Tribe gives Cleveland a reason to be proud

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First thing's first. 

This isn't a moral victory post, or some sad epitaph talking about how glad I am the Indians made the World Series, by golly. I'm very unhappy the Tribe now stands on the wrong side of history, in particular the fact they, dare I say it, blew a 3-1 lead to catapult Cubs Nation into conniptions of curse-breaking joy.

A moment of joy

There's no participant ribbon here, folks. Fox could should me another hundred little old ladies in blue and white, and I still wouldn't have felt sorry if the Indians had completed their Game 7 comeback.

Still, those uglier feelings can't take away how proud I am of this 2016 Indians squad, blown series lead and all. Here was a roster hamstrung by injuries to the point where the Tribe's own beat writer called the playoffs over before they'd even begun. A franchise with a payroll dwarfed by not just the "lovable" Northsiders, but by their ALDS and ALCS opponents as well.

The 2016 Tribe, put very simply, was fun, delivering some of the most exciting moments I've every witnessed as a Cleveland sports fan. Think Tyler Naquin rocking out after his walk-off inside-the -park homer against Toronto. Think Adam Miller acting as a lanky angel of death against opposing batters. Think Tito Francona cobbling together a playoff gameplan that squeezed every ounce of talent out of what he had available.

Ultimately, the Cubs got hot and the Indians ran out of bodies. I can't get mad at Miller, Corey Kluber and Josh Tomlin for succumbing to workload and a murderous Cubs' lineup. I cannot even get upset with Bryan Shaw for taking the "L" after a momentum-sapping rain delay. Maybe I can be little perturbed at Mike Napoli for not hitting his weight during the post-season, but let's not go there now.

Even when the Tribe looked dead during the deciding game, they still almost shocked the world. Rajai Davis's eight-inning home run wasn't enough, but the team's comeback in the highest of high-pressure situations somehow makes me feel better about the depressing finish.

A part of that attitude stems from the Cavs winning in June - without that to hold onto, this column probably doesn't get written  - but it was gratifying to see the Indians not skulk quietly away into the night, as so many Cleveland teams have before them.

You could also say the Indians are ahead of schedule, what with the pitching injuries and the year-long absence of Michael Brantley. The Tribe's young hitting core will return next year, as will Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco. Given baseball's volatile nature and how freaking hard it is to reach the sport's pinnacle, there are no guarantees the team will be in this position again. Even so, the Indians gave fans more than they could ask for this post-season, and that is a joy in and of itself.  

Contending Tribe seems content to stand pat

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"My personality is completely genuine, bro!"

It's been a frustrating month of August for the Indians. The offense has been dire during these dog days, with every mistake the Tribe makes magnified by the lack of production at the dish. As the calendar turns to September, Cleveland seems poised on a razor's edge of contention that could slice them a good one at any moment. But even with the waiver-wire trade deadline looming, all is quiet on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. 

The Indians could certainly use help from a player not named Matt Carson. The unbalanced MLB schedule has sent the Wahoos to Atlanta for three interleague games, while Tribe bully Detroit drools in anticipation for a potentially back-breaking weekend series. 

Siri commercial spoof by the Cleveland Indians

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After the no personality business-like Cleveland Indians of the Eric Wedge and Manny Acta era, things seemed to have turned the corner with the addition of Terry Francona. First the Harlem Shake video from a couple of weeks ago, now this spoof on iPhones' Siri called TERRi. This year is shaping up to at least be a fun in terms of viral videos. What it amounts to in terms of wins and losses I don't know, but we'll find out in a little bit less then a week.

You can watch the full video below or watch it here.

No more half measures, Tribe

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If only Mike from "Breaking Bad" was our GM.

Last year's trade deadline deal for Ubaldo Jimenez seemed to indicate a sense of urgency by the Indians. Even in their previous "buy" year of 2007, an oh-so-close season that still aches my back teeth on occasion, the Indians didn't do anything on the trade front but bring back Kenny Lofton for a reunion tour. 

So the Jimenez deal was a blockbuster, no question. Jettison your top two pitching prospects for a front-of-the-rotation starter and you're going to generate headlines. It was a risky move that marked an open window of contention that would snap closed within a couple of years.

Perez at it again, and his timing couldn't be worse

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Indians closer Chris Perez has crazy facial hair, "an arm like a f*ckin cannon" and the moxie of ten similarly sized men. What he doesn't have is a filter between his brain and mouth. At times, such glibness can be refreshing, particularly in an era when modern athletes are largely PR-programmed robots with cut-and-paste responses to most media inquiries.

Alas, this is not one of those times.

