Tribe Fever! Will you catch it?

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I think I caught it Thursday … about 10:30 or 11 p.m.

My butt was dragging pretty much all day Friday. So I knew I had a touch of something, and it felt like it was not going to go away very soon.

I even came home after work and took a little nap, knowing I’d be working at home on the laptop until after midnight.

Now it’s 8 p.m., on a Friday evening, and my butt hasn’t left the cushion of my sofa since 4:30, except to allow the the Fabulous Miss Beatrix to eat dinner, and to let her water and fertilize one of my flower beds. I didn’t feel much like walking her any farther than the backyard.

I definitely caught something.

But I’m not alone. There are millions afflicted along and south of Ohio’s north coast.

We’ve all come up with big case of Tribe Fever!

You can easily spot the masses of afflicted Ohioans.

They’re wearing red and blue with a big Capital C on them.

They’re sporting shirts and jackets and hats and batting gloves stamped with politically incorrect caricatures of Chief Wahoo.

They are standing in line waiting for their favorite tattoo artists for some new Tribe ink. (I’m not there just yet, but if there happens to be a World Series winner on the shores (south shores, sorry Toronto) of Lake Erie in another month, I will consider one).

And they’re doing that walk after another win and a 2-0 lead over the heavily-favoredBostonRed Sox. You know the walk. The strut made famous by the late-great Gene Wilder in “Stir Crazy.”

Or maybe they’re just a little drunk after a little victory celebration.

I thought Tribe Fever was going to pass me over this season.

It sure took its sweet time grabbing me.

For a lot of reasons, I’ve not followed this team as I have Cleveland Indians teams.

I was unemployed through May and June, so I didn’t see much in the way of local sports coverage.

I started working at the Galion Inquirer in June. We don’t have a contract with the Associated Press, so reading about the Cleveland Indians, which I’ve done almost daily at work for more than 30 years, was no longer an option.

And to be honest, with a new job, I didn’t have a lot of free time to dig for news about the only baseball team I have ever followed.

I admit, it. I’m a newbie when it comes to the 2016 version of the Indians.

I know the names, and I know some of the faces.

But I have not a clue which names go with what positions and what spot in the batting order and what jersey number they should be wearing.

I’m having to learn on the fly.

But I’ll get there.

I knew for a few weeks before the regular season that the Indians were going to be in the playoffs. But it wasn’t until the final weekend, when they clinched home-field advantage in the ALDS, that I started to get a little excited.

And Thursday night, after listening to a couple of extremely biased announcers giving the Indians exactly ZERO respect, I started to get a little hot. There isn’t much that I get fired up about, but disrespect is one of them.

I felt a little something as I turned on the start of Thursday night’s game.

But finally, after a little more than 162.5 games, I have a pretty good case of Tribe Fever.

And I’m OK with that.

I’ll survive with a little less sleep.

I can put off my decision to quit eating pizza in front of the TV for another few weeks.

I have a little beer, someMoscato and some Bloody Mary mix in the pantry. I’ll need to use it anyway. I can quit drinking after November.

So here’s to a fantastic October and hopefully and an even better early November.

Go Tribe!

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Russ Kent

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Russ Kent is editor of the Galion Inquirer, Morrow County Sentinel and Bellville Star. Email him at [email protected] with comments or story ideas.

 

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