|★|OPENING DAY 2024|★|AND OPENING WEEK|★| 3 more games to go. April 8, 2024 at 5:10 pm.
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★ OPENING DAY 2024 ★ April 8, 2024 at 5:10 pm.
Baseball opening day in Cleveland: Always something new under the sun – Terry Pluto
- Updated: Apr. 07, 2024, 4:46 a.m.|
- Published: Apr. 07, 2024, 4:45 a.m.
The bleachers at Progressive Field are now named for the late John Adams, the famed drummer.
CLEVELAND, Ohio –No sport celebrates opening day quite like baseball. It’s not as if the first baseball game is more important than the opener in football, hockey, basketball, soccer … or whatever.
“It’s one of 162,” I remember hearing often during my rookie year covering the Orioles for the Baltimore Evening Sun in 1979. I heard it later when I covered the Tribe for The Plain Dealer in the early 1980s.
Stories by Terry Pluto
- Shane Bieber done for the season, now what for the Guardians? – Terry Pluto
- Class in defeat. Grit in victory. So much to love in the Iowa vs. UConn game – Terry Pluto
- What do you do when you are being sucked into Family Drama? – Terry Pluto
One of 162 games …
But it’s often the one I remember … opening day, a holiday in my home.
With opening day looming, I closed my eyes and thought back to more than a half-century ago.
Walking down the West Third Street Bridge comes to mind. You can pick your era. Mine was the 1960s when I discovered baseball thanks to my father.
Cleveland's home opener on April 19, 1960, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium against the Detroit Tigers. The Tribe lost the game, 4-2, in after 15 innings.
WHAT ABOUT THE MEMORIES?
I remember a guy out front of the old stadium who had a dancing monkey as he asked for a few coins to feed it.
I remember another guy with a polaroid camera, taking random photos. The device spat out a picture and he tried to sell it to you – even though you didn’t ask him to take your picture.
I remember scorecards for a quarter, and you got a free golf pencil. I remember the smell of hot dogs on the grill and the unofficial parade of fans, most of them wearing some form of red, white and blue.
I remember the field. This was a black & white, three-channel TV world. We snaked our way up those old ramps and suddenly saw it ... that huge field with the greenest grass in the world and blue Lake Erie beyond the bleachers
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Do you have any memorable Opening Day stories ?
Ler's hear them.
I was at the last home opener at Cleveland Stadium, 1993.
I believe it was a sell-out (or close to it) and it was two weeks after the boat crash that took Steve Olin and Tim Crews' life. Their wives were brought out to the mound before the game, it was a sad scene.
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Do you have any memorable Opening Day stories ?
Ler's hear them.
I was at the last home opener at Cleveland Stadium, 1993.
I believe it was a sell-out (or close to it) and it was two weeks after the boat crash that took Steve Olin and Tim Crews' life. Their wives were brought out to the mound before the game, it was a sad scene.
I was at the last home opener at Cleveland Stadium, 1993.
I believe it was a sell-out (or close to it) and it was two weeks after the boat crash that took Steve Olin and Tim Crews' life. Their wives were brought out to the mound before the game, it was a sad scene.
★ More later on this story.
30 years later: Jim Donovan looks back on the tragic deaths of Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews
Both men were killed in a horrific boating accident on Florida's Little Lake Nellie. Their loss reverberated throughout the team, the city, and all of baseball.Author: Jim DonovanPublished: 7:20 PM EDT March 21, 2023Updated: 8:26 PM EDT March 22, 2023
CLEVELAND — March 22, 1993, in Winter Haven, Florida. The Cleveland Indians were being rewarded by manager Mike Hargrove for hard work with a day off, their only day off of spring training.
It should've been a day of rest and fun; it turned into the darkest day in Cleveland sports history. It was the day two Indians pitchers were killed and one other was critically injured, the result of a horrific boating accident
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It was tough watching Bieber walk onto the field before the game. You could see him get choked up.
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That was the last day off by Hargroove.
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Meanwhile ....
CLE 1 - 0 in bottom 3rd. Only 1 out. D/P ball.
GO GUARDS, nice to be home.
That was the last day off by Hargroove.
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Meanwhile ....
CLE 1 - 0 in bottom 3rd. Only 1 out. D/P ball.
GO GUARDS, nice to be home.
Meanwhile in the AL Central ...
★ CLE (8-2) 4 10 0
x CSX (not 8-2) 0 4 3
WP - MacKenzie (1-1) LP Burks (0-1). Another GUARDS Shutout Win.
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▪︎ Join us TUESDAY APRIL 9 at 6:10 pm in Cleveland !
▪︎ Then WEDNESDAY APRIL 10 at 6:10 pm. -OFF THURS-
● Then F-Sat-Sun versus The YANKEES in Cleveland ! ●
■ BE THERE ! IT SHOULD BE FUN. ■
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I hope we don't get - ANY RAINED OUT - games FRI, SAT, SUN verses the Damn Yankees this weekend.
--> Looks beautiful in Cleveland this evening.
●~~~~~>
<~~~~~●
▪︎ Join us TUESDAY APRIL 9 at 6:10 pm in Cleveland !
▪︎ Then WEDNESDAY APRIL 10 at 6:10 pm. -OFF THURS-
● Then F-Sat-Sun versus The YANKEES in Cleveland ! ●
■ BE THERE ! IT SHOULD BE FUN. ■
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GAME 10 APR 9 in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio ..... OUCH !
CSX 5 CLE 0 top of the 1st inning. 1 out. Finally 3 outs.
CLE coming to bat, 9 innings to go, thankfully.
GAME 10 APR 9 in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio ..... OUCH !
CSX 5 CLE 0 top of the 1st inning. 1 out. Finally 3 outs.
CLE coming to bat, 9 innings to go, thankfully.
Tonight's attendance on a lovely night 14,887.
CSX 7 CLE 5 middle 8th CSX just got -2-.
Bottom of the 9th, here goes !
We had cheeseburgers on the grill about 7 pm tonight. Garden green onions -and- tater tots in the oven ... mmm-mmm.
And game over here. CSX wins 7-5. CLE (8-3) -5- game win streak is over.
Series finale tomorrow, see you then. GO GUARDS !
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No good place to put this, but I thought it would be worth posting since it's baseball.
Baseball Conventional Wisdom at all levels tells you that you should never, ever under any circumstance intentionally put the winning run on base in the bottom of the 9th playing away from home in a tie game.
However, with one away and the guy at the plate having already had two prior HRs in the game, that conventional wisdom should be thrown out with a little common sense. Do not throw to a hot hitter. Otherwise........................................well this can happen.The Aggies have a great chant that would have applied here last night, "Walking's cheaper (clap clap........clap, clap, clap, repeat, etc.). -
GAME 12 - APR 10. I turned this game on at 7 pm it was CSX 5-0.
Now 8 pm its CSX 5-4 bottom 6 CLE bases loaded -0- outs.
G's have homered their way back in it. Now 5-5 to top 7.
5-5 top 9th. Oh boy, Clase in.
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Cleveland (9-3) wins it in the 11th 7-6 ! ★ The first extra inning game of 2024. OFF TOMORROW APRIL 11th.
★ Then FRI-SAT-SUN versus the NY YANKEES at home ---> here in ---> Cleveland, Ohio ! ★
● BE THERE, IT SHOULD BE FUN. ~
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