Over a million Clevelanders crammed into downtown on Wednesday, celebrating something the they knew very little about: a title. It was an unrecognizable scene inside a city well-studied in sporting pain, where a drive here, a seeing-eye single there and “The Shot” once added up to 147 seasons passed without a championship.
Now the Cavaliers, their city, their fans are finally winners, and judging by the enthusiasm of the folks soaking up the Forest City sun, more regular opportunities to express championship exhilaration would be welcome.
Suddenly, Clevelanders are a much brighter bunch to be around. The notorious “quarterbacks jersey”, which includes the 24 names of every single Browns QB since 1999 has been retired by its owner Tim Brokaw, as he and fellow fans seek to flush out “all negative energy and bad juju” around town.
Yes, it seems a curse-killing mission is on in northeast Ohio, and while getting the Browns their elusive Super Bowl ring trumps all, it’s the Indians who are in pole-position to ride Cleveland’s new found sports mojo.
Of course, the lovable losing Cubs, who’ve gone over a century without a World Series win, own the crown jewel of all North American title droughts. Yet since the Red and White Sox broke through in 2004 and 2005, the Tribe’s healthy, but less-celebrated 68-year ring-less streak runs a strong second.
As the oldest team in town, the Tribe bear plenty of responsibility for the previous 52 years of misery in the city. From 1960 to 1993 Cleveland managed just seven winning seasons inside their cavernous and mostly empty Municipal Stadium, finishing above fourth place just once. Such prodigious losing proved endearing, at least to Hollywood: the 1989 film Major League brought laughs and a less sought after lore to the franchise.
Then the organization became known for something entirely different: innovation. General manager John Hart took over in 1992 and became the first executive to sign prospects such as Sandy Alomar Jr and Carlos Baerga, to long-term deals. They built a championship core: Omar Vizquel, Jim Thome, Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez to name a few. Two World Series appearances followed, but still, no rings. Cleveland’s 1997 loss came in spectacularly agonizing fashion: Edgar Renteria’s Game 7 extra inning base hit sent the city into a familiar malaise.
In 2007, Terry Francona’s Boston Red Sox ousted Cleveland in a seven-game ALCS. Now Francona is in his fourth season as the Tribe’s skipper, trying to turn the same curse-crushing trick he ordered in Beantown, all while former BoSox GM and current Cubs President Theo Epstein tries to beat down the Curse of the Billy Goat in Chicago.
The Cubs, with their blistering start and 9.5 game lead in the National League Central are a 14-5 bet to slay their dragon and win the Fall Classic, while the Indians are slowly creeping up the big board, from 16-1 in February to 12-1 today.
Vegas is beginning to believe, and perhaps now Clevelanders, who have an American League Central leading team, but are last in AL attendance, will begin to get behind their Tribe now that they know anything is possible in sports.
Cleveland fans should be in full on “why not us?” mode as they gaze upon their scorching hot club, one that’s ripped off a 15-6 start to June. With Tribe bats coming around to support their superb arms the Indians have become one of the most well rounded teams in the AL. And when everybody’s good luck charm, Juan Uribe, launches home runs in four straight games, you begin to wonder if the 37-year-old could be part of something special, again.
The Indians have survived the loss of their best hitter, Michael Brantley, for most of the season with shoulder issues and are three games up in the AL Central, benefiting from a Kansas City Royals team that’s struggling to find its feet inside a relatively weak division.
They have young stars: Francisco Lindor should be included in any best AL shortstops chats along with Carlos Correa and Xander Boegarts: the 22-year old has more than backed up his promising rookie season with even higher production. Danny Salazar is breaking out at age 26, leading a power-rotation that includes a surging former Cy Young Award winner in Corey Kluber.
Cleveland’s relief core, steadied by closer Cody Allen isn’t as strong as the starters, but throw them all together they’ve allowed the fewest runs in the American League. That bodes well should they reach the playoffs and take on an offensive powerhouse such as Texas, Toronto, Boston or Baltimore.
Meanwhile, their middle-of-the-road offense, missing the doubles machine Brantley, have just about enough to compete nightly, with the pop of DH Carlos Santana and first baseman Mike Napoli, and steady play from 2B Jason Kipnis, OF Tyler Naquin and OF Jose Ramirez.
Do the Indians need help? Sure, upgrades are needed, specifically Yan Gomes at catcher and Juan Uribe at 3B, who cannot be playing everyday, and they could probably use a bullpen arm. Cleveland’s small market pockets mean landing a big piece isn’t straightforward, but they do have a deep farm system and some reports have linked the sizzling Carlos Beltran to Cleveland, which is not one of the teams on his no-trade clause list, should the Yankees eventually throw in the towel.
