Cowsrus Posted August 7, 2010 Report Share Posted August 7, 2010 I think this is great. I have always liked Kenny and enjoyed watching him play. Had the pleaseure of meeting him (for about a second) back at the 100th annivesary game when they brought out all the great (and still living) former Indians. It was also C.C's 21st birthday and his family was there too. Nice guys. We sang happy birthday to him. They still show the festivities of that day on STO. Also had my picture tanken with the drum guy, another nice guy. I would post it but, who the heck would wanna se that, lol. Back to the topic,I'm glad to see Kenny get this honor. It's nice to know he is appreciated and he still has a spot in his heart for Cleveland. They even interviewed Thome and he agrees he deserves it. Heidi Tribe to usher Lofton into its Hall of Fame Speedster holds special place for Cleveland, and vice versa By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com 08/06/10 1:20 PM ET CLEVELAND -- The DHL shipping commercial that ran in the summer of 2007 depicted various reporters speculating on the potential landing places for Kenny Lofton. It was a spoof based on the reality that Lofton was seemingly always headed from one club to another. He became the poster boy for player movement, acquired annually by playoff-hungry clubs that needed an injection of speed and experience. The commercial showed Lofton's luggage getting transported from ballpark to ballpark, the deliverers frantically trying to keep up with the trade speculation. And, indeed, that luggage had quite a few miles on it when Lofton's career came to a close after that '07 season. He had, after all, played for 11 teams in 17 years. But for all the transition and travel that defined his career, Lofton always had one true home, and it was in Cleveland. "It's the city that got me going," he once said. And when it comes to those renowned Indians teams of the 1990s, Lofton was often the one who got things going. That's why, this weekend, he's receiving the highest honor the team can bestow upon its alumni. Lofton is in town to be inducted as the 36th uniformed member of the Tribe's team Hall of Fame because of the sparkplug he provided at the top of some of the greatest lineups in club history, the dazzling speed and defense he provided on the field and the motivation he provided off it. When he got the news that his plaque would go up in Heritage Park, Lofton, who will be honored on the field before Saturday night's game against the Twins, was genuinely touched. "At first, it was just kind of shocking," he said. "I wasn't expecting it. I feel very honored when you use the words 'Hall of Fame,' no matter which Hall of Fame it is. Knowing how many players have gone through Cleveland over the years and them recognizing me as their own is very special to me." Lofton, 43, holds a special place in Indians lore. He had three stints with the team between 1992 and 2007. Along the way, he stole a club-record 452 bases and scored 975 runs -- the third-highest total in team history. While with the Tribe, he was a five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove Award winner in center field, and he's a member of the "Top 100 Greatest Indians" roster. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I feel very honored when you use the words 'Hall of Fame,' no matter which Hall of Fame it is. Knowing how many players have gone through Cleveland over the years and them recognizing me as their own is very special to me." -- Kenny Lofton -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This guy," said former Tribe catcher and current first-base coach Sandy Alomar Jr., who was inducted last year, "was the igniter for this organization for many years. I have a great deal of respect for him." From basketball to the base paths Lofton's athletic career was once defined by a completely different sort of steal. In college, he was the backup point guard on the Arizona Wildcats team that reached the 1988 Final Four and the starting point guard on the '89 team that reached the Sweet 16. He set season and career school records for steals. It wasn't until his junior year that Lofton decided to try out for the baseball team. The Astros were enamored enough with his speed to select him in the 17th round of the 1988 First-Year Player Draft. From that point, Lofton's ascension to the big leagues was a remarkably rapid one, considering his lack of experience. In 1990, he was a teammate of current Tribe manager Manny Acta at Class A Osceola in the Astros' system. His talent stood out even then. "We could tell he was raw," Acta said. "But he was so fast, and he was able to compensate for any lack of instincts with his speed. He was also a student of the game. Kenny was always paying attention to everything. It's amazing how quickly he developed as a player." Just a year later, Lofton made the climb from Class A to Triple-A to the big leagues, where he made his debut in September 1991 with the Astros. In his first game, he notched three hits and scored three runs against the Reds. The Indians were paying attention. In the winter after the '91 season, they acquired Lofton in the trade that sent Eddie Taubensee and Willie Blair to Houston. Looking back, it's one of the great swaps -- you could even say it was a swipe -- in club history, as Lofton went on to be a key contributor in the leadoff spot and center field over the next five years, including the 1995 season in which the Tribe reached the World Series against the Braves. "I came in there, and they told me it was my job to lose," Lofton