A funny thing happened while taking out the trash

That trash being the ‘09 Cleveland Indians season. Just as recent as yesterday at the time I’m writing this, myself and many fans were ready to throw this season away, chalk it up as another ‘06, and ‘08, and be prepared for the possible managerial and front office changes that could happen at any moment. It was a strange day in Cleveland Indians history as former owner Dick Jacobs passed away, and one of the most promising pitching prospects as recently as two seasons ago was sent down, not only to the minors but to Arizona Summer League in Fausto Carmona.

You can say that at the start of today, not only was the Jacobs news somber, but the feeling of most Indians fans about this season was as well. We were teased with a nice win in the second game of the Twins series only to follow that with a horrible performance by Fausto, and an 11-3 loss for the team. Damnit! I said to myself, now we’re done. I can’t take this anymore, injury after injury, batting practice after batting practice being thrown by Fausto, the inability to win four games in a row, being sucked into this constant magnetic field of being ten games under .500 that we can’t seem to escape, the Indians were done.

What a difference a day makes, or sometimes even half of one. Fast forward to 8:11 P.M. EST. First pitch at US Cellular Field in Chicago as the Indians took on the White Sox. As the innings went on, this Indians team was looking more and more like a team again. Carl Pavano continued the process of transforming himself from a question mark to an explanation point. The Pronk part of Travis Hafner returned, at least for this night, hitting a home run in his first game back off the DL. Ryan Garko went deep and has been finding his power stroke as of late.

The final result was a 6-0 Indians win. You know there is something brewing when Josh Barfield gets two hits and Carl Pavano pitches a complete game shut-out. Carl Pavano has been rumored as a piece that can be used to acquire prospects from a contending team come the trade deadline. But a funny thing happened while I was doing my best Tony Soprano figurehead-like Waste Management duty of throwing this ’09 season in the dumpster. The Royals are all of a sudden sinking faster than Big Pussy into the Atlantic Ocean. The Tigers are struggling to remain in control much like Christopher Moltisanti trying to come to grips with his heroin problem. While the rest of the AL Central has been getting whacked, the Indians have managed to escape with merely burns, at least in the standings, and find themselves only six games out. If the Tribe can sweep Chicago and Detroit loses the next two in their series to Anaheim, the Indians could be only four back! Ok, what’s the big deal? They haven’t won four in a row yet this year. The big deal is the Indians have two top tier pitchers all of a sudden in Lee in Pavano. Jake Westbrook looms on the horizon, while he now may be a bigger question mark then Pavano was coming out of Spring Training, just his presence could be a spark to this team, and knowing how Jake plays the game, I know he’s been working his tail off and will compete. We’ll know more after tonight, but even Jeremy Sowers has been pitching well.

Don’t forget Josh freaking Barfield had two hits, as I mentioned before, what more evidence do you need that funny things are circling around this Indians group, and it’s not vultures anymore. There are 105 games left and the Indians are six games out. The injury bug is going to hit other teams eventually, and while it does, our guys will be rehabbing and making their way back into the lineup. Not all of them will, such is life of a 162 game Major League Baseball season.
Some people think this team sucks, it’s another year of performance not equaling expectations, and that there are too many injuries. Carl Pavano thinks putting too much stock into all of the above is bs.