BATTER UP: CLEVELAND INDIANS

Counting down the seconds till Opening Day when life begins anew involves providing a "starting nine" of obscure trivia, fun facts, high points and low moments for all 29 major-league teams, and if there's time, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays too! Presenting: The Cleveland Indians.

1. They really have it in for the Yankees. Last July 4, Cleveland ruined George Steinbrenner's birthday by handing the Yankees their second-worst loss ever, 19-1. That shellacking was surpassed only by the 22-0 whupping the Indians administered in August 2004 (the sweetness of typing "Cleveland 22 New York 0" into that night's sports agate has not yet faded).
   
   Why all the rage? Well, it's been 59 years since the Indians won the World Series, and 43 since any Cleveland team won a major pro sports championship (not including Ohio State, of course).
2. The Indians have their own tragic history. They were two outs away from a World Series title in '97. In the 1954, they were swept in the Series by the Giants after winning a then-league record 114 games. Then there was 1940, which almost no one knows about. The Indians had a chance to win their first pennant in 20 years, but were edged out by the Tigers when Bob Feller was outduelled on the final day of the season by Jake Giebell. Feller went to the Hall of Fame; Giebell never won another major-league game.
3. Score one for Scorcese: Sports Illustrated once referred to former Indians slugger Albert Belle as the "Travis Bickle of left-fielders," alluding to Robert De Niro's character in Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver.
   
   After decades of trying, Scorcese finally won an Oscar two weeks ago for The Departed. So does this mean the Indians are about to break their World Series drought? Actually, no.
4. Retro Cool Indian: Like a first kiss, running a marathon or watching The Last Waltz for the first time, words cannot do justice to the 'do outfielder Oscar Gamble sported in the mid-'70s.
5. They make odd trades. On Labour Day last year, the Indians' Kevin Kouzmanoff became the first player in major-league history to hit a grand slam on the first pitch of his first at-bat. The Indians promptly traded him to San Diego after the season.
   
   (All kidding aside, it was in exchange for Josh Barfield.)
6. Blogs killed the baseball star. In 2005, Indians outfielder Jody Gerut, a recent Rookie of the Year runner-up, began writing a blog. That led to the death of his career. He was traded twice in two weeks, to the Cubs and Pirates, but played only four games for Pittsburgh over two seasons due to a knee problem. On Thursday, the Pirates cut Gerut. He still gets one-sixth of his '07 salary, so he has plenty of time to blog without the pressure to go out and find paying work. Must be nice.
7. Maybe this year, he'll actually get picked for the All-Star Game. Last season, Indians DH Travis Hafner became the first player to lead the American League in park-adjusted OPS+ three years in a row since Mickey Mantle in the early 1960s.
8. Grady Sizemore isn't long for the leadoff spot. Cleveland's heartthrob centre-fielder put up sick numbers in '06, leading the AL in runs, doubles and extra-base hits. He scored 134 runs, more than anyone in team history save for three Hall of Famers, Roberto Alomar, Tris Speaker and Earl Averill (twice), whom respectively were 31, 32, 29 and 34 years old when they had their big run scoring-seasons. Sizemore didn't even turn 24 until last August.
   
   Sizemore's slugging prowess means he'll move from leadoff to the 3-hole sooner rather than later. That may help the Indians score more runs, but it works out to Grady's Ladies getting about 20 fewer chances across 81 home games to shriek and swoon over his Bobby Sherman-esque good looks.
9. Need-to-know: Sizemore, Hafner and catcher-first baseman Victor Martinez each hitting a ton is a given; so is ace C.C. Sabathia (top photo) scaring the breakfast out of American League hitters. Then the word but comes in. What's going to make or break Cleveland is probably its 7th-8th inning relievers and its new middle-infield pair, third-year shortstop Jhonny Peralta and Barfield at second. Peralta regressed on both offence and defence last season. Since Barfield's daddy is former AL home run champion, everyone's looking to him to bust out now that he's escaped hitter's hell in San Diego, citing the way he hit on the road (839 OPS) last season.
   
   Bottom line: The Indians should contend in the AL Central; they're better than last year's 78-84 mark, but it's gonna take something on the order of their 93-69 record from 2005 to have a chance at the playoffs.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.