Anti-Chief Wahoo activist charged with misusing federal grant money meant for Native Americans
Updated on August 30, 2017 at 7:56 PM Posted on August 30, 2017 at 3:22 PM


By Eric Heisig, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A well-known anti-Chief Wahoo activist was indicted in federal court Wednesday and charged with stealing more than $77,000 in grant money meant to benefit Native Americans in Northeast Ohio.

Robert Roche, 70, faces charges of conspiracy and two counts of theft of government funds. His indictment comes after a multi-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Roche, a Cleveland resident, worked with consultant Craig McGuire to steal money from the Parma-based American Indian Education Center. Roche is the executive director of the nonprofit, which was established in 1995.

Roche obtained a grant in 2011 through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The "Circle of Care" grant was supposed to support mental health and wellness programs for Native American children and families, according to the indictment.

SAMHSA awarded Roche's nonprofit more than $302,340 for fiscal year 2012 and $308,040 in fiscal year 2013. Prosecutors said Roche and Craig McGuire, a consultant he hired as a grant writer, embezzled a combined $183,703.55 from the grant money.

Roche's nonprofit received $482,766 from SAMHSA from 2011 through 2013 and did not get all the money awarded to it because SAMHSA placed it in "high risk" status, the indictment says.

Prosecutors said Roche paid himself by classifying himself as a project coordinator of the programs funded by the grant, even though the grant's regulations precluded him from doing so. The grant applications also identified another person as the project coordinator, according to the indictment.

The grant applications also had several false statements, including a claim the center had a wellness department and a "Positive Paths" after-school program, prosecutors said. It fraudulently listed people the center allegedly employed and mischaracterized the description of the center's building and physical amenities, prosecutors said.

"Mr. Roche took tens of thousands of dollars earmarked for Native American children and families and put the money in his own pockets," U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said in a news release.

Reached by cellphone on Wednesday afternoon, Roche referred questions to his attorney Larry Zukerman. Zukerman said he would discuss the case after Roche is arraigned.

Roche has been a vocal advocate for the need for more resources for Native Americans. He has also been a well-known face in the movement to rid Cleveland of Chief Wahoo, the controversial mascot of the Indians.


McGuire, of Lewis Center, pleaded guilty to federal charges in April. Prosecutors said Roche paid McGuire with grant money, which is prohibited by federal rules.

He has agreed to cooperate with the government's investigation and to testify at trial if asked. If he does what he is asked, he could face a sentence of between eight and 14 months in federal prison.

Every year it is the same few people outside the park on opening day protesting Chief Wahoo. Since that loser will be in prison there will be only two people next year I guess.

Same three people probably sending letters to commish. Unfortunately you can send letters from prison and there isn't much else to do so commish will still receive those. Maybe more.

Shouldn't Wahoo be treated same as WashingtonRedskins?

MLB is run by a bunch of kiss ass wimps. If we lose Wahoo, then we should become The Cleveland Bud Lights. (Auction to highest bidder)

[maps of his hits are visible at the story site:
http://m.indians.mlb.com/news/article/2 ... potential/]

CLEVELAND -- The idea was not to have Yandy Diaz overhaul his swing. When the Indians sent the rookie back to Triple-A Columbus in May, they praised his approach despite the results. Diaz's instructions were to continue to refine his offensive style, because Cleveland believed it can be successful.
"That's what we told him," Indians assistant hitting coach Matt Quatraro said. "It was, 'Look, we like your approach. You're hitting balls hard the other way. You've got a great eye. You just happen to be catching them deep or you're not swinging at the pitches that you can drive. So don't change anything.'"



In seven games since rejoining the Indians on Aug. 22, Diaz has flashed the swing that Cleveland envisioned when it named him to the Opening Day roster. While the sample of results is small, Diaz, whom MLBPipeline.com ranked as the Indians' No. 6 prospect, has continued to show off his keen eye, while sending pitches to the opposite field with authority. Unlike in April and May, through, the balls rocketing off Diaz's bat are line drives rather than grounders.
One of the buzz phrases of this Statcast™ Era has been "launch angle," and the 26-year-old Diaz was a curious case study when he broke onto the scene in April. In the season's first two months, his minus-3.5-degree launch angle was the lowest among all Major League hitters with at least 40 balls in play, but his 92-mph average exit velocity led the Indians and was the 17th-best mark in baseball.

