Indians play the good kind of ‘dirty’ baseball

IS THERE a baseball team easier to root for than Cleveland’s? They seem to enjoy one another, support one another and don’t mind getting their uniforms dirty — genuine throwback jerseys! On the other hand, Joe

Maddon’s Cubs, good as they’ve been, often don’t seem to play with the kind of devotion-to-winning expected from a Maddon team.

Five times this postseason, Cubs were seen foolishly, senselessly languishing near home plate, watching, when they should have been running on contact. Three times

Javier Baez did so, once each from Kris Bryant and Dexter Fowler. ➤ Football continues to be spoken and ex- plained by experts in terms and stats that have little-to-nothing to do with reality. Before Monday’s game against the Cardinalss, Jets receiver Brandon Marshall led the NFL with five dropped passes. But that didn’t prevent ESPN’s Sean McDonough, who should know better, from emphasizing Ryan Fitzpatrick’s poor QB passing rating.

Dropped passes, those deflected or tipped by receivers into interceptions and those thrown away to avoid a loss continue to be the sole statistical fault of QBs. A 2yard pass completion that starts a 78-yard TD run? That’s registered as an 80-yard TD pass. What an arm!

Why is “deferring” after winning the coin toss — to defer means to postpone, not choose — to choose to field the second-half kickoff a matter of “faith in their defense”?

That faith is gone come the third quarter? Choosing to start the second half with the ball is only a matter of preference.