What’s Not to Be Thankful For?

While this past season may not leave the average fan a lot to be thankful for, if you haven’t noticed I’m mostly a glass half-full kind of fan. With that in mind, I feel that there is plenty to be thankful for as an Indians fan.

As far as last season goes, we Tribe fans can at least take solace in the fact that we stayed out of the cellar. Six teams in the league finished last in their division, and we weren’t one of them. I am thankful that the Indians have never finished in last place in consecutive seasons, and that trend will continue through next season.

I am thankful that, in my lifetime, this team has been to the playoffs in seven seasons. Thats one third of my life! It wasn’t that long ago that the Indians were one game away from the World Series (thank you Casey f-in Blake), though if you listened to any Cleveland sports talk personality you would think that it has been 25 years since their last winning season.

I’m thankful that this team has a lot of exciting talent in the farm system, and that that talent should hopefully turn the Tribe into a contender within the next two or three years. There are prospects at basically every position and it appears there is a future superstar in Carlos Santana at catcher.

All should be thankful that South Korea won the Asian Games, as it will hopefully keep Shin-Soo Choo around for a few more years. He is the most consistent hitter in the line-up right now and without him, players such as Santana and others would not have any protection in the line-up, thus hindering their development.

Most of all, I’m thankful that we have a team in Cleveland. When you look back just a few years at all the talk of contraction, Tribe fans should feel lucky that there was none of that talk in the 80s. Had the league contracted teams then, the Indians almost certainly would have been ousted and we never would have lived through the excitement of the mid-to-late 90s. Browns fans can relate, as they lost their team for three seasons. It’s hard to imagine life without baseball in this area.

With all the recent success, and the bright future ahead, Indians fans such as myself have plenty to be thankful for. I guess there’s one way to easily sum up what I’m thankful for: I’m glad I’m not a Pirates fan.