Few have won down two to none - Pluto

Few have won down two to none
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Boston

- Why was the Indians' victory last night so big? Consider that since the League Championship Series went to seven games in 1985, there have been 17 teams that have lost the first two games. Of those 17, only three went on to win the series. The three teams that won the series after being down, 0-2, were the 1985 Kansas City Royals, the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals- in the first year of the new setup - and the 2004 Boston Red Sox. That means only one of the last 15 teams to be down, 0-2, has come back to win the series. Those Red Sox came back from 0-3 to ambush the Yankees.

In the regular season, C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona walked only 98 in 456 innings, that's about two per game. But in 8 1/3 innings, they've walked 10 in Boston. Then consider that Tribe pitchers walked the fewest hitters in the American League, but Boston also drew the most walks in the AL. The patience of the Red Sox hitters is frustrating the Tribe's two aces - something that never happened during the regular season.

In 9 1/3 playoff innings, Sabathia has given up 11 hits, 11 walks and 11 runs. The key stat is the 11 walks. New York and Boston determined Sabathia has been enticing hitters to swing at breaking pitches just out of the strike zone. They have been taking those pitches, forcing Sabathia to throw his fastball. He has been high with his fastball, creating a lot of foul balls and high pitch counts. He's thrown 199 pitches in those games, only 100 for strikes. This from a guy who had only 37 walks in 34 starts this season.

In four innings, Carmona threw 100 pitches, only 51 strikes. He walked five. Consider that in his previous 33 starts, only four times has Carmona walked more than three hitters. Let's not blame the umpires for the walks because Boston starters Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling did not walk a hitter in 10 2/3 innings. Sabathia and Carmona both seemed uptight and trying to throw too hard.

It's nearly two years since the Indians traded Coco Crisp to Boston for Kelly Shoppach and Andy Marte - those three being the key players in the deal. In Crisp, the Red Sox have, in the opinion of manager Terry Francona, a "Gold Glove-type center fielder." Boston assumed Crisp would hit close to .300 in their power-packed lineup.

In 2006, Crisp played with a finger injury that required surgery, hitting a soft .264. Healthy this season, Boston expected him to return to his Cleveland form, but he batted .268 with 6 HR, 60 RBI and a .330 on-base percentage. It's a major drop from 2004-05 for the Tribe when Crisp averaged 16 HR, 70 RBI and 33 doubles while batting .298 with a .345 on-base percentage. The Red Sox have a 24-year-old phenom in Jacoby Ellsbury, who batted .353 in 33 games for the Red Sox. This came after a minor-league career where he was a .314 hitter. There is talk Crisp could be traded this winter.

Marte was supposed to be the third-base answer for the Tribe, but he has spent most of the last two seasons at Class AAA Buffalo. He lost his job to Casey Blake early this season, then batted .267 with 16 HR, 60 RBI and a .309 on-base percentage for the Bisons in 352 at-bats. The Indians were pleased because Marte batted .306 (33-of-106) in August, with 5 HR and 17 RBI.

Marte has been in Class AAA for most of the last three seasons. He is out of minor-league options in 2008, and the Indians don't want to lose him on waivers like they did Jeremy Guthrie and some other players. One theory about Marte is that he's been in Class AAA too long and got discouraged. Another thought is that he has a big swing and the right-handed hitter seems weak on breaking pitches on the outside corner.

Marte seems like he's been an eternal prospect, but he doesn't turn 24 until Oct. 21. The Indians don't want another Brandon Phillips situation - a player brought up to the majors too early, then written off too soon. Phillips became a star with the Reds, where he batted .288 with 30 HR and 94 RBI at second base. Just as Marte will be next spring, Phillips was 24 when the Indians dumped him in a deal for minor-league pitcher Jeff Stevens.

One consideration is to open 2008 with Marte at third. Blake is gifted enough to play left or right field. But the Indians have lots of corner outfield candidates in Franklin Gutierrez, Jason Michaels, prospect Ben Francisco (International League batting champ) and David Dellucci. Kenny Lofton is on the roster now, but he'll be a free agent. Is it fair to throw Blake into that mix? Taking over for Marte at third early in the season, Blake ranked fifth in the AL in fielding average while hitting .270 with 18 HR and 78 RBI. Would Marte do any better than that? Would Blake help more in the outfield? The Indians are asking those questions as they ponder 2008.

