The Indians Playing Meaningful Games in September is Always Special

By Mike Peticca

The Indians enter the final two weeks of the season with a chance, slim as it may be, to earn a wild card playoff spot.

Despite being as average in results as a team can be, having won exactly half of their 148 games going into Tuesday night's opener of a three-game set at Minnesota, the Tribe is still playing games in September that matter.

It's a scenario that shouldn't be taken for granted. For nearly three and a half decades of uninterrupted futility, the Indians played virtually no games of any team significance during those seasons' Septembers.

From Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant and Max Alvis, to Ray Fosse, Gaylord Perry and Buddy Bell, and on to Andre Thornton, Mike Hargrove (the player) and Joe Carter, Cleveland's best players were never in a realistic playoff chase as autumn neared. (Carter, of course, famously went on to slug a World Series-winning home run for the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays)

Radio/TV announcers such as Harry Jones, Joe Tait and Nev Chandler tried their best to instill some drama into their calls of late-season Tribe games. It couldn't have been easy.

Worst of all, Indians fans couldn't experience the excitement of their team having any chance to get to the World Series. The only games that counted for much as steely old Cleveland Stadium began its September cool were Browns' home openers.

This year's Indians, after Sunday's win over the White Sox, were four games behind the Astros for the second American League wild card playoff berth. The Twins and Angels also stood ahead of the Tribe.

Older Indians fans would have considered this season a bonanza of thrills, had it occurred in decades long past. Cleveland never finished fewer than 11 games out of first place from 1960 through 1993, except for the odd "two-half" season prompted by the 1981 players strike.

And, during those years, baseball did not have the wild card format, though the Indians would have seldom, if ever, been in legitimate contention for the one or two extra playoff spots.

The past 20 years have heightened the standards for interesting baseball seasons in northeast Ohio.

The media and fans have many complaints -- some understandable and others arguably not -- about how the Indians have been run over the last dozen years or so. But, look at what the team has achieved, especially in comparison to what had gone before, and let alone the recent struggles of many other franchises around baseball.

It began in 1994. The Indians were 66-47, one game out of first place in the Central Division, when the players went on strike on Aug. 11. That was it, denying longtime Tribe rooters and new ones jumping on the bandwagon the first legitimate Indians' pennant chase since 1959.

Ironically, and multiplying the disappointment, it was scheduled to be the first season in which one team each from the American and National leagues would qualify for the postseason as a wild card. The Indians were ahead in the wild card race when the campaign came to its end.

Then, the Indians began a seven-year stretch of excellence rivaled in Cleveland history only by the teams of 1948 through 1956. Tribe lineups featured players now in the Hall of Fame, others who are candidates and others who played like the greats for a few years.

In the 1995 season delayed until the resolution of the ongoing strike and thus shortened to 144 games, the Indians went 100-44 and made their first World Series since 1954, losing in six games to the Braves.

That was the first of five straight division championships for the Indians. They lost a 1996 divisional playoff series to the Orioles and got back to the World Series in 1997, coming within two outs of winning it before dropping the seventh game to the Marlins, 3-2, in 11 innings.

The 1998 Indians lost the American League Championship Series to the Yankees, four games to two. The Cleveland wins accounted for the only postseason defeats for New York, which totaled a record 125 wins from Opening Day through their World Series triumph.

Cleveland fell to the Red Sox in a division series a year later. The Indians placed second in the Central to the White Sox in 2000. They closed the season with their fifth win in six games, missing the wild card by one game as the A's and Mariners each gained necessary wins on the final day.

The Tribe notched its sixth Central title in seven years in 2001, but lost to Seattle in the first playoff round.

Age, trades and free agency had begun to take a toll on the Indians, and it became especially evident beginning in 2002. The organization bounced back, though, thanks especially to some beneficial deals. The 2005 Indians were in contention until the final weekend. Then, in 2007, Cleveland missed the World Series by one win, taking a 3-1 league championship series lead over the Red Sox before losing three straight.

After three futile campaigns, the 2011 Indians began September just 5 1/2 games short of first place before fading.

