Commentary: Guardians' early exit from playoffs leaves plenty of time for reminiscing

If you thought the Guardians vs. the Tigers featured some wild, untamed baseball drama this week, you haven't seen anything. You and I and all of us baseball aficionados were not around when the real Boys of Summer were at their peak. The Cleveland Boys of Summer. Say, for example, Game 5 of the 1920 World Series at League Park in Cleveland between the Indians and the Brooklyn Dodgers. With Cleveland leading 7-0 in the fifth inning, Brooklyn's Pete Kilduff was on at second base and Otto Miller was on at first. The hitter was Clarence Mitchell, who ripped a screaming line drive. Second baseman Bill Wambsganss stabbed at the ball, caught it and continued to run toward second base. Wamby (that was his nickname, pretty cool, huh?) tagged out Kilduff, who had wandered off the bag, for the second out, then tagged out Miller between first and second base. That's right. A triple play. To this day it is still the only unassisted triple play in World Series history, and Manny Ramirez was nowhere in sight. Ah, the good old days! Game 5 of the 1920 World Series was chock full of the good old days and some good old boys playing some good old ball. Cleveland's Elmer Smith hit the first grand slam in World Series history, and the Indians' Jim Bagby became the first pitcher to hit a home run in the World Series. They don't make World Series like that anymore! As you may or may not know, the Indians won that World Series. In all the intervening years since then, Cleveland's major league team has won a grand total of ... let's see here, give me a minute ... oh, yeah, that's right, one World Series! They won't make it two this year after losing Game 3 of the Wild Card Series to the Tigers on Thursday. Not enough hitting and too many mistakes in the field and on the basepaths ended the fun fall run. On Oct. 2, 1908, the great Cleveland pitcher and Hall of Famer Addie Joss pitched a perfect game against the White Sox. Joss struck out 15 hitters, and so did Chicago pitcher Ed Walsh. Talk about the good old days! The Guardians, of course, have always had their fair share of superstar pitchers. They just weren't called superstars, because nobody in those days would have known what that meant. On the other hand, everyone knew who Bob Feller was, especially opposing hitters who could not hit him. On April 16, 1940, there was a lot of commotion at Chicago's Comiskey Park when Feller pitched the only opening day no-hitter in major league history. Talk about announcing your arrival. You should have heard the racket that day. I didn't, but a friend of a friend told me. They don't make pitchers or friends like Feller anymore. Want some more racket that none of us could have enjoyed because none of us was alive? How about the day Cleveland's pitchers stopped Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak? Let's see Tarik Skubal do that. Indeed, Cleveland has had more than its share of amazing baseball feats. That doesn't make up for the fact that the Guardians/Indians haven't won a World Series in more than 75 years. The Cleveland team that probably should have ended that drought was the 1995 team that was loaded with so much talent and firepower it didn't know what to do with all of it. For example: In a game two years earlier, on May 8, 1993, Carlos Baerga hit two home runs in the same inning — one left-handed, one right-handed. Go figure. Then there was the wacky night on Aug. 5, 2001, Cleveland vs. Seattle. The Indians were losing 12-0 in the third inning and 14-2 in the sixth, then won 15-14 in 11 innings. Progressive Field was never louder than it was when the circa 1995 Indians demolished virtually every opponent in sight. At various times that season, Cleveland beat their opponents by scores such as 11-1, 10-0, 10-5, 11-5, 11-0, 14-5, 13-3, 14-4, 12-2, 12-4 and 17-7. That Cleveland team basically won games by whatever score it wanted. In one game that year, Cleveland was leading 8-0 before it made an out. They don't make juggernauts like that anymore. Those of us lucky enough to have seen them play will never forget how they intimidated opposing teams and players simply by walking on the field. Albert Belle's batting practice alone was worth the price of the ticket. That's something to think about during this long offseason. Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com. Follow him @Jim_Ingraham on X.