They are thrilled with Shoppach, who is an excellent defensive catcher. He's thrown out 36 percent of baserunners, which would rank third in the AL if he had enough appearances. He has teamed up with Paul Byrd to help the veteran win 15 games. Some teams have asked about Shoppach in trade, because they believe he is good enough to start. He hit .261 with 7 HR and 30 RBI in 161 at-bats, so he has some power.

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Red Sox's mettle will be tested
Howard Bryant
ESPN.com

BOSTON -- For 11 innings, the Cleveland Indians played desperation baseball. They survived losing a first-inning lead for the second consecutive night, overcame losing a two-run lead in the kind of way that buries most teams, stared down the hottest offensive tandem in baseball in a crucial late situation with no room for failure, and played two games in Boston with neither of their elite pitchers able to escape the fifth inning.


But the American League Championship Series now is tied at one game apiece, courtesy of Cleveland's exhausting 13-6 win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. The victory was capped by a seven-run knockout punch in the top of the 11th inning, but it was defined by the Indians' ability to counter each moment in Game 2 that appeared to signal a Boston mandate.

Now, entering Monday's Game 3, it is the Indians who come home from Boston having lost nothing and gained everything. The Tribe relearned some things about themselves, and this variety of psychological victory is not insignificant. Trot Nixon, whose one-out bloop single off Javier Lopez in the last frame ignited the exclamation point, acknowledged his young teammates might have been a bit intimidated by the Fenway postseason crush during their Game 1 loss. Before Game 2, one Red Sox player predicted that Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona would fall apart once he heard Boston's October crowd firsthand. The mind games, even at this late date on the calendar, do not stop.

"I'm so proud of these guys for the way they've persevered throughout the entire year," Nixon said. "No one was picking us to win. They persevered in New York in a hostile atmosphere. We didn't play the way we wanted the first night. Maybe we had some big eyes out there, but I think they learned a lot in that first game and were able to come out against a top-flight pitcher like Curt Schilling and get after it a little bit."

To that point, it appeared the Indians would struggle through, just valiant enough to lose -- if for no other reason than the Red Sox were home, with the final at-bat.

That advantage now turns to Cleveland -- and quickly. This series has turned into a best-of-five, with the Indians hosting three games. The Tribe have pierced the air of invincibility that permeated the Red Sox, who convincingly won their first four playoff games, by proving they can beat them in October.

Conventional wisdom holds that momentum in a playoff series contains as much carry-over effect as the gifts of the next game's starting pitcher, meaning Jake Westbrook and Daisuke Matsuzaka now are more important than anything that occurred in Game 2.

Pressure is constant, but in Game 3, for the first time in this postseason, the Red Sox are the ones who need to learn something about themselves, most clearly, how much they can count on Matsuzaka. He is pitching to keep the Red Sox from a deficit against a revived Indians team and will be their Game 7 starter, if necessary. As of now, Matsuzaka has not proven he can handle this kind of prime-time exposure.

When the Red Sox paid a combined $102 million for Matsuzaka, the plan was for him to stand where he is now -- but as a proven veteran with a reputation for rising against pressure. He was to be a Japanese version of the great Orlando Hernandez, whose regular-season win totals always have been modest in comparison to his postseason exploits.

But his first taste, a 6-3 Red Sox win over the Los Angeles Angels in Game 2 of the AL Division Series, was not encouraging. He lasted just 4 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and three runs.

To his credit, Matsuzaka pitches with an ace mentality. Like Schilling, his determination increases with men on base. He pitches with a grim sense of duty, and because of his toughness, the damage always seems as if it could be worse.

The problem is, Matsuzaka creates much of his own trouble. Despite his resolute demeanor this season, he often committed the type of pitching mistakes that plague losing pitchers and prevent good pitchers from becoming great.

Matsuzaka led the Red Sox in hits allowed, earned runs, home runs, walks and hit batsmen -- all categories great pitchers avoid. He threw four more innings than Josh Beckett but walked twice as many men. In nine of 32 starts, Matsuzaka yielded as many walks as hits, and Boston lost six of those games.

Worse, he is prone to quickly giving away leads, as he did against the Angels after the Red Sox scored twice to take a 2-0 lead. By the bottom of the second, Boston trailed 3-2.

For the Indians, they must be bolstered by their response to three important sequences in Game 2.

Leading 1-0 in the third, Carmona struck out two but gave up a base hit to David Ortiz -- who entered the game hitting .778, a number even slow-pitch softball players don't often reach -- to load the bases for Manny Ramirez. Carmona walked Ramirez on four pitches to tie the game.