said. "I had a guy named Alex Cole that I was competing with. They saw what he did and said I had the upper hand. I went in there and started doing what I had to do and put my best foot forward." Lofton won the job and went on to steal 66 bases in his rookie season of 1992, establishing an American League rookie record. He finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting. With that, his career took off. And soon, so would the Indians. "Something special was happening" The maturation of players like Lofton, Albert Belle, Jim Thome, Carlos Baerga and Alomar helped usher in the renaissance era that occurred when the Indians made the move from Municipal Stadium to Jacobs Field in 1994. When Lofton first arrived to Cleveland, the Indians were an afterthought, overshadowed by their fellow Municipal Stadium tenants, the NFL's Browns. But Jacobs Field changed everything. "That stadium revamped the whole city," Lofton said. "We had the core players who wanted to win and wanted to see the city get to the level that it needs to be. It turned out to be really exciting because of all the newness that came around in the '90s. Even restaurants and stores around that area started to build up again." The first game in Jacobs Field on April 4, 1994, remains one of Lofton's favorite memories. The Tribe's thrilling, 11th-inning victory over the Mariners on Wayne Kirby's base hit was a sign of things to come. "You knew something special was happening then," Lofton said. "It was out with the old stadium and in with the new." This was a new era of Indians baseball. After decades of despair, the ballpark was filled and the wins came in bunches. And when the Indians clinched the AL Central title on Sept. 8, 1995 -- their first title of any sort since 1954 -- they made many a fan's dream come true. "There hadn't been a banner in Cleveland in so long," Lofton said. "It captured my heart seeing all those fans so excited." Lofton captured the hearts of those fans, as well. He led the league in steals each year from 1992-96, including a club-record 75 in '96. He finished fourth in the AL MVP voting in 1994, after batting .349 with 105 runs scored and 60 steals in 112 games. And he won the Gold Glove Award each year from 1993-96. The picture many fans will hold in their minds of Lofton is from Aug. 4, 1996, when he scaled the center-field wall to haul in a would-be homer off the bat of B.J. Surhoff. It was one of his more memorable moments. "[i remember it] like it was yesterday," Lofton said. "The funniest part was looking at the guys in the bullpen when I reached over the [fence] and caught the ball. I looked down at those guys, and they were going crazy. I'll never forget it." Those 1990s teams had a crazy cast of characters. And in addition to his duties on the field, Lofton doubled as the clubhouse DJ. He was the one who began playing Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It" in the clubhouse after victories, and the tradition quickly caught on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Kenny was always paying attention to everything. It's amazing how quickly he developed as a player." -- Manny Acta -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The biggest thing was you wanted to find out what guys got excited about," Lofton said. "Carlos Baerga and Manny [Ramirez] liked music. Albert liked the music, too, but he didn't want anybody to know it. Once we started winning, the music became a part of that. I still remember [Paul] Assenmacher trying to sing that song. He was the older guy in the group. We thought, 'This is really something, for Assenmacher, sitting at his locker reading a book, getting into it. If he's getting into it, it's going off!" A trail of trades On March 25, 1997, just days before the opener of a season in which the Tribe would again advance to the World Series, the music stopped for Lofton and the Indians. That's the day Lofton was dealt to the Braves in a four-player deal that brought Marquis Grissom and David Justice to Cleveland. It was a deal that stunned and saddened Lofton. "It was a misunderstanding," he said. "[The Indians] looked at it as a business deal. I looked at it as a misunderstanding of what they assumed I wanted out of the situation. They didn't ask me; they just assumed." The Braves won the NL East that season, but a loss to the Marlins in the NL Championship Series prevented Lofton from getting to face his former club in the World Series. And the following winter, the "misunderstanding" was patched when Lofton and the Indians agreed to terms on a free-agent contract. He would remain with the team for the next four years, representing the Tribe at the All-Star Game in 1998 and '99. But the '97 trade was a precursor to all the movement that would define the second half of Lofton's career. He left the Tribe as a free agent after the 2001 season and signed with the White Sox. In July of '02, he was dealt to the Giants. That winter, he signed with the Pirates, only to be dealt to the Cubs in July of '03. Lofton signed with the Yankees in '04, but he was dealt to the Phillies the following winter. A year later, he signed with the Dodgers. A year after that, he signed with the Rangers. By then, it was 2007, and Lofton was nearing the end of his career. But it was a career rooted in success, as Lofton had reached the postseason 10 times with six different teams. And in July 2007, the Indians were looking for a proven veteran to lend a hand to a decidedly youthful club looking to make the playoffs for the first time in six years. They brought back No. 7. "When I got there, I