Bob Wickman?! Okay, I understand that closing pitchers are a rather odd breed out. Guys like Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, and Mariano Rivera aren’t going to be on every team, and closers have to wait for so long anyway – Goose waited over 20 years. But really, Bob Wickman? I don’t care if he is the save leader for the Cleveland Indians, you’re still celebrating a guy who spent less than half of his career with the Tribe, never had his ERA dip below 2.00, and only had it drop below 3.00 a couple of times. Those are not wonderful numbers for a closer. Mary Schmitt Boyer, the author of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Cleveland Indians, does imply that Clevelanders revered him for personality quirks. I’ll go right ahead and believe that it has to be a Cleveland thing because his numbers sure don’t cut it.
In the introduction, Boyer shows that she knows exactly why people read books like this when she describes lying on a beach, just reading another chapter, then another, and you’ve read the whole book before you know it. She also shows that she knows how to write a book for that purpose.
In a book called The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Boyer has no trouble categorizing which Indians moments fall under which headline. The Tribe’s two World Series titles, of course, show up under the good reel. The bad section is reserved in part for Jose Mesa’s famous two-outs-away blown save in the 1997 World Series, which would have resulted in the team’s third championship – first since 1948 – had Mesa made those two outs. And the ugly part includes the famed Ten-Cent Beer Night, an ill-conceived promo frequently mentioned in the same breath as Disco Demolition Night on the highest pedestal of bad promotions.
Boyer picks her moments and players well, and the result is a lot of well-known moments to Indians fans, and some you wouldn’t expect. Boyer doesn’t seem to glorify any particular era, so GBU: Indians contains moments from just about every generation of Indians history. Some of the more unexpected things she talks about are a tribute to recent Tribe addition Grady Sizemore, the snowfalls which delayed the start of the 2007 season, and the beauty of Jacobs Field. She throws in a couple of classic sports columns about the team from former Indians beat writers. The bad points are mentioned and never given a layer of gloss. Comebacks – both for and against the Indians – soldiers who played for the Tribe, and many other things are written about in great and loving detail.
The only thing I saw that was given any gloss was the controversial name of the team. Boyer writes with pride about Cleveland’s commitment to diversity, mentioning how they signed more Negro League players than any other team as well as the first black manager in baseball, and tells the story of how the Indians were named to honor the first American Indian player in Major League Baseball, Louis Sockalexis. While I am personally pretty squarely on the “politically correct people are using this as a straw man” side of this fight, I do think they raise pretty good points, especially in the case of the NFL’s impossible to defend Washington Redskins. Boyer gives this a single sentence. Perhaps it was a bit of business wisdom on her part to not take sides, which I understand, but why bring it up at all if that’s going to be the case? That one sentence is a lit flare. (And for bringing that up, yes, I’m well aware that it makes me part of the problem.)
Still, even counting that slip-up, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Cleveland Indians is a very fun and fact-filled read. As far as general team history builders go, I’d even say it may be the best I’ve read, counting book series like Essentials or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It won’t tell seasoned Tribe fans anything new, but then again, it really isn’t meant to. But if you’re just getting into baseball and you’ve chosen the Cleveland Indians as your team, this is THE place to begin your education about this storied Tribe.
Lit Bases 
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