Endgame Thread

I bet a large amount of money on this game...against the Indians.  Yep.  I've seen how this movie ends.  

I was hoping God would spite me instead of the team.  I was hoping it would work as some type of reverse  psychology.  Some sort of un-curse.  Nope.  Most disappointing $$$ of my life.  

This will take a long time to get over.  Say what you want about it being a successful year...when you get this close, there's only one outcome you want.

Damn it all.

Strange that he was the linchpin of the team moving to the Jake lo those many years ago.

Condolences tribe fans.

Great job, Jay. Thanks!
Great job, Ryan. Thanks!
Great job, ASP.
Great job, fleedon.
Great job, gradyforpresident.
Great job, fwembt.
Great job, LeftyCatcher.
Great job, Matt in LA.
Great job, LetsGoTribe fans everywhere.

There is a lot of good to take out the series, not the least of wish is I am glad we have Jake for two more years.  

I just hope there is no long term implications from the extra innings lots of guys pitched this year - you would hope to at least get to the World Series if you are going to do that.

Jay - get the 40 man roster and Rule 5 analysis going soon - we need something to talk about.  :)

There were so many moments in this game where we were so close...

Sigh.

It's a cliche and I'm sure you don't want to hear a Sox fan say it, but there's always next year. You played damn well.

I'm proud to be a fan of this team, no matter what.

It's been great lurking on this board all year and I'm glad I finally signed up.  It's the best place to go for Indians talk.  It'll be an interesting offseason and I'm alreayd looking forward to Spring Training.

LET'S GO TRIBE!

Please wish the Red Sox good luck in the World Series.

I just wanted to say that reading this site daily has really resurrected my faith in the internet as being anything of value.  I don't have anything but good things to say about the way a sports community can congregate online and share their passion for a team together.  I discovered LGT around the All-Star break doing a Google search for "cleveland indians blog," and I am goddamned glad that I did.  This site has some excellent readers and commentators, and I've honestly learned more about baseball in the past few months than I had in a decade previous (I remember wondering what PRC stood for other than the People's Republic of China).  

This was a great season, and tomorrow we start piling on the dirt and figuring out what went wrong (even though I don't think there's much doubt).  But you guys are great.  Thanks for doing what you do.

History Channel on now - just don't want to watch or listen to Red Sox fawning....

Pretty much a lousy sports weekend for me - local high school loses first round of playoffs, YSU goes down, Tribe goes down, lose all 3 fantasy football games (one by a point).  And that damn alarm is going to come way too early too morning.

Go Indians 2008!!!!!

I know many will point to the Sox salary numbers but if anything the Indians proved money doesn't matter a bit by taking out the Yankees.  

We're down.  We're the Corleone family after Sonny got shot.  We're George Foreman after the Rumble in the Jungle.  We're... well, Boston, after Bucky Bleeping Dent and Aaron Bleeping Boone.  We're beaten, humiliated, crushed, our season is over.  

Enjoy it while it last, Sox fans.  Because this whole team's coming back next season, with as good a chance to win it as anybody.  And if Andy Marte finally emerges at 3rd base, you better look out.  He hasn't forgotten that you traded him for that scrub Coco Crisp, who you then spent the entire season complaining about.  Next seasons goal:  Ripping the heart out of Red Sox Nation the way they ripped out ours tonight.  And wiping their seed from the Earth forever.

But ...

Pronk's inability to do anything with a fastball is really bothering me.  He looked awful in the postseason and he looked awful for the better part of the season.  I think he's the biggest question mark going into next season.  

Oh well.

We'll get 'em next year.

I'll admit, I'm from Boston and a Red Sox fan.

But I just wanted to drop a line and tip my cap to a great series. Going into it, I was terrified of the Indians; that's really a fantastic team with lots of young guys and solid pitchers. In a lot of ways it reminded me of the Red Sox in 2003, but with more potential.

I understand how you guys feel--growing up as a Red Sox fan sucked in the 80s.

Keep the faith: it'll make it all the sweeter when it finally does happen.

Again, that was a great, great series. I fully expect to see these 2 teams in the same situation next season.

Until then...

Great Team - Great Season - Great Blog

Cleveland is on the way up...this isn't our last chance at the ring, but our first...this team will be fighting for the ring for years and everyone here will be with them.