The next hitter, Mike Lowell, ripped a two-run single to give the Red Sox the lead and continue the theme that the best Indians pitchers could do nothing with the heart of the Red Sox's order.

The Sox chased out Carmona after four innings, 95 pitches and five walks. They didn't hit him hard but executed nearly perfect at-bats by not swinging at pitches that were even the slightest millimeter out of the strike zone. Carmona, who threw the same darting pitches that made the New York Yankees chase out of the zone, would not be helped by a patient Red Sox team.
With the momentum, Schilling -- another big-game pitcher -- retired Travis Hafner on a fly before yielding three straight hits. The third was a three-run homer to Jhonny Peralta that snatched back the lead for Cleveland. Grady Sizemore, the wondrous center fielder, banged a line-drive homer into the Boston bullpen an inning later to make it 5-3, Cleveland.

When the Red Sox erased the deficit and set the Fenway crowd aflame with a three-run fifth -- highlighted by consecutive home runs from Ramirez and Lowell -- the Indians' knees did not knock. They responded the very next inning, manufacturing a run around a leadoff walk by Peralta.

And finally, with the Red Sox ready to break their hearts and the fans set to pounce, the Indians did not blink. In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and the winning run on second in a 6-6 game, Rafael Betancourt, pitching his third inning of relief, fought and beat Kevin Youkilis through an 11-pitch at-bat. In the 10th, reliever Tom Mastny cleanly sliced through Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell -- the second time in the series the three were retired in order. The vaunted Sox mustered only one hit after the sixth inning.

For the first time this series, it was Exhibit A of the Indians taking a big punch from the Red Sox and countering with a roundhouse of their own.

"There's no one who should feel bad in the clubhouse but me," said Schilling, who entered the game with the best winning percentage in postseason history. "Everything about this one falls on me. The way [Carmona] was early in the game and the way we were hitting and our at-bats, you knew we were going to grind it out on him and run him out of the game early. We put together a great inning, take a lead and get up to the Peralta at-bat, and I let it get away. ... This was all about me coming up small in a big game."

The Tribe had something to do with that. Now, it's their turn to show the Red Sox how Cleveland rocks.

Howard Bryant is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine. He is the author of "Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston" and "Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball." He can be reached at Howard.Bryant@espn3.com.

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Yogi Berra, noted baseball philosopher, once said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Funny guy, Yogi.

C.C. Sabathia was robbed at gunpoint in a Cleveland hotel room late in the evening of May 16, 2002 by former Cleveland State basketball players Damon Stringer and Jamaal Harris after a night of partying. The next morning, he stared at Yogi's fork through bloodshot eyes. No laughter could be heard.
Sabathia, who will start Game 1 of the AL Championship Series tonight against Josh Beckett at Fenway Park, lost $40,000 in jewelry and $3,200 in cash in the robbery. He was 21, coming off a rookie season in which he'd won 17 games and beaten the 116-win Seattle Mariners in the postseason.

General Manager Mark Shapiro, who would start to rebuild the Indians six weeks after the robbery, had big plans for Sabathia. Getting a 4 a.m. call from Cleveland Police about his star pitcher was not one of them.

"I can honestly say that was a turning point in my life," said Sabathia. "I could have went down that road or the road that I'm on now. I could have just kept getting worse, doing what I was doing, putting myself in bad situations.

"From that day, it was like a light went on. If you want to be a professional athlete, you can't keep doing the things you're doing."

The man who turned on the light and pointed its harsh glare into Sabathia's eyes was his father. He bore the same name as his son, Charles Carsten Sabathia.

"The morning after I got robbed, my mom and dad came out here from California," said Sabathia. After a couple of days, Margie Sabathia returned to her job in Vallejo, Calif. Sabathia's father never left.

Sabathia and his father hadn't spent a lot of time together for several years.

We were close when I was a kid until my folks got divorced when I was 13," said Sabathia. "Then we lost contact."

The senior Sabathia, nicknamed Corky, did not waste words.

"He said I needed to change," said Sabathia. "He was always hard on me. He always told me I would be an All-Star. He was always telling me what he saw in me. He said if I wanted to get there, I needed to change
Telling a rich young professional athlete to change is one thing. Making him change is another.

