2017 Cleveland Indians can look to 1997 Tribe for optimism

The 2017 Cleveland Indians haven’t steamrolled through the division as planned, but that doesn’t mean the season can’t end with a World Series trip.

It is entirely fair to say that the 2017 season has not gone as planned. No one thought at this point the Indians would be only one game above .500 and that the starting rotation, the best in the American League last year, would easily be the worst this season. It’s frustrating, and that’s alright.

But there is reason for hope. Most Indians fans will point to 1995 as the most magical season in Indians history. There are plenty of reasons why that is true and the late inning heroics and walk off wins propelled the Indians to a World Series beating at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. Then came 1996, a season where the Tribe won 99 games, but fell early in the playoffs.

For this year’s group, the story is a little bit similar. 2016 saw the Indians make it to Game 7 of the World Series and it took a rain delay and extra innings to keep the Tribe away from a title. It was a season as magical as 1995, with 94 wins and the best team my generation has ever seen. But like 1996, the next season wasn’t exactly the greatest at first.

The 1997 Indians were 27-24 through the first two months of the season. The pitching staff sported only a 4.73 ERA for the entire season with a 1.475 WHIP. Charlie Nagy led the team with a 4.28 ERA while striking out a mere 149 batters. Heck, John Smiley made six starts for the 1997 team. 3 different relievers made more than 37 appearances, but had ERAs over 5.80. If it weren’t for Jose Mesa and Mike Jackson, it could have been one of the worst bullpens of a division winner ever.

The team itself finished 85-76. For reference, the Detroit Tigers finished 8 games back in the AL Central in 2016 with a record of 86-75. Both Seattle and Baltimore won their divisions in the AL with at least 90 wins, with the Orioles winning a league high 98 games. The Indians won the AL Central by 8 games, but that is because they were the only team with a winning record in the division that year. Both the Twins and the Royals lost 94 games in 1997.

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Why does it matter? The Indians are only 29-28 after a two game sweep from the Rockies. The starting rotation is not good, at the moment. The AL Central is so tightly packed that the Twins and Indians are a combined five games over .500 as the only two teams with winning records, as of the Indians-Rockies game on June. With all of that said, there has been so much underachievement that there is nowhere to go but up.

The 1997 Indians were one Tony Fernandez error away from a World Series title. This year’s version always seems to be one little piece away, whether it’s a run of rough starts or a couple of games where the offense stays asleep. Kluber is just now getting healthy and Francisco Lindor is going through rough stretch at the plate. It happens and a let down isn’t out of the ordinary after 2016’s incredible run.

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So be frustrated right now. Be disappointed. But don’t despair quite yet. It can only get better and the players in a funk have plenty of time to shake out of it. The Indians didn’t start their epic 14 game win steak until June 14th last year. So hey, we’re only a week away from turning the corner.

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