Harvesting Baseball in our Farm System
Tribe's Future "Starts, Stays and Ends" in Ohio

Last year, a friend of mine convinced me to watch the ABC TV drama Lost. She told me that I had to watch the first three seasons first or I would be lost. But I'm really good at picking up on things; I figured I could piece it together if I started watching from the start of the fourth season. Turns out, I wasn't as smart as I thought I was. I couldn't even figure out who the main characters were. So I went online, watched the very first episode that night and was immediately sucked in. By the following Wednesday I had seen all three seasons. I even started putting up my own Lost theories on message boards as if I was an original member of the Dharma Initiative.

So how does this correlate with "America's Favorite Pastime" and our beloved, 100+ year old baseball franchise? Stay with me.

Although Lost is now my favorite show on TV, in a weird way, it is less satisfying for me to watch than The Real World. It's not because The Real World is a better show than Lost; it's because I've watched it faithfully since it debuted in the early 90s. I've seen it grow from a cable odyssey to the most copied show in all of television. The point being, you can always play catch-up and jump on a bandwagon... but, it will never feel the same as being there from the start. That's why I love the Cleveland Indians' decision to relocate their farm teams to Ohio.

The Indians have essentially been rebuilding since 2003 when the last surviving member of the great 90s teams, Jim Thome, left for the Phillies. As a fan, it was hard to adjust. Not because the Indians stunk that year, but because I didn't really know anyone on the team. All of a sudden the faces that I grew up with were no longer there. More importantly, I could never envision a season with Thome and the other guys because there was never an indication of who the Indians planned on to take their place on the roster.

This has always been Major League Baseball's biggest flaw -- fans really have no sense of the future.

With the Browns and the Cavaliers, I can at least get a sense of who the future is and what the future might hold. I watched Brady Quinn play at Notre Dame. I saw Darnell Jackson play for Kansas during the Final Four. But I don't even know if Travis Hafner went to college let alone how he did [Editor's note: Most people would never guess Cowley County Junior College in Arkansas City, Kansas.].

All I know is that he showed up on the Indians roster in 2003. This sort of thing happens all the time in baseball. Players just show up and the fans are left wondering; where did these guys come from? Because in baseball, the future stars come out of the farm system instead of college.

For the past 20 years, the Indians only farm team in Ohio has been the Double A, Akron Aeros (formerly the Canton-Akron Indians). This made it possible to gauge talent but still impossible to follow where the talent went. As soon as a player started to make noise in Akron, he would be shipped off to the Triple A team in Buffalo, New York. Consequently, he would be replaced by some new guy from the single A team in Kinston, North Carolina and then the cycle would repeat. This made it nearly impossible for an Indians fan to follow a player through the farm system to the big leagues; until now.

The Indians still have one of two Single A teams in Kinston, North Carolina but the rest are now located within a short drive from Progressive Field. The Columbus Clippers take over as the new Triple A team along with a new Single A team, the Lake County Captains (located in Eastlake). The Akron Aeros remain as the Double A team but now they are a part of a tangible system. The Aeros no longer act like a layover stop for young players catching a flight to Buffalo or a halfway house for Indians on rehab assignment. Now they operate like a junior college. The Columbus Clippers function as the state university where a player has to stand out to enter the pros. Before going to junior college or to the state university, the player has to graduate from the Lake County Captains High School.

You could argue that the Indians farm system has always worked like going from high school to a junior college to a state university. But it really hasn't. Think of it this way, what guys stood out on the 2002 Ohio State football national champion team? Most people would say Maurice Clarett, Cie Grant, A.J. Hawk, Dustin Fox, Donnie Nickey, and Mike Doss. It’s not a coincidence that all of them played high school football in Ohio. Or that they were already household names in Ohio before playing on the Buckeyes. Chris Gamble was another standout on the team that year but no one in Ohio knew of Chris Gamble before he became Chris Gamble. The reason why was because he went to high school in Florida. He was just another prospect before he became an All-American.

Back in 2003 Travis Hafner wasn't "Pronk." Grady Sizemore probably still had his ladies but he wasn’t the face of the franchise. They were just prospects; prospects not too many people in Cleveland knew about and definitely no one in Cleveland ever saw play baseball. It was the same reason why Chris Gamble wasn't always Chris Gamble. But now there is a system in place to grow the Cleveland Indians from Ohio soil. Future Indians will start in Ohio, stay in Ohio, and finish in Ohio. This will not only make the next Travis Hafner or Grady Sizemore that much easier to discover. But it will also make the next playoff run that much sweeter.

Because when the national media asks in September, "Where did these guys come from?" we'll all smile and respond, "Ohio. Guess you should have been paying attention."

Learn about the Akron Aeros, Lake Country Captains, Columbus Clippers and other minor league affiliates of the Cleveland Indians by clicking here.

And for something completely different, check out the Lake Erie Crushers baseball team in Avon, Ohio. Their league, the Frontier League, is independent and not affiliated with Major League Baseball. Visit them at http://www.LakeErieCrushers.com.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Jeff Biasella jeffbiasellaATyahoo.com
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