So Close You Can Taste It

Isn’t it fun to have the Magic Number reduced even when Paul Byrd has to be relieved by Tom Mastny and Cliff Lee? It’s funny how you can tell how the game is going by simply looking at the relievers used, and how Lee has been relegated to eating up meaningless innings while getting his resume in order.

Regardless, the Magic Number stands at 1, the playoff ticket packet arrived this morning (yes, I got it on a Sunday as our reliable postal worker must have dropped them off some time after 8 PM last night), and I’m heading down to the Jake with some SRO tickets that T-Bone picked up so we can invade the Batters’ Eye Bar about noon and (hopefully) see the AL Central Flag raised above our heads today.

Since I have to get to the face painting (just kidding, although it is important to “support the team”), it’s time to take a round of Lazy Sunday:

A terrific bit from Terry Pluto on Frank the Tank in today's paper, but cleveland.com apparently didn’t link the piece, at least as of about 10:00 AM. They provided links for the absurdity of Shaw and Livy, and Pluto’s Browns thoughts, but you’ll have to pick up the print copy of the PD to see Pluto’s thoughts on Gutz and other Tribe topics.

Paul Hoynes owns up to his being wrong about the Tribe coming out of Winter Haven. I forgot that he picked them to finish 4th in the Central…4th!?!

Proving that his new desk must not be close to Sheldon, the ABJ’s Patrick McManamon gives a nice list of “Why Not” for the Tribe taking it all this postseason.

A little love nationally from Mike Bauman at MLB.com, who sees the big picture happening at the Jake.

In case you missed it, Tribe Assistant GM Neil Huntington has been tabbed to become the new Pirates GM, with the announcement coming in the most awkwardly written story I’ve ever seen.
Some of the actual sentences from the announcement:
“He is an adviser to Indians general manager Mark Shapiro, specializing in player evaluations.”
“He also works as an advance scout for a portion of the season.”
“He was also an Indians assistant GM.”
Seriously, did someone just look in the Tribe Media Guide and replace the bullet points with “He is” and “He was” for this story?
Somewhere Fr. Streicher (the man who literally wrote the book on grammar) is howling.
As a final aside to the story (and with our sarcasm stick put away), Hoynes predicts that Joel Skinner will follow him there in 2008 to become the Bucs manager.

Andy Call has a nice bit on Bartolo Colon (who is still, allegedly, only 33) falling off the cliff that so many people predicted due to his weight issues and (more importantly for those who want to use Bartolo in the C.C. comparison) lack of interest in conditioning.

While many of us have complained about the lack of national coverage for the Tribe, imagine being smack dab in the middle of New York or Boston during this nonsense. Luckily we have the perpective of sporadic commenter Ron Vallo, who writes the terrific “Tribe Fan in Yankeeland” blog that is linked in the sidebar. In his latest, he references a recent poll that confirms what we all knew…people on the East Coast are vaguely aware that Cleveland has a baseball team and is blissfully unaware of the punch that said team packs.
Ron’s going to keep tabs on what’s happening in New York for us here as the Yankees certainly look like a possible ALDS opponent for the Tribe.

Finally, in case you’re not sure of what all of this “It’s Tribe Time Now” talk is, here’s the link to hear the song that introduces the games on WTAM.

Taking the camera down this afternoon (with new batteries), so hopefully I’ll be able to put together some pictures of the highlights of “Clinch Day 2007”.

Today feels like the day!