A Perfect Day

Why do I suddenly get flashbacks to 2007 all over again?

2007 was the last time fortunes shone so well for the landscape of Cleveland sports. The LeBron James-led Cavs upset the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals for the first (and only) time in franchise history. The Indians won 96 games and won their first AL Central title since 2001, and came within a game of reaching the World Series (leading the Red Sox 3-1 in the ALCS). And the Browns used a eyebrow-raising early-season transaction to reel off 10 victories -- the most since the team returned in 1999 -- and came within a tiebreaker of reaching the NFL Playoffs for just the second time since that return.

Unfortunately, 2008 happened, which led to every other year until now. The Cavs never could reach the NBA Finals again and then wound up losing James to Miami. The Indians couldn't take advantage of back-to-back Cy Young Award winning pitchers and wound up trading both away for not much in return. The Browns quickly realized that Derek Anderson was a mediocre quarterback and suddenly found themselves back in the position they've been in -- changing regimes, changing coaches, changing quarterbacks, etc.

"Saviors" came and went -- Mike Holmgren, Byron Scott, Manny Acta, Colt McCoy, James, Eric Mangini, Victor Martinez, Mo Williams, etc. The Cavs became irrelevant after James took his talents down south. The Indians would tease in May but fall apart in June, July and August. The Browns just became a revolving door of mediocrity, as snake-oil salesmen came in with their "grand plans," would blow everything up, but couldn't quite seem to win more than 4 or 5 games each year.

But Sunday -- where both the Browns and Indians won meaningful games, and won them in convincing fashion -- was a day to wash all that away. Today is day where, despite the rainy weather, it looked a bit brighter outside, your breakfast tasted better, your good morning kiss lasted a little longer and you felt about 10 points lighter than you already were.

And, the sad part is, neither the Indians and the Browns have won anything truly meaningful (a.k.a. a championship) yet. But today, Joe Cleveland doesn't care, and I believe most of you don't either.

We'll start with the Indians, since their 5-1 win over the Minnesota Twins clinched something that seemed impossible not just at the start of the season, but at various times DURING this season -- their first playoff berth since 2007 and first-ever Wild-Card berth (all other playoff berths were AL Central Division titles).

Look at this team a little closer -- they had no pitchers with at least 15 victories. Their closer had a "whopping" 25 saves and wound up losing his job down this stretch. They had nobody with 25 home runs or 90 RBIs. They had nobody batting over .300 that was an every-day starter.

But yet, this team -- a team that lost 94 games last season -- went 92-70 this season and will HOST the AL Wild-Card game Wednesday night against whoever wins a one-game playoff between Tampa Bay and Texas.

Even those of you Wahoo Warriors who live, eat and breathe Tribe, those of you who made up the 19,000-fan average at Progressive Field this summer, have to step back and take a look at this team and pinch yourselves. Yeah, they spent some money this offseason. Yeah, they got rid of the Shelly Duncans and Brent Lillibridges and David Delluccis of year's past and brought in viable major league talent. But Nick Swisher, until September, was proving to be a waste of money and Michael Bourn, who led the NL in steals virtually every season, wasn't having the same success in the AL with the Indians. And Drew Stubbs, who was acquired for Shin-Soo Choo, couldn't even stay in the lineup regularly, having been beaten out by Ryan Raburn -- a guy who was brought to camp under a minor-league deal with the most everyone thought of him being was "depth."

Third base was a disaster, as Lonnie Chisenhall couldn't keep his job, Mark Reynolds was even worse and it became a revolving door of Chisenhall and Mark Aviles (a regular shortstop). Carlos Santana regressed as a catcher and Yan Gomes wound up becoming the every-day catcher. And they held on to a 42-year-old former steroid cheat who, if he wasn't hitting a home run or a seeing-eye single, was giving the fans around home plate some additional air conditioning with his hacks.

The pitching -- I won't go into detail. But you went into September with your No. 1 starter on the shelf with an injury and your former two-time All-Star closer suddenly developing a serious case of the yips and becoming more unreliable than he had become in the past.

