Is it Tribe time yet?

Watching the Steelers and Ravens game is something I know will make me angry which is why I'm currently sitting here pondering about whether or not I should bother watching it. Especially if that means going to Joey's to watch it, because his Appalachian "minority" self loves the Steelers. He also likes the Indians, something I find to be IMPOSSIBLE because how can anyone love one Cleveland sport yet betray us to love one of our enemies? I guess that's just me being a sports nazi but being a native Northeast Ohioan with the gift of the Cleveland accent, it doesn't seem right. It's like all those Michigan fans from way up north Ohio who claim they love Michigan because they're so close to the border. If you feel that way then you may as well just move there. People might find you less obnoxious. Now that I've been living in C-Bus since freshman year, I've come to deal with the fact that there are Steelers and Bengals fans everywhere and there's nothing I can do about it except wear my Browns shirt accordingly. Wearing my Browns shirt is the one time I will have the most random people start talking to me. I guess we Browns fans love to be chatty with one another because really, who else can understand the type of pain we go through?

On a happier topic, Indians Opening Day is only a few months away! Is this "next year" or will my dreams of a World Series be swallowed up yet again? As I've stated previously I'm not really sure what to expect but I'm trying to be positive about it. What I am sort of worried about is the whole Garko/Shoppach/Martinez debacle now that the Indians came to an agreement with Kelly Shoppach. Now there's talk of trying Ryan Garko in the outfield during spring training. Yes, the OUTFIELD. Are they kidding? Seriously? Now I love Ryan Garko just as much as the next chick does, but if they put his ass out there during a regular season game I will march down there and give Mr. Wedge a piece of my mind. 2008 for Garko was pretty lackluster so he needs to get his act together before we lose him to some other team where he then gets good. Ugh. Travis Hafner is someone else who I've been pissed about. Sometimes I think 2005-2006 are going to be the only phenomenal time in his career and that everything is just done with him. If he's shaky in the upcoming season again, that will probably be a good thing for Garko. Maybe they'd do some sort of DH/first base swap like they did last year. Really I feel like everyone should have been better last year even though that's probably the most obvious thing I could say. If the Indians can step it up a notch, I think we'll be fine.