Indians Lookback: Finley's Tenure in Cleveland Misses the Mark as the Tribe's Lefty Ace

The Cleveland Indians in the 1990’s and into the 200’s it always seemed were built on offense. With sluggers in their lineup like Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, most nights the Indians would bludgeon teams instead of getting into low scoring affairs built around pitching.

The franchise tried it felt like over and over to get a stud pitcher, an ace for their staff who could lead them for years to come.

They seemed to always have pitchers who felt more like middle of the rotation starters.

Hurlers like Charlie Nagy, Jaret Wright, Chad Ogea, Dave Burba and Dwight Gooden did what they could to become aces for the Indians, but frankly it was the offense that carried the team.

One free agent who did come to the Indians who they hoped would end up as an ace was former Chicago White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell.

The Indians inked McDowell in December of 1995, just two months after losing to the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

McDowell inked a two-year deal with the Indians, and right away was placed near the top of the rotation.

Instead, it was two frustrating seasons in Cleveland for McDowell, who went 13-9 with a 5.11 ERA in 1996, and in 1997 was beat up by injuries, and started just six games, going 3-3 with a 5.00 ERA.

By the time the 1997 playoffs began, McDowell was an afterthought to have any impact whatsoever for the Indians as they made it to the World Series for the second time in three years.

For the next two seasons after the McDowell experiment the team did what they could to develop pitchers in the organization, and at one point had a reported deal on the table which would have sent Jaret Wright to Montreal for Pedro Martinez, which they declined.

As luck would have it, Martinez went on to have a Hall of Fame career, beating the Indians often over the years, and Wright was hit with injures and lasted six years with the Indians with a career mark of 35-32 with a 5.50 ERA.

The 1999 season saw the Indians make the postseason, but blow a 2-0 lead in the ALDS in a five-game loss to the Boston Red Sox, the team that boasted pitcher Pedro Martinez, who came in to shut the Indians down in relief in game five.

The three losses to Boston further magnified the Indians need for an ace, as they allowed 44 runs in three games, including an embarrassing 23-7 loss in game four in Fenway Park where 18-game winner Bartolo Colon looked like a batting practice pitcher as Boston built an 18-6 lead after five innings.

As the team entered the offseason they were again focused on trying to get a starter that would push the rotation over the top.

Gone from the 1999 rotation were Dwight Gooden who left via free agency, and Wright due to injuries only started nine games in 2000.

The search was on for a pitcher, and the apple of general manager John Hart’s eye as free agency started was long time Los Angeles Angels lefty Chuck Finley, who after 14 seasons was ready for a fresh start.

Finely was the ace of the Angles staff for roughly 10 seasons by 1999, and minus one bad season in 1992 never won less than 10 games in a season from 1989 to 1999.

With the offense the Indians had built with the likes of Thome, Ramirez, Richie Sexton, Travis Fryman, Sandy and Roberto Alomar, and Omar Vizquel the offense was still one of the best in baseball scoring a MLB high 1099 runs in 1999, and adding a pitcher like Finely looked like a perfect match.

The Indians brought Finley in for a visit, and went after him hard to get him to go from one coast basically to the next, and in the end it was not only talking him into coming to Cleveland, but also his wife – actress Tawny Kitaen, who at times it seemed got more media coverage than her husband.

Finley and the Indians pulled the trigger, and on December 16, just over a week before Christmas, a deal was agreed upon paying Finley a reported $26 million over three seasons.

The Tribe beat out Seattle, Boston and Baltimore for Finley, and he became the first regular lefty pitcher in the Indians rotation since Greg Swindell in 1991.

"Chuck Finley is a tremendous addition to our ballclub who will fortify our starting rotation for the 2000 season and beyond," Indians general manager John Hart said the day of the signing to the Associated Press.

"Chuck gives us the dominant, left-handed starting pitcher we have been seeking for the last several years. He is an accomplished, veteran pitcher who knows his way around the American League."

Another reason the Indians were so high on Finley was the prospect of an eventual playoff showdown with the New York Yankees, a team that lifetime Finley was 16-9 against.

Tribe fans were excited entering 2000, boasting a rotation now that included Finley, Dave Burba, Colon, Nagy and Wright.

The Indians not only had a new ace in Finley as 2000 began, but a new voice on the bench, as Charlie Manuel stepped in as manager after Hart dismissed Mike Hargrove.

Despite having the credentials to be an ace, Finely was put in the two-spot in the rotation, behind youngster Colon, who as started was coming off an 18-win season in 1999.

Colon pitched a gem in the opener on the road in Baltimore, outpitching Oriole ace Mike Mussina in a Tribe 4-1 win.

Two days later it was Finely’s turn to try and duplicate Colon, but his first start wearing Chief Wahoo didn’t go exactly as planned.

Baltimore scored three times in the first inning, and Finley was chased after allowing four runs on four hits in five innings, as he took the loss in a Baltimore 11-7 win.

The next outing saw the offense step up and give him nine runs, as he collected a no-decision in a 9-4 win in Oakland.

The highlight of his 2000 season may have come in his next start, and first at Progressive Field, as he went the distance on April 16th against Texas, allowing one unearned run on five hits in a Tribe 2-1 win.

