This started as a piece of writing about Chief Wahoo and the situation unfolding right now with the Cleveland Indians removing it as one of their on-field logos. 

I could sit here and talk about it ad-nauseam like anyone else has, defending my stance, arguing with the wind. On the surface, yeah, it bothers me that people have a problem with this. Bluntly, I think if it is preventing you from being a fan of this baseball team, you should just not be a fan of this baseball team. Of course, it's not as cut and dry as that though. It can never be with this team or this city. It's one of the things I've learned in 10 years.

I tried to keep light and make some tasteful jokes Monday on Twitter as a way of easing my angst towards people who feel like this is the end of the world for their baseball team. To deter me from making a snarky comment towards those who feel like celebrating or even taking this weird indifferent approach along the lines of "Whatever, just don't give us Block C".

I don't think that's what any of this is about. I don't think any of this logo business is about any of us. I think we need to stop making it about us. Because if you are arguing for the logo, you are making it about what you want. If you are arguing about something else other than the Block C, it is again what you want. This isn't what you want. You support the team, just like me, but this isn't about any of us. Remember that.

Another version of what I was writing went into this depressing, totally non-baseball related thought stream on how the world we live in today is a really depressing and sometimes scary one because of the things that seem to be happening on an almost daily basis. I won't go down that road. That's not what this needs to be about, as much as I want to try and make it be. As much as it does relate.

A reminder about the logo, and where I'll end it. It isn't about us. You or me, or your fandom or how or why you should be rooting for the Cleveland Indians. So stop thinking that it is. I'm not going to lecture. You either have the sense to see the humanity in the decision and are grown-up enough to understand why the franchise is doing this. Or you aren't. End of that story.

So, with that out of the way, why am I still writing?

Probably because I haven't for awhile and it's with good reason.

I don't have anything that I feel like writing about in regards to the Cleveland Indians. And it relates to this logo situation in a way. Let me explain.

I really started becoming a fan in the early 2000's. I probably have told this story at one point or another, but for me, my true attachment to this team started when my dad and I would spend countless losing efforts in our right field seats. He was a partial season ticket holder and we did this for years, until we didn't. I went to college, he moved to Pittsburgh, we couldn't do that anymore, but I was still a fan, if not even more so. 

I started this blog in 2008. The first official public post was on March 19, 2008. Almost 10 years ago. It was terrible. I was a freshman in college. As a senior in high school I maintained writing about the Indians on Sporting News in their fan blog section. Then I decided I wanted to try and do this myself. 

I've moved several times, had life-changing events, graduated college, graduated again with my master's, changed my dream job, got a full-time job, had other numerous life events. One thing that I seemingly always had though was this space. I've written for other websites, even got paid to do it for awhile. It helped support me through grad school even.

I've always written here for free and it's always been about the Indians. There were times I became burnt out. There were times where I thought I could make a living off this. There were times where I thought I would be able to do it at the level I was doing it while also going through school/work/whatnot. There was a time where I thought this was my stepping-stone to covering the team in some capacity as a career. There was a time I decided that I wanted this to be fun and enjoy it so I would continue to do it the way I wanted to do it. There were numerous times I changed what I did because I felt like it. 2015 and 2016 probably was some of the most fun years I had writing about the Indians because it was different and I didn't have any strings attached to anything or no self-put pressure about posting something. And I made jokes, which I like to do on occasion.

And then I got burnt out again. Maybe it was the World Series burnout. I don't know.

Last year wasn't a fun year for me, fan-wise, personally, and really just in general. Of course this is about the Indians, so I don't need to detail the personal stuff, but shoot, everything revolving or relating to the Indians just fit into everything else in my life, rather perfectly. But I'd write another novel in addition to this, so we'll stick to the Tribe. What you are about to read is 100% candid honesty and touches a wide range of things, but try and stick with me.

I thought 2016 and the World Series was going to bring things full-circle as I had decided to become a season ticket holder. Because I'm not one for a TL/DR, I decided that I wanted to show my support for the team by being a committed season ticket holder. I had the finances, I also wanted to lock my games in and hopefully get the best price possible for them. Buy early, save money, right? That's what I've been told.

