'You gotta love these guys'
Indians' fun-filled playoff run hits home to fans young and old Sunday, September 30, 2007
Nice guys can finish first, or at least they did in the Central Division.
Think about this year's Indians, winners of 95 games, more than any National League team.
Think about all the smiles
Think about the home-plate home-run celebrations. Little Leaguers seldom seem to have so much fun.
Think of the Indians at the high-roller table with teams from New York, Boston and Southern California.
Think about the Indians vs. the Yankees in Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
They aren't just playoff underdogs, they're Cinderella at the ball with a dress from Kmart.
Now think of whipped cream pies in the face for the hero of the game. Think of how Casey Blake seemed even more shocked than the fans when he won two games in four days with ninth-inning homers. Think of Joe Borowski sweating and fretting through the ninth inning, of Travis Hafner stomping and stalking in the on-deck circle, waiting for a chance to bat.
Then think of Hafner wearing a shirt reading: I may not be smart, but I can lift heavy things. Or think of how none of these players have complained about being in Cleveland, how they score high on the ladder of gratitude, low on the thermometer of entitlement.
Now, think of the fans - new ones come to the team every day.
"I think of my childhood rooting for WHO-LEE-OO [Julio Franco], Cory Snyder, Brook Jacoby and buying $2.50 general admission seats with my dad," e-mailed Trey Edwards from Mentor. "Now my 5-year-old son Ben wakes up every morning and asks who the Indians are playing. We watch the evening games on TV as long as he can stay awake, then the next morning he gets up and asks me to turn on STO for the replay."
Or, as Susan Keen Flynn e-mailed: "My 7-year-old son Connor has been obsessed with the Indians for two seasons. He rattles off the pitching lines and checks the stats in The PD. He takes his glove to the games, even though we often sit in the nosebleed sections. Connor even asked the barber to give him a "Pronk cut."
Playoffs help families make baseball memories
The Indians are in the playoffs.
Think about that - "the Indians" and "the playoffs" in the same sentence. Or the Indians and the World Series in the same dream for a team that was only 78-84 last season and 18 games out of first place.
But the playoffs are about more than winning and losing. They are about parents and kids, and maybe grandparents, too. It's about families making baseball memories. It's about a town rallying around a team, neither of which are supposed to be winners.
The fans began to warm up to the team as the season went on, averaging 31,869 fans after the All-Star break compared with 24,840 before. They sold out the final three games of last weekend's homestand as the town began to sizzle. The Tribe had one sellout in 40 games before the All-Star break, 10 in 37 games after.
"On Sunday, Sept. 23, we had the second-biggest regular-season merchandise sales in team history," said Kurt Schloss, team merchandising director. "People are buying anything that says Division Champs on it. We have six retail stores, and we are fighting to keep up with the demand."
The Indians are supposed to be too cheap to play with the big boys in this medium-sized major-league market with one of the nation's highest poverty levels. According to a USA Today survey of salaries at the start of the season, the top four payrolls were New York Yankees ($190 million), Boston ($143 million), New York Mets ($115 million) and the Los Angeles Angels ($109 million). The Indians ranked 22nd at $62 million.
The Tribe payroll has increased to about $72 million with the bonuses from the contract extensions to Travis Hafner and Jake Westbrook. But the Yankees' payroll rose to $216 million, and Boston up to $153 million with their additions during the season.
So the Indians remain the Little Engine That Could in this high-octane playoff race where everyone else seems to be roaring around the track in a Porsche.
But that also has become part of their appeal.
"They play good old-fashioned baseball and leave their egos at the door," e-mailed 55-year-old Kerry Kralik. "It's refreshing to see a group of athletes that actually have fun and put the team first before themselves, jumping around like little kids."
With 13 victories at Jacobs Field in their last at-bat, the Indians might lead all of baseball in mob scenes at home plate, the players piling on the hero of the day. Then there's the pie-in-the-face routine when the star of the game is interviewed on television. Good teams have these rituals. The 1995 World Series Tribe would stick bubblegum on each other's caps. The 1997 Tribe all pulled up their socks to honor Jim Thome on his birthday, and they began to win with the high uniform socks. It carried all the way to the World Series.
