What does it all mean?
November 2, 2016While I Was Waiting…for Game 7
November 3, 2016Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
-Shakespeare((A man once attributed with the following quote “I would not have had to have written so many tragedies if baseball existed in my day)).
For the Indians November 2, 2016 would be a tragedy.
In the most anticipated World Series Game of the past quarter century there was music in the air and history in the making. The National Anthem was led by the world renowned Cleveland Orchestra.
They should do national anthems like that more often. Wow. That was awesome! Cleveland Orchestra was beautiful & crowd singing along.
— Tony Lastoria (@TonyIBI) November 2, 2016
The world’s most dramatic theater, baseball, commenced.
With a 1-2 count in the top of the first, leadoff hitter Dexter Fowler went yard.
That ball was torched. Tribe’s going to play from behind tonight.
— Wahoo’s on First (@WahoosOnFirst) November 3, 2016
Hendricks escaped some hard contact and an error. With Game 7 moving to the second inning 1-0 Cubs.
Jose Ramirez led off the bottom of the second with a hit only to be caught hanging off first base. Indians fans were rightfully unhappy.
STOP. DOING. THAT.
— WORLD SERIES SY (@sportsyelling) November 3, 2016
But many felt that Ramirez was caught because of a balk.
That was a balk on the Ramirez pickoff. Hendricks’ left foot moved before right. Not that I’d expect this garbage crew to see or call it
— Al Ciammaichella (@Gotribe31) November 3, 2016
A single by Chisenhall was followed by a ground ball double play from Davis. Hendricks continually dodging the outcomes of solid contact.
As the Indians moved to the bottom of the 3rd, the momentum continued to swing hither and thither.
*Fowler HR
*Schwarber infield hit
*Schwarber steal
*Baez error
*Ramirez liner off Hendricks
*Ramirez pickoff
*Chisenhall throw
it’s the 3rd.—2) (@jessespector) November 3, 2016
After a leadoff double from postseason mercenary Coco Crisp, Roberto Perez was tasked with bunting, moving Crisp to third successfully.
Carlos Santana came through with a “clutch” one out single to tie the Game 7 at 1.
TIE! That is a Rally… #RallyTogether
— Jared K Mueller (@JaredKMueller) November 3, 2016
A chopper from Kipnis drew a play at second, a bobble by Baez and a review left the Indians with runners on first and second with one out.
How the hell do you make that out call in the first place?
— Jacob M (@Jacob_McM) November 3, 2016
Hendricks avoided more injury with hard hit outs to left field and third from Lindor and Napoli respectively.
Bryant reached on a single, Rizzo on a HBP and Zobrist hit a chopper, butchered by Mike Napoli with the Indians barely escaping with 1 out, runners on first and third.
Russell then hit a sac fly and Davis hesitated giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
200-foot sacrifice fly. Indefensible.
— Kevin Dean (@kvnbsbl) November 3, 2016
Indians veterans Napoli and Davis wilted early under the lights and costing the Indians two runs.
Kluber ran out of filth with his defense collapsing behind him. Wilson Contreras doubled to center on an awful route by Rajai Davis for a 3-1 lead.
Francona chose to stick with Kluber who was not missing any bats and paid the price with Javier Baez taking Kluber out of the yard to right center, making it 4-1 Cubs.
Corey Kluber’s postseason was spectacular. He simply ran out of gas.
— Adam Burke (@SkatingTripods) November 3, 2016
Rizzo doubled in Bryant against Andrew Miller and the arms that carried the Indians so far finally showed cracks.
However, the Indians would bounce back quickly fighting their way back into the game. Santana would walk, Kipnis reaching on error with two outs. With Santana and Kipnis on second third, Lester spiked a pitch and Ross struggled to find the baseball allowing both Santana and a brilliantly aggressive Jason Kipnis to score.
Tribe Twitter awakened.
Not dead yet.
— Monte the Color Man (@Monte_Colorman) November 3, 2016
The Cubs led the Indians 5-3 after five innings.
David Ross would take the once unbreakable Andrew Miller deep to extend the Cubs lead to 6-3.
Napoli, in an offensive and defensive slump since early August waved his twig and struck out once again to lead off the Indians half of the 6th.
Party at Crapoli’s, The Return
— Reverend Dizzle (@Dizzle729) November 3, 2016
Experiencing the seventh was intense, looking back it was monotonous as the score remained 6-3 Cubs.
A side note to the game but an issue for Major League Baseball optics nonetheless, Aroldis Chapman entered in the 8th with his domestic violence being irrelevant to coverage.
