kenm wrote:This is going to suprise the forumn but I disagree with JOEZ on this one. The team's performance has been so bad that Acta I believe is radioactive at this point and can not return. While the results are not primarily his fault, I do not think it fair to absolve him of all blame either. He obviously has lost the team as these prima donnas-That means you Santana and Perez-have lost any interest in competing. He needs to go along with eveyone owner on down. Unfortunately the new deal with ESPN just about make it a forgone conclusion that Dolan would never sell. Why would he unless he was given an unbelievable offer and who would do that? Essentially what I am saying is all is lost.
The thing about "losing the team" is that after a certain point, it becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy. The players have tuned Acta out because they suspect he won't be coming back, which leads to worse play, which leads to certainty he won't be coming back.
I don't think most of this is Acta's fault, but it's obvious he can't stay. To his credit, he's enough of a professional that he realizes that and isn't going to be a jackass about it.
I still remember the last Friday night of the 1991 season, aka the worst season in Indians history, when September callup Jim Thome won a game with his first major league homer against the Yankees. Basically, the only reason to pay attention to the rest of the season is the hope that something like that might happen again.
All we need now is a young player the caliber of Thome. Hell, right now I'd settle for the second coming of a young Von Hayes.