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September 26, 2016Pointless Debates: While We’re Waiting
September 27, 2016Jixes1 were put to rest on Monday night. Carlos Carrasco, Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes, and Danny Salazar made the trip to Detroit alongside many denizens of the Cleveland Indians front office and minor league affiliates.
Photos of the AL Central Division championship shirts and caps were released mid-day. The champagne and beer was wheeled into the clubhouse and chilled. Plastic was placed over the lockers with pictures gleefully spreading around social media by the seventh inning. All that was missing was manager Terry Francona grabbing a microphone during the middle innings and shouting to the crowd “at least we’re not Detroit!”
But, no jixe was strong enough to stop the inevitable from happening as the Cleveland Indians became the 2016 AL Central Division champions by defeating the Detroit Tigers for the 14th time in 16 chances, 7-4. Detroit might as well be home for the Tribe in 2016, so it was rather fitting the celebration took place within the confines of Comerica Park.
https://vine.co/v/5rZFZgAO5bj
The path to such joy and celebration seemed to begin its course in earnest when a certain smiling Puerto Rican shortstop was called up in the summer of 2015. Francisco Miguel Lindor instantly changed the dynamics of the Indians defense, and he soon helped alter the course of their identity.
https://vine.co/v/5rZUudOAWOX
Of course, no one player can win a MLB divison on his own. The Tribe front office needed to supply the needed depth through many, many differnet player acquisitions to bolster the team to be able to sustain a high level of play despite the losses of players such as Michael Brantley and Yan Gomes. Marlon Byrd, Rajai Davis, Juan Uribe, Brandon Guyer, and Coco Crisp alongside pitchers such as Andrew Miller, Joba Chamberlain, and Dan Otero all provided needed value throughout the season. None helped quite as much as the man known for hosting parties, Mike Napoli.
https://vine.co/v/5rZF6m2hr3H
Even with the steady supply of outside help, acquiring talent through the MLB Amatuer Draft is imperative for a ballclub with a restrained payroll. Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Kipnis, Lindor, and, yes, Tyler “Napalm” Naquin continue to provide the fruits through the Indians development system.
https://vine.co/v/5rZF2dnKEOK
Monday’s celebration was a culmination of a fantastic regular season journey for the Cleveland Indians. However, the team is determined to ensure it is merely the first of four such champagne toasts this fall.
- If you don’t know, then you need to get some knowledge here. SI put the 2015 jinx on the Cleveland Indians and the great social media handle of the ballclub misspelled it “jixe” and here we are. [↩]
27 Comments
What’s going on with this injury jixe? Is Clubber going to be okay?
Mmmm October Hot Dogs…
Its almost cathartic that it happened in Detroit. They killed the Indians for so many years, and we finally got them back.
Indians fever!
Clubber Lang is going to be just fine.
Kluber had a tight groin supposedly from the cold. Hope to get word from the team today on severity though there is video of him enjoying the champagne showers.
congrats Indians fans … https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/77c4e8961b1050ea78ee5845edf6dc374713d4ca0dffe5a57aef2ee1b16b2848.gif
Thank you sir. Still time to claw back in if you can beat a lineup likely featuring Erik Gonzalez, Michael Martinez, and Jesus Aguilar today.
hi MG … congrats. Porcello won his last start & may have 1 more … i imagine Kluber may be done for the regular season & will start game 1 of the playoffs (?).
I hope Kluber is not done for the regular season. He can both start one more game and Game 1 (Thursday October 6 – both ALDS start this day).
Be a believer!
Seriously not trying to bring this celebration down and clearly not singling out the Indians as every team does it, but just curious when celebrating a division title like you won the World Series became such a thing. Teams celebrate winning the division, then the division series, then the championship series, then the World Series…in no other sport does this happen. NBA/NFL celebrate winning the conference and making it to the ‘ship, but not before.
But since I am probably gonna get (rightfully) yelled at for being so serious, I might as well take it a step further and say that while I am extremely happy and proud of this Division title, I hope they come ready to play tonight. I’d hate to miss out on HFA by one game and look back to a close loss with the 4A squad tonight.
Because baseball is the best sport known to man.
Same thing happens in college baseball at each successive stage in the advancement towards the CWS. It’s a long season, life’s short, enjoy the moment.
And, given the Tito quote, I fully expect E-Gon, M-Mart, Jesus lineup today:
https://twitter.com/ZackMeisel/status/780606880985059328
MG – have you written that “Postseason Guide for (Well-meaning) Bandwagon Indians fans” yet? I haven’t watched a pitch this year, but will definitely be tuning in come October.
Not that I am militant about this, but I agree.
Back in a previous generation, when the Browns were good, I remember them celebrating a division with cigars. Something like that seems to feel right. This isn’t as good as it gets.
Minor quibble though. Good for them.
Thank you for the reminder, but it won’t be out until next week. Game 1 is Thursday October 6.
http://i.imgur.com/BYrw2ua.gif
If it wasn’t for the Tribe I literally would not give a deep fried chunk of bat crap about baseball.
Glad the Tribe is in your life.
Excellent, thanks for doing that and bringing the fair-weatherers back into the fold :).
It is only fair as that was me for the Cavs.
If the Browns ever win a division title, the city might not remember that week at all.
Ok, enough about the Indians on this thread, already. Let’s talk Browns.
It comes from the days when only a division winner out of seven or eight teams made the postseason. Fewer teams made (and still do) the postseason and spending six months grinding it out with your team to get one of those rare spots was a huge deal.
Sure thing…let’s see. So, the Indians last division championship is right now. The Browns last division championship was…umm…1989 with the outstandingly dominant record of 9-6-1
1989 holy smokes! That may have been the Bud Carson era? I remember going to a game that season vs the Oilers. I can’t remember who was their RB (White?), but he ran our a—es over. Man, those were the good old days…champs of the division. Wish a CLE team could do that right now…
Baseball players celebrate like that after every game, win or lose.
Chernoff says it appears mild but MRI today to be safe.
The Browns need to have the NFL change the name back to the Central Division as Cleveland owns those titles in the NBA and MLB now.