Reminder, Cubs warming man in pen who choked and fired weapon in dispute with girlfriend. https://t.co/toeFMvQXEY
— Mike Hattery (@snarkyhatman) October 29, 2016
In the 8th, Brandon Guyer doubled home Jose Ramirez with an absolutely exceptional at bat against Aroldis Chapman, the tying run came to the plate in Rajai Davis.
Guyer was acquired to get base hits against lefties. He got a base hit against a lefty. Some things still make sense.
— T.J. Zuppe (@TJZuppe) November 3, 2016
Out of nowhere, Rajai Davis had the most important at bat of his career, taking Chapman deep to tie Game 7 at 6.
OH MY FREAKING GOD!!!!!!
— Tyler Stotsky (@tstotsky63) November 3, 2016
I can’t stop shaking
— Adam Burke (@SkatingTripods) November 3, 2016
Time to shut the freeways down.
— damiEn bowman 3.4 (@damiEnbowman) November 3, 2016
That was one of the greatest moments of my life. I leaped into my brother’s arms and cried.
— T.D. Dery #1More (@TD1TribeKU) November 3, 2016
Cody Allen returned for the 9th inning walking the leadoff hitter David Ross but inducing a force out at second base. In entered Bryan Shaw.
With Heyward stealing, Yan Gomes threw a one hopper to Jason Kipnis, Kipnis could not keep the ball in front of him and Heyward reached third base with one out. Twitter was rightfully frustrated.
Oh god that’s really bad
— Chad Young (@chadyoung) November 3, 2016
Baez struck out attempting to safety squeeze.
Lindor then covered what felt like most of North America, ranging into center field, throwing out Dexter Fowler to take the Indians to the 9th inning with a score of 6-6.
With Game 7 on the line, Indians fans could not wait to get their shirts off.
J.R. Smith has started something. There is an increasingly large contingent of shirtless men in RF standing room area.
— Anthony Castrovince (@castrovince) November 3, 2016
Aroldis Chapman staved off a velocity drop to send Game 7 to extra innings.
Game 7 was then delayed before beginning the 10th inning.
Schwarber singles to open 10th. Almora replaces him and turns in some heads-up baserunning, moving to 2B on deep CF flyout by Bryant.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) November 3, 2016
Ben Zobrist, history will remember your name
— Taylor Blake Ward (@TaylorBlakeWard) November 3, 2016
After walking Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist punished the Indians for an opposite field RBI double. Montero followed with an RBI single of his own and the Cubs moved closer World Series Title.
Well, not that he was particularly liked anyway, but Shaw just became an All-Time CLE Villain
— Gavin Potter (@potter_gavin) November 3, 2016
The bullpen usage was interesting late in Cleveland.
…Bauer? Tito not having his best inning. https://t.co/H6fkzhiKFa
— ChampiNOMship (@SportsNom) November 3, 2016
Fortunately for the Indians, Trevor Bauer did a phenomenal job escaping a bases loaded jam. The Cubs led 8-6 going to the bottom of the 10th.
Napoli continued his quest for free agency, whiffing at another fastball. 1 out.
Ramirez grounded out to shortstop. 2 out.
Brandon Guyer walked, bringing Rajai Davis to the plate.
Guyer would advance to second on indifference.
Rajai Davis delivered an RBI single to center field. 8-7 Cubs.
Leaving the game in the hands of Michael Martinez, unfortunately, not a great big league hitter.
Here are a list of active pitchers with a higher career wRC+ than Michael Martinez, who has a 35 wRC+ in *578* plate appearances: pic.twitter.com/SwOSP7ePJu
— August Fagerstrom (@AugustFG_) October 29, 2016
Bryant to Rizzo, Cubs are World Series Champions!
The Indians rode Corey Kluber, Andrew Miller, and Bryan Shaw to Game 7 of the World Series against the best team in baseball in the past five years. Unfortunately, each pitcher broke down in the most intense outing of their big league career. The Indians had an unforgettable season while missing a former MVP candidate, Michael Brantley, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar. For Indians fans it is hard not to be proud of this Indians team, for baseball fans it is hard not to be happy for this Cubs team.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:-Shakespeare((A man once attributed with the following quote “I would not have had to have written so many tragedies if baseball existed in my day [↩]
- (Jesse Spector [↩]
138 Comments
Totally worth the extra 20-some-million per year to upgrade the end of your bench.
DOLANZ R CHEEP!!
