The Indians first move this offseason? Heck, the first move of the entire offseason? It was the acquisition of Derek Lowe. The first trade may just have been one of the best trades that any team made and it hadn't been any clearer than on Tuesday afternoon.

May 15th, 2012

Cleveland Indians - 5

Minnesota Twins - 0

W: Derek Lowe (6-1) L: Jason Marquis (2-3)

[BOXSCORE]

No really, stop. It's likely most of the people patting Antonetti on the back are ones who mocked him. Not necessarily calling it a bad trade, but simply saying "well what good is this going to do us?!"It seems like all of a sudden though everyone is patting Chris Antonetti and the Tribe on the back for the swap that sent reliever Chris Jones to Atlanta in exchange for Derek Lowe and, most of his contract paid for. Well...Stop.

Uh, a month and a half in, six wins, that's what. And if you didn't mock, you are late to the party. Lowe's been doing this all year and it just took a complete game shutout against the Twins for you to realize it? D-Lowe has been a godsend to this rotation as he's been the stopper of potential losing streaks and a groundball machine. He feeds a hungry infield defense and the rest of the starters could stand to learn a few things.

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We all have our calendars, even if we don’t look at them on a regular basis; we all know that it’s mid-May.  For most intents and purposes, it’s far too early to think about late September while we wait for what the summer of 2012 has to offer.  For the second year in a row, Cleveland Indians fans should try and ignore their calendars to check out the Sports Section to see their beloved Tribe on top of the American League Central Division in the standings.  Of course, every wet blanket from the south side of Chicago to that state up North is going to attempt to rob you of any joy you may have in regard to your first place Indians.

The point isn’t whether or not they have a point; they do, but to steal a line from the Indians marketing campaign, what if?  What if, as in, what if their point is invalid?  What if sitting atop the Central Division, just a game or two over .500 is their dry spell?  Going into the day’s action on May 15 a year ago, the eventual Division Champions were 22-18 and looking up at a smoking hot Division leading Indians team.  Of course, that Detroit team turned out to be for real, while the Indians hot start turned out to be Fools Gold.

There were signs that it would be, but I chose to ignore them, and I wasn’t alone.  Cleveland needed the Indians to be like that, if only for a little while.  It has only been a year, but it’s soothing to think how much better things are on the sports scene in Cleveland today than they were a year ago.  The Browns were still the same inept Browns team that they’d been, for the most part, since coming back to the league in 1999, and one of the darkest chapters of the post-Stepien era of Cavaliers basketball had just concluded.  After a quarter season of spectacular baseball in Cleveland, ignorance certainly was bliss.

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I'm going to be straight up honest with you guys. I fell asleep. I didn't have the physical energy to sit up in a chair, so I made the mistake of laying down. I fell asleep. I fell asleep only to wake up to see Ryan Doumit do what he did. And I was so deprived of energy, I rolled over, set my alarm and went back to sleep. 

May 14th, 2012

Cleveland Indians - 5

Minnesota Twins - 4

W: Joe Smith (3-1) L: Matt Capps (0-2) S: Chris Perez (12)

[BOXSCORE]

All I can say is that it's a good thing Shin-Soo Choo was leading off in this one. Or else he wouldn't have been set up in a position to do what he did.

"I didn't make the lineup thinking Choo was going to come up with two outs in the ninth and a runner on base," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "He's a good hitter and I'm glad that he was the one up there. That was a huge hit. A two-out game-winning hit. He's coming around and he's one of those guys that we need to get going for our offense, and tonight was a big hit." 

Then what was Manny Acta's line of thinking?

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On the day in which we all (hopefully) properly appreciate our Mothers and Wives, maybe it’s time to appreciate what’s happening with this Indians’ team and attempt to live in the “now” instead of overanalyzing the past (admittedly guilty here) or waiting impatiently for that other shoe to drop.  It is nearly mid-May and this Indians’ team is once again in 1st place and, while the end of 2011 (after an even hotter start) left…um, a little to be desired, as have the years since 2007, when did we all become so bitter and cynical that we can’t enjoy a 1st place team and are preoccupied by ancillary topics?

Maybe that bitterness and cynicism is ingrained in us as Cleveland fans, but has the collective misery grown to such a degree that instead of talking about a 1st place team in mid-May and what they ARE and COULD BE, we’re talking about and listing all the reasons that people are giving for not enjoying this or creating excuses to justify their extended misery to the point that a diversion from life – like baseball or sports – becomes a source of vitriol and unpleasantness?

For the past week, I’ve seen that dead horse on the ground over there – the Tribe’s attendance issue – get worked over…not that it means that there weren’t pieces that don’t deserve your eyes, with Let’s Go Tribe providing eye-opening hard analysis, Zach Meisel giving the pertinent quotes and story, and with Anthony Castrovince penning the takeaway that I’ve felt about this apparent new rite of Spring on the North Coast for long enough that I’m tired of forming an “opinion” on this attendance “issue” year after year.   Back in July of 2007, I wrote a piece wondering “Where is Everyone?” as the Indians ranked 25th in attendance, despite being 52-30 (!!!) and with the team about to run away with the AL Central, en route to the ALCS.  Much of what was written then still applies (though the names have changed) and I’m tired of pretending that this attendance “issue” is one that we’re just opening our doors to find staring us in the face.  This has been happening for nearly a decade now, through two complete tear-downs and rebuilds and anyone who feigns surprise or attempts to posit an individual reason (because there are many) for why this is the case isn’t being honest with themselves or wants to stand on some higher moral ground.

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