I had a Dream...

 They say sometimes ambien can make you have funny dreams.  I am a straight edge kind of guy but on this particular night I felt more exhausted than I think I had ever felt in my entire life.  My body ached, I felt like I could barley move.  I was so beat up mentally and physically I felt like if I didn't go to sleep I was going to start puking.  I had worked three straight doubles at a nursing home - Delaware Veterans Home - and I had another 14 hour shift ahead of me in the morning.  Yet I lay in bed, feeling half dead and as exhausted as I am - I simply cannot sleep.  I have been staring at the ceiling for at least an hour.  It is now after 10:30 and I have to be up at 5 am to cook three meals for 196 veterans who each have their own strict and complicated diets.  My younger sister has always had trouble sleeping and takes ambien every night and on this night I had enough of looking up at the ceiling yawning, unable to sleep for the life of me.  Posters of Heath Ledgers Joker, dogs smoking cigars and playing poker and my favorite - a 1994 Cleveland Indians promotional Jacobs Field poster featuring Lofton, Baerga and Belle are staring at me.  I went into my sisters room and popped one of her magical sleeping pills.  I have only taken a few in my entire life, and I heard they can cause you to have funny dreams, but on this night I had the greatest dream of my life, one I never wanted to end.

B.J. Upton is a young talented center fielder who is starting to get expensive for a Tampa Bay Rays team that is pinching pennies.  He is also blocking one of the best prospects in baseball in Desmond Jennings and has ruffled a few feathers with his manager and teammates.  Rumors ran wild that he was to be traded at the deadline last season and he has actually been mentioned as a non-tender candidate for 2012.  He also happens to have 30 home run power, great speed and base running ability, good plate discipline and maybe the best range of any center fielder not named LGFT Franklin Gutierrez.  It also happens that with the Indians declining Grady Sizemores $9 million dollar option, the Tribe is in need of a center fielder; and with the trade of their top prospects in the Ubaldo Jimenez deal, the Tribe might have put themselves into a small window to win the world series.  

The Rays are in need of a 1B with Casey Kotchman heading towards free agency (and really maybe just not that good to begin with.)  The Rays, almost in a dire need to deal Upton, take a chance of former top prospect Matt LaPorta, who has absolutely raked in every level of the minors and although he has not translated it to the MLB level yet he is young and the Rays feel like they can make him into a star.  Frank Herrmann, a live arm with decent success at the MLB level is included in the deal, as is Eziquel Carrera to add some OF depth, and Matt Langwell, a prospect the Rays view as a potential back end of the pen arm down the road.  We now have BJ for 2+ years.

Now the Tribe is left without a 1B in a year they will try to contend; but they have found a team that matches up good for them via trade.  The Florida Marlins are opening a new ballpark and trying to make a splash.  They have already spent some serious dollars via free agency but  despite chasing K-Rod, Papelbon and Madson they have came up empty in their pursuit to land a closer.  Leo Nunez, or whatever his name was, was non tendered after having a down year with legal troubles.  The fish really want a good closer and we have one that was an all-star last year.  With the depth we have in the pen we are able to trade Pure Rage if the price is right.  After signing a few bats it looks like Logan Morrison, who was demoted to Triple-A last year and who's fascination with Twitter seems to annoy the fish, seems like he might be out of a starting job in Florida - so the Tribe and the fish agree to swap the two for each other straight up.  Morrison is now our 1B for the next 4+ years. 

The Tribe also makes a few minor league depth signings which include Juan Cruz and Kevin Slowey.  On opening day the Tribe will trot out this 25 man roster onto the field:

Starting 9: C Santana, 1B Morrison, 2B Kipnis, 3B Chisenhall, SS Droobs, LF Brantley, CF Upton, RF Choo, DH Pronk.

Bench: C Marson, Util Donald, CI Hannahan, OF Duncan

Rotation: Masterson, Ubaldo, Carmona, Lowe, Tomlin

Bullpen: Pestano, Sipp, Raffy, Smith, Judy, Cruz, Slowey.

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The 25 man roster looks very solid and ready to compete to represent the AL Central in October.  But things don't start off so well.  Unlike last years 30-15 start to the season, this Manny Acta team starts off like an old Eric Wedge team.  They go 10-18 out of the gate in April, and May dosen't start out much better.  The Tigers on the other hand have the best record in all of baseball in early May.  Verlander is a lock to win his second straight Cy Young, Miguel Cabrera is the early favorite for AL MVP and our old buddy Victor Martinez is hitting just under .350.  The Sox under new blood Robin Ventura are also off to a good start and those young kids in KC are holding their own with a record above .500.  It's the Tribe and the Twins are fighting to stay out of the cellar in the Central.  The Indians start to play better finally going over .500 in the month of May, but drop the first two games of a three game series against Detroit to finish May with a 13-14 record.

