World Series Cinderellas deserve to be in Fall Classic
Cleveland goes from Loserville to City of Champions
CHICAGO, Oct 25, (RTRS): Despite the Cinderella storylines about two of baseball’s underdog franchises reaching the World Series, the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians fully deserve to be battling for Major League Baseball’s title.
Chicago, despite their so-called “Curse of the Billy Goat”, began the season as favorites to win baseball’s top prize and the young Cubs proved they have come of age by winning a major league-leading 103 games.
The Indians, whose powerhouse lineup reached a pair of World Series in the 1990s, overcame numerous obstacles to climb to the top of the American League, relying on stellar starting pitching in the regular season and a killer bullpen in the playoffs.
The Cubs are warm betting favorites for the Series.
The winners of the best-of-seven starting in Cleveland on Tuesday will relieve their city of decades of frustration and set off a frenzied celebration.
The 112th World Series is sure to end one epic title drought, with the Indians’ last triumph coming 68 years ago and the Cubs waiting a mind-boggling 108 seasons since their last championship.
The atmosphere should be electric in both Chicago, where the Wrigleyville neighborhood surrounding venerable Wrigley Field will be packed with titlehungry supporters, and at Progressive Field, where a fan has set an insistent tone with his rhythmic pounding on a bass drum from the outfield bleachers.
Chicago boasts a more potent lineup, having scored more runs (808-777) and hit more home runs (199-185) than the Indians in the regular season, though the Tribe have more variety in their game, with 134 stolen bases to 66 for the Cubbies.
Both clubs feature emerging young players, fueling the hope that more Fall Classics are in their future.
The Cubs have four standout players aged 24 or younger in their lineup in Kris Bryant, National League Championship Series co-most valuable player Javier Baez, versatile Willson Contreras and Addison Russell alongside 27-year-old slugger Anthony Rizzo.
Cleveland, whose 52-year major pro championship drought was ended earlier this year by LeBron James and the NBA Cavaliers, boast shortstop Francisco Lindor and third baseman Jose Ramirez.
The 22-year-old Lindor, who wears cleats with “Believeland” — a rallying cry this year for Clevelanders — written on the side, batted .301 with 15 home runs and 78 RBIs and played sensational defense as an All-Star in his first full season.
Ramirez, 24, hit .312 with 11 homers and 76 RBIs, primarily as a third baseman. He swiped 22 bases and Lindor stole 19.
Pitching has been a key ingredient for both clubs.
Chicago’s veteran starting rotation of Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta, lefty Jon Lester, National League earned run average (ERA) leader Kyle Hendricks and righty John Lackey helped them lead the majors in ERA at 3.15.
Cleveland, led by 2014 Cy Young winner Corey Kluber, had the American League’s second-best ERA of 3.84, in a league where more runs are scored due to use of a designated hitter for the pitcher.
The Indians were missing top offensive player Michael Brantley this season due to injury and resourceful manager Terry Francona has juggled his rotation with late season injuries to Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar and recently Trevor Bauer.
Still, Cleveland has posted a 1.77 ERA in the postseason with a heavy assist from relievers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.
The Cubs added their own splendid finishing piece this season with a trade for fireballing closer Aroldis Chapman, who routinely breaks 100 mph (161 kph) with his fastball.
Cleveland has undergone an extraordinary urban renewal-like transformation from Loserville to the City of Champions this year, shedding a down-and-out image for a winning one.
Even among historic losers, Cleveland over the decades has comes up second best.
Compared to the Chicago Cubs, the socalled Loveable Losers they will meet in the best-of-seven Fall Classic beginning on Tuesday, the Indians are clear runnersup.
It has been 68 years since the Indians last won a World Series but that seems almost like yesterday compared to the 108year title drought endured by the Cubbies and their supporters.
When the Cubs last won World Series in 1908 man had just discovered flight, the Wright brothers taking off from Kitty Hawk in North Carolina in 1903.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s like in Cleveland, honestly,” said Indians ace reliever Andrew Miller. “The crowds for the playoff games at home have been special, as you would expect them to be. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Fun and sports are two words that have rarely appeared in the same sentence in Cleveland.
While the Cubs have been embraced for their futility, there has been nothing poetic or romantic about Cleveland’s loser image.
Across the American sporting spectrum no city could match Cleveland’s malaise which ended last June when LeBron James, after returning home from Miami, led the Cavaliers to an NBA championship.
The Cavs became the first Cleveland team to win a championship in 52 years, ending what had been the longest drought between titles in North American professional sports.
For decades, Cleveland, situated hard on the shores of Lake Erie, was mocked as the “Mistake by the Lake”, a decaying Rust Belt relic that attracted the global spotlight in 1969 when the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River, which runs through the city, famously caught fire.
When Hollywood made a movie about a hapless Major League team it was a fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians. When players got good they fled. Unable to bring Cleveland a title, James in 2010 famously took his “talents to South Beach” turning his back on a city battered by unemployment, high taxes and lousy weather.
A local high school student who became a once-in-a-generation player, James was a rare beacon of hope to a city dubbed America’s Most Miserable.
Before James became public enemy number one, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell held the distinction for moving his team to Baltimore in 1996, leaving the city without a National Football League franchise until a new team was created in 1999.
The National Hockey League’s Cleveland Barons left town in 1978 after just two seasons and have never returned while the Cleveland Grand Prix Indy Car race, a summer fixture for 26-years on the city’s lake front, disappeared in 2006.
Even with an NBA title and a return to the World Series, Cleveland has not entirely shed its loser image.
The Browns are winless this season and unlikely to win a Super Bowl anytime soon.