And yet, with this cast of characters, the Indians go 22-6 in September and end the season on a 10-game winning streak. Go back even further, and they won 17-of-their-last-19 games. Sure, they had a bunch of cupcakes on the schedule in September (they went 17-2 against the White Sox -- and these weren't the 2005 World Champion White Sox), but they played the hand they were dealt and took advantage. They needed to win their last 10 games in a row to even hope that they would be, at least, in a two- or three-way tie for the Wild Card spot, let alone in it at all, and they not only did that, but also cemented that game at home while Tampa Bay and Texas have to waste pitching today to try to simply get the right to play the Indians at a sold-out Progressive Field Wednesday night.

You had that 42-year-old former steroid cheat Jason Giambi deliver, arguably, the biggest home run of the season -- a two-out, two-run walkoff jack to deep right off of White Sox closer Addison Reed that pulled their kiesters squarely out of the fire. Chris Perez gave away a two-run lead in the 9th by giving up a pair of home runs. I would say, if they wind up losing that game, we're not talking about the playoff-bound Indians. We're lamenting about another late season collapse.

I'm not a Giambi fan and I never will be. But I will thank him for single-handedly saving this season. With that home run, they don't win 10 straight games and they don't host the Wild Card game. They might not even be playing today for the right to be in that Wild Card game.

But the biggest reason why this team with this mismatched cast of characters, without a true superstar, without anyone with glittering stats, with former All-Stars going through season-long slumps and high-priced free agent signings underperforming (two of them didn't even last the full season with the Indians -- Reynolds and Brett Myers), is the manager -- Terry Francona.

I will always be a critic of Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti, but they used their prior relationship with Francona to lure him away from the desk of ESPN back into the dugout wearing Chief Wahoo on his hat. Francona came to town with two World Series rings from his days as a Boston Red Sox manager (2004 and 2007), but some felt his resume was blown up by the fact that the Red Sox had one of the highest-payrolls in MLB during that span. He fielded an All-Star team rife with superstar talent, and even when his team wasn't winning World Series titles, they were always in the playoffs and a threat to do so.

With the Indians, he wasn't going to have an owner willing to spend over $100 million to put out the best possible team money can buy. Sure, payroll went up this year, but he didn't have Dustin Pedroia at second base, David Ortiz at DH, Curt Schilling as the ace of the staff, along with Pedro Martinez, or a young fireballer named Jonathan Papalbon as the up-and-coming closer. He didn't have Johnny Damon in his prime. If he would have shown up last year, he would have dealt with Johnny Damon over the hill.

I would argue and say that the managing job Francona did with this Indians team to turn them into a 92-70, playoff team (that actually finished one game behind Detroit for the AL Central crown) was better than the job he did with the Sox in 2004 and 2007. This year, he did more with less. He pushed all the right buttons, kept his team focused, overcame a mountain of adversity in various aspects and, at the end of the day, has them in the postseason.

No one expected them do it. I predicted 81-81 this year, using this as a step in the right direction. No one turns a 94-loss team into a 92-win team in one season -- not in today's Major League Baseball, where there is no salary cap and there is no parity.

Well, Terry Francona did it, and for that, Joe Cleveland thanks him with all of his heart. You made baseball relevant in this town again after years of it not being so. 44,000 people will be at Progressive Field for an October baseball game, and that's because of Terry Francona.

Even if they lose on Wednesday, and even if they can't get past the Red Sox in the ALDS if they do win on Wednesday, I will not be disappointed. It's hard to be disappointed in something you really didn't believe in in the first place. I had written the Indians off many times this year, especially when they stumbled to a 4-15 record against the Tigers. I even had the Indians written off two weeks ago, when they couldn't take advantage of Texas and Tampa Bay playing each other in a four-game series. My tough-love approach worked, and it's not crazy if it doesn't work.