On June 1st the Tribe owns a 23-32 record good for 4th place in the Central.  Tribe fans are getting impatient and starting to call for Acta's head.  Their are few positives to go with a whole bunch of negatives.  Choo is having a bounce back year, hitting .295 with 8 HR and 6 SB a third of the way into the season.  Pronk has managed to stay healthy and leads the team with 9 bombs.  Droobs is batting over .300, although he is doing it with not much power (3 HR.)  Marson, Donald and Hannahan are all very solid role players thus far.  Derek Lowe proved to be a good trade as he has a 3.82 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.  Tomlin and Masterson are both showing they are not 1 year wonders, with ERA's of 4.01 and 4.13 respectively.  The Tribe is using a bullpen by committee and thus far Juan Cruz has a been a good FA signing with a 3.40 ERA & 6 SV.  But unfortunately with a 23-32 record the negatives far outweigh the positives. 

Brantley is looking like a 4th outfielder and not a starting LF hitting leadoff.  He owns a .259 AVG with just 2 HR & 4 SB.  Santana is showing nice pop in his bat with 12 2B & 7 HR, and decent plate discipline with a .334 OBP but his average, once again, is down.  He is batting .234 with a .750 OPS as the Tribe's cleanup hitter a third of the way through the season.  While Chris Perez is the NL saves leader, Morrison is batting .246 with 5 HR and is losing time to Duncan and Marson (Santana playing 1B.)  Even LaPorta is outproducing him.  B.J. Upton has 6 home runs and 12 stolen bases, but he is doing so with a .228 average and 65 K's.  Chisenhall is not living up to the hype with a .232 average a 4 home runs, and is losing PT to Hannahan and Donald.  While Pomerez is an early ROY favorite with a 3.18 ERA in Denver, Ubaldo is 2-6 with a 4.84 ERA in Cleveland.  Fausto is still looking for his first win with an ERA of 5.87.  There are actually rumors about him being DFA'd to bring up Barnes or McAllister.  Raffy Perez, Kevin Slowey and Josh Judy have ERA's of 4.44, 4.50 and 4.82. 

Then on June 1, something happened that would change the course of the season.  The Tribe had dropped the first two of a three game set to the Tigers, in Cleveland nonetheless.  A Tribe player had been plunked in each of the first two contest of the series with no retaliation.  Then in the 6th inning of June 1, Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander plunked Droobs to a chorus of boo's to make it three straight games.  Asdrubal was hit in the ribs and had to come out of the game.  Carmona was on the hill for Cleveland and had given up 6 earnes runs in 5 frames.  The Tribe had yet to record a single hit, let alone score a run.  Santana would strike out and not make Verlander pay for making Droobs exit the game early.

But somebody would make Verlander pay.  That is our $7 million dollar, winless 6+ ERA starter.   But on this night he would change the fortune of the team for the rest of the season.  With the first pitch of the 6th inning, Carmona drilled Brennan Boesch in the knee to finally retaliate after three straight nights of Tribesmen getting plunked.  An eye for an eye, score settled it's over right?  Nope, not in Carmona's eyes. The very next batter - MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera, was drilled in the ribs by a Carmona fastball.  Cabrera stairs down Carmona and starts to slowly walk towards the mound as the home plate umpire issues a warning to both sides.  Benches clear and it looks like we are going to get some entertainment.  No punches are thrown and things calm down when umpires intervene.  Nobody is ejected and Carmona stays in to pitch.  Carmona strikes out LGFT Victor Martinez and then gets Alex Avila to ground into an inning ending double play.  Cabrera and Carmona exchange more words on Carmona's way into the dugout.  

Verlander who is throwing a no-hitter and has a 6 run lead, gives up a bomb to Travis Hafner on th the first pitch in the bottom of the 6th.  Kipnis hits another bomb as the Tribe goes back to back.  And the hitting continues.  Morrison and Upton both single and Hannahan hits a sac fly.  Brantley singles in another run as the Tribe puts up 5 in the 6th.  The Jake is going wild!! You can feel something in the air - the season is starting to turn around.  Carmona if for just two innings, goes back to the 2007 version of himself and by the time we get into the 9th the Tribe is down 5-6. 

