Sunday, September 23, 2007

Mission Accomplished...At Least One of Them

If a picture can tell a thousand words...well...
Arriving at our beloved corner of Carnegie and Ontario this afternoon, the smell of a pennant in the air, I was greeted by an old friend with a simple message.



The park was packed and the Red Sea had emerged.




The game never seemed in question, keeping the "Rally Pie" shirts on the rack.



Thanks to a (big surprise) team effort, Senor Slo-Mo threw the pitch that (ultimately) won the Central.
And, the celebration was on.






The team headed out to CF to raise the AL Central pennant while Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" blared over the loudspeakers.






Slider came on with his cursory bufoonery (which certainly doesn't merit a picture here), followed by...yes..."You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" (who says nobody in the Tribe organization reads this blog) as T-Bone and I stood there, mouths agape. As the team made their way back to the dugout, C.C. and Victor led the on-field comments and the glad-handing and congratulations were on.








The party carried over into the clubhouse, where Ryan Garko declared, "Party's on West 6th tonight...ask for Josh Barfield".






The souvenir lines quickly stacked up selling AL Central Champ gear.





The celebration wasn't limited to the field and the clubhouse.



Note the shirts at "Local Heroes" (worst name ever for a bar - the old Cooperstown) RIGHT after the game.



Many more hurdles stand in the way of the dream and it's a simple AL Central championship and nothing that breaks the trophy-less streak, but this is a day on that will live on forever.

10 comments:

Voltaire said...

Great recap. I like the simplicity.

My room now has two key upgrades. First, my scorecard from the game sits on the top shelf of my desk. Second, my Central Division Champs poster is tacked into the wall above me.

The greatest Indians game I have ever been to, and a day I'll never forget. Thanks, Indians.

t-bone said...

best. day. ever.

Vegas Watch said...

Great pictures. I have a like 15 second recording of the last pitch and immediate celebration if you guys want me to send it over.

And I'm getting everyone I know to enter the drawing for Yankees playoff tickets. Registration ends at 10PM tomorrow.

vbc3 said...

I'll just say "seconded" to Voltaire and T-Bone.

I had never attended more than a game a season before this year. For whatever reason, this summer saw us going to games every couple of weeks starting back around June/July, and had so much fun that we couldn't stop. Through sheer luck, we saw The Triple Play and Game 1 of the Tigers series last Monday, but this one easily topped 'em all. I haven't felt this giddy over the team since the fall of 1997: I had a big ol' silly grin plastered across my phiz for hours after this was over.

I so want to take the whole month of October off right now, it's not even funny. Here's hoping I can see a couple of games to make working during the rest of them a tad more bearable.

GO TRIBE!!!

t-bone said...

go to youtube, type in "cleveland indians", then click on "date added" so the most recent come up. lots of good stuff there!

actually, clicking on this should do the same thing.

Paul Cousineau said...

Another nice video link here.

rodells said...

Geez, Paul. Did you steal the card out of my camera yesterday? We have some eerily similar shots. Yikes. I was in the mezz also.

Rodells Jr was even pretty good for the entire game.

Awesome game! What a feeling!

Art McGregor said...

If anyone has Hammy's call of the last out, I'd greatly appreciate it.

t-bone said...

KIGE SAYS WE'RE GOING!!! KIGE SAYS WE'RE GOING!!!

For those who aren't aware of the greatness of Kige Ramsey, please bookmark his YouTube page and check it daily. I've been on board since day one.

Anyways, here's what he has to say...

Anonymous said...

Have a downlable clip of the last out here, http://www.conneautvalleysports.com/lastout.wmv