i'm sure Shapiro will be working all the angles, but what the #*@% else is he supposed to do? this team had the best record in baseball, two unstoppable starters, a decent lineup top to bottom, and what appeared to be enough moxie to get it done.

the only thing i can even think of is looking for a replacement for Carl Willis, who didn't get much out of his guys this postseason, but i think that's probably an overreaction. i mean, he sure got a lot out of them during the season.

But, wow.  I would like to be positive about the past three games, but I don't see how it's possible.  It feels like a choke to me even though I can't prove it statistically.  Or in the Wedge vernacular, there was a lot of "pressing" going on.

As we all know, it's so hard to get here (the ALCS) and when you go up 3-1 with CC and Fausto to pitch, you just have to win.  As good as this team is (and will be) and as much as I enjoyed them, the playoffs are promised to no team.

1. 97 WS - duh

2. 99 ALDS - Only because we were winning 5-2. I can still remember the air coming out of the stadium after Oleary's slam, also remember thinking Kenny's separated shoulder was the death knell.

3. This, not #2 only because it was amazing we were in a game 7 to begin with, especially considering the way our aces and slugger performed.

4. 95 WS

5. 01 ALDS

A little blogosphere description of the pain that is being a Cleveland fan.

http://legendofcecilioguante.blogspot.com/2007/10/indians-routed-by-red-sox-there-is-no.html

We didn't lose in the last game of a hard fought series in which the Indians gave as good as they got all series long.  We were up by two games.  The radio jocks were talking about who'd pitch against the Rockies.  

Then we started "playing" really, really, really bad baseball.  We stunk.  We got beat in every facet of the game....badly.  

We can say all we want about next year (and we will be good next year). I'm sure the Skankees, LAA, and several other teams are thinking the same thing. But next year is a gamble for even the best teams.  
We can say all we want about what a good season it was this year...and it was.  But it ended short of even getting to the Series with an abject choke.  How many of those last three games did we keep them under double digits in runs?  How many of those last three games did we score more than 2 runs?  Three hard fought games with tight scores...you could make a strong case that it's not a choke, just baseball.  Three games of getting beat by near-double digits?  That spells "choke".  

I get sick and tired of being philosophical about it all.  I get sick and tired of having to make the case for how good we'll be and how dangerous we'll be "next year".  I get sick and tired of watching other teams benefit from Cleveland's inability to play good ball in the clutch.  (And I'm not going to get into those long, tedious, stats-geek discussions about what "clutch" means).   I get sick and tired of wondering how we'll refer to THIS collapse.  (Swerb's Blurbs recommends "The Stop", to go along with, of course, The Shot, The Drive, The Fumble, etc., etc.)  I get sick and tired of watching other teams' athletes come up big in big games while ours fall apart.  

So another team gets to celebrate while we talk about next year.  Another team's fans get to go to work all smiles and thinking about what a great bunch of players they have while we get to wonder why our big guns didn't play big...again.  Another team gets to hear the media talk about its great run while we have to figure out a name for this latest collapse.  

None of this is to disparage for a moment what the team did get done this year.  In fact, what the team got done makes it all the more painful.  We weren't some team that snuck into the playoffs with a good late run to get the wild card.  We had the best record in baseball..with a tough schedule.  As I kept telling folks, we were better constructed for a WS run that we were in the '90's with two big arms, a very good bullpen, and enough hitting to get it all done.  We were there.  We had everything we needed.  I've read some posts that say things like, "Well, we were lucky just to be here."  Hell, we SHOULD have been there.  We should have been there in 2005.  (We should have at least contended last year.) We had all the pieces at the start and we showed it during the season.

So now it ends, not in a tooth and nail battle to the finish but in a collapse.  I'm sick and tired of thinking, "What the hell does this town have to do to get a championship?"