Valverde, who hasn't blown a save all season, gets Kipnis and Upton to strike out to open up the 9th.  Hannahan punches a two strike single to the opposite field and Brantley draws a 9 pitch walk.  Then Jason Donald - who ironically is playing for the injured Asdrubal Cabrera, doubles down the right field line scoring Hannahan and Brantley - winning the game for the Tribe and handing Valverde his first blown save.  

The Tribe would win their next 9 games to give them a record of 33-32 on June 12th - the first time they would be above .500 for the season.  Over the next month the Tribe would catch fire and jump ahead of the Sox and Royals in the standings.  By the time the all-star break came around the Tribe was 47-41, 2nd place and just 2.5 games out of the Central.  After seemingly everything went wrong the first two months of the season and the baseball God's were jerking our emotions around - once again - everything was starting to go right for a change. 

At the break Michael Brantley had his triple slash line up to .281/.337/.413.  Droobs was starting to see a spike in power while maintaining a high batting average, going .303-9-41-12 and making the all-star squad as a reserve.  Choo continued his bounce back year with a .297-12-53-12 line.  Santana would make a trip to the AS game as well, posting a .253/.345/.468 line with 14 HR & 47 RBI.  Pronk had stayed healthy enough to play in 69 of the first 88 games, hitting .283 with 11 HR.  Morrison caught fire after a terrible first two months and lead the Tribe with 17 bombs.  Kipnis put up a .290-8-41 line while Chisenhall was up to .248-6-33.  B.J. Upton was on pace for a 30/30 season with 16 HR & 23 SB.  Masterson entered the break with a 3.84 ERA & 1.22 WHIP.  Tomlin was holding his own with a 4.08/1.23 line.  Lowe started to come back to Earth but with a 4.32 ERA & 1.34 WHIP over 113 very valuable innings he was well worth the $5 million thus far.  Ubaldo had won his last 6 starts, giving him an 8-6 record and brought his ERA down to 3.70.  Even Fausto had lowered his ERA under 5.  The pen had a collective ERA of 4.13, with Pestano and Cruz getting most of the save opps.  

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After the American League won the 2012 All-Star game the Tribe got back to work opening the second half of the season with a 14-8 record and being in a 1st place tie with the kitties on July 31st.  Chris Antonetti would make two brilliant moves before the trade deadline - moves that would help the Indians contend in 2012 and help them possibly expand their two year window of seriously competing in the Central.  The Indians bullpen was dead average at 7th in the AL in ERA & WHIP.  Slowey was the long man tossing 40+ innings with a respectable 4.18 ERA.  Smith as a ROOGY and Sipp a LOOGY were working out well, both had ERA's under 3.  Josh Judy was the mop-up man with an ERA of 5.12 in 30 frames and Rafel Perez has been one of the better relievers in baseball the past two months, serving as a long man/lefty specialist with an ERA he lowered down to 3.47.  The CBC approach was working well enough, Juan Cruz lead the team with 12 saves but had also blown 5 and his ERA was slowly rising sitting at 3.88 at the deadline.  Pestano had 8 saves with an ERA of 3.25 while Smith & Sipp saved 2 a piece.  Antonetti wanted to add one more arm to the pen and found one of the better closers in baseball available.

Billy Beane has never put much stock into saves, finding it to be an overrated statistic and often selling high on his closers and replacing them with other arms who do just as good if not better of a job than the one that came before him.  Beane was looking to restock his farm system and made Andrew Bailey available.  Everyone knows Beane loves power hitters with high OBP & The Indians had one sitting down in Triple A having a nice bounce back season.  Nick Weglarz was hitting .268/.390/.487 with 15 home runs in Colombus when he was packaged with Corey Kluber and Corey Burns to bring Bailey to Cleveland.  

A few days after the Bailey trade, Hafner went down with a foot issue that surprisingly sent him to the DL for the 902nd time of his career.  Not knowing how long Pronk would be gone for - if he would return for the 2012 season at all - Antonetti searched to find a replacement.  Once again, instead of bringing in an older vet at the end of his prime for a half season, Antonetti tried to kill two birds with one stone - make the 2012 team better and build for the future.  Yonder Alonso had hit .240 with 1 HR in 50 some odd PA's in Cincinnati earlier in the year but was currently sitting in minors and as usual, he was raking in AAA.  Still just 24 he was blocked by the 2010 NL MVP with no place to play.  The Reds weren't really in the playoff race and wanted to stock up on some depth for their next playoff run - they hoped to be 2013.  Like Alonso, the Indians had a guy raking at every minor league level being blocked in the bigs - Cord Phelps - who has OPSing .850 down in Colombus.  Phelps himself wouldn't be enough to land Alonso, but the Indians ended up pulling the package off by including Zach McAllister (3.20 ERA in Colombus) and the re-surging Rafael Perez.

