The Silent Shoulder Chip

All is right with the world as baseball season is here at last.  I have been ready for the Tribe to begin since he final out of the amazing game 7 from last year.  And I am sure the Indians have been too.

The off season has been strewn with so much Cubs love, it's almost ridiculous.  I am a tolerant person by DNA, but even I have had enough.  According to the media, 2017 is simply a formality and the Cubs are again the champs.  ESPN has them going about 159-3 this year.  It's about that silly.  The Cubs were a great story from last year.  As a Tribe fan, I can absolutley relate to the long World Series win drought as well as anyone.  But being honest, the Cubs are good. But last year they were very, very fortunate and lucky, as well as good,  to win the title.

They were very lucky to win the National League and then to face the Tribe with tons of injuries to the games best pitching staff.  And they still almost blew it and let it get away.  But that's the inept history of a Cubs franchise that has been botching chance after chance with Yankee advantages for decades.

Being said, now that the Joe Buck/Fox Sports Kyle Schwarber smooching sessions on national TV is over (let's hope),  lets get down to  2017.  The Tribe should be good, and should be a contender to win it all.  They have the games best pitching staff, the best manager, and the most hungry of all fan bases.  My hope this year is that the Tribe stays healthy and stays focused.  My feeling is that they will.  Because as sick as you and I are of all the Cubs/Schwarber groping, my gut tells me the Indians are way more tired of it that anyone. 

I want the Tribe to be that exciting, fun team they were last year.  Fun to watch, easy to like and contending from day one.  But I also want them to play with a silent chip on their shoulders.  The one you won't see with anger, or a snarled lip.  But the one the just permeates their collective souls and drives them from within. The one that's healthy, and motivating.  The one that jams runs across the plate at a breakneck pace, and strikes out the opposition same.   The one where the game is fun for them, and not for the competition.  And the one where each team goal leads to the next one.  Where you win as much as you can, the right way, and show Joe Buck that he took the wrong date to the prom.

Can the Tribe end this long drought?  6 months will tell, but in the meantime enjoy what could be an amazing summer.  Focus on game one, then game two, and so on, all the while knowing the most important game the Indians play is the next one.  And then the one after that.  Us against the world? Maybe. 

But carry that silent shoulder chip, and know that this summer should be fun, should be memorable, and should ours.  It's our time now, it's our moment now.  The Cubs have assured that. 

GO TRIBE!