Tim Belcher, a former first overall draft choice and Buckeye State native, has been selected as the new pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians. Belcher won 146 games games in his 14 years in the big leagues. He starred at Mount Vernon Nazarene College in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and was selected with the first pick in the draft by the Minnesota Twins in 1983.

The 48 year old has spent the last eight seasons in the Indians organization as special assistant of baseball operations. His new post will be a challenging one. The Indians had the 2nd worst pitching in all of baseball last season with an ERA over 5 and the team lacks a true number one pitcher after trading away CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee the past two seasons.

Former Tribe Cy Young Winners Lee and Sabathia Square Off in Game 1 Of World Series Tomorrow Night

If you don't like horror movies Halloween is a bad time to be watching television. Cleveland sports fans will experience a horror show of their own if they flip on game 1 of the World Series tomorrow night. Cliff Lee, traded away this season after a Cy Young campaign in 2008, will be on the hill for the Philadelphia Phillies. CC Sabathia, who won the Cy Young for the Indians in 2007 and was traded in 2008, will be pitching for the New York Yankees.

Meanwhile, the Indians sign a manager who has a career winning percentage of .385 and try to pass him along as some kind of baseball genius. Horror movies and haunted houses are easier to stomach than having to follow Cleveland Indians baseball.

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The Cleveland Indians even seem to be cost cutting with their managerial staff. The team today signed Manny Acta, who guided the Nationals to last place finishes in his three years with the team and a .385 winning percentage, to a 3 year deal.

Acta was fired in midseason July 13th this season with his team only winning 26 games and dropping 61. The 40 year old beat out the likes of Don Mattingly, Bobby Valentine and Torey Lovullo.

If you weren't tuning into Cleveland Indians games this season you were not alone. SportsBusinessJournal has released the television ratings for the 2009 Major League season and not surprisingly the Indians had the sharpest decline in television viewership in the entire league with their ratings on SportsTimeOhio slipping 27.4% with a 2.84. An average of 43,000 households tuned into the Indians last place finish on a daily basis.

The MLB television numbers were down nationally as well because of the lack of exciting pennant races. The Sporting News Reports:

Fox saw its Saturday afternoon numbers drop 10 percent to a 1.8 rating/2.74 million viewers. Fox ended its regular season Oct. 2 with a 1.2/1.7 million average for a Saturday afternoon schedule that had just one game with postseason implications. That's 48 percent off 2008's numbers, when the last weekend of the regular season featured three games that had playoff implications for Fox, drawing a 2.3 rating.

ESPN saw ratings for its franchise series, "Sunday Night Baseball," drop 6 percent, to a 1.6 U.S. household rating, or 2.46 million viewers.

Cleveland can't seem to get a break on or off the field lately. The Sporting News unveiled their top sports cities in their magazine and C-Town only placed at #22 in the nation. Adding insult to injury, our arch rival on the Gridiron - Pittsburgh - was named the best sports town in country. Here is the Top 10 compiled by the magazine

Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Boston
Chicago
LA
New York
Miami
Dallas
Detroit

I have a feeling that when Shaq and Lebron are holding the Larry O'Brien trophy the rest of the country will see how good of a sports town we really have here on the Northcoast.

Another wild week in Cleveland sports. In the last week we saw:

• Eric Wedge got his walking papers with only days remaining in the season. I had heard of lame duck presidents before but a lame duck Major League manager was a new one for me.
• Delonte West of the Cavaliers missed the first two days of practice. On media day he was upbeat and stated he wanted to focus. The next two days he was AWOL. I think Dan Gilbert should get Dr. Phil to do a show on the troubled shooting guard. Imagine the ratings that would get in Cleveland.
• The Browns actually looked like a football team on Sunday, and if you look at the individual statistics you wonder how they actually lost the game to the Bengals. With Derek Anderson's play on Sunday I am wondering if Brady Quinn has bigger nightmares of when he was outhshined in the Insight Bowl during a blowout loss to Anderson in 34-21 trouncing, or if he has harder feelings that he cost the former Notre Dame star about $12 Million dollars when he proved he is a better quarterback for the Brown and Orange.

If the Cleveland sports world hasn't been strange enough the past days with the Browns quarterback controversy and Delonte West going missing for the start of training camp for the Cavaliers, the Indians have decided to make it even a little more odd. Reports from Cleveland sports blog Waiting For Next Year and daily paper The Plain Dealer are reporting that Eric Wedge will be fired with less than a week left to play in this season.

Wedge getting the axe is hardly a surprise but considering the season has been a lost cause for months it is a wonder why they couldn't wait it out for a few more days. The Indians have announced a press conference for 1:30 pm and will update you as we find out more on this developing story.

Update:

Wedge and his assistant coaches will coach the final 6 games of the season but have all been told they will now longer be coaching with the team next year.

We really do have an interest in the playoffs because many old friends will be in action somewhere almost every night next week. Look at the ex-Indians who are ready to punch their post-season tickets. This is not a complete list, just a few highlights. You probably could add a name or two that I overlooked.

There is C. C. Sabathia, 19-7 with the first-place Yankees who have the best record in all of baseball at 100-56, the only 100-game winner in baseball this year. C.C., by the way, leads the league in wins.

When the Indians traded catcher Victor Martinez to Boston, we sent him from last-place to the playoffs. The Red Sox have virtually clinched the American League wild card berth and Victor had something to do with that. Including his stats with the Indians, Victor is hitting .301 with 102 RBI. Paul Byrd also landed with the Red Sox as a spot starter. He didn't do much, six starts, 1-3 record, 5.81 ERA. But he'll get a playoff share. Maybe he'll get a ring.

The Tribe did a big favor for Cliff Lee, trading him to the Phillies, who lead the National League East by four games with six to play. Including his Cleveland stats, Lee is 14-12 with a 3.19 ERA this season.

My audition to be a Cleveland Indians PR employee:

Come down to Progressive Field this weekend to see your Cleveland Indians in action against the Baltimore Orioles which have fielded such Hall of Fame players such as Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray and Jim Palmer! In the local sports landscape, the Indians are the winning-est team by far! In fact, the Indians alone have won three times the amount of games the Browns and Cavs have combined to win for the entire month of September.

The Indians offer the freshest option in entertainment and give fans an “anything can happen” attitude with all of the exciting young players in the line-up. People often equate youthfulness with exuberance and America has a cultural fascination with staying young. What better way to feel young than to be at the Prog for a night with some of Cleveland’s youngest athletes!

With the 2009 season coming to an end, this is one of your final opportunities to see the Indians for the next six months. Don’t spend all winter regretting the fact you missed a glimpse into the future. Why watch the hit television show “Flash Forward” when you can Flash Forward to the performances we’ll see for many future ALCS’s to come!