…will be better than those of the Cleveland Indians organization.
14 games out of first place.
73 games to go.
Loss to the Tigers yesterday. Home Run Derby tonight. Of the past 26 games played, the Indians have lost 19.
The big mystery waiting at the end of this season - the source of all the drama - whether or not the team loses 100 games.
Current record: 35 - 54
That means the Indians have to lose 46 of their next 73 games to hit the century mark. Might be tough, the team has a winning percentage of .393 right now - to reach 100 losses they’ll have to play .370 baseball for the rest of the season.
Now the purpose of this blog is to espouse positive energy about the city of Cleveland and its sports franchises - but we are also not hopeless optimists, and the larger point here is that since 2007 when the Indians were one win away from the World Series and - given the competition - a likely MLB championship, the franchise has sunk first to a .500 team and now to a team that could lose 100 games.
As fans and analysts, we can react one of two ways - talk about how bad the team sucks (which I just did) or demand action and talk constructively about how the franchise can improve.
I’m laying down the gauntlet and challenging all Indians fans to not bemoan the fate of the 2009 baseball season, but rather to focus on winning the challenges that face organization moving forward. That, after all, is the true meaning of “Jose Mesa Is Dead” - forget about the past, beat the future.