Right now, it's all icing on the cake. Sure, I want the Indians to win a World Series championship -- we all want to see one championship in our lifetimes, especially when we've been devoid of one since 1964. But, to me, the true litmus test is next season. This front office can't sit on their laurels and pat themselves on the back about getting to the playoffs, like they did in 2007. They need to be proactive NOW. If you don't believe in Chris Perez or Asdrubal Cabrera or Carlos Santana, do something about it! Use them to build up your assets for 2014 and beyond! Sure, find some other low-priced free agents that pan out, like Scott Kazmir, Raburn and Giambi, but don't settle for the cheap approach. Sign at least one more guy like you signed Swisher and Bourn. You have $15 million coming off the books with Myers and Reynolds gone, and it could be more by parting with Perez  and Cabrera. Use that money for more talent.

Attendance is guaranteed to spike next season. Tribe fans played the "show-me" game with this franchise this year, and they went out and showed us. Now, we believe. Now, we want to be swept up in Tribe fever like we were in the 1990s. You have a manager that, as Swisher says in his annoying commercial, players respect and love playing for.

2013 should be the start of something great for the Cleveland Indians, not the culmination of something. Larry Dolan said his goal was to win "World Series championships" when he bought this team. Now it's time to put his money where his mouth was.

Which brings me to the Browns ...

Two weeks ago, most Browns fans were talking about "Tanking for Teddy" or "Tanking for Tajh" after Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi stunningly traded Trent Richardson to the Colts for their 2014 first-round pick. The same day, Rob Chudzinski announced that third-stringer Brian Hoyer would be the starting quarterback in place of the injured Brandon Weeden, which only intensified those tank feelings.

Today, nobody's talking about Teddy Bridgewater or any "Bridgewater Bowls" against Jacksonville or anything else like that. Today, everyone's wrapped up in "Hoyer Paranoia" and believing that the Browns can actually do something positive this season.

Sure, it's only 2-2, but they just beat two teams that were in the postseason last season -- the Vikings on the road and the Bengals at home. The Bengals were everyone's pick to win the AFC North this season, and the Browns DOMINATED them, 17-6. The score should have been worse, but kicker Billy Cundiff missed one field goal and had another one partially blocked.

North Olmsted native and St. Ignatius grad Brian Hoyer has become the latest folk hero around these parts. The Cleveland Kid came back to the team he grew up rooting for and led them to two wins in his first two starts. You can't script that any better. And this was a kid that couldn't beat out Jason Campbell to be Weeden's primary backup in training camp (although many observers thought that he did).

All of a sudden, this Browns defense looks to be at tough as advertised before the season. This wasn't the same team that lost, 23-10, to Miami in the season opener at FirstEnergy Stadium. This was a team that could very well be the best team in the AFC North.

Today, the Browns, the Bengals and those Thieving Bastards from Baltimore are all 2-2. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 0-4 ..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

OK, Joe Cleveland had to get that out of his system. Remember, we still have to play the Squeelers from Pittspuke twice, but boy, don't those games sure look winnable now? Especially when you see the Browns beat the Bengals and the Vikings and then notice that both of those teams beat Pittsburgh?

You harken back to that Baltimore game two weeks ago, and can you imagine if Hoyer and Josh Gordon played in that game? The Browns held Joe Flacco and the Ravens to just two touchdowns, but all Weeden could accomplish was two field goals as Greg Little dropped pass after pass and Richardson struggled to gain more than three yards per carry. This team could very well be 3-1 now, because the Ravens aren't that good.

Remember when Browns fans were bitching about taking Barkevioius Mingo over Jarvis Jones, and then feeling that we'd regret that decision when Jones blossoms into another stellar Steeler linebacker? Yeah, me neither. Spinal Stenosis Jones has underwhelmed, to put it nicely, while Mingo -- after a suffering a lung injury that cost him the season opener -- has been an animal out on the field, a true difference maker.

Buster Skrine has even gotten better at what he does. Even Oniel Cousins, who I wanted to hoist off of the 480 bridge after his "performance" in the season opener, has buckled down and been better at the fill-in right guard.