"He made me change," said Sabathia. "He stayed on me. It was always, Where are you at? What are you doing? Who are you with?' Things like that.

"It was something I needed being 21 years old in the big leagues."

Sabathia has since married. He and his wife, Amber, have two children. In the Indians' press guide, he lists his mother as his hero.

In 2002, he needed his father as well.

"I got a chance to be with him for two years until he passed away," said Sabathia. "I got time to be his son again."

"The knots between them had loosened," said Margie Sabathia. "By the time C.C.'s dad died, those knots were tied up again. I'm glad C.C. didn't get hurt when he got that gun stuck in his face, but there's a reason for everything because it brought him and his dad back together. C.C. and I talk about that all the time."
During those father-son conversations, Corky talked about the Giants building their new ballpark.

"He was looking ahead and saying I just might have a chance to pitch in an All-Star Game there," said Sabathia.

In July, Sabathia worked a one-hit inning of relief at AT&T Park in San Francisco for the American League All-Stars. Corky Sabathia was right. He just didn't get to see it.
When the Indians drafted Sabathia, he'd just finished his senior year at Vallejo Senior High School in Vallejo, Calif. He was 17 when he came to Cleveland for the first time.

Shapiro, farm director at the time, was the first person Sabathia met.

"He took me out to breakfast and told me what was expected of me," said Sabathia.

When the Indians eliminated the Yankees in Game 4 of the AL Division Series on Monday at Yankee Stadium, Shapiro sought Sabathia out amid the clubhouse celebration. The big left-hander had started the series with a victory in Game 1 at Jacobs Field.

"I told him I was proud of him as a person, a man and a baseball player," said Shapiro.

Said Sabathia, "That meant a lot to me."

There is a good chance that Sabathia, 19-7, will win the Cy Young award this year. Beckett, the AL's only 20-game winner, is his closest competition. All of which turns the crank another notch on Game 1 tonight.
When asked about the Cy Young, Indians pitching coach Carl Willis said: "No disrespect to any of the other great pitchers in the league, but I don't think it's close. I don't think it's close."

The Indians have had one Cy Young winner in their history - Gaylord Perry in 1972. Sabathia, however, has talked about one thing only this year - the postseason.

"He wants to take this organization to the next level," said Willis. "He wants to raise a World Series flag. He wants to be at the center of that. I think that's why it's a different feeling when he pitches because these guys know that."
After Sabathia changed off the field, he had to change on it. The story of his transformation from a hot-tempered, umpire-baiting, hard-throwing left-hander to a polished pitcher has been talked about much this year.

"It happened after a start in Oakland," said Sabathia.

That would be Sabathia's annual flop in front of family and friends who make the drive from Vallejo to McAfee Coliseum to see him pitch when the Indians are in town. On this particular day, July 25, 2005, Sabathia allowed eight runs on eight hits in 2 1/3 innings. He walked two and didn't strike out a batter in a 13-4 loss.

It was loss No. 4 in a five-game losing streak.

"In my next bullpen, Carl and [bullpen coach] Louie Isaac changed my mechanics," said Sabathia, "and I just let all that other stuff - the anger, the arguing with umpires - go. I started having fun again."

Sabathia, after one more loss to Seattle, won 10 of his final 11 starts. Manager Eric Wedge swears Sabathia has had "ace" stamped on his forehead ever since.

"It wasn't easy, but he never gave into the fight," said Wedge.

Margie Sabathia still tests her son's temper from time to time.

"I try to aggravate him after a game just to see where his head is at," she said. "I'd tell him 'Dd you see this and that?' He'd tell me, 'It's only a game.'

"Earlier this year, he lost a game, 1-0 [to Boston on July 24]. I'd say 'C.C. come on it's not all your fault.' But he told me, 'What would have happened if I didn't give up that one run?' He's very self critical, but you'd come away saying, 'You know, he's right.'
The responsibilities of fatherhood and marriage calm some players. That is a big part of Sabathia's success, but not all of it. Earlier in the season there was a rumor that he punched a wall after a frustrating game and needed to get his hand X-rayed. The Indians denied it, but it was still written.

"That really made me mad," said Sabathia. "It's so not true. I had no reason to punch a wall."

What came to light is that Sabathia, 27, did everything physically and emotionally to make himself a better pitcher. In a 10-start stretch from July 24 through Sept. 8, he went 4-3 with three no-decisions. He never pitched fewer than six innings nor allowed more than two earned runs. The starts seemed to be produced from one mold by a clean, efficient pitching machine.

