Written by Brian McPeek

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Forgive me if I’m still struggling to believe that the team playing the smart baseball, moving runners, taking away outs instead of giving extra ones and doing all the little things right is the team with the block ‘C’ on their caps. And forgive me for struggling to believe that the pitching staff throwing up zeroes and minimizing damage instead of imploding is the team from Cleveland.

I’ll get used to it.

What I may never get used to is actually watching an NBA basketball game and rooting hard for the team with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. LeBron James makes me just that sick. And so do the experts who see it as a sign of maturation and leadership that LeBron is ‘letting’ Dwyane Wade take control of the Miami Heat. It’s not leadership or maturation. I’ll tell you exactly what it is below.

But first, a little bit on the best team in the American League…..

 

 

Takin’ Care of Business

If you can go out to the west coast and play .500 baseball you’re doing work.

If you can go out to the west coast and play .500 baseball against four of the best pitchers in the American League then you’re doing real good work.

That’s what the Indians did on their recent jaunt to Oakland and Anaheim this past week and, despite losing a couple of close ball games, they took care of their business. You always want more from life whether it’s time on earth, money, sex or wins from your hometown team, but sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other guy and take what you get.

What this recent trip did for the Tribe may not be measurable until later this summer or maybe into the fall. But if you see a team down the road that recognizes a close ball game early in the match up and hones in on taking care of the finer things like fundamentals defense and moving runners then you might want to look back on this recent trip as the inspiration for that attention to detail.

People mimimize or belittle the contributions of veterans who have experienced some form of success at the major league level but veterans like Orlando Cabrera mean a great deal to this Indians club. The leadership that Cabrera provides not only to his infield mates but to the entire roster is impoortant. It's Cabrera taking charge of the meetings on the mound which may not sound like a big deal until you look at the experience level of most of the Indians pitching staff.

It's also Cabrera that's shown himself to me than a symboic old tribal chief with a number of big hits or run producing at bats and that's critical for credibility purposes. Shaving cream pies go only so far and it's always nice to see your leaders lead by example, especially on such a young club.

On this trip the younger players on this team saw just how important playing fundamental baseball can be and how games can swing on any play that’s made or isn’t. They beat a really good pitcher in Jared Weaver and had a guy like Dan Haren on the ropes. That will serve them well as the pressure from the good start begins to set in. You also have to appreciate the fact that the Indians are still basically doing this (and by this I mean 22-11 and the best record in the American League) without much contribution from key guys like Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana. On the recently completed trip those two showed some signs late in the week of breaking out of their doldrums and also seeing their luck change but at that time it seemed like Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore disappeared for chunks of time.

The offense hasn’t fired on all cylinders in a week or two but the team has still won and built upon their lead. That bodes well. The pitching just keeps doing what it’s done all year. Both the starters and the bullpen have been lights out for the most part. The longer we go and the further we get into the season the less it looks like this is a mirage or a cruel joke. This team looks like it just may have the staying power to compete in the Central.

The Indians have an interesting week ahead in that they meet a couple teams in the Rays and Mariners that have been playing good ball in recent weeks but you have to really like the approach Manny Acta is taking with this team. They go out night after night and look to play a solid game and do the right things to get a win. They look to win series and then move on to the next one.

That's leadership.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to see a Cleveland squad make fewer physical and mental mistakes than their opponents on most nights. If you can set your mind to making those plays and you continue to get the pitching you’ve gotten from a staff of power arms then at some point you have to accept that maybe this roster simply came together a little bit quicker than expected and maybe those kids drafted in the last two years and traded for with the big chips in the CC, Victor and Cliff Lee deals might actually be working out.

But it never hurts to keep your fingers crossed around here.

 

Saying it Louder Doesn’t Make It So

I’m getting a kick out of the national pundits and the fans who think LeBron James is unselfishly melting into the background and allowing Dwayne Wade to lead the Heat as they take on the Celtics. These same people will tell you it’s a sign of LeBron’s unselfishness and his own leadership skills that are allowing his transition to take place.

That’s horse crap.

LeBron is slowly settling into the background because he’s more comfortable as a follower and because he failed as a leader earlier in his Cleveland career. Wade was, is and always will be the leader of that Heat team for as long as he’s in a Miami uniform.

