Greetings from Progressive Field in the city that supposedly rocks. The Indians of Cleveland take on the Tigers of Detroit in the last series of the season between two rivals who have had highly disappointing seasons. The Indians are coming off a 2007 season where they went to the ALCS and were just one win short of the World Series. They were expected to strongly compete again this year with mostly the same roster, but instead the expectations got to them and a lot of the players underperformed. The Tigers are coming off two solid years with the highlight being a World Series appearance two seasons ago. Many were calling them the heavy favorites for the AL Central in light of their big off-season acquisitions, but instead they are under .500 and in the midst of one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history. Both of these teams want nothing more then to put this 2008 season out of sight and out of mind, but they can’t.. not yet, at least. They still have a few more games to play, and a win might be able to take away the sting from not living up to expectations.
After going down by three late in the game, the Indians were able to get some clutch hits off the struggling Tigers bullpen to win 6-5. Through the first 7 innings, the only runs scored were by home runs and each team had two apiece, except the Tigers hit theirs with a man on base. Both Tiger home runs were hit by Miguel Cabrera, which vaulted him to the top of the AL in home runs. The Indians appeared flat at this point of the game. This changed after Gary Sheffield was hit by a Fausto Carmona pitch in the top of the 7th and took exception to it. After words were exchanged, Sheffield charged the mound and the two teams’ benches were cleared. After a long delay, the Indians no longer were flat.. excitement was high. After Dusty Ryan of the Tigers added another run in the top of the 8th, a three run home run by Shin-Soo Choo, who also had a solo home run in the 1st, tied the game up at five going into the 9th. The Tigers were held scoreless, but Jamey Carroll hit an RBI-single to give the Indians a walk-off win.
I figured Cleveland would be a pretty loud and exciting place to see a game with a winning team. But with a losing team? I wasn’t sure. When I went, I was a little surprised to see they were loud even at the end of a highly disappointing season. This series with the Tigers was almost guaranteed to be a really important one when looking at it from the start of the season, but it wasn’t. This didn’t matter to the Indian faithful, who still cheered their hearts out just as they would have if this series played a role with first place in the division instead of third. The stadium took a while to fill up, but once it was, it was rocking. Their level of commitment towards their team even through the bad times only indicated to me that they are good and loyal fans. As for the stadium, it was one of those new ones, but not incredibly new. It didn’t feel as cookie cutter as some of the other ones.. it had its own style to it that made it different. It had a nice view of downtown. I know that it’s hard to make Cleveland look pretty, but this stadium pulled it off. As for the charm factor, the only thing I could really think of was the singing of Hang on Sloopy, which is a popular song at Ohio State University football games. Want to know how you could tell? Because they added the O-H-I-O shouts the same time they do it at the OSU games. I HATE Ohio State, but I thought it was kinda cool they did that and a lot of the people shouted out. With all of that considered, I’m going to give the Indians a B and 15th overall, ahead of the White Sox but behind the Tigers. This place has a lot to like with all of the facets I look at, and they remain solid even during the crappy years, making Cleveland a good place to see some baseball.
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