistically speaking, Schueler had a point. Cleveland had lost three of its four games with the Sox in 1994, and 23 of 32 games since 1989.
But that didn’t stop someone from posting Schueler’s comments on a bulletin board in the Indians’ clubhouse after they appeared in a local newspaper. Players believed Schueler had shown them no respect, and they’re eager for an opportunity to make him eat his words.
When asked about Schueler’s comments Thursday, outspoken Indians pitcher Dennis Martinez replied: “I took it real personally. (It was) not professional at all.”
Martinez compared Schueler’s attitude towards the Indians with the attitude he thinks major-league owners have towards the players in their ongoing labor dispute.
“That shows you what kind of people the players are dealing with when we’re talking about negotiations and trying to get an agreement,” he said. “That shows why they’re in the kind of trouble they’re in now. They don’t know what to say sometimes. I don’t give it too much importance because some people, sometimes, don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Thursday night was the Indians’ first chance to respond to Schueler’s alleged insult, but they let the Sox escape from an early three-run deficit and come away with a 6-3 victory.
“This isn’t the World Series,” said Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove afterward. “This isn’t the playoffs. It’s one game of the season.”
There are a few teams over the last few years that the Sox have had great success with. Milwaukee is one, Cleveland another.
“It seems like we outpitch them and outhit them whenever we play them,” said Tim Raines, who went 3 for 4. “Doesn’t mean we don’t think they’re a good club. They’re a different team than last year. When we play ’em, we just feel like we’re the best team.”
This series is being hyped in Cleveland as the Indians’ most important since 1959, when they resided in first place in the American League for 91 days. Until Thursday, Cleveland had been in first for 33 straight days, 57 overall, the most time it had spent at the top since ’59.
“I’m not trying to downplay it,” Hargrove said. “Obviously it’s an important series, but to say it’s the end-all or be-all series is overstating the case.”
