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Tribe celebrates after clinching the Central Division
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Monday, Sep 24, 2007
CLEVELAND: After 155 games, the grinding and plowing has just begun for the playoff-bound Indians.
Grinding and plowing are Tribe manager Eric Wedge's favorite words in describing the way he expects his players to maintain tunnel vision toward their goal, and not only keep their noses to the grindstone, but also all the other parts of their bodies, too.
And so after the Tribe wrapped up the Central Division championship with a 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday at Jacobs Field, and after the title flag was raised and the din died down from the cheers of 40,000 fans, and after the pile of beer and champagne bottles reached almost to C.C. Sabathia's belt buckle in the trashed clubhouse, it was time to look to the future.
Well, maybe not quite. Wedge allowed that it was time to carouse and celebrate the moment, maybe even for more than a moment.
''We'll all enjoy the hell out of this today and tomorrow,'' he said, ''then we'll turn the page and start looking forward.''
Just as Wedge finished his sentence, Trot Nixon sneaked up from behind and jammed a whipped cream pie in his face, the gooey mess running down the front of his Central Division Championship T-shirt, which already was soaked with beer and cheap champagne.
All Wedge could do was grin. It probably was the most fun he'd had in years.
''I thought I could get away all year without that happening,'' he said of the prank that has become something of a trademark.
As for Wedge's personal thoughts about the achievement, his first as a big-league manager, he said, ''For me, everything I feel and everything I'm about are for the players in this locker room. I've seen them happy, and I've seen them fighting for each other, and that's everything for me.''
How did the Tribe do it this year, after coming within one game of winning the wild card berth with 93 wins one more than the team's current total in 2005? The obvious answer is strong starting pitching, particularly by Fausto Carmona and Sabathia, plus a thin but efficient bullpen, with closer Joe Borowski and setup man Rafael Betancourt leading the way.
There were important intangibles, as well.
''The way these guys handled that stretch of 23 days in a row (without a day off) was significant,'' Wedge said.
Did Wedge ever have a revelation, a moment when he knew his team would make the playoffs?
''I don't allow myself to do that,'' he said. ''I don't go down that road. Until it's done, it's not done.''
For most of the Indians, qualifying for the postseason and winning a division crown is a new experience. Not for Kenny Lofton.
Lofton didn't spray much champagne or dump much beer on the heads of his teammates. He stood on the fringes of the chaos and watched.
''The difference for me is that I've done it 11 times, so this is fun for me,'' said Lofton, who is in his third tour of duty with the Tribe and will be playing in his sixth postseason for the club.
''I'm watching these young guys trying to pop the corks,'' he said. ''They don't know how to pop them right.''
If that was a metaphor for the the Indians' first playoff run in six years, Lofton did not mean it as criticism or sign of weakness.
''I don't think these guys understand what they're getting into,'' he said. ''But that's a good thing.''
Lofton has had the opportunity to open scores of champagne bottles during similar celebrations, but he has yet to do it after the final game of the World Series. Now he has a chance to make it with fresh arms and legs all around him.
''I feel like I'm 25, but you guys keep throwing it out there about me being 40,'' he said. ''I don't really like that.''
Asked the key to winning in the postseason, Lofton said, ''Pitching and scoring first. In the playoffs, the bullpens are always tough.''
The Indians seemed a little more determined Sunday, though Grady Sizemore disputed that impression.
''We're always intense; we never lose that,'' he said.
Jake Westbrook (6-9, 4.32 ERA) delivered seven strong innings. The only pitch that hurt him occurred in the sixth inning, when Daric Barton hit a two-run homer. But by that time, Westbrook had a 6-0 lead, thanks in large part to Sizemore, who had four hits and two RBI.
''We didn't want to put too much pressure on ourselves, thinking we had to win it today,'' he said. ''We still had seven games left to do it, but we did want to get it out of the way and do it at home.''
By the time Betancourt entered the game, with two outs and runners on second and third in the eighth, the fans were on their feet. A huge ovation accompanied Betancourt's strikeout of Nick Swisher to end the inning, and the cheering was louder when Mark Ellis went down swinging to end the game.
At that moment, Sabathia's prediction of six weeks ago ''We're going to win the division'' became reality.
''I was dead serious,'' he said. ''I think that every good team plays (a stretch of) great baseball. We hadn't done that yet.''
Larry Dolan, still relatively dry, said this title is much more satisfying than the one six years ago, his first season as the team's owner.
''I really had nothing to do with it then,'' he said. ''I was just kind of riding around.''
Since then, Dolan has been battered by the fans and the media for his insistence on running the team on a sound financial basis. Did he think this division title would end the criticism?
''No, the first time we stub our toe,'' he said, ''it will start all over again.''
But not before the next round of grinding and plowing begins.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
CLEVELAND: After 155 games, the grinding and plowing has just begun for the playoff-bound Indians.
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