Cleveland Indians: The 2019 season is nowhere near lost

The Cleveland Indians have dropped two straight in New York and that has caused some negative fans to declare the season over in August.

I find it crazy that this has to be said. The Cleveland Indians are still alive and well as postseason contenders on August 22, 2019.

It doesn’t matter if the team is swept in New York or if the Minnesota Twins build a five-game lead by the end of the month. There is plenty of baseball left for a team with the sixth-best record in baseball at the time of writing.

I usually do my best to avoid Twitter after a loss like the one we saw Wednesday night. I am already bummed and reading all the negativity doesn’t help.

Two straight losses has some panicking. And panicking big time. This is all funny to me because I have seen the same thing happen at various points during the past three seasons. Think back to Paul Hoynes declaring the season over in 2016. It happens every single year.

The ability to post hot takes to the world in an instant obviously makes it seem like there are large and vocal opinions for any given viewpoint. But it’s not like the entire fanbase is on Twitter declaring the season over. Five people saying it and those tweets being retweeted may make a small minority seem like a majority.

This used to bother me in 2016 when I first started covering the Indians here at Believeland Ball. Now it just makes me laugh.

A lot of the time the most negative people are the ones who care the most. Not that I am trying to quantify fandom at all. But those who lash out right away and declare doom are still going to watch every game and cheer like crazy. They just choose to show they care in a rather negative manner.

To each their own. If you are the eternal optimist that is great. If you consider yourself a “realist” and criticize the team that is fine too. The whole point of being a sports fan is feeling a connection to a team, even if fans have no control over what happens on the field or within the organization.

The worst thing one can do is to tell others not to be positive or that they are wrong to still root for the team. As long as no one gets that intense, all the opinions are cool.

Just don’t be a jerk. A simple rule in life. Both life in reality and online.