Tribe maps out playoff chase with simple plan

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Paul Hoynes

Plain Dealer Reporter

Eric Wedge must have great powers of persuasion. The Indians' manager has turned his players into clones of himself.

He talks about the process and focus. He refuses to look forward or behind. He lives in the moment and many of his players are doing the same.

"We talk about the process more here than in any organization I've ever been with," said third baseman Aaron Boone. "The whole organization does it.

"I think it's a good thing because you can do everything right in this game, and sometimes the results won't be there. But if you follow the process, and do things right consistently over a period of time, good things are going to happen."

Second baseman Ronnie Belliard believes as well.

"The only team I worry about is us," said Belliard. "I care about if we win or lose. I don't worry about anyone else.

"When I go home, I play with my kids, I don't watch TV to see what the other teams did. My kids won't let me."

Said catcher Victor Martinez, hitting .389 (93-for-239) since the All-Star break: "We just go out and play. We don't worry about anyone else."

It is a philosophy that has helped the Indians reach the final six games of the regular season with 92 victories and a chance to win the American League wild card or the AL Central.

Strip away Wedge's talk of focus and process and the message is as old as baseball itself -- play it one game at a time.

"Most good teams look at it that way anyway," said Kansas City manager Buddy Bell. "Then it depends on what kind of players you have. If you have the right kind of players, sometimes it doesn't matter who the manager is.

"With Wedgie believing that himself, it just makes it easier for everybody."

When General Manager Mark Shapiro hired Wedge to manage the Indians after the 2002 season, he hired Bell to be his bench coach. Wedge was 34, Bell 51. Wedge never managed above Class AAA, Bell played 18 years in the big leagues and managed Detroit and Colorado before joining Wedge's coaching staff.

"Mark knew what he was doing when he hired Eric," said Bell. "I was hired to help him through that initial period. We think so much alike, I didn't really have much to do, to be honest with you."

Wedge's baseball beliefs start with the players.

"I believe nothing is more important than the players," he said. "I believe in taking care of the players and in being a good teammate. Buddy believes in the same things."

Then, of course, there is the process. The daily ritual of mental and physical preparation a player goes through to get ready to play 162 games in 183 days.

Consistency is the foundation of the process. If Wedge is nothing else, he's consistent.

"You have to handle success and failure the same way," he said. "When you play every day, you have to learn how to handle your emotions."

Stubbornness is intertwined with that consistency.

"He's a stubborn guy, that's for sure," said Bell with a smile. "He has a definite idea on how he wants things to be done. He says I'm more stubborn than he is. I don't necessarily agree with that."

Wedge laughed when told that Bell called him stubborn. He says Bell taught him more about baseball than anyone else he's known.

"I guess he's hasn't been around a lot of guys," deadpanned Bell. "I didn't do anything. All I did was listen to him for a couple of years."

Wedge says he doesn't scoreboard watch, listen to sports talk shows or read newspapers. With just six games left and the Tribe's two-front pursuit of the postseason still possible, Wedge's wall of solitude is cracking.

"Everyone told me that a little more attention will be coming our way because of where we are and the time of year it is," said Wedge. "It still doesn't take away from what our focus is -- playing the game tonight.

"As we've gotten deeper into this, and the more the intangibles have changed, we've found more and more that we need to stay the same."

Not every Indian has joined Wedge in lock step.

C.C. Sabathia, who beat Kansas City for his 14th win on Sept. 18 before the Indians went to U.S. Cellular Field for a three-game series against the AL Central-leading White Sox, said the Indians were going to Chicago to try and "shake up" the faltering White Sox.

Wedge would never have said that.

When Chicago swept the Indians in four straight right after the break, the White Sox looked unbeatable. By Aug. 1, their lead over the second-place Indians was 15 games. When the two teams met again on Sept. 19, Chicago's lead was down to 3½ games. The Indians took two of three games.

Wedge said he never wasted time thinking if such a rally was possible.

"It's a long season," he said. "That's why you have to grind it out. You have to ride out the tough stretches no matter who you're playing."

He has said the same thing all year until it must sound like white noise coming from a badly tuned radio to those around him. His players, however, seem to be hearing a much clearer sound.