He certainly had more successful stretches during the season, but none better showed his ability to pitch consistently well against good competition. A few more runs during that stretch would have guaranteed Sabathia 20 victories, but he kept his emotions banked and his competitiveness sharp. Two of his four victories came over Minnesota's 2006 Cy Young winner Johan Santana.

"By controlling his emotions, C.C. is able to slow the game down," said Willis. "What that allows him to do is throw any pitch at any count at any point of the game. That's been the key this year. I see the same guy every five days. I think you can go back early in his career, while he was a winning pitcher, he didn't fare that well against good teams or other elite pitchers in the league. Now he's getting the best of those pitchers and those teams."

Sabathia, finishing his seventh season with the Indians, seems to be at peace. His game is in order and his family is close. The other day his 4-year-old son, C.C. III, was running sprints with him in the outfield along with teammate Cliff Lee.

"Little C.C. is just like his father," said Margie Sabathia. "He's non-stop. You've got to throw him 15 to 20 pitches before he goes to bed and 15 to 20 pitches before he eats breakfast.

"You know how big his father is. Little C.C. looks right past him and says, 'I want to be as strong as [Travis] Hafner.' Then he says 'I want to hit just like Grady Sizemore.' When he won't eat, we remind him that he has to if he wants to be as strong as Hafner. Oh, my God, he kills that plate."

Sabathia has one more year to play in Cleveland before he becomes a free agent. Will he stay or will he go? Can the Indians afford to keep him?

"This is so not the time to be thinking about personal stuff," said Sabathia. "It's time to be thinking about the team and getting to and winning the World Series."

The Indians have cleared two of the required four hurdles in that journey. The third ascent begins tonight with Sabathia vs. Beckett.

"I expect it to be a good game," said Sabathia. "I expect Beckett to show up with his A game and I expect to be on mine."

Fenway Park

Boston, Cleveland share a history of curses when it comes to baseball

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.

Red Sox woes are no match for the misery of the Indians - Terry Pluto

Friday, October 12, 2007
The Indians once had a pitcher named Bob Lacey, whose idea of how to lose weight was to drive to the ballpark with the windows rolled up, the heat on full blast -- in August.

They had another pitcher named Juan Eichelberger who refused to sit next to a window on an airplane. Why? Because he thought he'd catch a cold in his pitching arm.

They had a catcher named Jerry Willard who was told by the trainer to "gargle with salt and lukewarm water" for his sore throat.

confused Willard asked, "Where do you get lukewarm water?"

He was told politely to try the faucet.

They had an outfielder named Rodney Craig, the players called him "Buckethead," be cause he wore a size-9 batting helmet. They had a pitcher named Ray Searage, and his nickname with some teammates was Raw Sewage.

They also had a manager named Mike Ferraro who was convinced the Indians "have a black cloud hanging over them."

Why did he say that?

Because his team ran off the field with two outs -- the first two outs of the game. Because his third baseman (Toby Harrah) fell off a ladder. His star pitcher (Bert Blyleven) slipped off a roof -- all in the same off-season. Because his pitching coach (Don McMahon) had a heart attack. And Ferraro himself came down with cancer of the kidney.

All of this was in 1983.

Why bring all this up with the Indians opening the American League Championship Series tonight at Fenway Park?

Because the national media will overwhelm us with Boston Red Sox lore, the ball through Bill Buckner's legs and all the other curses. You'd swear no other team ever endured such misery listening to celebrity mourners such as Stephen King, who remind the world how to be a Red Sox fan is to be tormented.

But a little check of history reveals Boston was in the World Series in 1967, in 1975 and in 1986. In 1988 and 1990, they were in the playoffs. During that same approximate time span -- 1960-1994 -- when the Red Sox were in the postseason five times, the Indians never played a significant game in September. They never did anything but run through 18 different managers in 34 years.


They talk about the Curse of the Bambino, we had the Curse of Rocky Colavito. It was the trade of Colavito in the spring of 1960 that set off the 34-year slump. As bad as the Harvey Kuenn-Colavito deal with Detroit was, even worse was trading Tommy John and Tommie Agee to bring Colavito back in 1965. Talk about compounding the felony, John won 286 games after the Indians traded him and Agee played 10 more seasons as a starting outfielder. Colavito spent two years with the Tribe.

At least the Red Sox never traded Ted Williams.

