Believeland erupts: Guardians’ miracle rally rekindles Cleveland fan spirit

Baseball history was just made by the Cleveland Guardians. The Detroit Tigers (87-75) led the Guardians (88-74) by 9.5 games on Sept. 10 with 16 games left to play (Cleveland had 17), but finished 3-13, while Cleveland went 14-3.

At one point in July, the Guards were 15.5 games behind the Tigers, making Cleveland’s comeback the greatest ever since divisional play came to MLB in 1969. The prior record was the 15 game comeback by the Yankees to take the American League Eastern Division in 1978 after trailing the Boston Red Sox by 14 games. It’s been a remarkable September for the Guardians, truly one of a kind. (And for the Tigers, though of exactly the opposite kind.)

Because the baseball gods have a sense of humor, Cleveland will host Detroit in a best of three games series beginning today at a little after 1 PM ET. The second game (and a third, if necessary, will start at the same time and at the same place.)

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So yes, we Guardians fans are pretty excited. I have plenty of friends who tweak me by calling the Guardians by their old name, “the Indians” and by their old nickname, the Tribe — and my muscle memory takes over sometimes and I use the old name and nickname too. 

But I cheer for clubs, not nicknames. So do the vast majority of Cleveland fans. Tweak away in the comments. I don’t care. The Guardians are still hosting the Tigers, starting today a little past 1 PM ET today from Progressive Field at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario in Cleveland. Tom Hamilton (“Hammy”) will be calling the games and he’s the best in the business. Terry Pluto will be writing about the games along with Paul Hoynes and Joe Noga and maybe Jimmy Watkins over at Cleveland.com. Northeast Ohio takes its professional clubs very seriously, so the local news outlets devote resources to serving the fan base and the vast diaspora of Cleveland fans keep those platforms afloat and not because of political controversies in Cuyahoga County. 

An aside: I met my wife in the fall of 1978 at a fundraiser for then San Diego mayor Pete Wilson. She has endured decades of Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Indians/Guardians seasons since. There has been a total of one championship in those years (the Cavs won a stunning upset over the Golden State Warriors in 2016), so sports widows and widowers of the last half century, buckle up. Your spouse is going to be a bit crazy again for at least this week. And brace yourself. You know the dark clouds descend and they last a few days. But perhaps not this fall!

Cleveland hasn’t won a World Series in my lifetime, last doing so in 1948. They have come close in 1995, 1997 and 2016, but close doesn’t get you a ring. (They also won it all in 1920 and lost it in 1954, but as I didn’t have to watch the collapse of 1954 I am as indifferent to that as to the 1920 and 1948 triumphs.) 

The Browns have never been to a Super Bowl. They last won the NFL Championship in 1964. The Cavs are pretty good right now, but they have never won it all without LeBron James. So there are skeptics. But it could possibly be two championships in the cycle. (The Browns are not in the hunt absent a miraculous emergence of rookie QBs Dillon Gabriel or Shedeur Sanders.)  

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THE Ohio State University has provided some relief, claiming national championships in college football in 1968, 1970, 2002, 2014 and the most recent one after the 2024 regular season, running the gauntlet of four playoff games for the first time in the sport’s history. They could even repeat. 

But professional sports in Cleveland? It’s been a desert with one oasis for 50 years.

Which is a long way of explaining to you that there may be mood swings among your colleagues this week (and maybe longer) if the Guards’ run goes on. You may not know they are from Ohio, though we usually tell you. And we are certainly going to tell you this week and beyond for as long as “Guards Ball” goes on. 

Cleveland has the best fan base in the country and the longest suffering. So put up with us this October. We couldn’t quite believe September. But it’s very much Believeland this month.  

Hugh Hewitt is host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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