D'Qwell Jackson has emerged as the Ray Lewis of the Browns team (without the murder charge or the insane pregame rants that didn't make any sense). He's become a leader that all sides of the football respect. Jackson is one of the best inside/middle linebackers in the NFL and has made this team HIS team. Same with Joe Thomas, another quiet guy who just goes about his business and could very well be the first Hall of Fame Brown during the expansion era. Hell, same with Phil Taylor.

You remember Phil Taylor, the guy the Browns traded down and drafted instead of Julio Jones, right? Sure, while Holmgren and Tom Heckert botched that trade overall (and the 2012 draft overall), the fact is Phil Taylor is now their version of Haloi Ngata or Casey Hampton -- the big nose tackle in the middle who hits like a freight train and isn't afraid to carry himself with some swagger. He's not Gerard Warren, a guy who talked the talk but, more often than not, didn't walk the walk. He's more like Bob Golic, and that's what this Browns team needs.

The Browns are coached and quarterbacked by guys that grew up in Ohio as Browns fans and are responsible for turning this franchise around. How cool would that be if they actually took this team back to where it hasn't been since 2002?

This week, the national media descends upon Cleveland, with Progressive Field hosting the Wild Card game Wednesday and the Buffalo Bills (also 2-2) coming to FirstEnergy Stadium Thursday. Both games will be nationally televised. Both games are in prime-time. Both games will be played in front of packed houses filled with rabid CLEVELAND fans. Whether you wear Wahoo on your cap with red, blue and white or you prefer Brownie the Elf along with your brown, orange and white jerseys, you will show the country why Cleveland has the best damn sports fans around.

Yeah, we bitch and we moan and we complain about this or that, but wouldn't you when you've been buried in mediocrity for so long? You can only take so many ESPN punchlines for so long before you get resentful. It's what makes us so passionate. As I tried to explain to people who called me an "Indians hater" -- I don't hate the Indians. If I didn't care about them, I wouldn't complain. If I didn't care, I'd ignore them.

This town is full of people who truly care about the Indians, Browns, Cavaliers and Ohio State football (they won on Saturday, too, by the way, over a ranked Wisconsin team that a few in the national media predicted they'd lose to). They want to be entertained, but they want to win. Deep down, a lot of them believe, in their heart of hearts, that "this" is the year that the (fill in the blanks) turn it around.

Well, we can honestly say that about the Indians, whether they continue this remarkable journey or not. We want to believe we can say that about the Browns. The Cavs ... we're not quite there yet, but there was a lot of hype when Andrew Bynum was signed in free agency, so you never know.

Hopefully, in five years, we can look back at 2013 as the year where it all began and not as the blip on the radar screen like we're doing six years later as we look back at 2007.

Shout from the rooftops, Cleveland! Today is your day! Hopefully, by Friday, we're still feeling as good as we are.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!

Outbreak of Tribe fever

"Indians fever ... It starts from the very first inning."

Remember that old jingle from the 1980s? If you grew up in Northeast Ohio like I did back then and watched the Indians on WUAB-TV 43, you probably do.

It's been a while since we can talk about "Indians fever" and talk about it positively. The last several years, "Indians fever" could have been likened to an epidemic like E-Coli or the West Nile Virus. Cases of "Indians fever" included referring to seasons as "a grind," getting off to a slow start one season and then limping down the stretch in a second, becoming a penny-pinching miser that liked to go bargain-hunting in the discount rack and sinking resources into a toboggan ramp during the winter months, among others.

Three names have turned "Indians fever" into something positive -- Terry Francona, Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn.

Although, it starts with Francona, because without him (even if they made Sandy Alomar Jr. the manager), neither Swisher or Bourn come to Cleveland, even with the deals they offered them.

Francona became, arguably, the biggest name manager the Indians have ever hired. John McNamara was a successful manager with the Red Sox, but was aging when he was hired in the early 1990s. Frank Robinson garnered a lot of headlines because he was the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball history in 1975, but he had never managed before and was mostly known as a player.