got there knowing this team was not where it needed to be," Lofton said. "They just needed an added piece to get them over the top. I knew I could be that missing piece. I knew what I could bring to the table, as long as those guys embraced what I had to give." Tribe fans certainly embraced Lofton, who received a standing ovation his first trip to the plate and pretty much every time thereafter. "I just treated the fans with respect, and they did the same for me," Lofton said. "It was a mutual thing. I signed autographs every single day. That's something I enjoyed doing. Fans loved it, and I loved it." Of course, that 2007 team was much different than the Tribe teams of the mid-90s. It was a club that had been built through an organizational overhaul earlier in the decade. Center field and the leadoff spot now belonged to Grady Sizemore (though Lofton did briefly bump Grady, only to move back down the order a few days later). Lofton was placed in left field and asked to speak up when he saw the young team getting off track. He did just that when he called a team meeting in mid-August, with the Indians in the midst of a heated division race with the Tigers. The Indians eventually outlasted Detroit to win the Central, and they made it all the way to Game 7 of the AL Championship Series against the Red Sox. But that team, like those '90s teams, fell short of its ultimate goal. "A lot of those guys didn't believe in themselves," Lofton said of the '07 team. "Some guys did, but some guys had something extra in them that never came out. And that's when your best should always come out is around the playoffs." Lofton's best came out in Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees, when he went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and a stolen base, tying him with Rickey Henderson for MLB's all-time postseason stolen bases record, with 33. He would later break the record in the ALCS. Alas, Lofton's postseason performance that year will best be remembered for the moment when he was held up at third base by coach Joel Skinner in Game 7 of the ALCS at Fenway. The Indians were down a run in the seventh with Lofton on second, when Franklin Gutierrez singled down the left-field line. The ball caromed off the wall in front of left fielder Manny Ramirez. Skinner opted to hold Lofton at third, though it is certainly fair to speculate that Lofton could have scored on the play to tie a game the Indians wound up losing. "It's hard for me to say," Lofton said. "I knew that little tricky wall was there. But not seeing the ball, you didn't know exactly what it did. I know the ball hits off that wall and goes in a certain direction. When he held me, I thought something else happened that wouldn't normally happen on that wall. But the wall actually worked the norm." Lofton's legacy Though it wasn't clear at the time, Lofton's career ended that night in Fenway. He tried to find a new home in free agency that winter but didn't like his options, and he settled, reluctantly, into retirement. These days, he doesn't run the bases. Instead, he runs a production company in Los Angeles. "People think I should still be playing, but it wasn't up to me," he said. "I'm sitting down, trying to get my golf handicap score down and that's about it right now." No one wanted to win it all more than Lofton. The fact that he reached the playoffs 11 times and the World Series twice (including with the Giants in 2002) and came away empty-handed each time could eat at him, if he let it. But Lofton does his best to shrug it off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I didn't take any shortcuts. I played game right and played hard. And I had fun doing it." -- Kenny Lofton -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I felt I gave it my all," he said, "but it just didn't happen." For his career, Lofton batted .299 with 383 doubles, 116 triples, 130 homers, 781 RBIs and 622 stolen bases in 2,103 games. He hopes that, in the wake of the steroid era, his numbers will be appreciated when he becomes eligible for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. "I was a guy who never did it, never tried to do it, never wanted to do it," he said of steroids. "But I played against guys who were doing it, so my competition level had to be at a certain level to compete with those guys who were cheating. Hopefully, they'll take that into account." For now, Lofton is being celebrated in the town that was his one, true baseball home -- the city that embraced him as a raw rookie and saw him mature into one of the premier leadoff hitters in the game. Lofton's name will sit alongside those of the other Tribe greats because he cared about winning, cared about playing the game the right way and cared about Cleveland and its fans. "In my career, I was a guy who wanted to win and gave it his all every day," he said. "If I hit a ball to the infield, I ran hard to first base. I didn't take any shortcuts. I played game right and played hard. And I had fun doing it." Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/arti...sp&c_id=cle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClevelandFanForLife Posted August 7, 2010 Report Share Posted August 7, 2010 Without a doubt my favorite Indian ever. I remember when I was in the fourth grade and a mom told me at lunch that he had been traded. I immediately started bawling my eyes out. He was my favorite then and he's my favorite now. I'm just sorry he never won a championship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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