Cleveland closed the 2013 season with 10 straight wins to beat out the Rangers for the second wild card, then lost the one-game playoff to Tampa Bay. Last year, the Tribe stood just three games out of first place on Sept. 11 and held slight wild card hopes going into the final week.

My Akron buddies and I would have loved to have Indians teams like that to root for as we began to play Little League around 1960, as many of us began college 10 years or so later and as we went through our 20s and 30s and hit our 40s.

I was 7 when my Dad brought me to an Indians doubleheader against Chicago that drew nearly 67,000 fans to the lakefront on Aug. 30, 1959. The White Sox won both games, capping a four-game series sweep that put them 5 1/2 games ahead of Cleveland. The Indians didn't seriously threaten Chicago the rest of the way, finishing second, five games back.

The outcome was disappointing, but there was no hint of the wasteland that was to become Indians baseball. Controversial general manager Frank Lane broke up the '59 team with some dubious trades, including the one that sent popular outfielder and American League home run leader Rocky Colavito to the Tigers a few days prior to the 1960 season opener.

That helped account for the mediocrity of the next few seasons, but the next 34? No. It was one bad team after another so-so team, and so on, for one lousy season and reason after another.

For those shrugging off the current Indians, following are the high points for the Cleveland teams from 1960 through 1993. For some context: The American League expanded from eight to 10 teams in 1961. It was win the league or nothing to get to the World Series until the leagues were divided into divisions and playoff series were begun in 1969.

The Indians played in the six-team AL East from 1969-76, until the division grew to seven teams in 1977. In 1994, the American and National leagues were each divided into three divisions; the Indians made part of the five-team AL Central. Remember, that was also the first year that baseball included a wild card team in its playoff format. The leagues went to two wild card teams each in 2012.

* The Indians never finished above fourth place from 1960 through 1993 except in 1968, when they came in third, 16 1/2 games behind Detroit. The last date Cleveland was within 10 games of first place was on Aug. 5.

* The best record for an Indians team during the 34-year stretch was 87-75 in 1965. The Tribe finished fifth, however, 15 games behind Minnesota. Cleveland was tied for first place on July 4, but the closest it was to the league lead during September was nine games out on the 7th. The 1968 Indians, at 86-75, had the second best record in the 34-year span.

* The closest the Indians finished to first place in the 34 seasons was 11 games back in both 1988 and 1990. The '88 sixth-place Tribe trailed the league leaders by at least nine games through September. The '90 fourth-place Indians began the month 15 games back. Boston won the division both seasons.

* The 1986 Indians, who went 84-78, finished fifth, 11 1/2 games behind the division champion Red Sox. It was the closest they were to Boston through the final month. It was that Indians team that prompted Sports Illustrated to feature Joe Carter and Cory Snyder on the cover of its 1987 baseball season preview issue. Even some Indians players were skeptical, knowing the team had questionable pitching at best. Alas, the Indians went on to win 61 games and lose 101, coming in last, 37 games behind Detroit.

* The only non-strike season during the 34-year drought in which the Indians played anything resembling meaningful September games was in 1974. They were 67-67 and in fourth place, 4 1/2 games behind the league-leading Yankees when the contending Orioles came into town for a four-game series beginning on Sept. 6. Baltimore took three of the games, but the Indians were still fourth at 71-70, five games back of New York, when they acquired 39-year old Frank Robinson via trade from the Angels on Sept. 12. Cleveland lost its next four games and came in at 77-85, 14 games behind Baltimore. The Indians fired manager Ken Aspromonte and replaced him with Robinson, making the future Hall of Fame outfielder Major League Baseball's first African-American manager.

* The 1981 players strike was an odd exception to the norm. The two-month stoppage from June into August resulted in two "half seasons." The Indians were 26-24 in the first half, in sixth place, five games behind the Yankees. When the strike hit, it wasn't known for certain that "first-half champions" would advance to an expanded playoff format, as would the second-half leaders. The Indians didn't seriously threaten in that second half, finishing fifth at 26-27, five games behind Milwaukee.

Given that history, it's cool to yet again see the Indians play some games in September that matter.