Lucroy didn’t exactly help the Rangers in the postseason. He’s a better talent than Perez at the plate, but far worse on defense (framing pitches particularly important). It’s a tough gambit because you cannot take those 2 ABs away from Perez and he won us Game 1.
Would love to be able to improve there going forward but going to defend Perez’s efforts for what he did too.
My patented national media blackout will be in full effect for a good week or so.
Josh Tomlin
They need to invent a backwards “r” on the keyboard.
What’s the licensing fee? This will be better than t-shirts.
I’ll give it away for free. You’d be surprised how easy it is to completely ignore the rest of the world, even in this zany information age of ours.
I turned on HGTV at 2am. Turned out to be safe harbor.
It isn’t the same. Did you see the emotion from the Cubs players when they won? They were ecstatic (as they should be).
When the Cavs won, I have never seen an outpouring of emotion like I saw at that moment. EVERYONE was crying – and it wasn’t the “the camera is on me” variety of tears. It was uncontrollable, raw, hot seething emotion, hardened and heavied under the pressure of history. No, there is no comparison.
Ok, deep breaths, deeeeeep breaths…
https://media.giphy.com/media/xT8qBd0tFdFV7l0gr6/giphy.gif
This felt like the 2015 NBA Championship series. Stacked team defeats beat-up team.
We had three healthy starters, all of which were figured out and drubbed in their last three games (Working on short rest) Our guys couldn’t figure out theirs (starters) in those last few games. We finally figured out Chapman but he was working on no rest.
It was a great series and I am sad hat we lost. But damn what a ride!
I think Perez’s efforts were overblown. He did a great job, and he did carry that one game – so I’m not disposing him, but with the way the strike zone was called, I’m not so sure pitch-framing even mattered in this series. Also not sure there’s a way to prove that, but damn, those umps need to get consistent.
And I think that while you can get away with a few things over 7 games, you obviously can’t get away with them for 162. They certainly need an upgrade. And I will continue to say that Gomes is garbage, as I have been doing for 2 years. He’s done. Get rid of him.
I listened to a wrestling podcast around that time. Not exactly a life-goal high point.
We were surrounded by plenty of once obnoxious Cub fans that started sobbing uncontrollably nanoseconds after the last out. Our joy is better than their joy thing just doesn’t work for me. 108 years is a long, long time. And they have always supported that team, even when they sucked for decades.
The problem, of course, being that you need something to replace these guys with that is defineably better. Anyway, 2017 isn’t for today (at least for me).
Ugh. Balotelli brings it upon himself.
i know it will be a somber day over here … but you should all be proud.
Apparently, I only got the regulation nine innings for the Lindor tacos.
Well played, Sports Karma.
+1
Rabid and wealthy fanbase.
LOL I was thinking that last night.
Nan, I’ve got a beer and a World Series hat and I’m going to take a ride to a place I haven’t been to in a while. Hat’s off to you my friend.
A 39 year old backup catcher hitting a homer against our stud reliever shows that this one simply wasn’t meant to be. If Ross doesn’t hit that home run, we win. Sigh.
https://i.imgflip.com/jfnha.jpg
I watched Sleepless in Seattle on a NON-HD cable channel.
I’m always in the weight room, so to speak, so always looking ahead. It’s in my compulsive nature. Headed one (or one thousand) too many soccer balls, methinks.
our joy is better. you know this to be true. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/322ee4ec9afdfc665b4461092fba6cc31e70c7cf9cc089c7ce90ad18cb144342.gif
yeah, you’re right. But one of my lasting memories of this game will be not having home field advantage in Game 7 of the World Series.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b6592e24ec582caeba69f34ec42b96e1e0a313ce0f3bc848863b6a26d7705c8.jpg
Look! It’s an Indians-related post nearing 100 comments!
I have 3 kids so, according to this chart, that gives me more fans than the Toronto Blue Jays!
We can doooo eeet!
Cubs fans filled prime seats and affected the game from that vantage point. Are you saying that the holders of rights to those prime seats needed college funds and mortgage help? Everybody has a right to make the last buck, but I have never seen a crucial home field crowd advantage decimated in such an important game. More than embarrassing, it was weird.
Terry Francona lost the series in the first two inning of game 6 when he started Tyler Naquin instead of Rajai Davis in centerfield then after two bush league errors by Naquin in each of the first two innings he had to replace Naquin with Davis by that time it was too late..
