There are always moments during a championship season that could have broken another way and ended it all. Simultaneously, every champion in every sport is extremely unlikely and also inevitable. There are so many teams, but one of them has to win. No wonder every year seems to bring so many great stories.
(It's the same with the Planet Earth. People notice how perfect this planet is for humans and say stuff like, "Good thing we didn't exist somewhere else...we'd all die!" We wouldn't all die, we just wouldn't exist in the first place. Of course our environment is perfect, the environment created us. Unlikely but inevitable. Anyway...)
I'm sure the Phillies will have some nail-biter moments while sweeping their way through the National League (of course this might not happen. The Giants last year are a perfect example of what I was talking about above. They weren't any good, but they won it all with some clutch play and good breaks. They were a product of their situation and the game they play. Somebody has to win.), and good for them. They hit on every big free agent deal, every big trade and had no devastating injuries.
But for every Phillies (or Giants), there are at least ten or twelve 2011 Cleveland Indians, lost in the muck of circumstance. With the trades they made, this Cleveland team was good enough to win the World Series. I'm not saying they were the favorite because they WERE NOT. But let's get real; any group of shmoes can win the World Series and the Indians are exactly that.
The goal of putting a team together is to increase the margin for error or, in most cases, margin for bad luck. The Indians had very little margin for bad luck and they got lots and lots of bad luck (in contrast to a team like the Packers last year who actually had somewhat shitty luck until the playoffs). That's just the way it goes.
I wish there was more to say here. It is quite the effort to stay above .500 with injuries like this, but do we really need to write about another Cleveland moral victory? There is optimism for next year but that's another post entirely. I'll remember this team it's unexpected start, the emergence of Asdrubal Cabrera as an All Star, Jack Hannahan, Jason Kipnis, Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Matt Laporta continuing to embarrass the family, a lot of comebacks and a lot of hilarious failure. There have been times this team showed its guts and times their lack of talent and experience betrayed them.
The 2011 Cleveland Indians lived a full life, but it's over now. Goodnight.
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