The lineup the day after the two deadline deals looked like this: Brantley LF, Droobs SS, Choo RF, Santana C, Kipnis 2B, Upton CF, Alonso 1B, Morrison DH, Hannahan 3B.

After Slowey suffered an injury that put him on the 15 DL & Judy was optioned to Colombus the Tribes new pen looked like this: Bailey CL, Pestano RSU, Sipp LSU, Smith ROOGY, Hagadone LOOGY, Cruz LNG, Rondon MOP.

The Tribe continued to be the best team in baseball after the two deadline deals starting off the first three weeks of August with a 15-6 record.  Somehow the Tribe now sat comfortably atop the AL Central with a record of 70-54.  With a 6.5 game lead the Tribe opened a 4 game series with the Tigers in Detroit on August 24th.  The Tribe would drop 3 of 4 to the Tigers, who started to catch fire themselves after playing .500 baseball since the all-star break.  The Indians would then drop their next four series going just 3-10 over a 13 game period.  Suddenly the Tribe found themselves 3 games out of first place and the White Sox were breathing down their neck only 1 game from 2nd place.  The Tribe took 2 of 3 from KC but then was swept by the Sox and found themselves in 3rd place for the first time in almost three months.  The baseball gods were once again jerking us around finding ourselves with a 74-68 record, 4.5 games out of first place after the first week of September.  

Over the last 19 games, the Indians found any way and every way to lose 14 games in terrible fashion.  Defensive errors, bullpen implosions, a walk off balk, a walk off HBP, Brantley caught stealing against Detroit....even a triple play to end the 9th inning against the Yankees.  Blown calls - bad strike zones.  The Indians were going down in a burning flame.  The 3rd place Tribe was down 4.5 games with exactly 20 games left in the season.  12 of the 20 games were against the teams ahead of them in the standings - The kittens and sox.

Just when it seemed like our hopes and dreams had been crushed again - The Tribe got their $57 million dollar DH back and it paid dividends - the Tribe swept a three game series against Detroit - with Carmona outdoing Verlander with a GC shutout in game 3.  The Tribe would go 11-3 over their next 14 games, while Detroit choked away that 4.5 game lead.  The Tribe stood 88-71 entering the last series of the season, and Detroit owned a record of 85-74.  The Tribes magic number was 1 game with three left.  But as any of us who stat through the 2007 ALCS know, winning just one of three can be harder than it sounds.  The Tribe would make it interesting - losing games 160 & 161 while Detroit won theirs - before finally winning game 162 on a Fausto Carmona shutout.  The Tribe won the Central by two games with an 89-73 record.

Michael Brantley ended the season with a .289/.342/.410 triple slash line; hitting 9 home runs and stealing 22 bags.  Asdrubal Cabrera hit .297 with 16 HR, 41 2B & 21 SB.  Shin-Soo Choo's comeback season ended with a triple slash line of .298/.401/.497, with 40 2B, 24 HR, 20 SB & 100 RBI on the dot earning him comeback player of the year.  Santana hit .260/.384/.483 with 102 BB, 28 HR & 103 RBI.  In just over 400 plate appearances, Pronk hit .283/.361/.444 with 18 HR.  Yonder Alonso put up a .300/.358/.463 line in 158 at-bats with the Tribe.  Logan Morrison hit .267/.349/.474 with 25 HR & 78 RBI.  Jason Kipnis did not fall victim to the sophomore slump as he hit .272/.333/.451 with 37 2B & 17 HR.  B.J. Upton joined Grady Sizemore & Joe Carter to become the third player in Indians history to join the 30/30 club.  B.J. hit .248/.340/.478 with 33 HR & 38 SB.  Lonnie Chisenhall ended up posting a decent line of .267/.331/.414 with 14 HR & 72 RBI.  Lou Marson gunned down over 50% of would be basestelaers, Jack Hannahan collected over 300 plate appearances while playing amazing defense, Jason Donald became the ultimate utility player - even logging innings in the OF, and made the Cliff Lee trade a little easier to swallow.  Shelly Duncan was used exclusively against southpaws and OPS'ed exactly .850 in 250 AB.  

