Another Cleveland Sports Choke Job

 

By CRS Staff

 

We here at CRS may usually take a jaded view of what's happening in the world of Cleveland sports, but even we occasionally allow ourselves to believe a team from Cleveland can possibly win it all.  This weekend's performance by the Tribe sucked, plain and simple.  Before we move on to focus on making fun of the Browns & eventually the Cavaliers in a few weeks, here are some final thoughts on the Indians last week of the season:

• Can we finally stop pretending this city cares anywhere near as much about baseball as it does its football team?  In the bottom of the 9th inning of Saturday's White Sox game, with the Indians season essentially down to its final three outs, most of my section in the upper deck remained seated (you know who you are, people of Section 556).  In total there were about 5 minutes of that game in which the energy level even approached that of a regular season Browns game.  I'm not sure what John Saunders & Rick Manning were referring to about the 'Playoff Atmosphere' of Jacobs Field all weekend, as I didn't see it.  Most of the fans in my area spent more time going back and forth to concessions than making any noise.  On that note, can I make a request for 2006?  For the 19,000 or so fans that didn't show up until the final week of the season, the 22,000 of us who did earlier in the year have a request for next year - stay home.  That's right, we'd rather not have you at the games than have you show up late, talk on your cell phone, or get up in the middle of crucial game situations (if that ever happened at a Browns game, the offenders would be found hog-tied in a CB Stadium trash bin with a dog bone sticking out of their mouths).
• Does anyone else find it ironic that after Saturday's loss, the Indians postseason hopes were pinned on former Indian (and '97 World Series Game 7 Starter) Jaret Wright beating the Red Sox on the road, in a game that meant nothing for the Yankees?  As if cheering for the Yankees wasn't hard enough, we had to be reminded once again of one of the worst failures in Indians history.  The only thing that could have topped that would have been if Wright had taken the lead into the ninth, only to have former Indian Manny Ramirez hit a grand slam with two outs to win the game for Boston. 
• I can understand how members of the Indians organization would be defensive about being called 'chokers', but why the TV announcers?  If I had to hear another voice say that we should be thankful as fans that the Indians were even in the position to make the playoffs at the end of the season, I may have had to give them the Chris Collinsworth treatment (i.e. turn down the TV volume and listen to the radio broadcast instead).
• Last Sunday when the Browns were on the road versus Indy and the Tribe was in KC, I could not find a single Panini's restaurant open in downtown Cleveland.  One of the biggest sports days of the year (the Browns were still .500; the Indians in the playoff hunt), and perhaps the city's best known sports bar can't even stay open?  Not sure which Cleveland mayoral candidate is running on the 'we need to make sure our citizens can get good bar food even on a Sunday' platform, but I will find out who that is and immediately volunteer for their campaign (by the way, this probably has no real relevance to the Indians, but thanks for letting me vent a little bit).