Ah, spring.† The time when snow melts, flowers bloom, and I get delusional about the Cleveland Indians.† It seems like every year before the season begins, I talk myself into† believing that the Indians might actually make some noise in the Central Division. For the last three years, by this time my expectations have been destroyed and I invest myself heavily into the Cavs.† I could not really do that this year as the Cavs are the basketball equivalent of “Sucker Punch” and I just can’t put myself through that.† There were a lot of “ifs” with the team this year. I remember a friend who asked me if I thought the Tribe was going to be any good, my exact response was, “Well, if the pitching holds steady, if the lineup can produce, if Brantley and Laporta can be any good, if Hafner and Sizemore can give the team anything, if Cabrera and Choo can return to form after injuryÖ”† So on and so forth it went.† But even with all these question marks, I was still pumped for the beginning of the season.† Baseball is my favorite sport, and the Indians are my favorite team, I grew up watching maybe the greatest franchise of the 1990s, I wasn’t going to turn my back on them now!† We have hope!
And then Opening Day happened. An absolutely brutal game to have happen at any time, especially on Opening Day, maybe the only time of the year that the stadium sells out (by the way, as someone who watched the nineties Indians, where they set an MLB record with 455 consecutive sell-outs, seeing how empty the stadium was for that opening series was heartbreaking) and they laid a complete goose egg.† Sure, the Indians made a half-hearted comeback, but still.† They were down 14-0 for most of the game.† Not an encouraging sign.
Then the same thing happened in the second game.† This was not looking good.† My optimism was being replaced by cynicism.† But in their third game, something happened.† ††††††††††††††††††††††† †††Justin Masterson was pitching well in the third game of the season but was facing runners on first and second with nobody out with the White Sox already out to a 1-0 lead.† The White Sox had been brutalizing the Indians in situations like this for the whole weekend.
Then Alexi Ramirez laid down a bunt to move the runners over.† Carlos Santana, normally a catcher, was playing first base.
Santana made a diving catch to get Ramirez out then threw it to second baseman Orlando Cabrera, who made the force at first, who then threw it to Asdrubal Cabrera at second to end the inning.
Triple play.† And the Indians haven’t lost since. Now, I’m not saying that’s a season changing play.† The Indians are only 10 games in.† So many things can happen over the course of a season.† But, stuff like that, little magic moments like that, make up a season, and put playoff teams above everyone else.
The Indians went on to sweep the Red Sox and then handled the Mariners easily. If things continue to go this way the Tribe might shock the world and win the central.† They might also lose 90 games.† But, I prefer to dwell on the positives.