So I put my deposit down in the run-up to the playoffs. Nothing was better calling my dad the minute after the Indians clinched against Toronto to ask him if he wanted to go to Game One of the World Series. And I was able to do that because I became a season ticket holder. It was great. Regardless of the outcome at the end of the World Series, that's a memory we'll always have and it was a great one.

What followed was eternally frustrating. No, not the World Series, I think we're all still salty about that, but my 2017 was the least enjoyable year of being a Cleveland Indians fan, and that includes all those terrible years of rebuilding. I didn't enjoy going to games. The outcomes to them were rather meaningless. It was a few things. Because of the boom in season tickets and demand for the Indians, the Indians changed some things. Or at least, were taken aback and had to adjust. Flex plans in the way that I was told would be offered by my ticket rep were changing. You could only get two different tickets, priced well above what I was expecting when I put my deposit down. The deposit I put down was supposed to cover most of what I would end up paying, if not all. I'm one person, buying one ticket for about 20 games.

I'm a single guy and if I do go to a game with people, I'm buying my own ticket. Maybe I'd buy two for a few games, which I could do with single game pre-sale access, but largely, my plan was revolving around one ticket and it was going to be the cheapest ticket possible because I'm not sitting in a seat.

Whoops, nope. The average per ticket went up because of the section I was confined to. I'm not poor, so I can afford it, but I'm also not rich, and I also felt a little screwed over. I couldn't do a Friday/Sunday or another pre-determined day of the week plan because I needed the flexibility of picking my games and I'd mostly do Friday/Saturday's anyway. 

What that lead to was me paying more than double what I was expecting to for season tickets and then having the constant struggle of hoping the games that I did have to sell would at least net me the price that I paid for a particular ticket. The constant aggravation of having to check Stub Hub to see if prices were dropping and if I'd have to lower my ticket so that I could at least salvage some of my money back was, just that, an aggravation.

Want to add to it? I've always championed for this organization. I've defending the front office and the Dolan's for a long time. I think they're great. I think they truly do care about trying to win but are also trying to be smart about it. And at the end of the day, they are also running a business, so it makes more sense for them to also try and be profitable, duh. So I'm the last one to take a bite out of them in that regard.

But in terms of a customer service experience and just an overall treatment of Season Ticket Holders? I was unsatisfied and disappointed. Events like the Season Ticket Holder meet and greet were poorly organized. I organize and coordinate events for a living, but even someone who doesn't have an eye for that stuff could tell however they were doing things could be done better.

Quote-unquote perks as they advertised them were lackluster and pretty insignificant. I just truly didn't feel valued for showing my season-long commitment to this team. And when I took the time to fill out the survey asking me about all of this, I doubt it was read and I doubt anyone took the time to care about what I actually had to say. Not that I need to be heard, but at least acknowledge that things aren't right and make an attempt to fix them.

And then at the games? Oh lord, at the games. I'm glad the Indians brought more fan support in by being successful, but at what cost? The amount of people in the concourse for a Dollar Dog Night was suffocating. I can't walk through it without someone plodding along in front of me. Is this completely insane? Of course it is, but I'm used to scooting through that stadium at my own pace. The influx has brought in a massive amount of people who can't navigate around the ballpark.

Don't even get me started about some of the people I had to watch the game by. People shouting in your ear towards the opposing team with nonsensical things that are irrelevant or even just not true about the player. Like, there's tasteful and clever heckling and then there's being an annoying jerk and 90% of the interactions I witnessed were people being annoying jerks. 

I've also become rather consumed with what other people are saying online. Trust me, I unfollow if I'm done with what you are saying, but it almost becomes a cool thing to complain about the people complaining. Why can't I have a negative opinion about how Tito fills out his lineup card? It's my opinion. So what if I don't agree with a decision or like a particular player? Why am I not allowed to complain about it? Sure, it's kind of hypocritical that I'm complaining about the people that are complaining about me complaining, but at some point, am I not right?

Guess what, I think Bryan Shaw sucks, so leave it alone, let me talk about how much I think he sucks. 

So that's where I am. A lot of it is brought on by myself and only myself, and I can own that. Some of it isn't and for that I need to find a strategy to deal with it. Complaining just falls in line with the crowd of Wahoo-enthusiasts. 

