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Sunday, April 02, 2006

The Long Road

While there are so many things I'd love to post about now, I would be remiss to not mention that in about 8 minutes the 162-game Major League Baseball season begins with my Cleveland Indians battling the world champion Chicago White Sox. The Indians won 93 games last year... yet missed the playoffs. The main reason? The White Sox. The Indians went 5-14 against the Sox last year, losing 9 - that's right, NINE - games by 1 run. The Indians lost something like 38 1-run games last year (they also won about 24), playing a nail-biter almost every single night.

Will this finally be the year? I think it could be - they have as many as 7 star players on the roster, and the others are solid. It's just a matter of winning some more of the close games, and particularly against the White Sox. Last year, the Indians lost the opener 1-0 on an unearned run. It seemed a harbinger of things to come. This year, things will be different - right?

Let's Go Tribe!! :)

15 comments:

  1. Go Tribe! I am listening to the game as I type! Waaahooooo!

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  2. Anyone's better than the Yankees :)

    Welcome, Stevin! Please, make yourself at home here. :)

    EK - Lucky you! I can't watch it, I can't pick it up tonight, and I can't watch online because it's on ESPN2 and is blacked out online. Ugh! And it's raining. And CC is (very slightly) hurt. At least Buehrle will be out after the delay... despite the 3 runs, he's usually great against the Tribe.

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  3. Dude: MLB Gameday Audio. $14.95 for the WHOLE SEASON. Internet stream - go to MLB.com and click on multimedia, and then Gameday Audio. Mr. EK was practially born in Yankee Stadium (you can take the Yankee out of NY, but you can't take the Yankee out of the New Yorker! We're raising the kids both ;-)), so we listen to both teams all summer - you can get your team's radio feed from wherever they are. You can get the radio feed for every game being played every day of the season - they even have a special pre-season package (10 bucks) that includes the World Baseball Classic and spring training, and all those great games in Japan only obsessed fans like me and Mr. EK stay up until midnight to listen to. Besides, you'll need something to do during those 2 am feedings - nothing like Japanese baseball!

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  4. Not worth it for me, because I have MLBTV - $80 for the whole season, and I can watch any game not on TV in NY - like most Indians games. I even split it with a friend, so it's only $40 for the whole season.

    Normally, I can watch. If it's blacked out, it's usually on the radio here, or I can pick up WTAM 1100 from Cleveland. *This* time I can't. :(

    MLBTV, by the way, can be watched on 2 computers simultaneously, and is blacked out only in the area you're in. So if you know 2 people who are watching teams (primarily) out of the area ONE of you are in, it's worth it. ;)

    Thanks, though!

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  5. The statheads will tell you that losing too many 1 run games one year, means that you're bound to improve the next. 1 run losses mean you were unlucky.
    Strangely the statheads, though they love the moves the Indians made, don't see much progress this year.

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  6. It's hard to improve much on a 93-win season, really... plus, the Indians don't face the NL West, but instead the NL Central this time, and the rest of the division has improved. 93 wins should win the AL Central this year.

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  7. I gotta hand it to you cleveland fans, you really know how to psych yourselves up for depression. :)

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  8. Ouch. :(

    A good friend left me a message on my voicemail on Oct. 2nd last year: "I told you so." He's a fellow Clevelander who's eternally pessimistic.

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  9. This will be The Tribe's year!

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  10. Stacey - of course it will!! :)

    LR - Sha!! Go Away!! ;)

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  11. 0-1. --> Yeah, Yeah, whatever. Look at it this way, for the first time in a long time by the time Cavs season ends the Tribe should be coming out of their annual slow start. Behold, the power of King James; he has the ability to make a entire team in different sport look better.

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  12. Is MLBTV from MLB.com? or is this from a satalite tv service like DirecTV? $80 is way more than we can spend, but just curious. We are also partial to radio broadcasts; the TV broadcasters have half a brain between them. We just love hearing the games called - when we had TV (we don't have cable or satalite currently - just rabbit ears), we would mute the TV and turn on the radio!

    All you naysayers: GO TRIBE!!! GO CAVS!!! and it is NOT just LeBron - the whole team is working together well.

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  13. G - right on. And I'm not even so sure they'll start as slow as they have the past couple years...

    EK - Yes, from MLB.com. It's only $40 if you split it with someone. :)

    I'll agree on the TV broadcasters, except for a few teams: Indians, Angels, Cubs, and a few others. (Until the season is going a while I can't remember!) I prefer to watch those, though you don't have the option with MLB.TV.

    And it IS the whole Cavs team - I said to my brother that Flip Murray was a great addition, and I was right. He's been clutch.

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  14. G - right on. And I'm not even so sure they'll start as slow as they have the past couple years...

    EK - Yes, from MLB.com. It's only $40 if you split it with someone. :)

    I'll agree on the TV broadcasters, except for a few teams: Indians, Angels, Cubs, and a few others. (Until the season is going a while I can't remember!) I prefer to watch those, though you don't have the option with MLB.TV.

    And it IS the whole Cavs team - I said to my brother that Flip Murray was a great addition, and I was right. He's been clutch.

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