I was relieved when Indians manager Terry Francona went all out – no holds barred – to win Game 3 against the Boston Red Sox on Monday Night to sweep their American League Division Series.
For that matter, Francona also went all out to win games 1 and 2.
And it worked.
To perfection.
Francona gets the sense of urgency of the playoffs in pro sports. The deeper into the playoffs, the more that sense of urgency is required.
Why? Because there’s no guarantee that your team is ever going to make a run again and get back to that spot. Injuries, the fall of your team and the rise of others, bad luck – it all comes up to bite you. When the stars all align themselves in just the right away and the window of opportunity swings wide open for you, you have to jump through it. Right then. That moment. That instant. You can’t wait for the next time, because the next time may never come.
Browns fans know this. The window of opportunity swung wide open in 1986 for the teams, but head coach Marty Schottenheimer’s bunch failed to jump through it.
The Browns got back into the playoffs in each of the next three seasons, but they never got as close to that elusive first Super Bowl berth as they did in 1986. The Browns kept thinking that if they continued to pound long and hard on the door of the Super Bowl, they would eventually break through it. It never happened, though.
Three decades later, they’re still waiting.
The Indians thought they would win the World Series in 1997, when they were as close as they’ve ever been since winning it all in 1948.
It didn’t happen, however. They thought it would happen in 1998. But again, it didn’t.
And the Indians haven’t really been close since.
The stars seem to be all aligned in just the right way this year and the window of opportunity seems to have been swung wide open.
But if they don’t make it this year, then it will happen next season when Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar and Michael Brantley return fully healthy, right?
Don’t bet on it.
The moment is now – this year — and it continues on Friday night when the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays opens at Progressive Field.
That Terry Francona gets that – really gets that – should make everyone in Northeast Ohio comfortable with the fact he’s going to manage every game the rest of the way as if it’s his last, as if there is no tomorrow.
Because there isn’t – at least one that’s guaranteed.