Ublado Jimenez turned into a true ace, going 17-9 with a 3.40 ERA with over 200 K's.  Masterson put up a 3.83 ERA & 1.21 WHIP in 200 innings.  Carmona after starting the season 0-7, rebounded to put up a 14-13 season with a 4.12 ERA & 1.30 WHIP.  Lowe missed a few starts with a 15 day DL stint, but managed to put up a 10-11 record with a 4.43 ERA in 159 innings.  Tomlin posted a 4.23 ERA & 1.14 WHIP in 181 innings being a great 5th starter.  Scott Barnes filled in with a dozen starts providing the Tribe with a nice spark, going 6-3 with a 3.97 ERA.  

Andrew Bailey as a member of the Tribe tossed 28+ innings, posting a 1.53 ERA and saving 21/24 games.  Pestano, his RH set-up man posted a 3.03 ERA & 0.98 WHIP in 65 innings with 8 saves and 25 holds.  Sipp, the Tribe's LH set-up man posted a 2.93 ERA & 1.30 WHIP in 60 innings.  Joe Smith turned in another solid season with a 3.24 ERA & 1.32 WHIP over 61 IP.  Juan Cruz, a minor league signing stuck around all year with the exception of one DL sting, posting a 4.03 ERA in 58 IP as the Tribe's primary closer the first half of the season.  Kevin Slowey had a nice season as the Tribe's long reliever/mop up man posting a 4.18 ERA in 70 innings.  After Raffy Perez was included in Alonso deal Nick Hagadone became the Tribe's LOOGY, posting a 2.72 ERA in 25+ innings.  Hector Rondon, Josh Judy, CC Lee, Bryan Price, Zach Putnam, Rob Bryson and even Adam Miller logged innings for the Cleveland Indians at some point during the season.  Miller, as a September call-up, gave up just 1 unearned run in 6.1 innings.

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The Tribe was seeded 2nd for the AL in 2012 playoffs & matched up against the #4 seeded Boston Red Sox.  The Red Sox bounced back with a 93 win season to win the Wild Card and we all know what happened the last time these two teams met in the playoffs.  This time the good guys won however - and it went the full 5 games.  Ubaldo got the W in game 1, Masterson put the Tribe up 2-0 with a nice performance before Fausto was lit up in game 3 giving up 8 ER in 3 IP.  Tomlin was a tough luck loser in game 4 as the Tribe lost in 11 innings, before Jiminez finally once again defeated Beckett in game 5. 

The Yankees bought a series win over the Texas Rangers so we are playing them in the ALCS, #1 seed vs. #2 seed.  Masterson beats the jack@ss CC Sabathia in a game one classic, and Tomlin continues to figure out the $200 million dollar Yankees payroll and the Tribe takes a 2-0 lead in New York.  As the series goes to Cleveland, "Bad Fausto" once gain shows up giving up 6 ER in 3.2 IP.  The Tribe loses the game 8-3.  Ubaldo is outdueled by Ivan Nova in a 2-1 game 4 that ties the series up at 2-2.  Masterson once again shows up when it matters and outduels fatboy in the last game in Cleveland.  Going back to NY the Tribe has a 3-2 lead.  In another pitchers duel, Tomlin pitches a gem but the pen ends up blowing a lead late and Mo Rivera notches down a game 6 save.  In game 7 the Tribe has no choice but to turn to Fausto Carmona, who has given up 14 ERA in 6.2 innings during the playoffs.  

Fausto gives up a leadoff single to Brett Gardner, plunks Jeter on the first pitch he throws to him, then gives up a single to Robinson Cano, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.  A-Rod is walked on 4 pitches and it looks like this thing isn't going to end well.  After allowing 4 baserunners, 1 run and no outs on a total of 9 pitches, Fausto strikes out Teixeira and gets Granderson to ground into a double play.  After a terrible first inning, the baseball gods are on our side and bad Fausto seemingly disappears.  After allowing the first 4 batters to reach - Fausto allows a total of just two base runners the rest of the entire game.  His final line - 8 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 ER, 8 K's.

Down 1-0 in the 9th inning, Mariano Rivera comes into the game, and this thing is just about over.  Hannahan flies out at the warning track, Brantley strikes out and the Yanks are 1 out away.  Droobs singles up the middle, Choo hits a bloop the opposite way and with two outs - the Indians $57 million dollar DH, who has had trouble staying on the field since his 2006 MVP season - earned every damn penny of that $57 million dollars with a 2 run double over the head of Curtis Grandersons head.  Andrew Bailey then came into the game to get a 9th inning save, striking out Alex Rodriguez to end the game.