Back in Triple-A, Diaz did not specifically set out to fix his launch angle with swing changes. That can be a slippery slope for a hitter in the middle of a season. What he did was work with Columbus hitting coach Rouglas Odor on finding some hitting drills to add to his daily routine to reinforce his swing mechanics, while also concentrating on identifying better pitches to shoot the opposite way.
"When I was here before, I was hitting the ball well, but it was liners down," Diaz said through team translator Anna Bolton. "I'm really happy that I'm able to make good contact, but send the ball higher and out. They just told me to focus on having less ground balls and just stay with my same approach to hit the ball to right field."

One change to Diaz's routine has been introducing new tee drills before every game. He said one includes placing the tee in front of the plate and using a short bat to concentrate on staying through the ball, instead of swinging around it. Quatraro noted that another point of emphasis -- due to Diaz's tendency to let pitches travel deep into the zone -- has been to target offerings higher in the strike zone.

Since returning to the big leagues, Diaz has gone 8-for-20 with three doubles, one triple and twice as many walks (eight) and strikeouts (four). His average launch angle in August has been 6.2 degrees with an average exit velocity of 97.7 mph.
Quatraro has liked the adjustments so far from Diaz, who had a standout showing on Aug. 24, when ace Chris Sale was on the mound for the Red Sox. In that game, Diaz finished 4-for-4 with three extra-base hits -- each putting a dent in the right-field wall in Cleveland.

"It was great to see," Quatraro said. "He didn't say this, but it was that sense of like, 'I can do this.' You should be happy about that. Those are the things that don't happen every day. So when they do, it's something that may be a stepping stone for him."

Interesting BA comment on the future of pitching rotations:

John (Santa Monica): We hear a lot about pitching "prospect's" upside as frontline starter, middle of rotation etc, and with a lot of prospects, especially the +stuff -control guys we hear that they'll end up in the bullpen. How often does that actually happen and how much easier is it to make a living in the pen? For example, the Braves have a ton of strong starting prospects - the vast majority will likely not be valuable rotation members, but should we at least expect a shut down bullpen in a few years? (assuming we don't trade them all away as currency)

John Manuel: Had a couple of similar Braves questions and chose to answer this one. I wonder how much longer we're going to keep hearing scouts put those kinds of roles on players. When even Jack Morris is telling Brian Kenney that he thinks teams will be "bullpenning" soon . . . it seems like the days of fourth and fifth starters may be numbered. Maybe the Braves will be part of that, with all their depth. Guys who can go through today's lineups, at today's max-effort delivery, 3 times are hard to find.

DETROIT - The first people Francisco Mejia called after being told he was coming to the big leagues were his parents in the Dominican Republic.
His mother was nervous. "She didn't believe me," said Mejia, 21.

How did he convince her? "She told me that when I get to the stadium today to send her a picture of me," said Mejia, speaking Friday before the Indians played the Tigers in at day-night doubleheader at Comerica Park.
Hey, sometimes a mother knows best.

Welcoming players to the big leagues for the first time never gets old to manager Terry Francona. "Some of them show their excitement, some of them try to hide it, even though down underneath they are," said Francona. "You try not to forget how excited they are because it only happens once."

Link to espn Ranking the MLB teams story I mentioned in General Discussion

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/page/po ... -22-season

Including:

After 22 weeks, you'd think we would already know how everything was going to play out. But a week after we saw almost no movement in the rankings, this week showed that some things are less certain than we might think. The Dodgers? Amid their recent 1-8 stumble, they're no longer the unanimous No. 1 choice of our voters, losing two first-place votes [there are 5 of them voting, so it's a pretty narrow advantage to LA] to the hard-charging Indians. Cleveland muscled its way into the No. 2 spot that the Astros and Nationals had been trading back and forth as their own in recent weeks. And the Cubs keep creeping back up toward the top, one rung at a time.

