The Cleveland Indians Have Gone Back to the World Series

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[Cleveland Plain Dealer] [Plain Dealer Copy] [Fangraphs – August Fagerstrom] [Fangraphs – Jeff Sullivan] [Deadspin] [Hardball Talk]

The Cleveland Indians are back in the World Series. It happened when I was in middle school (1995). It happened when I was then again a freshman in high school (1997), and I loved that team. But then there was a drought with so many close calls (1998, 2007, and a few others in between). But this team – it never fit the blueprint of a World Series team after a rash of injuries to their starting rotation. In my mind, this was a good and sound team with an obvious tremendous manager who played the game fundamentally right. But I still saw Boston and Toronto as superior Juggernauts in terms of teams that could knock them off.

With that, they went 7-1 to begin the playoffs. They’ve had little resistance in their path. So let’s look at the reasons I’m happy the Indians are in the World Series in successive order:

  • Francisco Lindor
  • Terry Francona
  • Andrew Miller
  • Jose Ramirez
  • Corey Kluber
  • Cody Allen

And that’s it in terms of guys I would pull off their roster in terms of guys I would take over some of the other playoff teams in the tournament.

I’m also extremely happy for so many of my friends and family members who love the Tribe – the ones who have hung in through all the bullshit through all the years. When I say ‘bullshit’, there have been some really bad breaks and unfortunate turns that Cleveland has endured, and this is a lot more special than the Cavaliers run. It’s baseball. This is the damn mecca of the sports world when your team makes a World Series.

This shot says it all.

This shot says it all.

Of course, it’s nice also because I’m discussing spending the money and finally attending a World Series game to cross it off my bucket list.

But did I think this Indians team had a legitimate shot to do this? Not after the injuries to Danny Salazar, Carlos Carrasco, and then the minor one to Kluber. Not drawing Boston in the first round.

To me, it’s a bit flukey because I watched the games and saw the lack of offense from their opponent right down to when Ryan Merritt went four and change yesterday. But none of that matters now. The Indians showed up and played the game on their schedule and scored more than the other team when 27 outs were recorded. If you watch sports long enough, these things happen. At this point with the way things have went, it almost feels destiny at this point that the Indians just win the whole damn thing.

Let the record state, that with all the heavily loaded Manny Ramirez/Jim Thome/Grady Sizemore/Pronk Hafner teams that fell short of getting back to the World Series, somehow this little Indians team that could found a way. Baseball is great and surprising all the time.