And it brings me to that point. Why am I even a fan of this team if there's just been so much displeasure involved in it lately. From all that to now the toxic nature of fans hating on other fans because of a decision on the logo.

Why are we all here? What's the point? So yeah, this started out as something about the logo but then it goes down the root of it all. This, and all my other current displeasure are not significant. None of these things are reasons that we have for being fans, right? We like this team for the product on the field, do we not? A logo, colors, the ballpark, the way some fans act, customer service, even team name or who actually is on the team really aren't the reasons that we are all here, are they? I'm just as guilty complaining about customer service as someone complaining about removing a logo. The thing is though, I'm not going to cry and take my ball home because I'm an irrational human being.

And it's occurring to me, I just need to go back to being a fan the way I know how. I need to go back to enjoying the team for what I enjoy them for and put all that noise aside. I can try, maybe it won't work. Maybe it won't. Who knows.

I think back to the reason that I fell in love with this team and coupled with my love for baseball, that is why I am here and why I've continued to root and support the Cleveland Indians baseball franchise. Going to games with my dad, watching a team grow on the field. I was attracted to the on the field product and seeing something start from the dumpster fire that was a franchise fielding teams made up of Ricky Gutierrez, Josh Bard, and Chad Durbin (woof woof woof), to being a contender. A true built from the bottom up effort. Sure it took a while, but I was there from the start and I'll be damned if I'm not going to continue to enjoy the ride.

I'm going to shift my attitude. That whole change your attitude, change your outlook thing, right? I'm not going to be a season ticket holder next year. I'm going to go back to just going to the games when I please and feel like it. I'm going to try and get back to just putting pen to paper (finger to key, shut up, whatever) when the mood strikes. I'm going to just do my best to tune out people at games that bother me. Or throw them over the railing. Kidding, I'm not going to throw anyone over a railing.

Unless they say something about Michael Martinez, then all bets are off.

I'm going to unfollow the crap on Twitter that ticks me off. I'm still going to see it of course, but I'll do my best to avoid it. I stopped reading Facebook comments years ago when I stopped using Facebook. Hey, don't read the comments.

Will I still be a snarky son of a bitch to people who have it coming? Don't worry, Jensen Lewis isn't getting unfollowed, that's not a habit I can break anytime soon. I know my problems and can live with them properly.

But I'm done losing my way. This is largely a post about me, so it's my way of realizing that this team isn't about me. This team isn't about you. This baseball franchise isn't about a logo changing and your problem with it. This team is about itself, trying to win the flippin' World Series, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that ultimate end-game enjoyment be spoiled by a drawing or Bryan Shaw mood swings. It's time to enjoy baseball again.

A logo identifies a team. It doesn't define it. This team is defined by other things. You can change your identity, but it's damn hard to change how you are defined, so best get over it and enjoy the ride with me, or just, jump off. The train is moving slow enough right now where you may be able to catch yourself running, or at least tumble around at a speed that won't break your neck.

And for the love of all that is blessed, can we please see them sign another relief pitcher before March?!

(P.S. I'm sorry Carlos is in that picture)

I sat in my car for what was the longest drive back from Cleveland in my entire life.

This had nothing to do with bridge from Ohio City to downtown being closed (probably for the best) and me having to take an alternate route to get to the highway. And yes, I've had longer drives from downtown to wherever I was going distance and time wise, but you know exactly what I mean.

It felt like an eternity driving back home. It felt like it took me forever to fall asleep even though I had been up since five in the morning and was straight up exhausted from driving back and forth to Cleveland the past few days.

I should have fallen asleep the minute I laid down. But there I was, staring up to the ceiling, feeling like everything is moving incredibly slow, yet my mind racing incredibly fast.

In these days after, I still don't know how I feel. The first song that came on the radio Wednesday night/Thursday morning after I switched off Tom Hamilton and the post-game show was a favorite band of mine, X Ambassadors and a song of theirs that is one of my favorites. I love "Unsteady" because it's one of their better slow-beat songs with a dope rhythm to it. I completely hated that that song was on right then and there, but it also felt like it was completely appropriate. 

Hold onto me right now friends, because I am, in fact, a little unsteady, and I'm not sure where this is going.