The Indians have most of the ingredients to make a legitimate push towards a division title and beyond, perhaps summoning a second title to the city in four months: a notion that until this week, would have been soundly ejected with a snide snicker from Clevelanders.
Video of the Week
Miguel Cabrera’s 461-foot moonshot on Monday against the Mariners may not have been the longest in Comerica Park history (JD Martinez has that record at 467 feet), but when it leaves the park, for me at least, that trumps distance.
Quote of the Week
Vin Scully has always had something to say about sports, but of course he’s not limited to balls and strikes, as viewers learned this week.
Perez, 25 years old, originally drafted by the Tigers. Lives in Venezuela. Boy, can you imagine, you’re a young kid playing in the United States, you’re from Venezuela, and every time you look at the news it’s a nightmare. A bunt attempt is missed—runners are holding, 0-and-2. Socialism failing to work, as it always does, this time in Venezuela. You talk about giving everybody something free and all of a sudden, there’s no food to eat. And who do you think is the richest person in Venezuela? The daughter of Hugo Chavez. Hello! Anyway, 0-and-2...
Who’s closer to victory: Donald Trump or the Cubs?
St Louis made a statement by walking into Wrigley Field and sweeping their three game series with Chicago, and that statement was that they needed to keep winning in order to earn a wild card spot. Despite the setback, a Cubs divisional collapse seems all but impossible at this point, especially when newly plucked prospects continue to make magic on the big league level. On Sunday, catcher Willson Contreras hit a home run on the very first pitch he saw from the Pirates reliever AJ Schugel.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has no such prospects, and even less money, at least this week: polls show politics’ version of Le Grande Orange being buried by Hillary Clinton, all during a week he fired his campaign manager. Cubs win!
How did the kids piss off Goose Gossage this week?
Well, this week, it’s what the kids were doing years and years before Goose suited up...
Matt Lisle (@CoachLisle)
Mickey Mantle. Inventor Of The Bat Flip pic.twitter.com/4JPuTycd3N
June 20, 2016
Could it be that the Mickey Mantle actually invented the bat flip back when Gossage was just a glimmer in his dad’s eye? Is Mantle trying to show up Bob Lemon, or whoever threw that pitch? It’s more likely that the Mick was mad he got under a pitch. Still, Mantle should’ve known better and kept those Oklahoman emotions in check.
Nine thoughts in order
1) The Dodgers have won all but one of the 15 starts that Clayton Kershaw has made for LA. That means Los Angeles are 27-32 when Kershaw doesn’t start a game. The 28-year-old southpaw has outdone himself again, making all those comparisons to Sandy Koufax I once thought silly now seem less off base. His WHIP, ERA, and FIP are all career bests, never mid his 20.14 strikeout to walk ratio. Kershaw, who is 11-1 and almost singlehandedly keeping LA in the playoff hunt, struck out Bryce Harper three times on Monday in a 4-1 win and must be a shoo-in for yet another Cy Young Award, even as Jake Arrieta approaches what he did last season in Chicago.
Of course it helps to have a wild horse on your roster as well. On Wednesday, Yasiel Puig (via Michael Taylor) helped deliver an unlikely sweep of the Washington Nationals in one of the most exciting walk-off plays (Vin Scully’s call here) of the season.
2) Houston have finally woken up. The Astros’ walk-off win against the Angels Tuesday meant that the team that tanked to start 2016 have rallied from 11 games below .500 to break even and methodically climb back into the wild card race. Their pitching staff, rocked in April, has been gradually steadying, with the team posting an ERA second to Cleveland in the AL this month. The entire rotation, from struggling Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel to Lance McCullers to Collin McHugh have been dominant over the past week. It also doesn’t hurt that Carlos Correa is starting to heat up, as Houston head to Kansas City for a rematch of the ALDS starting Friday.
3) Globe Life Park in Arlington is only 22 years old but that’s not stopping the Rangers from looking for new digs. The city of Arlington, which help subsidize Jerry Jones his Cowboys AT&T Stadium, is now looking to keep the Rangers in town with yet another sweetheart deal. ABC TV affiliate WFAA in Dallas say that the reported 50-50 public partnership between the city and the Rangers is more like 80-20, in Texas’ favor. “This is all about not physical obsolescence. It’s really about economic obsolescence,” said Robert Baade, who studies the economic impact of sports stadiums. “So who derives the benefits from building this new stadium?”
