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Yahoo!

Shapiro knew the direction

By Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports

October 10, 2007

BOSTON ? There were always those stretches of highway, those uncomforting signposts warning him to go back, to reconsider.
Mark Shapiro might have too, had it not taken so long to smooth and pave that road, had it not made so much sense then, had he not believed so much in it now.
And, still?
Those 94 losses in 2003. The fall to fourth place in 2006, just when everyone seemed to be getting it. First the bullpen would go bad and then the defense, then it would all fit and almost nobody would show up at the downtown ballpark.
"There definitely were a lot of nights that drive home was a long drive," he said, "and you question it."
On the night the Cleveland Indians would return to the American League championship series after a decade away, eliminating the New York Yankees and setting the game's cornerstone franchise afire, Shapiro killed an hour watching batting practice from the visitors' dugout at Yankee Stadium.
He has been general manager of the Indians since late 2001, when John Hart left for Texas. Since then, the Indians have had their moments of hope and pain, of good baseball and bad. But, there had been nothing like clearing out Yankee Stadium on the second Monday of October, nothing like putting a team on the field over four games that was not only better than the Yankees, but significantly better.

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