-

After the ALCS win, I sat there comfortably numb. I relayed my feelings of being completely overwhelmed by the situation, not knowing what to say first or how to feel about what was happening.

The day after, I now try and look back at the wild ride that culminated in one night, with not one moment sticking out more than any other, trying to feel and understand the emotions that I feel right now. 

You surely have left many situations in your life feeling satisfied, have you not? It could be something incredibly small or entirely large. Maybe you put a lot of work into studying for a test, worked really hard to do well and when you got your grade back, the results matched exactly what you expected them to based off your preparation. Maybe you put a lot of work into a project at work, hoping it would lead to a raise or a promotion and it did. Maybe you did something good for someone in need and they thanked you for your kindness. Maybe you ran a half marathon and just really wanted to eat your body weight in Swenson's burgers and when you did, you felt all was right. 

That last one was me, I'm sure you could tell.

Look, we get satisfactions from lots of things in life, big or small, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things or incredibly grandiose. We can get it from and for things that don't really matter or things that should take priority in our lives.

We can most definitely feel satisfied about sports. Yet, it's the hardest thing to feel satisfied about because there's always a next year, win or lose, a team always competes and you will always be there to cheer and put your emotions and feelings into your favorite team. After 108 years, Cubs fans can FINALLY feel satisfied about watching baseball and investing in a team. Most of us probably invest emotionally, whether you invest financially in different levels or physically or in other ways. But if you are a fan of a team, and I really mean, a fan that cares for the outcome for more than just 10 minutes after the game, you invest emotionally. That is damn near 100% of sports fans. It is an emotional investment. It comes at different levels, but it is one thing we relate to.

So, we get it right? 108 years. Lifetimes of emotional investment, young and old, unless you are a 115-year-old Cubs fan that can semi-remember. There's a few of those out there, right?

And now for us, as fans of the Cleveland Indians, emotional investments of our wide-age ranges. Some are around and can remember the last title in 1948. It will grow another year and perhaps, the emotionalism of what we had to go through will only give us a little more grief in the short term and built up our long-term anticipation of emotional relief.

When it actually happens, it will be so satisfying, right? Many of you are Cavaliers fans who got to celebrate a few short months ago. That was awesome, and that was great and the city of Cleveland got themselves a title, which they haven't had in quite some time.

But dare I say this, for all of us who don't happen to be Cavaliers fans, maybe this is short-sighted, but a World Series would mean just a little bit more because this baseball team has been around for a little bit longer. A franchise who was so close in the 90's at several points. A franchise that has gone with, what is now (let that sink in), the longest drought in it's sport without a championship. A franchise that sees it's ownership and front office pummeled over and over again in the modern day by people who don't understand the landscape and economics of baseball. A franchise that gets constantly overlooked in it's own town because they don't throw a brown leather ball and clank orange helmets every Sunday. A franchise that, for all purposes of how they are owned, ran, operated, and how they play, is Cleveland.

I've said this before, but the Cleveland Indians are a perfect embodiment of what the city of Cleveland claims to be. A blue-collar town that prides itself on "earned not given" taglines and working hard and others around it using it as a punchline or an afterthought. And yet, they're overlooked in their own city. They're miscast in a role that is perfect for them because the audience doesn't want them there.

This Cleveland Indians team, and even specifically in 2016, beyond all expectations is one that shattered any sort of frame of believably. They defiantly waved their swagger in the faces of doubters, kicked and pedaled as hard as they could through any sort of challenge or obstacle, and gave us a run to never forget because they played their absolute hearts out. I think many of the players understood that they were playing for more than themselves, even if a lot of those people distrusted them for some time.

It's hard to be satisfied with a losing outcome, but when you take a step back and look at everything your vacuum collected over the past month, you can't help but be satisfied on some level in regards to what was gathered a long the way. I certainly am to have been able to witness some of the things we did. I know that I'm still hungry and ready to tackle a few more Galley Boy's, but I'm pretty content with what I've already had. Maybe get me some potato teezers. Sorry, too many Akron references, but at least it's a shorter drive than Chicago.

