Bill LubingerPlain Dealer Reporter
Cleveland struck down baseball's Evil Empire when it disposed of the Yanks. Next stands another Goliath.
Boston boasts a whole "Red Sox Nation" of fans. Cleveland is merely a North Coast, defended by a scrappy militia of Canadian Soldiers.
Moneywise -- the game's real cleanup hitter -- Boston, the nouveau New York, buys star players at will. For Cleveland, it's like standing behind Bill Gates at the checkout line, clutching food stamps.
Respectwise, Boston is the oddsmakers' favorite.
As the best-of-seven American League Championship Series opens tonight in Boston with the Indians' first World Series trip in a decade at stake, Cleveland steps to the plate outsized, outspent and unappreciated.
So it would seem that Boston, the preppy Silicon Valley of the East, and blue-collar, industrial Cleveland would never be found at the same cocktail party. What would they ever talk about?
A lot, actually. The Indians and Red Sox - and their cities' sports fans - share more DNA than just the season's best records and a special dark place for the Yankees.
"It's already a victorious postseason when the Red Sox advance and the Yankees haven't," said David Horne, a Cincinnati-area author of "The Red Sox Fanatic."
"I'm ecstatic - and I'm sleeping better."
Boston's scorecard lists former Indians Manny Ramirez, Coco Crisp, Alex Cora and pitching coach John Farrell, who still lives here. Indians Trot Nixon, Kelly Shoppach and manager Eric Wedge once played for the other guys.
Boston's storied Fenway Park and its "Green Monster" was designed by Cleveland's Osborn Engineering.
The towering left-field wall is so cool that Jacobs Fields was designed with a green mini-monster, too.
In both cities, teams that win pack 'em in. From 1995 to early 2001, Cleveland set a major-league record 455 consecutive sellouts. Boston is on track to break the streak by late next season. Boston manager Terry Francona is an ex-Indian, just like his father. Tito Francona is among Cleveland's top 100 players of all time and said he still roots for both teams on satellite TV.
Both teams tragically lost young promising stars: Indians pitcher Herb Score with a line drive to the eye; Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro with a fastball to the same spot.
And both teams have a history of gouging each other's hearts.
In 1995, the Tribe's first postseason game in 41 years, former Red Sox-turned-Indian Tony Pena launched a game-winning homer in the 13th inning and began a series sweep.
In turn, Pedro Martinez returned from the dead with six innings of no-hit relief in the fifth and deciding game of the 1999 division series as Boston came back from a 2-0 deficit to advance to the ALCS.
"I remember being at that game and feeling nauseous," said Adam Grossman, formerly of Shaker Heights and formerly a lifelong Indians fan. Now he sleeps with the enemy as special assistant to Larry Lucchino, Red Sox president and chief executive.
And way, way back in '48, the teams were tied for first at season's end. The Indians beat the Red Sox in a one-game playoff and went on to win the World Series. Their last.
"There are so many ties, so many connections," said Red Sox radio voice and former Indians broadcaster Joe Castiglione. Beginning with a "woe-is-me, how-are-we-going-to-get-close-and-blow-it-this-year" mentality, he said.
Like a religion, Cleveland and Boston sports fans match tales of sports heartache, blow for blow.
In any Cleveland sports bar on any night, someone is whining about "Red Right 88," "The Drive," "The Fumble," "The Shot," Jose Mesa blowing game seven of the 1997 World Series and the dreaded "Curse of Rocky Colavito."
In any Boston sports bar on any night, someone is whining about "Bucky 'bleepin' Dent," "Bill 'bleepin' Buckner," and the dreaded "Curse of the Bambino" - despite exorcising that demon in a fairy-tale World Series run in 2004.
"You would think they haven't won, ever," said Boston sports talk show host Michael Holley, an Akron native and Indians-turned-Red Sox fan. "Red Sox fans complain even in good times."
Yet, with all that the Indians and Red Sox have in common, the Boston side owns the one jewel Tribe fans don't: a modern-day World Series ring. (It's been so long in Cleveland that "fall classic" refers to the neighbor's annual clam bake.)
When Boston finally won the title after 86 years, all of New England sighed in relief that now they could die happy. As it turns out, Sox fans still aren't content. So don't expect any we-feel-your-pain, here's-a-gift-from-us-to-you in this series.
"It's never enough," Grossman said. "Once you have one, you want to have two."
OK, pleasant cocktail conversation over. Dear, grab your coat, we're leaving.
There's a game on.
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