Even Mike Hargrove, arguably the Tribe's most successful manager ever (although you could make a case for Al Lopez or Lou Boudreau), while coming in with a lot of hype because of his status as a former Indian ballplayer, had never been a MLB manager before he took over for John McNamara (and, briefly, John Hart) in 1991.

Francona came back to the Indians with two World Series rings from his successful stint as the Red Sox manager, which came to an inglorious end in 2011 when his team gave up a large lead in the AL East and wound up totally missing the playoffs.

By and large, since hiring McNamara, and even before that, the Indians have usually settled for hiring the unknown commodity. Following Hargrove, Charlie Manuel, Joel Skinner, Eric Wedge and Manny Acta were hired to mostly yawns from the fanbase. All four were fired (although Skinner got a job on Wedge's staff and will always been known as "Stop-Sign Skinner" as a result) after just two playoff berths and four winning seasons during that span.

The last two years under Acta, the Indians got off to great starts only to falter in the second half. Last year's five-win August essentially sealed Acta's fate.

When Acta got hired, he claimed that managerial jobs for franchises like the Indians "go to guys like me" and that "Tony LaRussa wouldn't be walking through that door." Who knew how wrong he would be!

Francona spent his early childhood in Cleveland while his father, Tito Francona, played for the Indians from 1959-64. Terry himself spent the second-to-last season of his 10-year MLB career playing for the Indians, batting .311 with one home run and 12 RBIs in 60 games in 1988.

In the three seasons before he became Boston's manager in 2004 and after he had managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997-2000, Francona spent one year serving as a special assistant to Tribe general manager Mark Shapiro. Francona and Shapiro and Chris Antonetti, who wound up becoming the team's GM when Shapiro was inexplicably promoted following a disasterous 2009 season, all grew to be very close.

Both of those factors played into Francona's decision to leave a cushy gig analyzing baseball for ESPN to head back to the dugout with the Indians. In fact, Francona stated that the Indians' job was the only one he would have considered, which the Cleveland-hating ESPN felt was incredulous.

Many felt that if the Indians were going to resume their bargain-basement spending ways, they might as well have saved their money and kept Alomar in the manager's office. Alomar is one of the most popular players from the "Jacobs Field Era of Champions" and fans would have given him a considerable longer leash than they did did Wedge and Acta. Alomar could have been allowed to grow into the job like Hargrove did. However, the Indians had another trick up their sleeves.

Using Francona as their lead recruiter, the Indians hit the free agent market ready to shop. It didn't hurt that Larry and Paul Dolan had $250 million to spend after selling SportsTime Ohio to FOX Sports.

Along with Swisher and Bourn -- the latter signed a four-year, $44 million deal on the eve of spring training -- the Indians also signed slugger Mark Reynolds and pitcher Brett Myers and traded Shin-Shoo Choo's expiring contract to the Reds for speedy outfielder Drew Stubbs and top-notch pitching prospect Trevor Bauer, among others.

They also showed that old habits die hard and did their share of bargain hunting. Signed to minor league deals were aging slugger and former steroid cheat Jason Giambi, former standout pitchers Scott Kazmir and Daisuke Matsuzaka, oft-injured closer Matt Capps and outfielder Ryan Raburn. Kazmir and Raburn made the team. Giambi will open the season on the disabled list with a phony injury, while Matsuzaka and Capps agreed to start the season in Class AAA Columbus.

With another season of Indians baseball set to begin tonight at Toronto, optimism is at its highest in many, many years. You'd probably have to back to 2002 for similar optimism, and that's only because the Indians had just made the playoffs six times in the previous seven seasons. Optimism wasn't high in 2008 following their spirited postseason run in 2007 because the Indians did nothing during the offseason to build off of what they did, unless you consider giving designated hitter Travis Hafner $57 million to spend more time in the training room than he did in the batters box.

