Go Tribe?

I remember a brief period in the 90's when the Cleveland Indians were fantastic and the Browns were tolerable. As fate would have it, as it often does with Cleveland sports, Art Modell took the Browns to Baltimore and the Tribe would end up having a fire sale of sorts after the turn of the century.

So are we now turning the corner again on the sports scene in Cleveland? The Cavs have one of baseketball's best players, the Browns are hoping to have secured the next ten years of the franchise this past spring, and the Indians are hanging tough after having taken two out of three from division rivals Detroit. Of course, they followed that up last night with a loss to Kansas City, but life goes on.

These Indians really do seem like a classy team on paper; their top three pitchers--Fausto Carmon, Paul Byrd and of course the almost incomparable C.C. Sabathia--have to be the envy of clubs with bigger budgets and smaller payoffs (read: NYY). It's just tough that the elite clubs of the American League are not only big spenders but highly complete and competent teams--just look at what they're doing in Seattle right now. Another problem, IMO, is that Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner, for all the praise they receive as wunderkids, could certainly benefit by making a bit more solid contact with the ball from time to time. If Cleveland were a NL team they'd have already lined up a playoff spot. As it is, with two very savvy and experienced clubs in the AL Central trailing them, they have to do what most division leaders are doing and tread the waters through the final couple of weeks in September.

(On a related note, we could be in store for a wild final week of Sepetember and first round of playoff baseball. Stay tuned.)

So while I try not to say anything positive about Sean Marshall taking care of business for once in Arizona, I'll be more than happy to say "Go Tribe" as I jot down two areas of business I want to attend to in Cleveland before I leave Ohio for good:

• Attend a game at Jacobs Field
• Sleep by Lake Erie