The Indians once had a hitter like Williams, only he swung from the right side. You will see him tonight in a Boston uniform, wearing No. 24 and a pair of baggy pants with room for a family of four in the seat. And just how did these poor, beleaguered Red Sox acquire Manny Ramirez? Was it shrewd scouting, or a savvy trade?

Nope, they just tossed $180 million at him.

Talk about curses, you should have heard Tribe fans after that happened. Boston misery? Just who are they kidding? When it comes to utter despair, Tribe fans have Boston beat -- no matter what happens in these playoffs.

The Twilight Zone - Cleveland

The Twilight Zone
Other strange but true instances that have occurred in Cleveland:

1. June 4, 1974: Ten Cent Beer Night was an ill-fated promotion held during a game against the Texas Rangers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Fans could drink as many eight-ounce cups of Stroh's beer as they wanted for just 10 cents apiece, thus increasing ticket sales. But the stunt turned ugly when the fans turned into a rowdy and raucous crowd devoid of all inhibition. Ultimately, the game was forfeited to Texas on the orders of home-plate umpire Nestor Chylak because of the crowd's uncontrollable rowdiness, and because the game could not be resumed in a timely manner.

Inning 9: Cleveland was down 5-3. Despite all the projectiles and the occasional fan rushing the field, Cleveland managed to score two runs and tie the game. More fans ran onto the field in celebration. Then someone tried to steal Burroughs' glove for a souvenir. Reports vary about whether the fan was able to get the glove away from Burroughs or not. The fan punched Burroughs; Burroughs punched back.
In reply, nearby drunk and angry fans jumped onto the field, swarming around Burroughs. Some still in the stands wrenched their chairs out of their bearings and threw them onto the field, aiming for Burroughs.

Texas Rangers manager Billy Martin (known to show his temper now and then) grabbed a bat and said to his team, "Let's get 'em, boys," on his way out of the clubhouse. When Martin and his team rushed the field, thousands of fans streamed out of the stands.

Utter chaos. Teams fought with the fans on the field and tried to duck flying chairs and other projectiles. The fans fought with each other, with the Rangers, with the Indians, with the police. They threw a chair at an Indians pitcher, and they hit the umpire with a folding chair. Martin's bat was later recovered, broken.



Chylak, the umpire who had been struck by a chair, waited until all the Rangers players were off the field -- escorted by the Indians players -- and then he called the game a forfeit to Texas, 9-0.
About 65,000 cups of beer had been consumed in four hours.

A mere nine fans were arrested.
The Indians' ownership had no plans to cancel 10-cent beer night until after the American League president said it would be a bad idea to do that again, remarking, "There was no question that beer played a great part in the affair" of June 4, 1974.
All cheap beer nights were subsequently banned from all professional baseball stadiums.

So the next time you're enjoying a beer at your favorite professional ball game but you're not enjoying the price, raise your cup and say, "Thanks, Cleveland!"


2. May 27, 1986: A game between the Red Sox and the Indians was called because of fog after six innings. It led to the infamous Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd quote: "That's what they get for building a park on the ocean." The game was on the shores of Lake Erie.

3. April 6-9, 2007: The entire home series with the Seattle Mariners is snowed out.
Source: ESPN Research

Joba, Yankees can't avoid the plague
By Jerry Crasnick
ESPN.com
Updated: October 5, 2007

CLEVELAND -- The word "bizarre'' doesn't do justice to some events on a baseball field. Randy Johnson once struck and killed a dove with a fastball. A black cat walked in front of the Chicago Cubs' dugout in the summer of 1969, portending the team's late collapse against the Mets. And 15 years ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates actually enjoyed a winning season.

Then you come across games like the one that took place in Cleveland on Friday night. They haunt the losers' dreams, make the winners feel blessed, and force the rest of us to scramble to make sense of it all.

With the New York Yankees on their way to pulling even in their American League Division Series with the Indians, Jacobs Field turned downright Biblical. Plagues of insects dropped from the sky, swarmed the infield and turned New York reliever Joba Chamberlain into an "Off''-drenched monument to distraction.

While Chamberlain was looking itchy, the Indians scratched out a run to tie the game. Three innings later, Travis Hafner's bases-loaded single off Luis Vizcaino scored Kenny Lofton to give Cleveland a 2-1 victory, and you could only wonder where this thing might be headed.

The Indians are resigned to playing without the support of Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, a diehard Yankees fan from head to toe. But they just might have a claim on destiny.

