Well now that the vindication villification of LeBron James is finished, the attention of Cleveland (hopefully) returns to the Indians (at least until the NBA draft next week.) The Tribe, of course, steamrolled to an amazing and spirit-lifting run through April and most of May, jumping out to a huge early-season lead in the AL Central.
I had surmised that this might have been God's way of distracting Clevelanders from what was looking more and more inevitable, That Guy in Miami (TGiM--thanks Doug) winning a ring with his gang of jerks in their very first year.
But then, maybe something changed. On May 31, the Indians beat the Blue Jays 6-3, and stood 12 games over .500. And that night, the Heat, led by insane shooting by TGiM, took a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
Maybe that's when a deal with the devil was struck? The Indians started hitting like a bunch of tee-ball players, and consequently (Ed Note: needs to be fact checked) the Heat, and particularly TGiM, lost their mojo. Since that night, the Indians are 3-9...but the Heat are 1-4. Did the Indians have to play poorly for a couple weeks to ensure that Clevelanders wouldn't have a tortured summer punctuated by G.O.A.T. discussions of TGiM?
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| The ball, unfortunately, is behind Choo. Paul J Bereswill/AP |
But let it be shown, that the second 1-0 victory, on a great pitching performance by Carlos Carrasco, was last night, after the Mavericks became NBA champs. The Indians are now 1-0 post-NBA season.
Now the road trip continues with three games, as important as can be for the 2011 Tribe this early in the season, versus the first-place sharing Detroit Tigers. The bats need to come alive starting tonight. And then continue though the next two series, home interleague matchups with sub-.500 teams.
Let's hope this was the tradeoff Cleveland had to make. But our debt has been paid. So it's time to start seeing some Tribesmen crossing the plate again. More than once or twice a game, hopefully.