-

The Chicago Cubs were supposed to win the World Series from the first moment the season started. They ran rampant over their division, one of which was impressive on many fronts, won over 100 games, and assembled an incredible squad of young superstars mixed in with proven winners. They're managed by a cerebral game tactician and the guy who assembled them has a proven track record of delivering incredible moments to historic franchises thanks to the moves he makes. I don't have to tell you that this team was the favorite and anything short of winning it all would be unexpected. You know all this and have been beaten over the head with it for the past few days. It's not an excuse as to why they lost, it's a reason to not be discouraged by the result. Look no further than Keith Olbermann summing it up pretty perfectly in regards to the Cubs. They were supposed to be there at the end and there's no shame for a team like the Indians to have lost to them, especially when they played hard and earned every bit of the position they were in.

And yet despite all of that about how the Cubs are more talented, more hungry, younger, stronger, deeper, and in a more advantageous position, there they sat, down 3-1 to a team decimated by injuries and ravaged by real circumstances that should have put them out in the first round if you played the game on paper (or newspaper). The Cubs were there, but the Indians shouldn't have been and they were the one's threatening to make history, 108 years and the stars aligning be damned.

Nobody said it better than Cody Allen. He hit it perfectly and I think about his words as I reflect back on my night watching the final game of the series. From the fact that they just got beat by a really good team to just wanting next year to start right now. That's where I am at and it's hard to sit here and not only believe that this run is finally over and we can't celebrate and that the opportunity to do so is a full year away, at the very least, because nothing is guaranteed, as we saw for a shining moment with the Cubs.

The opportunity to do this all again is far too draining to think about. This team poured their heart and soul into this run. When I talk about being satisfied, I think about how satisfying it would have been for this team to win the World Series. How I'm ready to take a 100-year nap after that and not have to worry about watching my team try and win it all.

Is it great that we get Michael Brantley and Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar and Yan Gomes all back and healthy for a run next year? Of course. Is it great that we still have years left of watching a guy like Francisco Lindor dazzle and amazes us? Of course. It is great that there's players like Jose Ramirez, Trevor Bauer, Cody Allen, and Carlos Santana  and that they will be key pieces to a 2017 team? Of course. Is it great that the Indians still have a few more years of the dangerous bullpen weapon that is Andrew Miller? Hell, yes. I'm certainly okay not having Clint Frazier anymore. Can we trade Bradley Zimmer for a right-handed cloning machine so we can get another one?

But it's so hard to duplicate success in baseball. You play a 162 game season to get to the point the Indians were able to get to: the postseason. And from there, there's a lot of things that have to go your way. We talked about it after the ALDS in what Terry Francona did to push the right buttons. You look at the runs the Royals made the past few years and things went their way a lot of times. The Indians had a lot of things roll their way to get them to Game 7 of the World Series.

It's hard to imagine, even though the Indians have a talented team, of strapping up and doing it again.

But then I look at the team that did beat them and how, as Keith Olbermann put it, talent prevailed.

Talent prevails. And talent will prevail with the Cleveland Indians because they have it in spades and can absolutely get back to the postseason. Of course, as you saw with the Cubs, talent can always get upended by hard-nosed baseball, great decisions, stellar pitching, and unique ways of accomplishing your goals. Things the Indians did to get to that position. That's what makes it scary. The fact that the Indians could have had done it the hard way, but just as could easily be in a situation to lose it the easy way too.

While I'm perfectly okay with the Indians having a stocked and reloaded team ready to go and get a World Series title next year, I can't help but have really wanted this one because it's so hard to be able to get that position in the first place, even when it should be easy like it was for the Cubs.

-

Jason Kipnis darting around third without even hesitating, the key reason for him scoring on a wild pitch as the second run. It was memorable and had the Indians been the winners, would go down as just as much of an iconic moment as Kris Bryant's smooth base running earlier in the game.

Rajai Davis, starting presumably because Tyler Naquin's defense inefficiency was not going to cost Tito another game. You knew he was taking defense seriously when he subbed out Coco Crisp late to avoid the possibility of him having to make a throw on a sac fly. Here's Rajai Davis, who would have probably been in the game at this point anyway, hitting no only the game-tying blast off a tired Aroldis Chapman, but bringing his team within one in extras.

Only to bring to the plate, quite possibly, one of the statistically worst hitters in major league history in Michael Martinez, with your season definitively on the line. Really?

