The Tribe

The Tribe spent the decade operating as AAA+ Minor league franchise serving as the training ground for players who would become stars for other teams.  In the case of Graig Nettles and Chris Chambliss the Indians supplied the Yankees with two major components for their mini-dynasty that dominated the AL in the latter part of the decade.  I can only imagine how much it pained fans in Cleveland to watch Chambliss hitting that walk off homer in the 1976 ALCS to clinch New York's first pennant in over a decade or to watch Nettles diving exploits at third base in the World Series to stop the Dodgers.  If only the pain ended here, but alas it did not.  The painful list includes:

• Dennis Eckersley - Traded to Boston where he became an All-Star starter and eventually a HOF closer in Oakland.
• Buddy Bell - Traded to the Rangers, where he became an All-Star third baseman for over a decade
• John Lowenstein - Traded to Baltimore, where he was an unstoppable platoon player who victimized right handed pitching as the O's won Division titles and pennants.
• George Hendrick - Wound up in St. Louis and was the big bat in the middle of the Cardinals 1982 World Championship lineup.
• Milt Wilcox - Became a mainstay on Detroit's staff winning the 1984 World Championship
• Jim Bibby - 1979 World Champion with the Pirates
• Jim Kern - Premier closer for the Texas Rangers
• Gaylord Perry - After winning the Cy Young in Cleveland wound up in San Diego where he'd win another one and eventually go on to win 300 games and punch his ticket to Cooperstown.  Perry won 20+ games in Cleveland without much run support on a team that also had poor defense.  His success in Cleveland under those conditions was nothing short of miraculous.

Cleveland's turnstile roster led to a decade where the Tribe never contended.  The team did inch close to respectability under the tenure of Frank Robinson during the middle part of the decade, but bad trades and poor management could not be overcome by "Robby" who did as good a job as anyone could expect with the lot he had drawn.  As the decade neared a close the "Curse of Rocky Colavito" was in full swing and days and nights spent in the stand at "The mistake by the lake" seemed like an infernal version of baseball purgatory.