Wouldn’t you know, the last two World Series appearances for the Cleveland Indians have ended with heartbreaking losses in extra innings in a Game 7.
Cleveland sports fans know a thing or two about drama on the big stage. More often than not, our town has gotten the short end. But thanks to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this year, Northeast Ohio once again discovered what it was like to be a championship city. It’s been a sports rebirth and has gotten rid of the “Only in Cleveland” sports motto people like to say when our teams fall short, often by unbelieveable circumstances.
Sure this World Series loss hurts, and it hurts badly, but it just doesn’t hurt as bad as the World Series loss did in 1997. The 2016 loss is fresh and the wounds still aren’t healed and I’m not happy at all the Indians didn’t win the World Series, because I understand that these opportunities for a championship don’t come around all that often. However, I think part of why I’m more accepting of this loss is that I still can’t believe the Tribe even got there in the first place.
But since they did, Carpe diem, you might say and I would completely agree. I believe the Indians seized the day and provided us fans with one of the greatest World Series of all time. We just didn’t win it.
I think back to 1997 when Craig Counsell of the Florida Marlins scored the winning run in the 11th inning in the World Series Game 7 off Charles Nagy. It was completely devastating. I literally cried for 30 minutes and couldn’t sleep very well for days after and I was a mess for weeks afterward. Nineteen years later, I’m still haunted by that loss and every once in awhile I still see that play happening in my mind with that game-winning bases loaded single just beyond Nagy’s reach and Counsell jumping up and down before he touched the plate to kick off the celebration.
It was so frustrating because the Indians were going to be the team of the 1990’s and were supposed to win that World Series. After all, they were playing the upstart Marlins, an expansion team that had been in existence only since 1993. It didn’t even seem right the Marlins were in the World Series in their fifth season. It also marked the first time a wild-card team had won the championship.
Just two years before that was 1995 when the Tribe made its first appearance in the World Series since 1954 and the Indians rolled through the season, winning 100 games and losing just 44 in a strike-shortened season. They got beat by some Hall of Fame type pitching that year by the Atlanta Braves. So in 1997, I completely expected the Tribe to win because they were supposed to be the better team and had plenty of playoffs experience. They didn’t and I am still waiting for an Indians championship.
The Tribe came close a few other times by getting to the American League Championship Series again in 1998 and in 2007, but lost both times. Unfortunately, it would be another 19 years after that 1997 season before the Tribe made it back to the World Series.
This time it was completely different. No one was giving the Indians much of a chance to win it all. It would have been a great season just to beat the Red Sox and to be the team that ended David Ortiz’s career. I would have been satisfied if that’s all the Tribe had accomplished. However, the underdog Tribe amazingly swept Boston and then beat a tough Toronto Blue Jays team in five games.
Now the Indians were going to play a mighty Chicago Cubs team that had won 103 games and seemed pretty invincible during the 2016 regular season. Few, if any, on the national stage gave the Tribe much of a chance.
A win behind Corey Kluber in Game 1 gave the Indians confidence they could play with and beat the Cubs. After a win in Game 4 gave the Indians a 3-1 series lead, it looked promising. The Tribe needed to win just one more time out of three and the last two games, if necessary, would be played in Cleveland.
Yet, there was still uneasiness about the series lead. In a way, that cushion turned out to be Fool’s Gold. The Indians starters would be pitching on short rest while the Cubs starters were all on their normal rest and their offense had seemed to rediscover its hitting strokes.
Even with this, I still felt like Tomlin and Kluber could come through when they were needed at their absolute most, but it was a lot to ask, but I still believed. These guys had given everything they had up to that point and Terry Francona had done a magnificent job by using rubber bands, paperclips, glue, bubble gum and chewing tobacco or whatever else to hold this makeshift rotation together. The fact the Indians had made it this far almost seems like a miracle. As we know, the Cubs jumped out to a 5-1 and 6-3 leads in Game 7 and the Indians never led in the game, but this ever-resilient Tribe team scraped together a historic comeback capped by Rajai Davis’ 2-run home run off Aroldis Chapman to tie it up at 6-6 in the eighth inning.
A 17-minute rain delay seemed to zap the Tribe of some of its momentum and the Cubs ended up scoring two in the top of the 10th inning. Yet again, the Indians mounted a comeback in the bottom of the 10th and scored a run with another Davis RBI hit. However, it was not to be as it came down the 25th man on the roster with a .197 career batting average asked to keep the comeback alive with two outs. Alas, Michael Martinez grounded out to third and it was all over. I immediately turned off the TV and radio and went to bed. I wasn’t watching any celebration by the Cubs.
Of course, this loss hurts. It really does. But somehow, I’m more at peace with it because I know that the Indians provided us with their greatest season since 1948. It’s different than 1997, when I felt like the Tribe gave it away. This 2016 team never gave up, never let injuries get them down and they continued to plug away and overcome to make it a season in which nearly every out down the stretch in September, October and November mattered.
The Indians played beyond what any reasonable fan could have expected this past season with key injuries to Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, Roberto Perez, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar. The fact they even had a chance to win Game 7 of the World Series remains simply stunning to me.
Yes, I wish like crazy the Indians would have won that Game 7 or wrapped it up in Game 5. But there was a reason why the Cubs won 103 games and won the World Series. They were great too and they had more overall depth and talent on their roster when it came time to play for the championship.
To me, this isn’t a loss that can be pinned on any one thing. There’s no fumble, no shot, no blown save here. It was a best-of-seven series that the Cubs won and the longer the series went on the better the chances became for Chicago. The Cubs ended up making a few more plays when they absolutely had to, so credit to them.
What I’ll remember most about the 2016 World Series was how an underdog played with such amazing resiliency and did the best they could to make so many great memories. I’m not going to be haunted by this loss like I still am about 1997.
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