2. Cleveland Indians

Record: 80-56
Week 21 ranking: No. 4

Jose Ramirez helped power the Indians to their 11th straight victory by delivering just the third game with five extra-base hits in Indians history, homering twice and doubling three times. Now they're three games back of the league-leading Astros -- within reach of claiming the AL's best record and home-field advantage through the ALCS. With their 33-16 record in the second half vs. Houston's 23-24 mark, there's every reason to expect they could seize it. -- Christina Kahrl, ESPN.com

Indians are playing better baseball than anybody right now. Not even close. And we've been doing it without Brantley, Kipnis, Miller, Salazar ... Hell, even other regulars have been getting days off. Including Bruce with his stiff neck. Never saw a guy miss this many games because he slept wrong before.

CHICAGO -- These days, it's hard to wipe the smile off Indians second baseman Jose Ramirez's face. Even if his success has all come with a bat that doesn't even have his name on it.
The 24-year-old, who was named the American League Player of the Week on Tuesday, homered twice in his first two at-bats off White Sox left-hander David Holmberg to continue his red-hot tear in what has been a career year.

Ramirez has now homered five times in his last three games -- including three at-bats in a row through Monday and Tuesday -- and seven times during the Indians' eight-game road trip thus far. Cleveland has been scorching, with a 13-game win streak that is the longest in the Majors this season, and Ramirez has been a key cog in the machine.

"You get more experience and you grow more, and it's also about the mentality that you bring to your game," Ramirez said through an interpreter before the game. "All that really helps and makes a big difference. I'm trying to do what I've always been doing. Trying to find a good pitch and put a good swing on it."

After Austin Jackson opened the scoring with a solo shot off Holmberg with one out in the first, Ramirez immediately followed to mark the third time this season the Indians hit back-to-back homers. Ramirez hit an 81.4-mph changeup an estimated 370 feet to left field, according to Statcast™, to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.

Ramirez added on in the second, tying the game at four apiece after he took a hanging 78.5-mph slider a Statcast-projected 413 feet for his 25th homer of the season. Ramirez leads the AL with 78 extra-base hits this season, including new career highs in doubles, triples and homers and entering Tuesday's game with an OPS nearly 100 points higher than his 2016 total.

"You've got a premier hitter in the league, and he's playing multiple positions," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "I think the other day I brought up Ben Zobrist [as a comparison]. You'll always take the guy's numbers, but when you can take a guy who can move around and be really good defensively, it's been a blessing for us.

"It's impressive. It looked like at the end of the day, he almost felt too good. He was kind of over-swinging. But it's been fun to watch."

Tuesday's performance also marked Ramirez's sixth multi-homer game this season, the most by a switch-hitter since the Astros' Lance Berkman in 2006. From Aug. 28 through his first two at-bats Tuesday, Ramirez was 19-for-35 (.543) with seven homers and 14 extra-base hits.

Ramirez can attribute some of his success to the aid of a teammate: Tuesday's starter, Danny Salazar. The utilityman noticed Salazar's new shipment of bats and liked the handle on the bat. So he took it and subsequently went on a tear. From Aug. 28 through Tuesday's 2-for-5 performance, Ramirez is 19-for-38 (.500) with seven homers and 14 extra-base hits.
"It's his bat now," Salazar said with a laugh, noting that an AL pitcher doesn't have much use for it.

"I like the bat, and I'm using it," Ramirez said. "It's the same weight as mine, but I really like the handle, so that's why I'm using it. It was when I started to hit again. I just went back there where the bats were, I saw it, I liked it and started using it. It's mine now."

earlier story:

Jose Ramirez's torrent of power, especially his big day on Sunday, isn't only propelling the Indians' MLB-best 12-game win streak. It has now resulted in the third baseman earning American League Player of the Week honors.
Ramirez went 14-for-26 with 11 extra-base hits in the week ending on Sunday, good for a 1.308 slugging percentage.
Nearly half of those extra-base hits came on Sunday, when Ramirez went 5-for-5 with three doubles and two homers. That performance tied a Major League record with five extra-base hits in a single game. He was the first switch-hitter to earn a share of the record.
The honor is the second of the season and of Ramirez's career, having previously won it for the week of June 12-18.
Ramirez is hitting .310/.363/.558 with an Major League-leading 47 doubles this season. He also ranks in the top 5 of the AL in batting average, runs (90), triples (six), total bases (288), slugging percentage (.558) and OPS (.921).

