Back in town...

after a hellish trip to Iowa City via car. Well, it was good in a couple of respects: I got to listen to game 3 on the radio Monday night (and to find out that satellite radio is at least 10 seconds behind real TV) and then spent Tue night in the hotel room watching game 4 and yelling and screaming. Today was spent driving him and fighting traffic especially in Indy, in which it seems every fricking highway is under construction. (Can you name all the interstates that go through Indianapolis? Yes, every one - 65, 70, 74, 69, 465 - are all under construction).

This series is not over yet....I can easily see Beckett winning game 5, and then we would have to find a way to win one game at Fenway. I don't want to go back there.... let's close it out tomorrow, huh?

I continue to be impressed, in no particular order, by:
- Westbrook and Byrd
- Jensen Lewis (wow)
- Cabrera
- Peralta
- Blake (I was calling him "Mr. automatic out" before last night)

We need Hafner to get going - anytime now, Travis. And I hope the lack of us seeing Perez isn't a carryover from his appearance in game 2.

Well - it looks like all signs are a go for tomorrow- Janice and I may have scored tickets through Don. I have never been to a possible clinching playoff game (unless you count the 1999 NL Wild Card 1-game playoff between the Reds and the Mets); this will be my 3rd ALCS game that I attended, with the other two one being memorable ones:

- 1995 Game 4; we were down 2-1 and counting on Ken Hill (!) vs. Andy Benes (!!). We won 7-0, starting the charge back as we won in 6.

- 1997 Game 3; this was the famous "stealing home/passed ball/squeeze bunt/fouled bunt" play in which we won, 2-1, in 12; with Grissom on 3rd with 1 out, Vizquel squared to bunt as Grissom took off. The ball ended up missing Vizquel's bat and popped out of Hoiles' glove; Grissom came home with the winning run as the whole stadium paused for 1 second not fully comprehending what just happened. Hoiles still argues to this day that Vizquel fouled off that pitch.

So my record is 2-0 in ALCS games.

We were in this situation in 1997, up 3-1 hosting a game 5; we ended up losing game 5 at home and then winning game 6 in Baltimore in the Tony Fernandez/"God hit the home run"/ Charlie Nagy tightrope/ the "wheel play" game. For those that don't remember, the fascinating line score from that game 6:
Cle 000 000 000 01 - 1 3 0
Bal 000 000 000 00 - 0 10 0

In fact, we've had a very tough time closing it out at home. REsults in games where Cleveland could have won a postseason series at home:

1920: WS: up 4-2; won game 7 at home (won series 5-2)
1948: WS: up 3-1; lost game 5, won game 6 on road
1997: ALDS: tied 2-2: won game 5 at home (won series 3-2)
ALCS: up 3-1: lost game 5 at home (won game 6 on road)
1999: ALDS: tied 2-2: lost game 5 at home (lost series 3-2)
2001: ALDS: up 2-1: lost game 4 at home (lost game 5 on road)

so we are 2-4 all time in possible home clinchers for the Tribe.

I don't know if I like our chances to win tomorrow - but I am glad we are up 3-1 instead of 2-2.....