|
| |
|
|
 Indians wake up, head to ALCS again
Posted: Saturday October 03, 1998 11:34 PM
BOSTON (AP) -- They napped through the final few months of the regular season. They were called lethargic, disinterested and disappointing. They weren't supposed to be around very long this October. Well, guess who's headed to New York to face the Yankees? The Cleveland Indians wrapped up their division series against Boston with 2-1 win over the Red Sox on Saturday. David Justice delivered a two-run double in the eighth inning and made the biggest defensive play in Game 4 as the Indians earned a chance to defend their AL title. "It's joy, relief, excitement," said shortstop Omar Vizquel, who snapped an 0-for-14 slump with an eighth-inning single and scored the go-ahead run on Justice's hit. "Nobody thought we had a chance to beat Boston. But they underestimated this team," he said. "We know how to win. We know how to win big games. We know how to win in big situations." There's no denying that. Once baseball's biggest laughingstock, parodied in Hollywood after years of misery and failure, the Cleveland Indians are now one of the game's model ballclubs. When they open in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, the Indians, who won their fourth straight AL Central title this season, will be appearing in their third ALCS in four years and their ninth postseason series since 1995. What's still missing, though, is a World Series title. Cleveland hasn't won one since 1948, and were two outs away from beating Florida in Game 7 last year before losing in 11 innings. And in a season where history lessons were taught every time Mark McGwire hit a home run or the Yankees added another victory to their win column, wouldn't a championship in Cleveland be something? "It's the playoffs, anything can happen in the playoffs," said Kenny Lofton, who returned to the Indians this year after a season in Atlanta. "This is a whole new ballgame. The rest of that other stuff don't count." The "other stuff" Lofton alluded to was an 89-73 regular-season record that many thought was underachieving for a roster full of All-Stars and proven players. Cleveland toyed with the competition in the weak Central and became only the seventh team in history to lead its division from start to finish. Jacobs Field was sold out for every game, but the Indians rarely played as if they could get themselves back to the Series. They dismissed criticism leading up the playoffs, deflecting questions by insisting they were ready and remaining confident with a just-wait attitude that only hinted at what they would eventually do to the Red Sox. And when Boston won Game 1 at the Jake 11-3, it looked like any hopes for another Indian summer in Cleveland were over. But that's just when this year's team showed its resolve and won three straight, including two in a row with comebacks in Fenway Park. "You talk about the regular season, you have to talk about these guys have been in the World Series twice," said Boston's Mo Vaughn. "When it comes time to do what they need to do, they did it. The regular season is one thing, the playoffs are another thing." So now, after upsetting the dreaded Yankees in last year's first round, the Indians will get a chance to ruin New York's historical '98 season. And if they can, the Indians can make some history of their own. "We're going back to Cleveland maybe just to change our underwear and socks," Vizquel said as the Indians sprayed each other with champagne in their tiny clubhouse. "And then we're going to New York." It's a trip many thought the Indians would never make.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