Rain, improbably pouring down in extra innings of the seventh game of the World Series, causing a delay that would spur a locker room meeting by the opposing team.

Andrew Miller giving up a home run to David Ross in his last major league game. No, no, really?

Kipnis pulling a ball that very much seemed like it was gone, sending me to my knees in absolute euphoria, only to realize it had not come true. I didn't want to stand back up.

These are moments in time that you will never forget. Ones I won't forget. I mean, this WAS everything we love about baseball between two teams that you would have never thought would be here at the same time. How entertained are you as a baseball fan with no rooting interest? Other than your own team being in that position and coming out on top, was there anything greater to watch as a lover of baseball and sports? It's almost a shame that the Indians and Cubs fans had to go through that because that whole scenario is not even dreamable. Major League Baseball couldn't have tried to rig a more perfect scenario.

What perhaps is the most cruel thing about baseball is that it set up this scenario between the two hungriest franchises and said, hey, only one of you will eat tonight.

Moments that I watched and was glued to the screen for. I stood, surrounding by fellow Cleveland Indians hopefuls, hoping that this team would pull out the unthinkable and the unfathomable. To ride the emotional roller coaster of believing your team was going to win the World Series because they were up 3-1, to the doubt that is creeping into your mind because it's now 3-3 and, well, it would seem the advantages are shifting towards the Cubs direction.

To the doom of falling behind, to the hope of tying it up, to the despair of falling behind yet again. To being given the shot of life of seeing this team rise up and not quit, to give us one more shot at it all. To tying it up and making you believe. Making you feel that this could very well happen and that you could very well be running down the street celebrating one of the greatest moments a sports fan can have.

I don't have strong allegiances to any other team in sports now a days. My alma mater has won a National Championship in soccer and as a devout fan of the Akron Zips and someone who went to games and was emotionally invested in that squad that won it all, that was great.

But this is my childhood and this is my young adult life, and now my adult life's one true emotional connection to sports.

I stood there thinking to myself what this would feel like. Thinking about how we really do invest ourselves into this game and wondering why. Why do we do this? This is a game that can only reward one team a year for being the best. We've witnessed a team in Chicago not win for over a century. That's many lifetimes of many people without being able to see through the reward of being a fan.

I'm not sure why we do it, or why I do it. But we do. And I will stand there next year in 2017 if I get the privilege to. I will be there emotionally and invested in this team. As cruel as baseball is as a sport, it is just as amazing. As cruel as it was to sit there and watch the Indians hopes slip away with each run that they improbably scored, it was just as amazing to sit there and watch them come back. To battle. Cruel to see two teams that want this so bad, with fans that want it so bad for them have to put the other down to get what they want. But amazing to see a franchise starved for 108 years finally break down all the bad and come out on top.

Good for the Cubs, right? They can finally put Bartman, the goat, and all that other crap to rest. They can move on and be a baseball franchise again.

I'm so scattered because now I've reach that overwhelmed feeling yet again. But this is the type of overwhelming feeling you don't want to have. I'm anxious for next year, but completely devastated about this year still. I don't know what to say or how to compartmentalize it because it's just everywhere. I'd be a mess had they won it, but at least I could feel good.

This sucks and I'm sad and I just can't sit here and continue to think about the what if. It's hard to sit here and put it in perspective, even though the Cubs are absolutely the most talented team on the planet and everything that has been said up to this point is true. I don't want to put it into perspective because I just want the Indians to have won.

I sit here and scroll through these damn pictures, looking at the pain and anguish on the faces of these people. Fellow Indians fans who were just as downtrodden as I was last night. I wish there was a camera on me as I left the bar and followed me to my car. To capture the look on my face that was properly showing the emptiness in my heart. The hollow feeling of there being nothing there when you expected it to be.

People around me cursed, cried, and collapsed. I looked down to the ground and put my hands on my head. I am those people in those pictures, we all are, even if there isn't a picture of us that exists. Forget Jordan Crying Meme, slap one of those faces on a picture of me.

To have done this all. To have watched this team battle against everything that was thrown their way. To have turned every excuse upside down and back around. To have it all go their way when it had to and to have played their tails off. To watch it not happen.

