Yeah, I am going to bring up 1997. Outside of about the 1000 real Marlins fans and Cleveland, that World Series was considered one of the worst of the last 25 years. It was a World Series that came down to who would fuck up last. I think we know who did. That was also a World Series where the Tribe ran out a starting rotation of: Charles Nagy, Jaret Wright, Chad Ogea, and Orel Hershiser (washed up by that point). Now please- tell me that wasn't one of the shittiest rotations EVER for a World Series team. Tell me that Chad Ogea wouldn't have been one of the worst World Series MVPs in baseball history. That team got incredibly lucky- the only series they definitely won was the Yankees series, when Sandy handed Mo his ass on a platter. The Os series? The Os just as much flushed that ALCS down the toilet as the Tribe outplayed them. Lenny Webster's complete brainfart? One. Armando Benitez showing Jose Mesa how its' done, costing the Os two of the 4 games? Two. Robbie Alomar showing a tween LBJ how to loaf through a playoff series and act like you had just been 'spoiling' the fans before that? Three. The Os pissed that series away.
Yes, I remember that playoff run very well- it was fun to watch because up until the 9th of game 7, the Tribe was winning. But it wasn't great baseball, it was fluke after fluke after fluke. Again, fans fondly remember that year- which is bullshit, b/c up until the middle of August, that was also arguably the most disappointing regular season team of the 90s AND it was the team coming off of losing Albert Belle. That was a decidedly mediocre team that got to the playoffs b/c the Central at that time was putrid. It was a fluke run, much like the Rockies of 2007.
And '95? While that team was an offensive juggernaut, that team had no shot in shit against the Braves' rotation and fans knew it at the time. Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine... those 3 looked like future HOFers even then. The Tribe's answer? 46 year old Dennis Martinez, 43 year old Orel Hershiser, Charles Nagy (I love Charles but he wasn't even as good as Jake Westbrook), Ken Hill (who the Cards dumped; he was having a bad year when the Tribe snagged him for what they thought was a pittance), and Chad Ogea. Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz dominated that lineup, and the Braves rolled to their only World Series victory of the 90s.
The Indians were a dominant top 3 team in baseball for 2 years: 1995 and 1996. Once Belle left, it ended. From there on out, they were the team that loafed through the regular season and made the playoffs b/c the Central was a disaster. Hart never assembled anything other than a passable starting rotation, and the Indians were an 88-91 win team after that. A paper tiger; a team that could stuff the stat sheet offensively but never was near having the pitching to do anything come playoff time. The lone exeption was 1999, when they got bounced in the Division Series. By the pitcher Hart failed to acquire, Pedro Martinez. While the team's ace and other young stud imploded, the guys Hart wouldn't trade to get Pedro (Bartolo Colon, Jaret Wright). And yet Grover was the one shown the door.
And what gets my craw is that Cleveland fan knew this stuff back then. This isn't revisionist history, I remember people saying all this stuff back then. But now? All people remember is that the offensive guys left, and the team didn't win after that. The same fans who dread the Cavs going onto the Treadmill of Mediocrity' happily recall the Tribe teams that were just good enough to make the playoffs but would get owned once they faced the better rotations. I fondly remember those years and it was great to grow up during that time- but let's not, in our nostalgia for the past, mythologize those teams into something they weren't. And that was a true perennial title contender.