Late-’90s Cleveland Indians are the best team never to win a World Series

ESPN has their fair share of hot takes but this one might hold water as the Cleveland Indians of the ’90s are the best title-less team ever.

Solon High’s own Jeff Passan took part in an ESPN article that asked what the biggest debate surrounding each Major League team was. Now, the Cleveland Indians aren’t known for too many controversies, besides maybe the team name. Indians aren’t exactly geographically correct. Beyond the name, what’s there to debate? We already answered who the greatest slugger of all time is, what’s left? Well, Passan pitched the idea that the mid-to-late ’90s Indians squad were the best team to never win a World Series.

He’s probably not wrong. I think the only team, at least since the ’70s to compete for that crown are the 1994 Montreal Expos,  and maybe the 2001 Seattle Mariners. When you look at the talent on both those clubs and what they did, it’s not hard to hazard a guess that those teams were as good as any. So maybe Passan has a point.

This Indians squad that dominated the ’90s was so good and on a whole different level for so long that it’s hard to argue against the points Passan makes in the article;

"The 1995-2001 Indians, who lost two World Series and four other playoff series. Their core included Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle and Omar Vizquel. Others to play significant roles: Roberto Alomar, Carlos Baerga, David Justice, Eddie Murray and Travis Fryman. The ’99 Indians scored 1,009 runs, the only team to exceed the four-figure mark since 1950. The ’95 Indians lost the World Series to Atlanta — which clearly would have been the answer to this question if not for that season — and the ’97 Indians lost in an extra-innings Game 7 walk-off to the Florida Marlins."

The team never had the pitching to be truly dominant, and yet they were. Instead of having great young talent constantly shuffling into the rotation like the modern team has, they instead got by on former aces from other teams. Names like Orel Hershiser, Chuck Finley, and Dennis Martinez, who were all on the downside of their careers. This was a team that wasn’t built with modern pitching ideas at the heart of the squad, making what they did even more impressive.

That’s the charm of this team. The pitching staff wasn’t iconic. They were cobbled together with aging veterans (Hershiser, Martinez), overweight rookies (Bartolo Colon), and a flamethrower with no remorse for the corners of a strike zone (or shoulder cartridge…Jarrett Wright, we’re talking about Wright). They were a bunch of sluggers who just raked the ball to the deepest parts of the outfield and dared the opposition to catch them.

They were the baseball version of Rocky Balboa. They’ll take their lickings, (the pitching staff) but they have a thunderous left hook that could change the course of the fight (lineup). They were rarely down and hardly out. This is easily the best crop of teams to never win a World Series, and if it wasn’t for Jose Mesa, this wouldn’t be the case.

Freakin’ Mesa, man.