Comments on: What do you mean by “for real?”

By: MHagesfeld

MHagesfeld — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:29:06 +0000

Agreed that this team CAN do much better than expected, and that the performance this year seems real, and we should support this team (all those people whining they would support a winner better get off their couches and down to the Prog). My point was just that people’s expectations that we would NOT have the league’s best record at this point were not unfair, and expecting us to keep up THIS pace might e unreasonable. Having said that…if we just go .500 the rest of the way, the rest of the division might have a hard time catching us.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:06:06 +0000

Thank you for being annoyed by “where are your shoes at?” You have a friend for life.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:33:05 +0000

P.S. I just laugh when teams doing worse than the Indians get so much more recognition. When you look at the MLB section on espn.com you are the only story about them. I thought if a team was doing good you report on them? Just because we have seen a lot of down years doesn’t mean you just assume it will happen again. Give the Indians some credit! thank you for trying to get your blogs out there and recognized by writing on by far the most interesting and under rated story in sports right now.

By: Brendan

Brendan — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:24:07 +0000

I did watch every game last season though on mlb ticket and as a die hard indians fan along with my father you could see a real shot with a rising star in carlos santana and grady has shown he can play when hes not hurt. Acta has a great system right now of sitting him every third day to keep him healthy and its working. Acta is pushing all the right buttons right now and he has a hungry team. They are definitely the best team in baseball right now, and once hafner comes back he will only add more power. This team is real fun to watch and the people in cleveland need to stop crying about lebron and get with this team and buy some freaking tickets. They will notice that this team has a shot.

By: Mike H

Mike H — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:01:28 +0000

Great blog, but I do beg to differ on one point. You say the reason nobody believes the Indians can continue at this pace, or thereabouts (my definition of “for real”) is because they’re the Indians. Yet you give the REAL reason right above: “made up primarily of the same guys who went 35-39 after the All-Star break at the end of last season.” I expected the Indians to be better than their final record last year, yes. But the return of a Grady Sizemore who hadn’t shown much in tow years and a rookie Carlos Santana didn’t give me real hope we were going to go from a sub-.500 team (35-39 = under .500, just not 20 games under) to challenging for the AL title. THAT is why people wonder if this team is illusory in their success – not because they’re the Indians.

Keep up the good work…
—Mike

By: tom l

tom l — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:52:23 +0000

p.s. go tribe

By: tom l

tom l — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:51:55 +0000

“…simply because I think using the phrase “for real” is a slippery grammatical slope. Next thing you know, I’ll be asking my kid “Where are your shoes at?” and slipping in apostrophes every time I want to write a plural noun, both of which break my little editorial heart.”

So grammatical mistakes are inexcusable, but clichés are cool? (“It remains to be seen what the rest of the season holds.”)

By: Stephanie Liscio

Stephanie Liscio — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:49:23 +0000

I agree…but then again, I’m pretty biased!

By: Nancy Marcus

Nancy Marcus — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:14:41 +0000

I’m excited about how well the Indians are doing. I’m also excited that I’m the first person to comment on your first ESPN blog post. For real. Can’t wait to read more of your baseball blogging!

By: John

John — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:48:20 +0000

I’m trying to figure out how the gurus at ESPN justify this week’s edition of the MLB Power Rankings. The Tribe should be listed at #1. It shouldn’t even be a question: Best record in baseball, longest win streak, best RS/RA, tied for best record over the last 10 games, and a higher SOS than either the Phillies or the Yanks. What the heck does it take?