In the NL, the Phillies defeated the Cardinals and the Phils will travel to Cleveland for game one of the World Series.  Cole Hamels defeats Ubaldo Jiminez in game 1, Masterson can't get the best of Roy Halladay in game 2 and once again bad Fausto shows up in game 3 against his former teammate Cliff Lee.  Just like that the Tribe is down 3-0 in the World Series and once again - it seems like the baseball gods are jerking us around.   The Tribe is going to have to win 4 straight - something that has only been done once and never in a world series.

The Indians bats come alive in Game 4 in Philadelphia, as Tomlin and the Indians defeat Vance Worley 11-4 in game 4.  2010 Ubaldo shows up in Game 5 at Philly as he outduels Cole Hamels in a 2-1 victory.  We are now back in Cleveland where the Indians turn to Justin Masterson, who has a 2.22 ERA in the postseason - to do the unthinkable - beat Halladay in extras - a 14 inning affair the Tribe wins 4-3.  As they try to do the impossible - win 4 straight World Series game.  It's game 7....in Cleveland.  Fausto Carmona is pitching.  If good Fausto shows up we have a small shot at beating Cliff Lee, who has yet to lose a start in the playoffs.  If bad Fausto shows up, we have no shot at all and we are all going to drink ourselves to death.

Thank God that good Fausto has shown up, but through 7 innings it is still not enough to get the best of Cliff Lee.  The Tribe is down 1-0 and Lee has given up just one hit.  In the top of the 8th - Victorino & Rollins get back to back singles. Utley draws a walk to load the bases with no outs.  Acta is about to yank Carmona - but he talks Manny out of it.  Then it happened.  Out come the midges.  Hundreds of midges cover Carmona's face as he strikes out Ryan Howard.  Midges are everywhere as Carmona gets LGFT Jim Thome to strike out.  The midges don't seem to phase Hunter Pence - he hits a bullet down the left field line - that is scooped up by Jack Hannahan in an unbelievable play that only Hannahan could make - as he gets the force at 3rd. 

In the bottom of the 8th, midges fly around Lee's face as he walks Kipnis.  The midges are seeming to get to him.  Charlie Manuel actually gets the umpire to delay the game for nearly 15 minutes - giving time for most of the midges to migrate out  of the stadium.  Mostly all the midges are gone now, and Lee gets Upton to K.  Hannnahan drives one up the middle to put runners on 1st & 2nd.  Hannahan is replaced by pinch runner Jason Donald.  Brantley drives one deep that gets the crowd excited  - but ultimately falls short of the wall and is caught by Victornio.  The runners tag and we have 2nd & 3rd with 2 outs.  Lee & Asdrubal battle to a full count - where on pitch #10 Droobs finally grounds one between Utley at 2nd & Howard at 1st.  Pence fires a rocket home where Jason Donald beats out a bang bang play and is called safe - Tribe up 2-1 on the Phillies.  Bailey had been warming up - but after 113 pitches it is going to be Fausto Carmona who comes out to finish the game.  Carmona, who has struck out the last three batters he has faced, gets Carlos Ruiz to K on 6 pitches.  Up to 119 pitches now, Polanco works to a full count but finally K's on the 9th pitch he sees.  Now with 5 straight strikeouts - Carmona falls behind Ben Fransisco 3-0.  Carmona, now with 130 pitches thrown, gives Fransisco a 3-0 fastball down the middle that he takes.  Fransisco takes another strike and not its a full count.  Fausto throws a hard, 96 MPH sinker that starts out middle of the plate before it cuts down towards Fransiscos ankles.  Fransisco pops it up and Donald makes a great play in foul territory actually falling into the first row of the stands to catch out #27.  After 60+ years of waiting, it is finally here.  Fausto Carmona is the winner of game 7 of the 2012 and your Cleveland Indians are world champions.

I woke up from this 7 hour dream happier than I have ever been in my life.  Have you ever had a dream that, when you wake up for 30 seconds to a minute, you actually think that what you dreamed about just happened.  Thats hows I thought.  For one minute - for 60 seconds - I felt the Cleveland Indians win the World Series - and it is the greatest minute of my life.  These 5,315 words describe the greatest dream one could have, 7 hours I will never feel again thats for sure....that is unless this dream can become a reality.  And call me crazy but I think these 2012 Cleveland Indians can pull it off.  Lets Go Tribe!!!