Well, despite celebrating a championship with the Cavs winning the NBA Finals over the Golden State Warriors in seven games back in June, we Cleveland sports fans had to encounter another heartbreaking moment in watching our beloved Indians lose the 2016 World Series to the Chicago Cubs in one of the worst ways, which is blowing a 3-1 series lead. Personally, I feel that there were several mistakes that the Indians made in game seven. These mistakes included not taking Corey Kluber out of the game early after giving up a home-run to Cub's Center Fielder Dexter Fowler in the first inning and not recording a single strikeout against the Chicago batters in his short four innings of work, and Terry Francona keeping the Setup Man Bryan Shaw in the game to pitch the top of the 10th inning in which he gave up the Cub's final two runs to make it an 8-6 ballgame and led to Chicago winning the game and series with a final score of 8-7.

However, even though I am still disappointed and heartbroken from this saddening outcome that adds to the number of tragic moments that have happened in the history of Cleveland sports, I am still amazed and proud of how far the team got this season and how hard they worked to get there, which was not easy at all due to many key players suffering long-term injuries over the course of the season. So, as a commemoration, I will be pointing out some reasons and highlights that made this one of the most memorable seasons in Cleveland Indians history.

First of all, I certainly never saw this Indians team winning the AL Central Division title by a long shot this year due to the fact that many sports media outlets were predicting the reigning champion Kansas City Royals to not only win the AL Central again, but to possibly repeat as World Series Champions. However, the Indians overcame all of the critics and finished the season with not only the best record in the AL Central, but also in the entire American League by going 94-67 and winning their division by 8 games next to the 86-75 second place Detroit Tigers, and the struggling Royals who ended up failing to meet the predictions by finishing third with a 81-81 record.

Now, it seemed that the season was going to be a difficult one for the Indians due to the injuries and struggles of star players such as outfielder Michael Brantley, catcher Yan Gomes, starting pitcher Danny Salazar, and starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco. However, another reason this team was able to achieve the successful season they had was based on the play of their other star players such as second baseman Jason Kipnis hitting a career high 23 home-runs, first baseman Mike Napoli hitting a career high 34 home-runs, and shortstop Francisco Lindor leading the team in base hits with 182, and young utility/role players such as utility player José Ramirez, outfielder Tyler Naquin, outfielder Rajai Davis, and right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall who all had breakout seasons for the Tribe this year when many fans wouldn't think that these players would contribute in the fashion that they did based on their past seasons in the Major Leagues. In addition, until the injuries to Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, the team's starting rotation and bullpen were unstoppable throughout the year with Corey Kluber, Danny Salazar, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco, and Josh Tomlin being the starting five, and the bullpen consisting of Dan Otero, Andrew Miller (who we acquired at the trade deadline in July from the New York Yankees), Bryan Shaw, and closer Cody Allen.

A particular highlight from the season was when the Indians set the franchise record for most consecutive wins with 14 which started on June 17, 2016 and ended on July 2, 2016. The one game that really stood out from this streak was the record setting 14th and final game which was a 19-inning pitching duel type of game with the final score being 2-1. Thanks to the record setting streak, the Indians lead in the AL Central increased dramatically, and the team never lost their first place spot for the rest of the season, making it a big part of how they clinched the division title.

My last reason for how the Indians gave us an unforgettable season is the mentality that this team had from the regular season and throughout the postseason of working hard and not giving up in games. Many baseball experts in the media didn't predict and expect us to eliminate, let alone sweep, the Boston Red Sox 3-0 in the ALDS (American League Division Series), and many didn't think we would defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 in the ALCS (American League Championship Series) leading us to our first World Series appearance since 1997. What made these series wins more significant was that because of the injuries to starting pitchers Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, the Indians had to rely a lot on their bullpen in the clutch and boy were they outstanding in those first two postseason series, especially Andrew Miller who ended up being named the MVP of the ALCS.

Now, was it great to see the Tribe compete with the best team in baseball this season in the Chicago Cubs who won 103 regular season games and hold a 3-1 series lead over them in the World Series? Absolutely. However, once we lost game five by the score of 3-2, I was getting the feeling that the Indians were starting to show the only flaw that they had, and that was their inexperience to close out a World Series. Constant errors and mistakes, and lack of the offense getting runs on the board for our pitchers to maintain a lead were a few examples of how the team showed inexperience during the remainder of the World Series. Not to mention the fact that the Cubs seemed to finally come out of their shell with the pitching staff tossing some incredible last three games and their offense racking up runs galore, especially in the game six loss of 9-3 which I felt was the point where I had a feeling that the Indians were going to lose this series, and I was sadly proven correct. While they did give a good effort in game seven by coming back from a 5-1 deficit and Rajai Davis hitting a game-tying home-run in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 6-6, they still weren't able to pull through and came up short.

The one play that I will always remember from game seven was in the bottom of the ninth with the score still tied 6-6 and Jason Kipnis hit a line drive toward right field that looked like it was going out of the park for a walk-off home-run to win the World Series for the Tribe, but it ended up going foul to the right of the foul pole. Overall, I think our guys were just tired and gave everything that they had to give during the first four games and they lost their mojo to finish the series off. In addition, the Chicago Cubs were expected to win this World Series from the get-go because they had the best record in baseball this year, and wanted revenge on not making it to the World Series the year before by losing to the New York Mets in the 2015 NLCS (National League Championship Series). However, A big part of why I loved this year's World Series was because it was a match-up of the two teams with the longest title droughts in Major League Baseball with the Cubs at 108 years since a World Series title and the Indians at 68 years.

In conclusion, I would like to congratulate the Chicago Cubs and their passionate fan base on their first World Series title in 108 years. While I somewhat despise them for winning, it was certainly well-deserved. However, I think our guys had a spectacular season as well, despite coming up short to give this "City of Champions" another title. They won the AL Central, something of which we had not done since 2007, they set a team record for consecutive wins, led the franchise to its first World Series appearance in 19 years, and most importantly they played like a team that loves being around each other and playing with one another. For that, this Indians squad will always be considered a championship team in my eyes, and you can bet that they will be back in the same situation with all of our other stars like Brantley coming back and staying healthy. Until then, we will continue to cheer on our Tribe in the city of Cleveland and #RallyTogether. By the way, Golden State blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to the Cavaliers just in case nobody knew about that.