Christmas in August

 Somewhere in my late teens through my 30s, as an Indians' fan I saw September as a second Christmas.

After months of agony watching my would-be heroes thrash around chasing mediocrity, I got to see what the future held., unwrapping newly minted major leaguers fresh off the legends they created in the mnors and the hope it brought that this group would turn the tide and make the Cleveland Indians more than mediocre.

Yes, September 1st, rosters expanding, and all the callups from AAA and even sometime from AA gave me hope for the future of my favorite baseball team.

Tonight felt a lot like Septembers of long ago.   A lineup filled with guys fresh from their conquest of AAAA competition in AAA.  

I am older and possibly a little wiser now.  I think I can tell the difference between a guy who hit .300 at AAA and a guy who had a solid-enough foundation to transfer those results to the majors. I know that 28 year old rookies end up as 29 year old AAA veterans soon thereafter.  Miracles seldom happen in baseball.

But there is always that hope that these new heroes will stand the test of time.

Still, tonight looked more like those Septembers of old than I would like. Benson, Jones and Freeman hanging up O-fers (albeit against one of the best teams and pitchers in baseball).  The word that Hunter Gaddis will be make his major league debut tomorrow.  The likelihood that someone else will be DFA'd (hopefully Castro).  It just sounds all too familiar to my memory.

So, while I really liked seeing these guys coming up and getting a chance to play with the idea that the guys they are bringing up now will be on the roster this winter, things still haunt me.

Benson looked a lot like the guy from previous years, not this year.

Jones is looking more like his former self, too.

Freeman, well, I worry about his low walk rate and ask myself if this warning track power, like Kwan's, will eventually catch up to him as outfielders start to squeeze him and pitchers challenge him with high fastballs knowing he can't jerk it to or over the outfield fences. 

I was 100% sure that Gaddis was going to be rostered this winter if he just finished the season like he has pitched so far.  I am far from 100% sure that he is ready for this.  

Then it occurred to me.  There was comfort in those July and August days of old.  Mediocrity was comforting.  It was always, well, mediocre.  Tully and McCarthy.  They were guys out of the 70s and 80s.  But these new guys.  Analytics say they have a good chance to succeed.  This should be different, right?

Now it gets real.  We saw who we didn't want to be (Chang, Mercado, Zimmer) but it haunts me whether, just like many of those September heroes of the past, these July and August heroes of 2022 will meet the same fate.

Then I start to dream on the Grady Sizemores, Manny Ramirezs, Albert Belles and even the Cory Snyders of the past and I hope.  I hope against my memory that this time it will be different.  This time it will be more like the 90s than the 70s and 80s.   

This sure is fun...until the polish wears off of the moment and it isn't fun, or real, any more.  

Go new Guardians...and the ancient 'veteran' Guardians of 1-4 seasons of experience, as well!  My mind has already built my WS roster of 2023 around all of you.