We have been fans of the Cleveland Indians as long as we can remember, which is 1965. That means we’ve been waiting for 51 years for what may or may not happen tonight at Progressive Field.
The Tribe has a chance to be World Champions.
Think about that for a second. It’s only happened twice before, once in 1920 and again in 1948.
And that’s it.
We have written about this before, but for a long time (from ’65 through 1994) the Cleveland Indians were for the most part a terrible, perhaps mediocre squad, where an above .500 record was celebrated, not expected.
But we still had our favorite players. Sam McDowell, Chris Chambliss, Buddy Bell, Dennis Eckersley, Len Barker, Joe Carter, Mel Hall, and Tom Candiotti. Many of those guys got to experience winning elsewhere.
We also had the great stars who came to Cleveland at the end of their illustrious careers, like Hawk Harrelson, Boog Powell, Frank Robinson, and of course everyone’s favorite, Keith Hernandez.
Contending for a division title? That was a pipe dream, something other franchises thought about, not Tribe fans.
There were four 100 loss seasons in that time span, amazingly, the franchise bottomed out in the last 1980’s, losing more than 100 games three times in a six season span (1985, 1987, and 1991).
Right around then, Hank Peters was brought in to run the franchise and surrounded himself with two young executives, John Hart and Dan O’Dowd, and rebuilt the moribund Indians by a forgotten (at least around here), but tried and true method.
They developed a fruitful farm system.
Suddenly, the Indians developed into a powerful club, with the foundation being home grown players like Albert Belle, Jim Thome, and Manny Ramirez, with great trades bringing in Sandy Alomar Jr., Carlos Baerga, and Kenny Lofton.
Also, they sprinkled in some key veteran free agents like Eddie Murray, Dennis Martinez, and Orel Hershiser.
Sounds familiar, right?
This Tribe squad is centered around players originally signed and developed by Cleveland, like Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Lonnie Chisenhall, and Roberto Perez.
President Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff traded for guys like Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, and of course, Andrew Miller.
Add in free agents Mike Napoli and Rajai Davis, and you have a team on the brink of something not done in baseball here in 68 seasons.
This isn’t talking about a coronation, because there is still a game to win and the Cubs are throwing last year’s Cy Young Award winner in Jake Arrieta and a candidate for this year’s award in Game 7 starter Kyle Hendricks.
The Tribe pitching staff has been so outstanding this post-season, holding down the powerful offenses in Boston and Toronto, and what they have been able to do thus far to Chicago.
They may need two more games of that kind of pitching.
Having a 3-2 Series lead doesn’t abate our nervousness, our sense of anticipation, and even though the Cavaliers won a title just four months ago, our sense of upcoming doom.
Allowing ourselves to think about a fourth win against the Cubs gets the goosebumps going, and emotions flooding our senses.
We’ve waited 51 years for this night. Yes, we had a Game 7 moment in 1997, but perhaps then we were just happy to be in a World Series twice in three years after so long without being in one.
Now the thirst needs to be quenched. The Cavs, the Monsters, Stipe Miocic gave our town a taste of what a title is like, and now Indians’ fans want the same.
Tonight could be that night for the Cleveland Indians.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 