Latest Cleveland winner rides high atop AL Central
CLEVELAND The championship confetti has been swept away, the 1.3 million fans have gone back to their homes and the construction crews have taken over downtown, feverishly preparing for the Republican National Convention.
In the shadows of Quicken Loans Arena, where you can still find remnants of the NBA Finals logo on the streets, and amid all the scaffolding and massive Republican Convention banners, there’s a strange phenomenon happening down the block at Progressive Field.
This is where you’ll find the hottest and perhaps best-darn Major League Baseball team in all the land.
“It’s sure a good time to be in Cleveland,” Indians first baseman Mike Napoli said. “When the Cavs won and had their parade, I was out there. I walked through the crowd. I saw the parties. I saw firsthand how crazy this city can get. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?”
The last time Napoli was part of a celebration, he became a folk hero in Boston. Images of Napoli, shirtless, guest-bartending at local nightspots and pounding Fireball shots all night, will remain forever in the aftermath of the Red Sox’s 2013 World Series championship.
Napoli, laughing at the memories Wednesday, vows that if the Indians win their first World Series title since 1948, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
“If we win it, there’s no holding back this time,” Napoli says. “It’s going to be something.”
Says Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis: “I’ve already told him I want to be next to him if we do it here. I’ll be on his back, on his shoulders, getting a piggyback ride all through the city.”
Napoli, who signed a one-year, $7 million contract in January, has become a cult figure in Cleveland. He has 17 home runs and a team-leading 56 RBI as he bids to reach the playoffs for the eighth time in 10 seasons with four franchises.
It’s no wonder the hottest shirts in the Indians gift shop these days read Party At Napoli’s .
And it’s only July. Can you imagine October?
The Indians (51-33) are running away with the American League Central. They have a 6 1 ⁄ 2- game lead over the Detroit Tigers and are 25-9 since June 1. That month featured the start of a franchise-record 14-game winning streak and their best monthly winning percentage (.786) since 1954.
“I’ve been scoreboard watching since April 10,” Kipnis said. “It’s so much more fun doing it when you’re looking down instead of calculating, ‘If these five teams lose, we can get a wild card.’ “Now you keep hearing people say, ‘Does the Cavs winning the championship take the pressure off you guys?’ I want to say, ‘I don’t see LeBron (James) throwing any complete games for us.’ “But what they did do for us is show us the parade and the excitement around the city. We saw what can happen when you win games.”
Kipnis and Napoli have constructed a shrine in the empty locker between them, paying homage to Jobu, the doll in the iconic 1989 film Major League. There are two Jobu statues, three small Bacardi rum bottles in front of them and two large Jobu rum bottles behind it. There’s even a sweater with a picture of Jobu that Napoli purchased, complete with the inscription: “It is very bad to drink Jobu’s rum. Very bad.” It’s going to have to wait until October, and this franchise has become awfully thirsty over the years.
This small-market club hasn’t won a playoff game since coming a victory short of reaching the 2007 World Series. After 455 consecutive sellouts from 1995 to 2001, drawing more than 3 million fans for six years in a row, they are averaging the secondlowest home attendance in baseball at 17,204.
Yet even with a downtown population that has dwindled to about 15,000 residents, the Indians slowly are gaining attention. They had their first sellout for a non-season opener July 4, with nearly half the crowd of 34,163 waiting out a 2 1 ⁄ 2- hour rain delay and staying until the fireworks show was over. Cars were still piling out at 1:45 a.m. They are anticipating near-sellout crowds this weekend against the New York Yankees.
The uptick in excitement comes two weeks after most of the club’s front office watched the Cavaliers celebration from the upper concourse at Progressive Field, wondering if the giddy masses would clear in time for their players to reach the park for a game that evening.
“This is the most prolonged excitement I’ve ever seen here,” Indians general manager Mike Chernoff said. “We’ve seen a resurgence in the city.”
Hopes for an autumn parade rest largely with the Indians rotation, the envy of every club in baseball. They are all under club control through at least 2018, with four of the starters locked up through 2020. The 2016 salary of this group that leads the AL with a 3.61 ERA is $13.5 million.
“Having those guys here and with their contracts gives us the ability to plan around that group,” Indians President Chris Antonetti said. “We’re not going into an offseason saying, ‘Hey, we need to fill three holes in our starting rotation, how are we going to go into the market and do that?’ ” The offense is averaging the fifth-most runs in the AL. The Indians run the bases efficiently and have few, if any, defensive liabilities.
Oh, yeah, there’s that glorious pitching, with a rotation that entered Wednesday’s play ranked first in the AL in WAR (8.9), WHIP (1.16), opponent’s batting average (.232), opponent’s onbase percentage (.289), slugging percentage (.392), OPS (.681), Fielding Independent Pitching (3.87) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.4-1).
“It’s unreal,” All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor says. “They are so good, so talented and so gifted that when the catcher puts down a sign and I know it’s the right pitch, I say, ‘Good luck! You’re not going to hit it.’ “Really, we feel like we’re going to win every night.”
All-Star Danny Salazar, Corey Kluber, Danny Carrasco, Josh Tomlin and Trevor Bauer might not be household names outside of the 216 area code, but they are filthy in talent. You could make a case that the entire rotation, and not just Salazar (10-3, leagueleading 2.36 ERA), deserved to make the All-Star team, pitching coach Mickey Callaway says.
Should they reach the postseason, an old hand will be there with them. It’s no coincidence Napoli, 34, is a near-constant postseason presence.
“When I grow up I want to be Mike Napoli,” said Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels, who acquired him twice. “He’s one of my alltime favorites. He’s intense, he’s competitive, but yet he keeps things very loose.”
That started on opening day, when everyone was complaining about the 34-degree temperature, only for Napoli to dress in short sleeves, asking when it actually got cold in Cleveland.
“When we were trying to sign him, (Red Sox second baseman Dustin) Pedroia was just beating on me: ‘You have to sign this guy. You will love this guy.’ He just kept going and going,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “When you get an endorsement from Pedroia, that’s the gold standard for me.
“The way Nap has carried himself here, he’s probably even surpassed expectations. He’s made us so different, in a good way.”
The Indians no longer are just talented but now also have a ferocious edge. They’ve submerged the Tigers all on their own, beating them 11 consecutive times — by a 76-24 tally — before Detroit finally fought back in winning Wednesday’s series finale 12-2.
“That was the team I really worried about in our division when the season started,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “Not to take anything away from the Royals or anyone else, but you knew they would be good. Real good.”
Yep, even Cavs-good.
“In the 13 years I’ve been here, you could always feel the pessimism in this city,” Chernoff said. “Now, I think for the first time, you see people being hopeful about our sports teams. It’s palpable everywhere.”
Yes, sir, one epic month has changed a lot in Northeast Ohio.
“Come on, where else would you rather be right now,” Napoli said, “than right here in Cleveland?”