I will probably take a little vacation from the WS and get some things taken care of that I've neglected in this long and greuling run.  I wish everyone who's here the best.  I'm crushed, but I know that this community will pick me up and keep me going, still rooting for that Tribe.  Thanks everybody.  Thank you Ryan and Jay for keeping this together.  

Seeya at The Jake.    

congrats on a great season.  I was scared as hell of the Indians when the playoffs started, and they scared me just about as much as I thought they would in this series.  I don't know how the Sox pulled it out, but the Tribe made them earn it.  Your time will come - soon, I hope, because you deserve it - and believe me, it will be worth it.

Best of luck defending your AL Central crown - I can only hope we see you again in the ALCS next season.

What a disappointing end, but what a great ride.  Remember discovering Asdrubal, and Gutz, and the luck of having Cliff Lee injured so Fausto steps up, and the Circle of Trust?  Somebody here disagreed, but I NEVER, in about 35 years of following the team, remember a Claveland bullpen that was nearly as deep and solid and dependably lights-out as the 2 Raffies and Lewis were through the homestretch of the season.

Victor had a great year and I hope we'll see much more to come from him.

Kenny Lofton made a strong push to replace Vizquel as my favorite Indians player of my lifetime.  Since K-Love returned to the team, he played with brains and heart and clutchiness.  I felt like he was putting out one last great effort of his career (and even that in September he was saving it up for October) and he deserves a great salute for what he did this year.

People lumped Hafner and CC together as disappointments but I think they are in altogether different categories.   Hafner had a lousy postseason and a lousy year, all year, with a few exceptional moments (the winning hit in the Bug Game leading those, of course).  For a designated hitter to be unable to hit is terrible for him & for the team.  

CC, on the other hand, was off his best in the postseason but he was not a disaster.  He couldn't come close to Beckett but nobody could.  And even in game 5, had he been lifted after 6 innings (at the time I argued there was a case for keeping him in, but I was wrong), he kept us in the game  against Beckett, which is a lot to ask, only giving up 2 runs through 6.  We wanted an A-plus from him and got a B; not what you need from your ace, but not grounds for some of the disappointed reactions I have heard about CC.  We should still be glad we have him, especially if he continues to learn and improve as he did this year.

I'll be dead before the Tribe wins another World Series (and my Dad lived until he was 94), especially if we keep the two choke brothers around to fool us again in '08.  I love 98 MPH fastballs, but mostly when they are thrown over the plate.

I am not a happy camper.  I love Jake, Grady, Jhonny, Victor, Casey and a host of others and am begging the Lord right now for Him to make Trav whole again or to bring him back from the dead.

My goodness, what would we have done without Cabrera, Perez, and Kenny?  I can forgive Raphael B for his last performance; he was the only one who didn't cave.  Even he wondered "so what?" at the end.

In a couple of days I'll be myself again...and by spring, a little boy.  But right now, I don't see much to cheer about.  But gosh darn it, I will always love the Indians - even if my next home is in Timbuktu.

Mac

Sabathia's weight has exactly zilch to do with his performance this postseason.

and just to point out, though I'm sure lots of overpaid sportswriters will conveniently forget this: his performance this postseason has exactly zilch to do with his qualifications for the Cy Young award, which is awarded for the best performance during the regular season, to which Sabathia has an excellent claim.

there's a reason the votes are due before the playoffs start.

I was a young 12 year old when I witnessed the Indians lose game 7 of the 1997 World Series from the nosebleed seats of Pro Player Stadium. Tears ran down my war paint.

That was one was tough on me, and this one ranks up there too. Since I'm older I understand more of the intricacies of baseball.

I can't believe what was just squandered. It almost seems impossible but the Indians just went 3 straight games without a clutch hit or a rally.

Unfortunately the particular team I saw a lot of in July showed up at the end of this series, the one that couldn't score any runs despite getting great pitching performances. But this time they paired that with what I would consider poor pitching at it's best and God-Awful pitching at it's worst. The Red Sox were able to come back by patiently trying to win one game at a time, while the Indians tried to win the series with one ugly swing at a pitch outside the zone at a time.

Playoff baseball is tough to watch like this. In a do or die NCAA tournament basketball game or a Bowl Game in football, you have what is comparatively a very small amount of time to squirm and sweat it out with your team. Watching pitch after pitch of these last three games was extremely nerve-racking leading right up to a huge emotional let-down.

