Cleveland Indians: Trying to forge a rivalry with the Chicago Cubs

Cleveland Indians fans may still hate the Chicago Cubs after the 2016 World Series, but a similar series would be needed to forge a true rivalry.

The Cleveland Indians faced off against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night in some spring training action. The Cubs won 11-6 in a game that saw Trevor Bauer get destroyed, but that is a story for another article.

The two teams will square off in the regular season and the thought of those games immediately gives me flashbacks to the 2016 World Series. Don’t ask me how the series ended because I refuse to remember anything after that pesky rainstorm.

The flashbacks lead to me remembering just how much I despised the Cubs during that series. The thought of anyone considering the team “loveable losers” annoyed me and that was only made worse when Joe Buck went on air and gushed over Kyle Schwarber. No one tell Buck how Schwarber looks now. He may not be able to contain his excitement.

A postseason series has a way of making fans hate the opponent, but it never became a true rivalry thanks to the fact the teams play in separate leagues.

The closest thing the Indians have to a National League rival is the Cincinnati Reds. Let me rephrase that. The closest thing the organization tries to pretend is a rivalry is with the Reds. Until the two teams meet in a World Series, the regular season games aren’t much more than an excuse for a nice trip down I-71.

The Indians and the Cubs saw the chance at a true rivalry go away last year after both teams failed to return to the World Series.

Cleveland sports fans are so used to the Cavaliers squaring off with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals that the rivalry created itself naturally. Once the rematch happened it became personal and fans waited for the chance for the Cavs to beat the Warriors every time the two teams played.

That is different with baseball where regular season games in the middle of the summer don’t carry the same importance as an NBA game on Christmas. The latter is still a regular season game, but it has a playoff feel to it.

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Some Indians fans may get a bit more excited for the games against the Cubs this season, but the only way for talks of a rivalry to resurface will be for both teams to meet up again in October. And given the way the Cavaliers had their revenge in their rematch, Indians fans may be hoping for a chance to witness a similar outcome.