Tale Of One City At Last Sweet For Cleveland

All of us have a favorite Cleveland Indians tale, so feel free to share yours as we trawl memory lane.

Speak up … don’t be bashful … favorite Indians lore …

Maybe I should start. Let’s see … mine would have to go back to 1966, when I gambled a quarter on five packs of baseball cards and somehow managed to not get stuck with another Joe Azcue, who accounted for roughly 73 percent of all the stock Topps issued in Great Falls, Mont., that year.

Hmm. Does the absence of Indians count as an Indians memory?

Of course it does. Absence has long defined the Cleveland Indians - absence from the pennant race, absence from our consciousness.

Until now.

“In 25 years, the two most exciting moments have been Tito Francona’s TV commercials for Central National Bank and Valmy Thomas’ groin injury.”

Bennett Tramer wrote that. Sixteen years ago. You can always tell great literature because it stands the test of time.

Virtually overnight, however, his words have become dated. The Indians who chugged into the Kingdome on Thursday night were - despite a losing streak the Mariners stretched to three by winning a 11-5 slugfest - a cool 15-1/2 games ahead of secondplace Milwaukee in the American League Central.

For a franchise as relentlessly depressed as the Indians, this is cause for unprecedented municipal giddiness which the manager - the Jobish Mike Hargrove, the most decent of baseball men who’s done 15 hard years with the organization - can’t bring himself to deflate, no matter what his best instincts tell him.

“It’s nice,” he admitted, “watching people be happy for what you do.”

The only good thing about playing in Cleveland is you don’t have to make road trips there.”

Former Tribe outfielder Richie Scheinblum said that. Twenty-two years ago.

Now Cleveland is the baseball place to be. Its spiffy new stadium - Jacobs Field - is 6,000 tickets from being sold out for the rest of the season. Management has executed a fairly daring plan to keep the talent it developed. And the club has the best record in the big leagues.

This will all look like a misprint when incorporated into the team’s history, some samples of which need to be read into the record:

“Colorful Ken Harrelson was acquired amid much fanfare in 1969, broke his leg in 1970 and retired … Ray Fosse, seemingly destined for stardom, was injured by Pete Rose in a memorable home plate collision to end the 1970 All-Star Game … The 1986 team surprised fans with a fourth-place finish …”

Publicity courtesy of the National Lampoon.

“What exactly is our team concept?”

Charlie Donovan, the Tribe’s fictional general manager in the movie “Major League,” said that.

The real Tribe actually has one. Starting in 1992, general manager John Hart began signing his core players to multi-year contracts before they became eligible to salary arbitration. Several - Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton among others - are signed through 1996 or beyond.

“There’ve been some mistakes made with people who signed long-term deals,” said Hargrove, “but the ones who have worked out far outweigh the others who haven’t.”

Only three times this season have the Indians lost two or more consecutive games. It may be just a coincidence that the team found itself in one of those lulls when management went out and got another live one - pitcher Ken Hill, who comes from St. Louis with some disappointing 1995 stats and a $4.3 million contract.

The theory is, the Indians will need another front-line pitcher come playoff time.

“A move like that wouldn’t have made sense before (this year),” Hargrove said.

It makes sense now. You wouldn’t think even the Indians could blow a 15-1/2 game lead, but their starting rotation - excluding Dennis Martinez - has an ERA pushing 5.00 for the month of July. Seattle hitters bashed five home runs Thursday.

The Indians have waited 40 years for this moment. There’s no excuse for letting it slip away.

“By no means is our work done or our goal achieved,” said Hargrove. “No matter how many people sit and say we’re going to be in the playoffs, we’re going to do this or that, I haven’t heard anybody guarantee anything yet.

“It’s nice. For me, it’s the difference between looking forward to reading the sports page in the morning as opposed to skipping sections of it. I don’t know if anybody deserves that sort of thing, but I think the percentages were getting in our favor. It’s about time.”

Mike Hargrove said that. If he hadn’t, we’d have said it for him.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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