In an interview with The New York Times on Monday, with the Indians sunk in another valley of what  has been a queasily up-and-down campaign, Perez rehashed his controversial comments from earlier in the season about the Tribe's poor attendance.

"It's head-scratching. It's just — they don't come out." Perez said.  "But around the city, there's great support. They watch it in the bars. They watch it at home. They just don't come." 

Perez rant shines ugly light on Cleveland fans

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In Cleveland, perception is reality.

If you want a look into the mind of the petulantly angry Cleveland fan, at least as perceived by closer Chris Perez during his outburst to reporters over the weekend, look no further than the small table set up on the outdoor patio of Panini's Bar and Grill on E. 9th St. in downtown Cleveland.

There stands a young capitalist selling homemade t-shirts of the kind offered outside most every stadium in the nation. Invariably cheap-looking cotton shirts embroidered with swears or in the case of Wrigley Field,  gay slurs aimed at the top players of rival teams, i.e. "Albert takes it in the Pujols."

The table at the Cleveland Panini's contains similar wares, boasting the usual anti-Steelers slogans and the like. One shirt stands out from the lot due to its deep red coloring and mocking sentiment against the very franchise that most people have come downtown to root for. "What If" The Dolans Weren't So Cheap, the shirt reads, a not-so-subtle dig at the Tribe's nostalgia-laced ad campaign of the last two seasons. 

The Suite life of CST's Doug and Tom

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Social media is a tool that's brought us closer than ever to our well-loved sports' teams. It allows us to follow the innermost breakfast plans of our favorite athletes, who, it turns out, enjoy slices of banana in their Frosted Flakes just like us mouth-breathing commoners. How interesting!

The Cleveland Indians already have a reputation as being one of MLB's most Twitter-friendly teams. The Tribe upped the ante this year with the Indians Social Suite, billed by the club as “the first social media-only space in professional sports." The suite, situated along the left field line right above third base, gives attendees wireless Internet access from whence to send their undoubtedly insightful and entertaining electronic messages to friends and followers. Invitations to the social suite are distributed on a game-by-game basis. 

My initial taste of the suite was during last night's game against the Texas Rangers. As guest of CST webmaster Tom, the two of us sent out a handful of tweets and blog posts from Tom's Android phone.

Damon a 'good enough' option for Tribe

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Jesus, thank God Damon shaved.

It was good to see the Indians' slumbering bats awaken with a bucket-of-icewater start last weekend against the Royals. Maybe the Tribe just needs to ink more aging outfielders if that's what it takes to rouse the offense. What's Cory Snyder doing these days?

The Johnny Damon signing is all but official according to most sources. It stands as a necessary if desperate move for a club seeking any kind of consistent pop from its power-deficient lineup, last weekend's sandblasting of the Royals' pitching staff notwithstanding.

In baseball terms, Damon's nearing AARP card holder status. Still, he's a solid clubhouse presence, a career .286 hitter who smacked 16 home runs last year, and someone whose boyish, beardless good looks gives the Tribe a puncher's chance at cracking someone's "MLB's Sexiest Lineups" list. (Come on, you know I'm right.)

And to think some fans are worried about Damon taking away at-bats from Shelley Duncan. Is that how far our "small market" expectations have fallen? While the journeyman hitter has done an admirable job in left, currently leading the team this young season in both batting average and slugging percentage, he's a prototypical "4-A" guy who's great as a fourth outfielder, not as an everyday starter.

Three minutes of amazing

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Indeed, we were all Yankees fans last night. (Davis/Globe)

At 12:02 AM eastern on Thursday morning, the Orioles put the final touch on an amazing come from behind win, down to their last strike, down by one, against Jonathan Papelbon, one of the most dominating closers in the league.

Three minutes later, Evan Longoria squeaked a home run over the left field wall, sealing an even more amazing come from behind win over the Yankees.

And there you go. The Red Sox are out of the playoffs. Up by 9 games in the wild card race less than a month ago, they complete an epic collapse in extraordinarily entertaining fashion, live on tv as if it were a slow motion car wreck. One that feels oh so familiar.

I was out and about yesterday, so here's the progression of how I experienced what some people are calling the best night in regular season baseball history, and @SamDrewTakesOn summed it up with "When I'm 70 and talking about baseball with my grandkids, tonight is the first I will mention."

