Indians To Open At Home This Late In Post-Season Play For The First Time In Franchise History

For the first time in franchise history, the Cleveland Indians will open the ALCS at home, when they meet the Toronto Blue Jays in game 1 scheduled for Friday night. If they are fortunate enough to win the upcoming series, they would open the World Series at home for the first time.

Both teams swept their division series in three straight games.

Cleveland eliminated Boston (Red Sox) for a fourth time in either a division series (thrice) or an unscheduled playoff for the American League Pennant, which was the case in 1948, the last time the Indians won the World Series. Boston eliminated Cleveland one time, in a 1999 division series.

Meanwhile Toronto made it six straight division series game victories against the Texas Rangers, the first three coming last season, when they overcame a (2-0) series deficit and won the series.

I think the series will be considered virtually even, my first “notes,” if you will, are the consecutive letters of the alphabet “F,G,H” pertaining to the series.

The managers are “F,” Terry Francona and “G,” John Gibbons, and here’s a shocker coming from me, each team’s lead radio announcer is at least very good.

The Blue Jays’ Jerry “H”owarth is very good, while the Indians’ Tom “H”amilton is considered outstanding by both the great, great broadcaster Joe Tait and by me.