Also rejoining the club is second baseman Jason Kipnis, who has been limited to 79 games this season due to nagging injuries. Indians manager Terry Francona said Kipnis will go through workouts at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday as he looks to return from a right hamstring strain that has sidelined him since Aug. 23. Kipnis has hit .228 with 11 homers this season.

Injured outfielder Michael Brantley also joined the club in Chicago for the team's fantasy football draft, but he returned to Cleveland as he recovers from a right ankle sprain that has kept him out since Aug. 9. The American League All-Star has hit .299 with an .802 OPS this year.

Reliever Andrew Miller is feeling "pretty good" after throwing a side session Monday in Cleveland, Francona said. Miller is slated to throw another side session Wednesday as the left-hander -- one of the cogs of the AL pennant-winning side from 2016 -- deals with patellar tendinitis in his right knee. Miller has a 1.65 ERA in 48 appearances this season.

Indians outfielders Bradley Zimmer and Jay Bruce were held out of the lineup again Tuesday, marking the third consecutive game Zimmer has been out of the lineup and fourth for Bruce.

Zimmer, who is in concussion protocol after making a diving attempt to catch Bryan Holaday's double in the third inning of Saturday's win over Detroit, went through a full workout Tuesday and could be available to play if a doctor clears him before the first pitch.

"He just needs to wait for the doctors to sign off because he's in that protocol, and the doctor probably won't be here until semi-close to game time," Francona said. "Once he's examined and OK'd, he'll be available for the game."

Francona said the club will be extra cautious with Zimmer. The Indians have a surplus of left-handed outfield bats to fill in for Zimmer and Bruce.

Zimmer, a rookie, has hit .247 with eight homers and a .705 OPS in 96 games this season.

Bruce has been out due to a stiff neck, something he dealt with last month while still on the Mets. The 30-year-old right fielder -- in the midst of a stellar year with 33 homers and an .849 OPS -- took batting practice in the cage Tuesday and could be available in Tuesday's game, Francona said.

"He's doing fine," he said. "I just thought, 'They have a lefty going. Let's wait another day.'"

$2 million wager of sorts at stake as Indians go for win-streak record

September 7, 2017

By Marc Bona, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - You might think a man with a $2 million wager of sorts would be nervous, but Chad Howman is as cool as Corey Kluber on the mound.

In July, Universal Windows Direct offered a deal that might have looked like a long shot waiting to be forgotten but is now on the cusp of reality: Anyone buying products or services from the Cleveland-based company would get the work done for free if the Cleveland Indians win 15 consecutive games any time after Aug. 1.

The company is celebrating 15 years in business.

"My emotions are 'Go Tribe'," said Howman, president of the company. "Go Tribe, bring home the W. Let Cleveland and Columbus customers get what they deserve. Let them win; why not?"

Win streak tied to promotion

The orders totaled $2 million, and the company took out an insurance policy that Howman likened to a hole-in-one contest. Charities sometimes offer a free car or other elaborate prize should someone nail golf's perfecta on a designated hole.

What Howman's company would pay out is gaining a return in visibility.

"It comes down to how it all aligns," he said. "We had 60 days to win 15 games. Most teams don't do that. And in back-to-back seasons?

"It's all about let the customers win," he said.

Should the Indians win their 15th game in a row, not only will it make the 260-plus customers with free work at stake happy, but it would be a team record.

The Indians are finishing a 10-game road trip with Thursday's game against the Chicago White Sox. First pitch is 8:10 p.m. at Guaranteed Rate Field. They come home beginning Friday to start a 10-game home stand.

The Indians set the team's consecutive-wins mark at 14 in 2016.

I vaguely remember hearing commercials for that, though I didn't order anything from them. Sounds like the owner doesn't have to worry, b/c of the insurance policy he bought.

My wife and I heard that on the broadcast earlier in the season and laughed. Ha, ha! Then I reminded her that last year the Indians won 14 in a row. Then we laughed again. Ha, ha! Ha, ha!

So for the last few days we've been racking our brains trying to remember what it was that somebody was going to win ...