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Napoli and Santana need to get hot.

Assuming the Cubs win the World Series, who then becomes the most snake-bitten franchise or city?

YRs - Team - Last Title
107 - Chicago Cubs - 1908
68 - Arizona Cardinals - 1947 NFL Championship
67 - Cleveland Indians - 1948
65 - Sacramento Kings - 1951
58 - Atlanta Hawks - 1958
58 - Detroit Lions - 1957 NFL Championship
55 - Texas Rangers - never
55 - Philadelphia Eagles - 1960 NFL Championship
54 - Houston Astros - never
54 - Tennessee Titans - 1961 AFL Championship
52 - San Diego Chargers - 1963 AFL Championship
50 - Buffalo Bills - 1965 AFL Championship
50 - Atlanta Falcons - never
48 - Phoenix Suns - never
48 - Cincinnati Bengals - never
48 - Cleveland Browns - 1964 NFL Championship
48 - Toronto Maple Leafs - 1966–67
48 - St. Louis Blues - never
47 - New York Jets - 1968
47 - Milwaukee Brewers - never
47 - San Diego Padres - never
47 - Washington Nationals - never
46 - Los Angeles Clippers - never
46 - Kansas City Chiefs - 1969
46 - Minnesota Vikings - 1969 NFL Championship
45 - Milwaukee Bucks - 1971
45 - Buffalo Sabres - never
45 - Vancouver Canucks - never
43 - New York Knicks - 1973
42 - Miami Dolphins - 1973
42 - Utah Jazz - never
41 - Washington Capitals - never
40 - Philadelphia Flyers - 1974–75
40 - Denver Nuggets - never
40 - Brooklyn Nets - never
40 - Indiana Pacers - never
39 - Portland Trail Blazers - 1977
39 - Seattle Mariners - never
38 - Washington Wizards - 1978
37 - Oklahoma City Thunder - 1979
36 - Arizona Coyotes - never
36 - Pittsburgh Pirates - 1979
33 - Philadelphia 76ers - 1983
32 - Oakland Raiders - 1983
32 - Baltimore Orioles - 1983
32 - New York Islanders - 1982–83
31 - Detroit Tigers - 1984
30 - Chicago Bears - 1985

Sure, the Indians and Browns are still high on that list, but the Cavs JUST won.

What's interesting, I wouldn't have thought this list would be this long. Somehow, it felt like everyone else was winning titles left and right while we were struggling.

Nice to not see The Cavaliers on that list anymore. (under never)

Francona announced the #Indians' rotation for ALCS:


G1: Kluber
G2: Bauer
G3: Tomlin
G4: Clevinger & Friends

+1 - Makes me smile every time I think about it

Think about how different this list looked 5, 10 or 15 years ago. The Red Sox, Giants, White Sox, Royals, Warriors, Cavaliers, Mavericks, Heat, Diamondbacks, Seahawks, Colts, Buccaneers, Patriots, Saints, ugh-Ravens, Kings, Blackhawks, Ducks, Bruins, Hurricanes and Lightning have all won their first or ended a long drought.

Here's to hoping the Indians and Browns can remove their names over the next 3 weeks to 5 years.

Quote above by Grate (edited for accuracy):

"Francona announced the #Indians' rotation for ALCS:


G1: Kluber
G2: Bauer {& Friends}
G3: Tomlin {& Friends}
G4: Clevinger & Friends"

It would have been nice to get a Clevinger/Salazar mix for Game 4.

I think we should probably win the series, but our bullpen will be overworked by game 4 that we'll fall apart in 6 games. Well, unless Kluber and Tomlin can eat a ton of innings in their starts. That's our only hope.

Offensively, we're better than them, at least over the length of the season.

Well the Tribe did take 4 out of 7 games against Toronto already this year.

And Toronto had the regular season home field advantage (4 games in Toronto, 3 in Cleveland)

And two of Toronto’s wins were on the Saturday and Sunday after that Friday 19-inning game in Toronto. (You may recall Francona kept pitchers in that game. The Tribe finally won against Darwin Barney - a Toronto infielder.)

A fresh Marco Estrada started for Toronto on Saturday. (The Indians started McAllister - who pitched the day before in the 19-inning game)

They don’t look so tough.

Estrada won't be pitching against a tired McAllister tomorrow.

By Jeff Schudel, The News-Herald & The Morning Journal
POSTED: 10/13/16, 7:08 PM EDT | UPDATED: 47 SECS AGO 0

Marco Estrada, the Blue Jays’ starting pitcher in Game 1 of the ALCS, is almost daring the Indians to run on him. He should know the Indians plan to take that dare.

“To be honest with you,” my job is pretty easy,” Estrada said on Oct. 13 before the Blue Jays worked out at Progressive Field. “As long as I don’t take too long making the pitch, I don’t think too many guys are going to try to steal.



“We’ve got one of the best catchers behind the plate with one of the strongest arms. So if they want to try to steal, go ahead. Russ (catcher Russell Martin), he’s got a cannon.”

Nice try, Estrada. The Indians led the American League with 134 steals and see no reason to slow down now.

Estrada allowed 12 stolen bases in the regular season. Only one base stealer was cut down with him on the mound.