The lefty continued to have an inconsistent start to his Indians tenure, as by May 31st he sat at 4-4, and despite being 7-6 at the All-Star break he was selected as part of the squad representing the American League.

The second half of 2000 saw the Indians play well enough to wrap up the year with 90 wins, but despite ending the season 18 games over .500 the team missed the postseason.

The following season injuries caught up to Finley, and after starting 34 games in 2000 he started just 22 in 2001, and the lefty went 8-7 with a 5.54 ERA.

By the end of the season Finley was healthy after missing time from June 26 to August 8th and went 3-1 in the month of September to wrap up the season.

The team ended the year 20 games over .500 at 91-71, and took back the AL Central which they were denied the season prior.

Finley was slated to start game two of the ALDS against the 116-win Seattle Mariners, who came into the series as the heavy favorite to move on.

It had been 16 seasons since Finley had pitched in the postseason, throwing in the ALCS in 1986 against the Boston Red Sox, and in his three playoff starts he went 1-2.

The Indians couldn’t have started the 2001 ALDS any better, as Colon shut the high-powered Mariners down in Seattle in a 5-0 win.

Finley was given the ball to try and extend the Indians series lead to 2-0 if he could come through in game two which took place two days later.

Instead, Seattle needed just two pitches to put the game away, the first a two-run homer by Mike Cameron in the first, and the second another two-run homer, this time by Edgar Martinez to make it 4-0 Seattle.

Finley gave up a third homer, this time in the fifth inning to David Bell, and he was pulled after that in an eventual Indians 5-1 loss.

Game three of the series at Progressive Field saw the Tribe offense explode for 17 runs in a 17-2 win to take a 2-1 series lead.

Colon was given the ball to try and close out the series the next day, but staked to an early 1-0 lead the Mariners offense scored three in the seventh to eventually escape with a 6-2 win to force a fifth and final game.

Finley would get the ball the next day in what amounted to a one-game playoff with the chance to pull off a major upset and advance to the ALCS.

The lefty was his own worst enemy in the game, as in the second inning he walked a pair and hit a batter to load the bases.

The mistakes opened the door for Mariners number nine hitter Mark McLemore to come through, as he singled in a pair to runs to give Seattle an early 2-0 edge.

It was enough, as Jamie Moyer and the M’s pen allowed just one Indians run on four hits, and every Indian minus catcher Einar Diaz struck out at least once, as the season ended with a tough 3-1 loss.

In the game five loss Finely went 4.1, allowing two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts. It was a better outing than his game two loss, but the setback dropped him to 1-4 in the playoffs, as well as a chance to face the rival Yankees in the ALCS.

Finley’s final season in Cleveland saw the pitcher make headlines before he ever threw a pitch.

The Tribe opened the 2002 season in Finely’s old stomping grounds of Anaheim against the Angels. Colon threw an opening night 5-0 shutout to get the team off to a good start on March 31st.

The next day the Indians were off and Finley was scheduled to start two days later against his former team.

Instead, his wife and he got involved in some type of dispute coming home from dinner in the Los Angeles area, and the 40-year-old Kitaen went after him, attacking the Indians pitcher with her high heels, kicking him.

She was arrested after the police showed up at their home.

"She kicked him in the thigh, in the leg, in the arm, she grabbed his ear and twisted it," a spokesperson for the Orange County district attorney’s office said.

"At one point, her high-heel shoe was on top of his foot pressing the accelerator to the ground."

Finley was a scratch for the third game of the season, replaced by youngster Ryan Drease, who went 5.2 in the Tribe eventual 6-5 win.

"My attitude is, it's the same as with any player in the organization. Everyone has issues outside of being a major league player that they have to deal with in life," Indians GM Mark Shapiro said of the incident.

The lefty made a quick recovery, but struggled badly the most of the first half. After going 2-2 in April, he lost four of his next five starts to end May at 3-6.

By the end of June he was 4-10, and on July 4th he fell to 4-11 after losing in New York to the Yankees. His final start with the Indians came 10 days later right after the All-Star break, as he latest just 3.1 innings against the Yankees, allowing seven runs in 3.1 innings.

Finley was traded five days after the start against New York to the St.Louis Cardinals in a deal that saw the Indians get two players to be named later, one of which wound up being popular outfielder Coco Crisp.

The lefty pitcher went 7-4 with a 3.80 ERA in 14 starts with the Cardinals. He pitched 6.1 scoreless ball against Arizona in game two of the NLDS, and earned the Cardinals only win in the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants in game three, the final start of his Major League career.

The 39-year-old was done following the few months in St.Louis, as he walked away from baseball, and also filed for divorce from his wife in Kitaen just a few days after the incident at the start of the 2002 season.

His career numbers saw Finley win 200 games with 173 losses over 17 seasons. He was placed in the Angels Hall of Fame in 2009, and compiled 2,610 strikeouts.

He is the Angels' all-time career leader in wins (165), innings pitched (2,675), and games started (379).

Sadly Indians fans will remember him mostly for the two losses in the playoffs against Seattle, and the incident with his wife that started his final season with the Tribe.

The Indians were hopeful of getting a rare left-handed ace, but despite some moments of promise, it was mostly a deal that didn’t work out for either party.