The off season has been strewn with so much Cubs love, it's almost ridiculous.  My DNA makes me a tolerant person, but I have had enough.  According to the media, 2017 is simply a boring formality, and the Cubs are again the champs.  ESPN has them going about 159-3 this year.  It's about that silly.  The Cubs were a great story from last year.  As a Tribe fan, I can absolutley relate to the long World Series win drought.  But being honest, the Cubs are good. But last year they were very, very fortunate and lucky, as well as good, to win the title.

They were very lucky to win the National League and then to face the Tribe with tons of injuries to the games best pitching staff.  But luck is part of any title.  And the Cubs still almost blew it.  But that's the inept history of a Cubs franchise that has been botching chance after chance with Yankee advantages for decades.  With all they have and have had, them not winning a title for 108 years in inexcuseable for thier fans.

Being said, now that the Joe Buck/Fox Sports Kyle Schwarber virtual smooching sessions on national TV are over (let's hope), lets get down to 2017.  The Tribe should be good, and should be a contender to win it all.  They have the games best pitching staff, the best manager, and the most hungry of all fan bases.  My hope this year is that the Tribe stays healthy and stays focused.  My feeling is that they will.  Because as sick as you and I are of all the Cubs/Schwarber verbal groping, my gut tells me the Indians are way more tired of it that anyone. 

I want the Tribe to be that exciting, fun team they were last year.  Fun to watch, easy to like and contending from day one.  But I also want them to play with a silent chip on their shoulders.  The one you won't see with anger, or a snarled lip.  But the one that just permeates through their collective souls and drives them from within. The one that's healthy, and motivating.  The one that jams runs across the plate at a breakneck pace, and strikes out the opposition same.  The one where the game is fun for them, and not for the competition.  And the one where each team goal leads to the next one.  Where you win as much as you can, the right way, and show Joe Buck that he took the wrong date to the prom.

Can the Tribe end this long drought?  6 months will tell, but in the meantime enjoy what could be an amazing summer.  Focus on game one, then game two, and so on, all the while knowing the most important game the Indians play is the next one.  And then the one after that.  Because you don't win a World Series in April, you have to be patient. Us against the world? Maybe. 

But carry that silent shoulder chip, and know that this summer should be fun, should be memorable, and be should ours.  It's our time now, it's our moment now.  The Cubs have assured that. 

GO TRIBE!