Joe Cleveland hasn't been shy about his criticism of the Indians in recent years, especially when it comes to the Dolans, Shapiro, Antonetti and Wedge or Acta. And, while I applaud their recent spending spree, I'm not ready to anoint them a playoff team just yet.

Various preseason prognasticators have the Indians finishing as high as second or even as low as fifth in the AL Central. Some have them winning one of the Wild Card spots, while others think they'll flirt with 90 losses again.

And, the main reason for that, and the main reason why Joe Cleveland is skeptical about this Indians team, is their sketchy pitching staff.

While the Indians spent a lot of money to beef up their lineup with a nice mixture of power (Reynolds, Swisher, Stubbs) and speed (Bourn, Stubbs), they really neglected to address their questionable starting pitching.

The Indians' top two starters, Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, went 11-15 and 9-17, respectively, with ERAs of 4.93 and 5.40, respectively. Not exactly the second-coming of Bob Feller and Bob Lemon.

The fourth starter, Zach McAllister, went 6-8 with a 4.24 ERA last season. He was the Indians' third-best starting pitcher last season.

Myers, the free agent signed by the Indians in the offseason, split the 2012 season between Houston (0-4, 19 saves) and the Chicago White Sox (3-4). All told, he went 3-8 with a 3.31, making 70 appearances WITHOUT A SINGLE START!

Kazmir, the bargain-basement signing who beat out Bauer and Carlos Carrasco for the fifth spot in the rotation, was out of the majors last year, spending 2012 with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League and going 3-6 with a 5.34 ERA. He was 9-15 with 5.94 ERA with the Los Angeles Angels in his last full big-league season, which was 2010. He hasn't appeared in a major league game since making one start with the Angels in 2011.

This is the rotation the Indians will trot out for the start of the 2013 season, a season that has many folks dreaming of October baseball.

Sure, the defense should be better, with three center fielders in Bourn, Stubbs and holdover Michael Brantley patrolling the outfield. While neither Nick Swisher or Mark Reynolds are fantastic defensemen, they should be better than Casey Kotchman or Matt LaPorta at first base, and you should expect better defensive years from second baseman Jason Kipnis, shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall.

However, the infielders aren't exactly Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, and three center fielders could be an experiment that blows up due to Stubbs playing an unfamiliar position.

Sure, Bauer could be up in the big leagues before the season comes to a close, but Bauer only went 1-2 with a 6.06 ERA in four starts with the DiamondBacks last season. He's far from a finished product.

And, the closer is still Mt. Saint Chris Perez, a volcanic force that can be light's out one minute and be flirting with disaster the next. And, let's not forget his penchant for being a lightning rod of controversy with his mouth. The Indians dangled Perez and Cabrera in the offseason, along with Masterson, but didn't find any offers to their liking.

I expect the Indians to be much better than they were last season. However, I don't think this team will win 90 games. In fact, anything above-.500 this season would surprise me. They need Masterson and Ubaldo to pitch like the aces the team expects if they want any chance at a playoff berth. If not, it will be back to the drawing board for next season.

I think the Indians will engage in a lot of 7-6 games as a result of their sketchy pitching and shaky infield defense and slugging offense (that may set a single-season record for most strikeouts as a team). I think the Indians will finish third in the AL Central behind Detroit (who are legitimate candidates for another World Series, and even a title) and the up-and-coming Kansas City Royals, who may be a year ahead of the Indians in their rebuilding efforts.

The Indians will go 81-81; not horrible, but enough to raise the optimism for next season.

Hopefully, the Tribe exceeds my expectations, but after watching the Indians for most of my life, I can't help but have tempered expectations.

While Terry Francona can proclaim that this is "a Tribe Town" and "a baseball town," at this moment, it certainly is not. However, if Francona can get this team back to the winning ways we saw from 1995-2001 (and the Browns continue to be stuck in mediocrity), that proclamation could very well come true.

Until next time, Go Tribe, and remember that Cleveland Rocks!