DON McCORMACK
On Tuesday at high noon, Joe “Mr. Sports” Pete — aka, The King of Ashtabula County Media, and his cohorts at ESPN 970 WFUN will bring the 2009 Indians Press Tour to Ashtabula County for its annual stop.
This year’s festivities will be held at the sparkling Lodge and Conference Center at Geneva State Park and will be attended by hundreds of red, white and blue-clad Tribe fans.
They will come out en masse, though this year, it’s a first-base coach who will attract the most attention.
Of course, it won’t be your average first-base coach — it will be Sandy Alomar, the former All-Star Game MVP and catcher during during the days when the Wahoos were the scorge of the American League from the mid-1990s through 2001.
Though I won’t be in attendance, reading and writing about the tour stop takes me back to the day I attended my first Tribe Press Tour stop.
It was mid-winter 1979 and while the event was also held in the Geneva area, it certainly wasn’t staged at a palatial arena such as The Lodge.
I can’t remember the name of the business on Route 20 in downtown Geneva that played host to the tour stop thay day, but I do recall it being a very intimate (re: small) setting.
If a player attended that tour stop more than three decades ago, I can’t for the life of me remember who it was.
The person I DO remember being there that day was Joe Tait.
Yes, the same Joe Tait who is revered across Northeast Ohio as The Voice of the Cavaliers.
Thirty years ago, Joe was not only the play-by-play man for the Cavaliers, he was also served in the same capacity for the Indians, partnering with the late Herb Score.
If memory serves, the tour stop that day amounted to Joe talking about the hopes for the 1979 Indians and taking questions from the audience.
The festivities were capped by showing of the Tribe’s 1978 “highlight” film, and I use the term loosely. The 1978 Wahoos went 69-90 for manager Jeff Torborg, finishing 29 games behind the Yankees in the American League East standings. The film was just that — a film shown on a projector against a wall.
Years later during my days of covering the Cavaliers, I asked Joe several years ago if he remembered that day, which was the first time I met him.
Without hesitating, he said, “Of course, Don,” obviously trying not to shatter the boyhood memory.
The Tribe Press Tour is light years ahead of it was back in those Stone Age years.
Still, the same scene will be replayed Tuesday at The Lodge.
The Indians are coming off a 97-loss season and still, a ton of youngsters will be on hand, longing for an autograph from Alomar, STO’s Matt Underwood and Tribe players Tony Sipp and Trevor Crowe, perhaps even our own local celebrity, Joe Pete.
Baseball and the Tribe... as ragamuffin as the team has been — as recently as last season — they will be a magnet for the faithful who will flock to The Lodge like moths to a flame tomorrow.
On that day 31 years ago, my mom dropped her 14-year-old son off in downtown Geneva. Afterward, I called her on a pay phone (do they even exist these days?) and she drove back from Jefferson to pick me up.
I remember her asking if I had had a good time. Proudly showing her my autograph from Joe Tait, I replied, “I had a blast, Mom. Joe Tait is the coolest guy in the world!
“I want to be him when I grow up.”
“But, Donnie, the Indians aren’t very good,” she said. “In fact, they’ve been terrible for as long as you have been alive.”
I told her it didn’t matter because the Indians were my team, just like the Browns, the Cavaliers and the Buckeyes.
She nodded through a knowing smile, pleased that her eldest had enjoyed himself for a couple of hours.
And though I never realized that dream of being Joe Tair, and considering my vocation, whether I’ve ever actually grown up is a legitimate point of debate — the love of the game... and for the Wahoos, has never wavered.
McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.