I'm not sure how one recovers from this. But we will, because most of us have been living with this most our lives. This team lost Game 7 in the World Series 19 years ago. This certainly isn't the first time this happened. This team lost a 3-1 lead in the playoffs nine years ago. This certainly isn't the first time this happened either.

As painful as it is, we'll go through this offseason and get hungrier and hungrier for the new season until it is finally here. Until we can finally stop saying, "let's just start playing now" and we are actually seeing our team play. When November 2nd, albeit still fresh, is now a distant memory that we will treat as such, a distant memory.

Like Cody Allen, I don't want to wait. I want it to start right now despite the emotional drain that was. This was a team that was so perfectly what our true core fan base is. And I couldn't be more prouder to have my allegiances lie with this team and those players. They make me proud to walk around today with my Block C hat on despite coming up short.

They make me proud and justify the emotion, passion, money, respect, love, time, effort, joy, and frustration that I put into them.

You will never get a run like this again and it is a shame that historically, it won't be as remembered as it could have been and won't be because this team didn't win it all. And this was the Cubs team that did it to boot, the team that broke the drought. The Indians and their run will be an afterthought, and really, that's not a bad thing, it's just a reality of success and winning it all. We'll remember it, but we won't remember it as fondly as we could have.

And that perhaps is the most saddest part of this all. That this run that won't be immortalized is now over and that the one group that could immortalize it regardless of outcome probably doesn't want to because it ended in absolute heartbreak. As drained and exhausted as we all are, this magical moment has now come to a close. Yes, it is crushing that it comes to a close without a chapter of celebration and joy, but it's just straight up sad that it's over period.

When I started writing this, I didn't know what it would end up looking like. To be honest, I don't even know how to end it just as much as how I didn't know how to start it. I'm yet again stuck on how to put these really strange emotions that I don't think I've ever encountered in quite this way into words and it sort of haunts me.

It haunts me because I feel like there's more to it and that I'm missing something. This is where we wake up and today is the real Game 7 right? That was so absurd that it wasn't real and the real game where Corey Kluber goes out and doesn't look completely gassed and gives us six strong innings. Mike Napoli goes out and redeems his terrible postseason with a three-run shot that actually brings to life the Party at Napoli's mantra that has surrounded this team all year. Jose Ramirez slaps a double up the alley to score Kipnis to take a three run lead while Andrew Miller comes in and continues to look like the cyborg he is for two innings. Cody Allen's ball hits Roberto Perez's mitt not soon before they sprint into each other's arms and the team comes flying in to pile on. Michael Martinez trails out of the dugout not to hit, but to be the last one on the dogpile.

That's all going to happen right? We're all going to wake up and the real game will happen.

Or, we're all going to go to bed now, hoping we wake up and April 2017 is here and we can begin this journey all over again, hoping for the outcome that we can't stop ever dreaming of. The one that everyone will remember.

Hey! You! Yeah, you out there, my fellow Cleveland Indians fan. Just one thing to really say in the aftermath of this past Monday. And I'm going to be really clear with it, as best as I can.

CALM DOWN! CHILL OUT! 

Your Cleveland Indians are 2016 American League Central Champions and I'm telling you to settle because you aren't calm. You're getting all uppity and feisty about these games and the lineups and winning and trying and effort and...my head 'esplode.

Here's a guy telling us to calm down, but he USES ALL CAPS TO DO IT? HOW CAN SOMEONE REMAIN CALM WHEN THERE'S SHOUTING!?

Damn straight I'm telling you to remain calm and using shouting to do it. You need to hear it. And if I have to bang my head on John Adams's drum for you to hear me, I will. I know that there are some of you that are new to this idea of contention, but, settle down and listen to me. We're about to witness the Indians enter a new type of territory in regards to baseball. I know you aren't quite accustomed to it, because this is a rare position to be in for this team in the past decade.

But, here's a secret. This isn't the regular season, this isn't even a pennant race down the stretch or fighting for that last playoff spot. This is a series of games played over the course of a few weeks to determine who is the best in baseball. And Paul Hoynes narrative aside, it hasn't even ended before it started.

The thing is, it doesn't always go to the actual best team in baseball. I'm looking at you Chicago. The Cubs should rightfully be the favorites to take everything and if you wanted to play your money smart, that's what you would do.