Andy Sikrovsky of Shaker Heights has three children, and he e-mailed, "In addition to falling asleep to the [radio] voice of Tom Hamilton . . . my daughter Mary likes Kenny Lofton. Alison likes Jhonny Peralta. Jimmy likes Victor Martinez. They all like C.C. [Sabathia] and Grady Sizemore. . . . My favorite memory was holding Jimmy in my arms when [Kelly] Shoppach connected on a 3-run homer on June 26 to cap an amazing 5-run, ninth inning rally.
"Fireworks, cheering, celebrating . . . Jimmy got hooked."
And dad was glad to reel in the Tribe's new 6-year-old fan.
Indians fever catching up nationwide
This team is developing its own identity, apart from the failures of the past or the near misses of the late 1990s.
As Mike Luck e-mailed from Gahanna, Ohio: "I'm 61 years old and my first Indians memories are from 1954. This team has been on a mission since the start of the season. . . . It has no egos, everyone helping each other. . . . Victor Martinez is my new favorite Indian . . . consistent, but plays with passion."
Ah, yes, Victor Martinez.
The catcher who a year ago couldn't throw, but now he can. The catcher some wanted to make into a first baseman. The catcher who once barely said three words when he came to the majors, but has matured into a team leader who encourages most players. He also challenged pitcher Cliff Lee in a voice that roared early in the season.
Victor Martinez, the switch-hitting catcher, the clean-up batter, the guy who made up special handshakes for each teammate. He is a superstar, but it seems no one outside of Northeast Ohio realizes it. Even some of the hometown fans don't fully appreciate the thoughtful, determined, gritty man behind the catcher's mask.
The most popular player is Grady Sizemore, dominating merchandising with more than $1 million in sales. Next is Travis Hafner at about $500,000, according to the Indians.
Sizemore appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated this season and no jinx attacked the star center fielder. Instead, the 25-year-old continued to be one of the most potent leadoff hitters in baseball, and attracted even more fans.
"One of my grandsons is named Grady, you can figure out who he's named after," e-mailed Steve Eighinger from Quincy, Ill.
Tribe fans are not just limited to Northeast Ohio. Clevelanders now spread across the country are living and dying with their favorite team, passing the tradition down to their children.
"Last Sunday, my 11-year-old son Jake came down to breakfast in his Grady Sizemore shirt and Indians cap," e-mailed Larry Dunn from Salt Lake City. "He said this was the day we're going to clinch. We subscribe to MLB Gameday Audio and listen to the radio play-by-play and follow pitch-by-pitch on the Internet scoreboards."
Unlikely heroes make game fun for all
The Indians have been building up to this season from June 2002, when General Manager Mark Shapiro realized the team that treated the Central Division as its own baseball playground was getting too old, too expensive to compete. Over the next five years, the team went from 68 to 80 to 93 to 78 and finally to 95 victories this season.
"They are a real TEAM full of unlikely heroes," e-mailed Fritz Johnson from Dover, Ohio. "Down the stretch, Casey Blake, the same Casey Blake that nearly no one wanted at third base - me included - hit two walk-off homers in a week!"
While many adults become frustrated with Blake's struggles to hit with runners in scoring position, he is fourth on the team in merchandise sales as kids love his No. 1 jersey.
This is not a time for hard-eyed, stat-driven logic. It's the Tribe in the playoffs.
"My 6-year-old son Noah and I have invented songs about the Indians set to the 'Jetsons' theme," e-mailed Jim Gill from Beach City, Ohio. "The song goes, 'Meet Trot Nixon. His boy Casey. Daughter Sizemore. Pronk, his wife!' We laugh and laugh when we sing that song."
Why not? The Indians don't do this every year.
"These guys are easy to like," e-mailed Jeff Musselman from Wooster. "We met the team at a function in August. . . . Ryan Garko took my [8-year-old son] around to meet the players. What a nice guy!"
That is the Tribe's reputation. Solid citizens, not especially flashy, perfect for Northeast Ohio.
Kristine Meldrum Denholm e-mailed that her 9-year-old son loves Kenny Lofton "because he played for the Indians three times." Seven-year-old Ryan likes Sizemore because he's fast, and Fausto Carmona because he's winning a lot of games.
But what about 4-year-old Caroline?
"She doesn't follow the Indians too much," wrote Denholm. "But she says she likes Slider, 'He's a funny guy. Once, I sat by him!' "
Welcome to the playoffs, time to enjoy, no matter who your favorite Tribe player (or mascot) may be.
No comments:
Post a Comment