By contrast, only four bases were stolen off Corey Kluber, the Indians starter in Game 1 on Oct. 14 at Progressive Field. Seven runners were caught stealing.

Opponents stole 61 bases on the Blue Jays in 2016 when Martin was catching. He threw out only 11 runners. But Indians outfielder Rajai Davis, who led the American League with 43 steals, says it is unfair to pin it all stolen bases on the catcher. Davis said sometimes the pitcher is to blame. He added Estrada is one of those pitchers that allow runners to get a big jump.

“It’s a combination of the pitcher and the catcher working together,” Davis said. “If the pitcher gives (Martin) the opportunity, I think he could throw out more guys. If they don’t give the catcher the opportunity, guys are going to steal at will.

“I’ve noticed (studying the Blue Jays), assuming we get on base, we can be aggressive. I think (Estrada) can be one of those guys we can take advantage of. He throws slow stuff. He has a quick move, but I think picking the right pitch, you can definitely take a base on him.”

Jailbreaks don’t only occur when Estrada is on the mound. Marcus Stroman, the Toronto starter in Game 2, has allowed 13 steals. Runners have been caught five times. Game 3 starter J.A. Happ, 20-4 in the regular season, allowed seven stolen bases. Only one runner was caught. The numbers are 12 steals, two runners caught for Game 4 starter Aaron Sanchez.

“We’re well aware of that,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “Pitching staffs have a lot to do with base running, too. I don’t think you can get carried away with it because the name of the game is to get to runner out at the plate, too.”

Opponents scored 666 runs on the Blue Jays. Opponents scored 676 runs on the Indians.

http://www.news-herald.com/article/HR/20161013/SPORTS/161019721

j/c...

Kershaw getting called in to close the game out. Great stuff!

wow, just saw the highlights. what a game

Quote from the article Pd posted above:

Marco Estrada:

“We’ve got one of the best catchers behind the plate with one of the strongest arms. So if they want to try to steal, go ahead.”

Jerk thing to say

“Nice try, Estrada.”

I hope the Tribe doesn’t lose to this dink. And I hope they steal a bunch of bases while he’s pitching.

FYI:

The classy thing for Estrada to have said would be something like:

“We’ll have to do our best to try to keep the Tribe from taking extra bases.”

NOT: “Go ahead.” (implied - "losers")

Like the man said: go ahead and try...

Tribe ALCS roster:

My Giants are gone so GO TRIBE !!!

I'm not into baseball much but I totally watch the playoff games with the Indians. The last game? I was a nervous wreck towards the end! They got me! I loved it. It reminded me of the final Cavs games.

-GO TRIBE!!!

pumped for the game tonight. should be a good series

No reason to play this series , its all but over for the Tribe, the Jays will win the series in 5 maybe 6 games. They have better hitting our pitching is duct taped together we have no Experience and Francona is an overrated manager. This is the talk on the Blue Jays fourms. I wee bit over confident me think. Go Tribe I hate Canada

And please take Nickelback with you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ryan Merritt and Andrew Miller?

Two lefties in the pen? How extravagant.

Remember way back on opening day? The only lefty on the team was a way below average Ross Detwiler (finished the year with Oakland and a 6.00+ ERA).

I can’t wait to see if Francona uses Merritt.

Ryan Merritt

Oh.

Ryan Merritt is a young rookie. Francona is undoubtedly thinking ahead to 2017 (and giving Merritt the invaluable experience of being on a major league team's post-season roster.(with the big boys))

Francona's a genius.

j/c:


https://twitter.com/H_Grove/status/787008267981582336

I'd be shocked to see Merritt in a game (other than a blow-out).

That's O.K.

I'm surprised it wasn't amputated by the drone.

(Bauer's pinky)

I think that we expect Bauer to be limited in his start, and probably don't think we'll get more than 4 or 5 innings out of him. Thus, we bulked up the bullpen with an extra arm.

Bauer cut his finger working on his drone, now will pitch game 3 Bauer being Bauer

Bauer trolls Jays fans and will get razzed in Toronto , bad sign

Wrap Tomlin in bubble wrap please

If the Cavs can come back and win after being down 3-1, there's no reason the Tribe can't come back and win after being down three starting pitchers to one.

Who knows ... maybe a bandage on his pinky will suddenly give him an amazing "cut finger" fastball?

I think Tomlin's slop works better between Kluber and Bauer's power arms, instead of after both. Changes the view for the hitters twice instead of once, and might give Bauer a slight edge. I think Merrit might be here to team up with Clevinger in game 4. Clevinger was a starter all year in C-bus, but he was shortened, inning-wise, with his recent stint in the big team bullpen. We might see Merrit in the 4th or 5th inning of Clevinger's start.

Bring it on home, Featherheads!

Astute point.

Especially true for the first 1-2 times through the line-up.

Sensitive much?

Bauer is an idiot. I think we are going to have a really hard Time with torontos offense, especially with our starting pitching situation, they've been hitting very well, hopefully we keep hitting and we can get the game to our BP

Is Lebron taking the mound at some point. Or maybe playing CF?

I always wondered why guys never bunted away from the shift, nice Carlos

Vers.....Carlos listened to u