But you most definitely are not guaranteed to come out a winner on that bet. 

So, do me a favor here and dial it back a bit in regards to whatever your thinking about the Indians in regards to this final week. Don't do me a favor, rather, do yourself and your blood pressure a favor. Chill the hell out. And hey, here's a novel idea. Enjoy it! How about bask a little in the glow. I mean, the Indians are doing it. There's no shame. This is team is damn good, and there's some entitlement in enjoying that.

For those not accustomed to this type of situation, this is what happens in baseball. A team clinches a division and are guaranteed a trip to the postseason. In this day, they're guaranteed an appearance in the ALDS and five games to prove themselves. They don't have to worry about a one-game playoff. They're in! And this Indians team got in on Monday. That gives them a whole six games to play that are absolutely 100-percent inconsequential to them making/not making the postseason. 

If Tito wants to bat Mike Martinez second, start Mike Clevinger (who was probably going to start at this juncture anyway), and play Chris Gimenez at third, he absolutely can. Set aside his lineup staying up until 4 AM getting hammered to celebrate their accomplishment, you have one thing and one thing only to worry about.

The ALDS and surviving an entire month of a different kind of baseball game. This team played 156 games trying to win them all to put themselves in that spot. Some, like Francisco Lindor, haven't had much of a break, especially when you single-out Lindor specifically into having to travel for the All-Star Game and play in it.

So before the month that Lindor et al. are asked to play every single day and give their maximum amount of effort, it makes the best baseball sense that rest be given. And, oh yeah, very few players play 162 games in a full season. Where were you in May when Lindor was granted a day off? Save your gripes for fielding a lineup comprised of mostly reserves and September call-ups, Tito got them ALL a break on Tuesday and went back to a more competitive lineup on Wednesday. He'll continue to manage the rest/rust decisions from here on out, as he should.

This is the advantage you gain in clinching your division a week early. You use that advantage. You don't squander it, especially to be "respectful" of another team's chances of making the postseason. You worry about what you need to do to win the World Series and everything else is background noise, just let it play and focus on what you have to do.

Oh, I know what argument is coming next. Just pocket it now. No? Okay fine, go ahead.

"But they still have something to play for, what about home field advantage?"

What about it? 

No really, what about it.

Look no further than this excellent piece of research from Adam Burke:

These are coin flips! It's completely 50-50. Which means, you literally cannot say it can go one way over the other. You can't, in your best Hoynes impression say "We'll the Indians don't have home field advantage, they aren't winning the ALDS!" Either "A" can happen or "B" can happen. Does that mean the Indians won't lose the first two games on the road if they end up in that situation. No, context is everything and each year and situation is different. But over the course of all these years, no one can say you definitively have the advantage by gaining home field in the first round or in the entire playoffs for that matter.

So why, at the expense of potentially losing someone to an injury or exhausting players would you fight so hard for something that comes down to you flipping a coin to determine the outcome? Why not take the true advantage of giving your players some quality rest prior to what has the potential to be a physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting month of baseball if the Indians are so lucky to play that long?

If you can make a decent argument to counter that, then I'll be all ears. But you are unlikely to convince me otherwise. What the Indians are doing in this final week is a good call. If they end up with an extra home game, great, awesome, fantastic, cool. If they don't? Hey, is Josh Tomlin starting at home in Game 3 really a bad thing compared to if he were to be starting in Game 3 in Fenway? My point, you can spin positives and negatives each way.

Yeah, you lose Game 5 advantage, but if you play well enough in Games 1-4, Game 5 becomes unnecessary, right? Again, these are all valid arguments that fall both ways.

Which is why you shouldn't be the one freaking out about not "trying" or the lack of winning this last week. The Indians earned the ability to not having to worry about winning these last few games. And save your "mentality" talk, because the focus has now shifted to worrying about winning the more important ones, and that is what this strategy sets up to do. This is the strategy the Indians are employing and it is soundly reasoned. It's backed with evidence to suggest it is logical.

So stop freaking out, calm down, settle your jitters, and hey, enjoy the aftermath of a division clinching season until the postseason starts. Hopefully it isn't nine years between this one and the next, but you never know when you may get a chance to bask in it again.

Picture: Getty Images