With a runner on second base, Ryan Raburn did not get a hit.  With a runner on third base, Mike Aviles did not get a hit.  With a runner on second, Bob Phelps did not get a hit.  With a runner on third, Drew Stubbs did not get a hit.  With runners on first and second, Asdrubal Cabrera did not get a hit.  With runners on second and third, Nick Swisher did not get a hit.  Carlos Santana got a hit.

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An unseasonably cold April isn’t uncommon. Particularly in Cleveland, where winter customarily spills over into the other seasons like a long Friday lunch hour. Consequently, once May finally arrives bright, warm, and breezy, a frosty April is quickly forgiven. And forgotten.

But even when we’re confronted with an extended string of absurdly low temperatures when we should be watching flowers bloom and blossoms pop, we know it’s only temporary. For as impatient as we may get, deep down we know it will pass. We remind ourselves that the nonsense will soon cease and reality will eventually settle in - just as it always does.

We understand that sometimes April isn’t ordinary. And 25 years ago this April, neither were the Indians.

That’s not to say there were high expectations going into the 1988 season. If you remember anything about the Indians of the Gordon Gecko/Ronald Reagan decade, you know optimism was scarce. After losing 101 games in 1987 while posting a team ERA of 5.28 - the highest in Major League Baseball in more than 30 years - hope wasn’t exactly springing, and it certainly wasn’t eternal. 

To their credit, the Indians recognized their primary problem and addressed it, albeit like a Sam’s Club regional manager. Finding pitchers from every nook and cranny of the Western Hemisphere, they shipped them to Tucson in bulk. A total of 45 were invited to camp, but none brought any reason for optimism with him.

When the desert dust settled Easter weekend and heavily-moustached (but as yet unfamiliar) Doug Jones narrowly won the final spot in the bullpen, the Tribe broke camp with a starting rotation that would not be confused with the great Indians’ staffs of the 1950s. Nor with the milquetoast, below-average staffs of the 1970s, for that matter. After sifting through a flatbed truckful of candidates, the Tribe brass settled on five familiar names who had all been a part of the 1987 intestinal virus: Tom Candiotti, Greg Swindell, John Farrell, Scott Bailes, and Rich Yett.

This was a staff put together not to excel, but merely to survive. To expect this group to lead the team to national prominence was like expecting Rick Astley to build a lasting pop career.

And yet, that’s precisely what happened.

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Jimmy Haslam's company is in trouble, so the Browns are obviously effected. Not to mention, their 2013 schedule is out and the draft is approaching. Byron Scott got fired and the Cavaliers are going to be looking for a new coach as their season ended.

And yet here we are. I want to talk about the Indians? But they got swept by Boston, they suck. Their pitching is garbage and the money they spent on the new offensive talent is just not working. People are hurt, some guys are off to painfully slow starts, and blah bah blah blah.

Why would we possibly want to talk about this last place baseball team right now? We could talk about a franchise in trouble and who they'll be playing five months from now and one that just came off a horrible season and will be looking for a new coach.

Why should we talk about this team!?

If you didn't get the point of that, you never will.

RED SOX - 6 | INDIANS - 3

W: Jon Lester (3-0)

L: Zach McAllister (1-2)

S: Andrew Bailey (2)

[BOXSCORE]

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The Indians’ “one guaranteed win in five” dissipated last night as the Red Sox jumped on Justin Masterson from the opening pitch to beat the Tribe 6-3.  In today’s B-List, Buff wonders if perhaps we’re reading a bit too much into Masterson’s struggles, welcomes yet another enormous white man to the club, talks about the Indians’ so-called “offense,” the fickle nature of baseball flight paths, and wonders perhaps if a multi-inning scoring approach might not be more effective.  There’s also a cheap shot.

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