One more regular season win would have reversed homefield. One fewer blown save, maybe one less costly error, maybe a ball ends up being fair instead of foul, any of these items that had the littlest impact in one game during that 6 month season could have put this game 7 in Cleveland. I would have a hard time believing the Indians would be just as comfortable at Fenway as they would be at the Jake. In that series would have been a lot different, and at this point from where the season stands right now, that might be a good thing.

I just needed to vent, if you read this or not it doesn't really matter to me. There are hundreds of other sob stories about the Tribe on here and beyond.

We'll be a contender next year. Can't wait for pitchers and catchers to report.

It was a great season.

Last night hurt though.

Thanks again guys, till next year....

I know it's already been said, but it bears repeating. Wouldn't you have gladly taken a 7 game ALCS at the beginning of this year? Yeah, it hurt, but that's part of being a fan.

But, you know what? I'd rather be a Tribe fan than a White Sox fan, or god forbid, a Yankee fan.

Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest. I rarely post, but i am an avid reader of this blog. And, since there are no baseball fans among my family and friends, I just thought I'd vent here.

Thanks everyone for all you do. Anyone know what date pitchers and catchers report next year?

With that said, I'm disgusted with Casey Blake.  His new nickname should be "momentum killer".  Wow, those two plays (error and double play) totally took the steam out of everything.  Don't get me wrong, we didn't lose that series because of Casey Blake, but those plays (and obviously the skinner stop decision) are going to be the things that I remember.

I'm hoping Hafner improves next year.  I really hope he's not a steroid guy who will now struggle because he's off of them.

The hope comes in the form of Sizemore, Hafner (hopefully), Victor (who is truly outstanding), and Fausto.  I also think there's an awful lot of really solid talent on that squad.  If we're going to get to the next level, we need a monster another hitter.  I truly believe that no matter how many runs we score in the regular season.

Good run Tribe.  I'm thoroughly annoyed, but there's always next year.

This team deserved better.  They deserved better than having a fabricated quote attributed to, as far as I can tell, one of the classiest acts in the game.  They deserved better than the way Fox, and ESPN, and practically every other major sports/news outlet treated them.  They deserved better than losing to a team full of classeless mercenaries, a team with the, "best," fans in the game, just not, apparently, during years where they aren't in contention (where was the RSN in 1996?  1997?  1998?  Funny, I don't remember them then).  But it's over and I'm being pretty bitter.  This much I'm aware of.

I'm not sure it's entirely hit me yet.  I still feel like there's going to be another game soon.  I hope, however, this is already the extent of it, cause I'm feeling pretty bad as it is.

Perhaps there is something to fatalism.  It really does seem that, no matter how talented a team we field, no matter who plays for the team, who owns it, no matter the decade, no matter how far removed we are from out last championship, the Cleveland Indians will never win a championship again.  The pieces change, but the story forever remains the same.  I'm proud of this team.  They played well, and I truly believe they are the best in baseball.  But I wonder if some cosmic force pehaps felt otherwise.  

Don't mean to bring anyone down.  But I had to let that out.  And there aren't a lot of sympathetic ears for Cleveland fans on the East Coast.  

I sent Jay an email today, and he asked me to post it here. Whom am I to disobey? ...

 As for last night's doings, by the first pitch I was already deep into fatalism and working on zen acceptance. I regarded watching the game
as a painful duty that couldn't be avoided, like going to the dentist.

 As an old hand at quaffing rationalizations instead of champagne, here's mine: If you'd told me in March that the Tribe would win 96, win the
Central, discover three or four rookie finds, be a fun, comebacking team to watch, beat the Yankees in 4 and take the Sox to a seventh
 game, I'd have said: I'll take it.
>
So, now, I'll have to learn to take it.
>
The arms just ran out of gas - and the Sox did get all the bounces and  calls in Boston. They might well have won even without all the good
fortune, but that sealed the deal.
>
 When Ramirez' DP grounder in the first inning took that bad hop, you knew the fates were against us.
>
> Me, I'm a Sox fan now. I hate to see fans who have not suffered enough  dance in the streets while we wait.  And any town that cheered Elway
gets no love from me.
>

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.