• Watching the games on my phone, the Red Sox were up 3-2, but it was what seemed like a super long rain delay. Note, this is the Fairy Deion Sanders telling me "you weren't watching the game, you were watching numbers." True--but the killer MLB At Bat App does let me watch the game...I just wasn't in a place I could do that.
• Saw the Rays were down 7-0. Thought about what MLB would do if the Rays lost and the Sox game couldn't restart on Wednesday. (You HAVE to make them play out that game Thursday, right??)
• All of a sudden it was 7-6. And I was on the train home listening by this point (again, thanks MLB At Bat.) And heard the 2 strike, 2 out home run by .108 hittting Dan Johnson to tie it up at 7. Amazing.
• Finally got home and next thing I knew, it was the top of the 11th in Tampa, and I believe the Yankees had men at 1st and 3rd with no outs. And the Red Sox were bringing in Papelbon to close out the resumed game in the bottom of the 9th in Baltimore. Again, figured it was over and Boston would survive.
• Then, somehow (since MLB Network and ESPN were both showing Sox-Orioles at this point), the Rays got out of it, so there was a light. Papelbon had K'd the first two batters, so I was just hoping for a Rays walk-off and a one-game playoff. 

And then midnight struck. And this was the reaction that Dan Plesac and Harold Reynolds had in the MLB Network studio, watching the games off-camera. This is epic. Dan Plesac looking for someone to high-five and then asking "Are you f__ing kidding me?!?" is the exact same response everyone outside of Sox Nation had. Including me.

Longoria came up huge. And hammered the nail in
for the Red Sox (Getty Images)

Amazing night of baseball. Crushing loss/month for the Red Sox. 

A feeling that Cleveland fans know all too well. Ironically, many Red Sox fans are blaming the Yankees for not bringing in Mo Rivera to close the game out. First, they can do whatever they want--they need to rest their geriatric closer for important games to them. Second, if the Sox had won more than seven games in September, this wouldn't be a problem. Third--does this seem familiar to Browns fans? Remember Indianapolis not playing Peyton Manning in their last game, losing to the Titans (I think), and therefore knocking the Browns out of the playoffs a couple years ago?

Such is life, Red Sox fans. Deal with it.

PS what a great chart. These are the Red Sox playoff odds by date. From CoolStandings.com.

Who's an Indians fan to root for now?

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Well the 2011 baseball season had huge ups and stomach punch downs for the Tribe this year, for sure. A blistering start left little statistical doubt that the Indians would once again be playing in October. But then, a series of offensive lapses and debilitating injuries brought the Indians down to Earth like Superman wearing a Kryptonite vest.

It doesn't matter who plays for the Yankees.
I can't root for them

Just last week, the Indians were virtually in control of their own destiny. Despite being swept on the road by the Detroit Tigers, they could have pulled within 3.5 games with a home sweep of said Michiganers. But it was not meant to be. Detroit ran roughshod over the Indians, with former Tribesman Victor Martinez putting a final nail in their coffin with his grand slam last Wednesday. Detroit, 6 games over .500 on August 10, now stands 23 games over .500 on September 13. What can you do? I know what the Indians could do. Nothing.

So what's a Tribe fan to do in October, with dreams of the upstart Indians squashed so painfully? Boycott the playoffs? Sure, some will undoubtedly do that. But for those of us who can't ignore half of what I consider an amazing month in sports (football being the other, and if the Browns don't make substantial improvements this week vs. the Colts, October won't even matter for them either), it'd still be nice to figure out whom it's "okay" to root for.

MLB asks for the top All-Star game moments, but one is missing

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MLB.com is asking fans to vote, tournament style, for the top moment in All-Star Game history. As meaningless as the game is (despite the home-field-advantage wrinkle established as a knee-jerk reaction to the tie a few years ago), to me, it's still a fantastic Mid-Summer Classic.

When I was a kid, I used to look forward to that July Tuesday every year. I remember distinctly staying up at a sleepover until extra innings during the summer of 1987, waiting for the lone Tribesman, Pat Tabler, to come up to bat. Not sure we all were awake for that, but yes, he struck out.

Image via Wikipedia

Looking over the list, there certainly were some great ones. Tony Gwynn's slide into home for the winning run in 1994 was particularly exciting. But by that time, the strike was looming, and the fact that the Indians had awoken from their slumber was overshadowed by the dark cloud of labor strife that was not over the horizon any more, it was almost directly overhead.

My vote, naturally, would for the only All-Star Game I've ever been to in person.  I was lucky enough to get tickets to the 1997 All-Star Game through Ticketmaster over the phone. (Also landed 1994 Opening Day tickets that way too--something that basically never happens now...) We scalped second row tickets for the home run contest the day before for peanuts, and sat right behind someone sporting a giant 1996 World Series championship Yankee ring.  (If you ever think about buying tickets for those HR derby days, don't spend a lot of money--it is incredibly boring.)