I need a real Baseball Summer. I need to get lost in the stats and the chatter, the day-to-day as well as the play-by-play. I need to feel involved, like my attention will have an effect on the outcome of some early-August day game. I need to see all those ancient themes of promise, wisdom, hubris and redemption unwind again, re-enacted by a new generation of players absolutely awash in talent. And I need it to be a special Baseball Summer too. One for the ages… and that’s why, 25-ish games into the 2025 MLB season, I’m thinking: It is time to root for Cleveland.
Hear me out.
I’ve lived on the west coast for a couple of decades now, but I was born and spent my first three decades “in the sleepy west of the woody east.” I had my personal summer for the ages in 2004 when my beloved Red Sox broke the curse and won the World Series. We all sobbed for the parents and grandparents who had lived and died never getting to experience that moment of civic pride and ecstasy. When they won again in 2007 and again in 2013 (and again in 2018,) it was still great, amazing even, but… was it the same? The honest answer: Not quite.
What do you do when you’ ve been conditioned since the crib to root for the underdog and your team no longer is one? You go looking for them. I rode my Chicago friends’ joy in 2016 when the Cubs finally had their beautiful summer (which, yes, I know is one of the darkest chapters in Cleveland history, but come on… 108 years? It was their moment.) And for several years, I turned my underdog spirit to supporting Osaka’s Hanshin Tigers in Japan’s Nippon League. Why? Because they totally fit the bill: an unfairly disrespected city whose team is perennial underdog to the pinstriped, big-city Tokyo Giants. The Tigers even had their own ‘curse,’ a very confusing one that somehow involves Col. Sanders… but I digress. Last year, the Tigers won it all for the first time in nearly two decades. They’re now champions of the Nippon League and this spring they absolutely shredded the LA Dodgers in exhibition play. No longer underdogs, the Tigers are ‘the team to beat’ this year.
And that’s why I say, it is time to root for Cleveland.
A city that has been the butt of too many unfair jokes. A city whose celebrities, the Drew Careys and Harvey Pekars, are people you could imagine coming from your hometown too. Well, probably not Halle Berry; she’s obviously on another level altogether. And this ol’ Gen-X punk rocker remembers Cleveland is also the home of Pere Ubu, Rocket from the Tombs and The Dead Boys. A brawny city of believers that has always worked hard, kept the faith, and deserves a lot better than it has gotten. It sounds like Cleveland is all of us these days.
And what about the team itself?
No big deal, just one of only nine MLB teams still in their original city for over a century. The second team to break the color barrier, signing Larry Doby just a few months after Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers. The Guardians even already have a legit post-season grudge with the Yankees. What’s not to like?
And if you’re one of those people who is still upset about the “name change” in 2022, all I can tell you (aside from the fact that you’re going to die sad, bitter and alone) is that before they were called the “Indians” they were the Cleveland Naps. The NAPS! …and they were called something else before that. I have to admit, “The Naps” sounds pretty cool & weird.
So, I’m all in. #GuardsBall it is. I’ll ride with you through the slumps and the streaks, the nail-biters and the bad hops, the hot summer and the chill of fall. All I ask for in return is effort and, more importantly: Joy. Trust your talents and play with abandon. Know you play for a great city and know that even greater things can happen to a city when it has a dazzling baseball team to get behind.
Maybe it’s just me, but baseball needs to be more than just a minor glance-at-the-box-scores ‘diversion’ this summer. In the midst of the chaos and uncertainty of the current world, I’ll admit I need some occasional shelter. I need to feel invested in something positive. I need to get myself lost in the rhythms, poetry, and season-long story arcs of a closely-watched season. I need the baseballness of baseball.
While my heart forever beats for the Red Sox… Guardians, I’m giving you my HOPE this summer; a precious commodity because, like everyone else, I don’t have a lot of extra hope lying around these days. I’ll be bookmarking your websites, following your feeds, downloading your podcasts, catching the highlights, lurking on your message boards and hanging on every pitch. And if it should come down to a Guardians vs Red Sox playoff match-up, well… we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
#GoCleveland #GuardsBall
PLANET O'CONNOR 