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October 21, 2007
By KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer
BOSTON – Seasoned Red Sox fans know all about the feeling that’s scrambling the stomachs of baseball fans in Cleveland right about now.
For 86 years, the Red Sox toiled without a World Series championship. The team’s mythic near-misses and painful collapses are the stuff of legend. Those decades of frustration were finally swept away in the fall of 2004 thanks to Curt Schilling, Johnny Damon, David Ortiz and the rest of the Boston’s fabled baseball idiots.
Now we have the Cleveland Indians. The last time the Tribe won a World Series, Bob Feller was firing his famous fastball but that still wasn’t enough to knock off the Boston Braves in six games. That was back in 1948.
The next 58 years were largely filled with seasons of ineptitude. In 1954, the Indians won the pennant but were swept in the Series by the New York Giants. The next appearance in baseball’s biggest show didn’t come until 1995 but Atlanta ended the dream that year.
Then came 1997, a year that will live in infamy for Indians’ fans. Ahead 2-1 in the ninth inning of Game Seven against the Florida Marlins, Cleveland’s bullpen couldn’t nail get the final two outs and the Marlins forced extra innings.
Edgar Renteria ended the second-longest Game Seven in World Series by singling off Charles Nagy in the 11th inning for a 3-2 win.
Now Cleveland baseball fans are on the verge of witnessing another painful near-miss. After beating the Red Sox three straight times to take a commanding 3-1 lead in this American League Championship Series, the Indians are letting another chance slip away.
First ace lefty C.C. Sabathia let a chance to close out the Red Sox in Game Five at Jacobs Field on Thursday. Then came a true disastrous effort last night.
Cleveland’s second starter, sinker-balling Fausto Carmona, failed to show up for the second time in the series as the Red Sox tattooed him right out of the gate and skated to a 12-2 win.
As soon as the rout ended, the Indians began washing the bad taste out of their mouths.
''It just has to stop and it has to stop tonight,'' said manager Eric Wedge. ''They need to go to bed tonight with clear heads and think good thoughts and come here tomorrow expecting to win.''
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