IMHO, Guyer was fantastic this series and postseason. However, my expectations were low. If Napoli delivers 1/2 the production of Guyer, I think we win this series. (whew – needed to give props to Guyer and slam Napoli this morning…I feel a little better…slightly depressed…I thought with the Cavs winning it all this pain wouldn’t hurt as much…nope…).
Not crushed today. Feels more like the injury-decimated Cavs of ’15 finally being overwhelmed once the superior roster of the opponent found their traction. My shout-outs to:
– Francona: masterful and gutsy.
– Kipnis: played well and has clearly emerged as the heart of the team. They won’t necessarily need a Napoli/Giambi daddy figure next year.
– Guyer and Coco and Perez: can players of limited abilities play better under the ultimate pressure?
– Kluber: if I’m building a staff from scratch, I start with him. The best combo of performer and role model at that position in the game.
– Schwarber: jokes aside, his lineup presence and fear factor flipped the series.
Almost wished Rajai had not hit the blast – made the end so painful. But this team certainly wrung every drop out of what they had – winning it would have taken a last drop of good fortune that wasn’t there. This squad may not make it back. Winning the division and getting through the AL next year will be just as hard or harder. But what a great great ride with one of the most likable CLE rosters I can ever remember.
I think you know I’m not saying that. Maybe they wanted beer money. Maybe they’re just good business people (apparently they are). But who cares? Maybe they do have financial concerns that we wouldn’t understand. I know they’re not responsible for the other thousands of fans there from Chicago, who (if it’s possible for fans to affect a game) certainly had a greater impact. Besides, we all know that the “real fans,” all of us Joe Lunchpails (and we all think we are, even when we aren’t) “care more” and never get those seats. There may be some life priority correlation that determines whether those seats are used or sold. Regardless, it doesn’t affect me.
In college football, it seems to happen often. Buckeyes when they played Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. That was majority Bucks fans. And, the 2002 Nat’l Championship game was almost entirely OSU faithful. But, I had just never seen it in baseball.
Great post!
Feels very much like the ’15 Cavs. The only difference for me is with that team, I could easily say, “We’ll be back.” The hard thing about Baseball is it’s just so hard! Will we be back? Possibly. But that “possibly” makes last night hurt a little more than ’15 did.
They definitely went out on their shields.
A full-strength pitching staff and the core lineup should give us a leg-up in the division for a couple of years, but yes, baseball is so “volatile” (Shapiro word) you just don’t know when you’ll get another chance. That’s a tough pill.
That said, I’m sad but not crushed. That’s due to the Cavs, as well as the feeling this team simply ran out of bodies at the end. I was concerned to the extreme when the game went to extras with the heart of CHI’s lineup up to bat. Felt like the 9th with Carlos/Kip/Lindor was the chance to steal it.
I think I’m going to give professional sports a rest for a while. Too much stupidity and negativity coming from places one shouldn’t see. Multi-million dollar babies with the platform (social media, etc) to say/do stupid crap. Saw an article where Walton chuckled and basically said “good” (paraphrasing) when told the outcome of last night’s game. I know Walton was assistant coach at GS last year, but why the animosity? He also played for the Cavs. The Cavs weren’t comparing themselves to the 80 whatever Lakers, GS was…they talked trash through the media the entire series. Also, Draymond tweeted out something obnoxious too. How is our Cleveland team losing the same as GS? It’s not…Sorry, these small rants are actually therapeutic…
Actually, I know a few of them. They wanted the last dollar (they didn’t necessarily get the ticket holder’s ultimate price). By the number of seats given up there were dozens of like-minded folks/companies. Is there a civic duty in this situation? I don’t know. All I know is that on a visceral level, as a fan, it was sickening.
You think the Browns will be able to re-sign Pryor and Collins?
Sure. I get it.
Still, no businessmen, no stadium, no team. I just ain’t mad about anymore.
I will take a loss like last night EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! over losing without a fight. I have so much fu**ing respect for that fight last night. Kipnis balls-to-the-wall-two-bagger-wild-pitch… actually executing a clutch bunt… tying up with a 2-run-blast off a dude that can throw 105 mph. Heart, man. Heart.
That’s true, the errors happened, but I’m not blaming Francona for that. Those were errors that any professional baseball player should have been able to avoid, and no one could have foreseen that. Rookie nerves? Maybe, but unless dude was shaking in the clubhouse, Francona wouldn’t have known the night would have gone like that.
I know you appreciate those things too, so that wasn’t an attack. Just saying that I’ll take the subsequent pain that follows that type thrill and effort.
At least JT is still a Brown.
Comment #100. YES!