On June 22, two dozen Cleveland Club members enjoyed an evening at Camden Yards in Baltimore where the Indians beat the Orioles 6-3 on a hot and humid early summer evening.
An hour before game time Jim Rosenhaus walked over from the WTAM-AM broadcast booth to talk Indians baseball to our Club members (and to additional Indians fans who were alerted to Jim's remarks). Jim has been working as an Indians broadcaster for eleven years, for the past six calling play-by-play along with Tom "The Voice of the Indians" Hamilton. Jim is also the host of both "Indians Warm Up" and "Tribe Talk" radio shows on WTAM-AM.
Jim began his remarks with an analysis of the 2017 Indians team, comparing this year's team with the one of last year – Jim spoke to some forty of us 11 months ago on August 9, 2016 at Nationals Park in Washington, D. C. when the Tribe beat the Nats 3-1 as part of a winning streak that helped them into the post-season and the World Series. Jim speculated that the 2016 talk with the Cleveland Club was good luck and hoped that his remarks this year would lead to another American League Championship and World Series appearance.
A fount of Indians lore, Jim examined the 2017 season to date noting that it would take time for the many new members of this year's team to "gel" as a unit. He cited new players Edwin Encarnacion, Erik Gonzalez and Bradley Zimmer adding that all have shown promise but will need time to fit together as a team. He said Zimmer can hit, covers center field well and has the speed to steal bases. He said that while Francisco Lindor has started slowly he was sure he would return to his usual level of superior play as the season progresses. Jim added that he thought Tribe management would look to improve its starting pitching rotation before the July 31 trading deadline. All questions asked were answered patiently, thoroughly and informatively by Jim before he had to depart for the broadcast booth and prepare for his pre-game show.
The Club presented Jim with a gold-framed Certificate of Appreciation for meeting to talk Indians baseball with us in both 2016 and 2017. Numerous photographs were taken of Jim with the various Club members present.
Note: Club members were impressed by the large number of Tribe fans present at the game on June 22, many decked out in official MLB Indians' team jerseys and in a wide variety of other t-shirts, caps and Indians, Cavs and Browns garb!
PS: Thanks for Carrie Davidson and Jackie Steich for the photos.
Thanks for this event go to the Club's Sports Teams Committee: Tom Steich, Collin Agee, Steve Toth and Bill Franklin