Being one of the greatest talents to ever suit up in the NBA doesn’t make you a leader. Neither does repeatedly telling anyone who will listen that you are a leader and that the team goes as you go. Leaders don’t point out the fact they’re leaders. Leaders re-direct praise to their teammates and absorb and accept criticism directed at the team to themselves without calling attention to it every single time they do it.

No matter how many times James ‘accepted’ the blame for his mates in Cleveland he did it in a way that undercut his teammates and was designed to place him above them. I’ve said James was ‘selfishly’ unselfish’ for years and I heard analyst Tim Legler describe LBJ the same way last week during a radio interview.

James was never shy about telling anyone who would listen whose team it was in Cleveland. That wasn’t to protect and defend his teammates but rather to shine more of the light onto James in terms of people praising him when the Cavaliers won and pointing out how much responsibility he had on his young shoulders when the Cavs lost.

Simply put, James failed miserably as a leader in Cleveland for the simple reason that he never had to earn respect in the league or with his teammates. He came into the league as the most hyped rookie ever out of high school, displayed amazing talent and then assumed respect came with his on-court accomplishments. But he never earned it and he was never cut out for it. Much like the being the son of a the man who owns the company doesn’t make you management material or like being a great salesman doesn’t make you a great sales manager, LeBron James is a gifted player who people thought was more than he is.

Everything was given to James by the Cavaliers organization. Anyone who was a threat to LBJ was jettisoned beginning with a head coach like Paul Silas who wasn’t going to put up with an 18 year-old wonder kid with a posse the size of his inflated ego. Dan Gilbert gave LBJ and his family and friends run of the facility and input into personnel moves. That was a ton of power to turn over to a kid who never earned anything in terms of impressing the veterans in the locker room.

On the other hand a guy like Wade came into the NBA under the radar after only a magnificent run in the NCAA tournament preceding the NBA draft put him on the map. He was lightly recruited and ended up at Marquette and went to the Heat where he wasn’t immediately treated as the franchise savior. Rather, he earned the leadership mantle with hard work and a title and he’s never let it go.

The Heat has never been LeBron’s team and they never will be. LeBron recognized that he failed in Cleveland as a leader and went to Miami not to learn how to lead or to share responsibility with Wade but rather to be subservient to Wade. LBJ is no more a leader in Miami than Chris Bosh is. The only difference is Bosh is bright enough not to act like one to save face. James hasn’t matured into someone willing to defer for the betterment of the team. This is just a simple case of water seeking its own level and James sinking into the subservient role he’s best suited to play.

(*Edit to Add- As I was writing this article I was looking for a comparison that would put the LeBron/Wade situation into proper perspective. Because I suck I couldn't find one I wanted to use but KingPin74 from TheClevelandFan messsage boards offered that the Alex Rodriguez/Derek Jeter relationship fits the bill. And he's dead right. A Rod, despite being the bigger talent,  isn't the leader of the Yankee clubhouse. Derek Jeter is. Not just because Jeter has been there longer, though that does play a part, but because Jeter is simply the better leader and A Rod never wanted that responsibility and couldn't handle it when he was 'the man' in Texas. Thank you KingPin.) 

Allowing Wade to run the offense isn’t an unselfish act of a man coming of age; it’s simply a guy who’s more comfortable and better suited in the back seat allowing Wade to drive the car. LeBron is cognizant of his legacy at all times. Having failed as ‘The Man’ and ‘The Franchise’ he went to Miami with Bosh because his legacy is further affected if he leaves the game as a failed leader and without an NBA title. LeBron needs the title to save face and his willingness to play second fiddle is just his natural inclination to be Scottie Pippen to someone else’s Jordan.

There’s really nothing wrong with that at all. Pippen has multiple championship rings and is amongst the 50 best players in NBA history. The difference is the Pippen didn’t promote himself at every opportunity as something he was not.

Leaders don’t scream out, “I’m a leader and this is my team” at every opportunity. They just take over and lead when their teams need it most like Wade has done in Miami for years and continues do now. LeBron James isn’t a leader. His reputation will improve when he stops screaming that he is.