"Just when you think you've seen it all, you see something new,'' New York shortstop Derek Jeter said. "I guess that's the home-field advantage for them -- just let the bugs out in the eighth inning. It worked.''


On a normal night, the storyline would have revolved around the stellar performances of the two starting pitchers. Andy Pettitte lived up to his reputation as the Yankees' big-game guy, keeping the Indians off the board despite allowing a leadoff hit in five of his seven innings.

And Cleveland's Fausto Carmona, who emerged as a star this season with a 19-8 record, was as good as advertised. He pounded the zone with sinking fastballs in the mid-90s, induced lots of uncomfortable swings, and easily outdid staff ace C.C. Sabathia, who labored through five innings in the series opener Thursday.

"I've had guys come down to first base all year, great hitters in our division who just want no part of him,'' said Indians first baseman Ryan Garko. "I'm talking about guys who've made All-Star teams and won MVP awards, and they're like, 'This guy is just nasty.' You don't hear that a lot about pitchers. I hear it about him all the time.''

Through seven innings, the Yankees held a 1-0 lead on a Melky Cabrera solo home run, and events were playing out just the way manager Joe Torre envisioned. He would call upon Chamberlain, his new weapon of mass destruction, and Kid Joba would blow away the Indians with his fastball and confound them with his slider as the bridge to closer Mariano Rivera.

The strategy worked to perfection in the seventh, when Chamberlain whiffed Franklin Gutierrez on three pitches and retired Casey Blake on a harmless fly ball to escape a one-out, two-on jam.

But something weird was in the air. During an at-bat in the eighth, Yankees first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz stepped out of the batter's box and began waving his hand in front of his face.

"We didn't know what was going on,'' Jeter said. "I thought he just had something in his eye.''

By the bottom of the inning, swarms of small flying bugs, apparently midges, had engulfed the infield. It was bad enough that Chamberlain had to summon the trainers from the dugout twice to shower him with bug spray.

All over the infield, umpires and Yankees were suddenly waving their arms like human windshield wipers. The bugs were more distracting than TBS sideline reporter Craig Sager's lavender sportcoat.

"It was really tough,'' said Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. "They came out of nowhere, and they just kept coming. For some reason, it seemed like it was the worst right around the mound.''

Control has been a strong point for Chamberlain all year during his progression from Class-A Tampa to national sensation in the Bronx. In 112 2/3 innings encompassing four stops, he walked only 33 batters, hit four and threw seven wild pitches.

Not on this night. With New York nursing that tenuous 1-0 lead, Grady Sizemore walked on four pitches to lead off the eighth. He moved up on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, then hustled home with the tying run when Chamberlain bounced a pitch past Posada.
The TV cameras showed Chamberlain squinting, flinching, swatting bugs in front of his face and squirming as the insects covered the back of his neck. But Chamberlain, to his credit, declined to use the buggy onslaught as an excuse. He expressed regret for wasting a hard-fought effort by his teammates, and took full responsibility for his performance.

"They were in front of my face, but I wasn't the only one who had to deal with it,'' Chamberlain said. "They didn't show up just for me. You can look at it a million ways, but when you come down to it, we were in the loss column. And it's because I didn't do my job.''

The bugs were an equal opportunity annoyance, for sure. But Carmona, who had it just as bad as Chamberlain, was so focused he never stepped off the mound, much less paced or lost his concentration.

"I played in the Dominican Republic with [Carmona] last winter, and there were bugs 10 times that size flying around that field,'' Garko said. "Those bugs scared me to death. They were enormous.

"It just shows what kind of guy he is. It doesn't matter if it's raining, it's hot, it's cold or there are bugs. He just goes out there and pitches his heart out.''

Before scoring the tying run without benefit of a hit, the Indians had to wonder if they were the cursed team. They went 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position, and caught a bad break when shortstop Jhonny Peralta hit a 420-foot shot off the center-field wall that just missed being a home run in the seventh.

Now the teams head to the Bronx for Games 3 and 4, with Cleveland in need of one more win to end New York's season. If it doesn't happen there, the Indians have the luxury of knowing Sabathia will be waiting to pitch Game 5 at the Jake.

Don't look now, but Alex Rodriguez is 0-for-6 in two games, the Yankees are hitting .121 as a team, and they sure seem to be on the wrong side of the series karma.

At this point it's hard to tell what they need more -- a psychologist or an entomologist