#135---CLE @ ATL, 4/3/1999

This was one of those exhibition games played in a MLB stadium just before the start of the season, that seem like they used to be more common (at least in cold weather cities--the Indians used to occasionally play these at home, but now they are almost always on the road. Of course, the start of the season has drifted earlier and earlier in the calendar over time as well). As such, there’s nothing particularly interesting about Atlanta’s 4-2 win.

What drew my attention to this scoresheet, though, was John Rocker working a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts. As you can see, Rocker was pitching in the eighth and Mark Wohlers still had the ninth for Atlanta, although Rocker would quickly supplant Wohlers as the closer and record 38 saves this season after breaking out in the second half of 1998. Rocker would be traded to Cleveland in a bizarre move in 2001, after the infamous SI article and the associated fallout, completing a strange obsession that the Indians brass seemed to have with Rocker. Could this be the moment that it all started?

#134---CLE @ KC, 7/3/1998

Sometimes when I look at an old scoresheet, most of the time in fact, I have no recollection of the ballgame. This is fun; the scoresheet restores a personal connection back to a game you experienced at one point but no longer remember. But it’s even more fun when I find a nearly twenty-year old scoresheet and distinctly remember the game, then be reminded of details you’d never remember (like Shawon Dunston of all people DHing for the Indians) in your own handwriting.

I remember listening to this one on the radio at my grandmother’s house and in the car on the way home. The Royals took a 1-0 lead off Dwight Gooden on Johnny Damon’s third inning single, and Jose Rosado was pitching very well, at least in the pre-DIPS sense. He’s allowed three walks with 2 Ks and no hits until Manny Ramirez homered to left with two outs in the sixth. Gooden matched him fairly well, going seven with three Ks and no walks. Rosado walked Sandy Alomar in the seventh, but he was erased on a K/CS double play. Paul Shuey, in relief of Gooden, walked the first two batters he faced but fanned Shane Halter on a foul bunt before getting Jose Offerman to fly out and fanning Jeff King.

With one out in the ninth and the game still tied, Manny Ramirez hit another homer to left. Mike Jackson set down the Royals in order in the ninth and the Indians won 2-1 with their only two hits coming on Ramirez longballs. And while I didn’t sum up the pitch count here, Jose Rosado made 123 pitches according to Baseball-Reference; he wouldn’t turn 24 until after the season. Nineteen years can be a long time in baseball.

#133---ANA @ CLE, 4/13/1997

There wasn’t anything too remarkable about this mid-April game, with the Angels winning 8-3. Jack McDowell, the Indians big offseason signing to bolster the rotation, didn’t make it out of the fifth and coughed up six runs, which was representative of his Cleveland career. Baseball-Reference tells me this was Eddie Murray’s first homer of the season, the 502nd of his career and one of just three he would hit in his final major league season, in which he mustered an OPS of just 598.

#132--TEX @ CLE, 5/17/1996

When I look at games I scored as a fledgling scorekeeper, sometimes I regret that I wasted such a good game with such lousy scorekeeping. This is one of those occasions, as my scoresheet is so cluttered that it’s hard to really follow what happened in a game that could serve as a historical snapshot of mid-to-late 90s baseball, a slugfest between two of the most powerful lineups in the league (both teams would win their divisions).

Trailing 2-1 (with their run coming on one of the whopping 24 homers Kevin Elster would hit in a season in which he recorded a 90 OPS+), Texas got six straight hits off Orel Hershiser to start the fourth inning, then added two more hits and two walks off long reliever Joe Roa, making his only appearance of the season (and second and last of his Cleveland career). Texas added two more in the fifth to make it 9-2, but the Indians matched that in the bottom of the frame.

Eddie Murray homered to lead off the Cleveland sixth, but Elster countered with another solo homer and it was 10-5 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Indians had Kenny Lofton at first with 2 outs and then all hell broke loose. Baerga, Belle, and Murray singled, and Thome walked to make it 10-7. Then Manny Ramirez (who’d pinch-hit for Jeremy Burnitz in the seventh) hit a grand slam and it was 11-10. Belle singled home Lofton in the eighth for the last run in a crazy 12-10 game that deserved to be scored by a better scorekeeper on a better scoresheet.