Left: Cleveland Indians third baseman Andy Marte is welcomed by young Tribe fans during a visit to Lakewood Catholic Academy Jan. 24. Right: Student Madison Mayer shows her team spirit. (Photos by Larry Bennet)

Tribe talks baseball with kids
By Matt Pawlikowski
Sports
Published Jan. 31, 2007

The skies opened, and white stuff began to fall. More like football weather than weather to bring thoughts of baseball season.

But it was hard not to notice the excitement on kids’ faces at the Lakewood Catholic Academy, Brookpark Memorial and Jesus and Mary school in Strongsville, when three players, including All-Star center fielder Grady Sizemore walked into the auditoriums to answer the grade schoolers’ questions about the game of baseball.

The visits, which are part of the Tribe’s press tour week, are just one reason that sets the Indians aside from other baseball teams as they reach out to the community, and surprisingly, the players. Andy Marte and Tom Mastney also were on hand, along with Indians Public Relations director Bart Swain.

While all the players got rousing applause, it was deafening when they announced and saw Grady.

“This is nice to get to see some of the younger fans, who might not be able to actually get out there,’’ Sizemore said. “You get a chance to interact with them, and have fun.”

He says this part of the tour helps revitalize not only him, but also the other players involved.

“You kind of forget sometimes that a big part of the game is the fans,’’ he said. “So you come here, and to experience the excitement and joy on their face, it really means a lot.”

Marte said it was important for the players to give back to the community.

“That’s our life, and the kids are happy. We try to do our best to keep the team name out there,’’ he said.

Asked about some of the questions he was presented he got a huge grin on his face.

“It feels good to see all those kids in there, and has been a lot of fun,’’ Marte said. “I never did this before, and would have loved to have been able to have players around our school. I love doing this, and it’s a lot of fun.”

As the cheers grew louder, Mastney, who is a reliever for the Indians, agreed with Marte.

“It means a lot to us,’’ he said. “ You kind of lose track of how important a role you play in the city, and when you go out here and hear them cheer for you, it just makes you look back upon yourself and realize you are a role model to these kids, and they are excited to see you. They don’t care if you had a good game or a bad game.”

He also joked about the kids questions being a refresher from the ones that we as media usually ask.

“Oh yes,’’ he Mastney said. “They bring us back to why we play the game, which is to have fun.

While questions ranged from who are the toughest pitcher, to favorite food, perhaps the strangest one they had to field, came from a student at Brookpark.

He asked who was the suckiest team? It drew laughter, and Swain, doing his best job not to laugh, actually spurted out a great answer.

“The suckiest team in Cleveland history would have to be the Cleveland Spiders who won only 32 games.”

Swain also got to tease Sizemore when he was asked by one youth who his favorite team was growing up and he said Seattle.

“Did you watch the 95 ALCS?” he said with hug grin. “You know we beat them!”