That’s not tough to figure out, especially when you look at the debacle in Cobb County where the Atlanta Braves are also in the process of leaving a perfectly suitable stadium for greener pastures in the suburbs while locals pick up the tab. Meanwhile, the Rangers are perfectly suited for their current stadium, posting a 25-11 record, second best in the AL.
4) Knowing how may outs there are in a baseball game may seem like one of the easier tasks of the game, but this week, two of the sport’s best couldn’t figure it out. On Monday, Washington’s Daniel Murphy wore a dunce cap and a night later Marlins ace Jose Fernandez lost count.
Cut4 (@Cut4)
Jose Fernandez had to pull out his Homer Simpson impression on this one: https://t.co/cWp98nEu2k pic.twitter.com/rqtdiKp8mq
June 22, 2016
5) Jose Reyes may be heading back to New York, which shows you just how much trouble the injury-plagued and offensively starved Mets are in. Reyes, a player in decline, a player fresh off breaking in MLB’s new domestic violence policy, a player who probably cannot replace David Wright at third base because he never played third base, and a player who would also face adjustments back at second base, is damaged goods. Yet he’s a tempting proposition for New York because he can be had for very little on Saturday when he is officially free from his deal in Colorado. It shows you how much GM Sandy Alderson needs help right now, not at the trade deadline in five weeks, and how he would prefer not to pony up for free-agent Cuban infielder Yulieski Gourriel. The Mets have always been careful about their image, while also possessing a knack for bumbling their public relations. Jose Reyes represents their latest test.
Meanwhile, the spate of bad news continued to snowball on Wednesday when slugger Yoenis Cespedes was removed from New York’s game against Kansas City with left wrist discomfort. Postgame it was revealed that ace hurler Noah Syndergaard suffered elbow pain during the Mets win 4-3 win. And that came just 24 hours after the team announced that pitching prospect Zack Wheeler had suffered a setback in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. The good news? The Mets said late Wednesday that Syndergaard’s elbow is structurally sound, while the line drive that knocked pitcher Bartolo Colon out of the game on Tuesday would not prevent him from taking his next turn on Sunday.
6) MLB commissioner Rob Manfred refused to rule out Las Vegas for expansion in the week it was confirmed NHL has broken the ice in Sin City. The sport already counts Draft Kings as the “Official Daily Fantasy Baseball Game of MLB”, and so it seems they’ve moved past some casino/gambling issues during the very same period that Pete Rose seemed to be permanently stuck to the ineligible list. Regardless of whether you believe that’s hypocritical, MLB want 32 teams: Montreal are in the forefront of expansion, but the list of potential big league cities thins out from there. If the NHL experiment goes well and the Oakland Raiders hit the desert next, MLB will already have their market research completed, free of charge.
7) Alex Rodriguez may have found a niche on Fox’s MLB coverage last fall, but don’t expect his career path to expand into baseball’s front office. The Yankees DH was recently asked by NJ.com which MLB player transcends the sport “Look, I don’t know that answer” said A-Rod, who also claimed “that in the next 5-10 years we’re going to become No1 again.”
8) Journeymen third-string catchers don’t often make headlines on back-to-back nights, but Erik Kratz has. On Monday, Kratz, playing in Pittsburgh with his fourth organization this season, somehow managed to go deep against the Giants Madison Bumgarner, much to the disgust of left fielder Angel Pagan. The solo shot was the only run of the game.
The next night, Kratz found himself on the mound, amazingly for the second time of his career, and struck out Brandon Belt in a garbage-time at-bat with the Bucs down 15-4. Kratz reportedly reached 86.4mph on his heater, which is reportedly faster than any pitch Jered Weaver has recorded all year.
9) And finally, spare a thought for the Brooklyn Cyclones of the minor NY-Penn League. Last Friday, the Brooks opened their season against their hated rivals, the Staten Island Yankees. Some 20 innings later, the Cyclones were on the short end of a 3-2 loss. On Saturday, they lost again to the Bombers, this time in just 10 innings. On Sunday Brooklyn got their first win of the season against the Tri-City ValleyCats in their first nine-inning game. Monday brought yet another marathon and yet another crushing defeat, 10-9 in 17 innings. So in their first four games of the season, the Cyclones racked up some 56 innings of play, going 1-3. On Tuesday, spontaneous celebrations throughout the boro were witnessed following their 8-3 win over Tri-City.
Brooklyn Cyclones (@BKCyclones)
Do you believe in miracles???? Yes!!!!! Cyclones win 8-3 in regulation pic.twitter.com/3EWSblJZMm
June 22, 2016
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