TRIBE WEEKEND!!!

Hey, is that title gaudy enough for you? How about:

TRIBE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!&^@*&^YEAH!!*&@^*!!!!

That's right, with the Indians coming off a road trip so disastrous that I refuse to properly update our Tribe sidebar, three-fourths of the FCF crew along with some special guests will be rocking Cleveland and Progressive Field to the tune of all three games against the Texas Rangers this Memorial Day weekend. Nick and Andy, along with loyal reader Bucko, will be at all three games; JHH and his lovely wife will attend tonight, and Milkey will be on hand tonight and Saturday. Check us out if you're there. I'm crunked.

Expect photos (assuming someone provides a camera), drunken stories, and my patented sub-standard baseball analysis. Last year was the first official incarnation of this rich tradition, though we did have unofficial versions like the game where we went to see them lose to the Rangers in 2002 (the Kenny Rogers-Joel Skinner game) and lose to the Twins early in 2004 for Milkey's bachelor party.

Anyway, last year was a tremendous success, resulting in some great times and two Tribe wins over Tampa Bay, including Ben Francisco's game-winning shot to the Your Car Company Here Home Run Porch. The only real disappointment was not getting my pro-Paul-Byrd text messages to appear on the JumboTron. I expect no less from the club this year, especially since I went to all this trouble to relocate myself less than a mile from the stadium for just these kinds of events.

A few miscellaneous bonuses here:

- Tonight will break my string of five straight Tribe games attended with CC Sabathia pitching (4-1). Nothing against the big fellow (especially since he threw a complete game shutout the last time I went), but I like a little diversity, you know? Check the pitchers we get to see in action: Fausto Carmona, Cliff Lee, and CC. That's tight.

- On the other side, who the hell are these guys for the Rangers? I know our team OPS is like .467, but maybe we can break through against these pretend major leaguers.

- In Spanish, the Rangers are "Los Vigilantes," which is at least 500 times cooler than the English version. Why not just get it over with and change it, maybe capture the Latino market? And why don't the Indians have an official spanish-language site? Hell, the White Socks (Los Medias Blancas) do. Maybe I'll start translating my Indians posts.

- Am I going to drink a little bit of beer this weekend? You'd better believe it. There are still quite a few places nearby I haven't checked out, and this seems like an ideal time to explore Gateway a little more fully. By that I mean: hang out in the bar in my apartment building and try to catch lobsters.

- Weather looks awesome - 60's and sunny all three days. Let's hope the Baseball Gods are as benevolent as the Weather Gods.

- We got a variety of seating locations to keep things interesting. Tonight are view boxes, which are like somewhere between the upper deck and field level behind home plate. Tomorrow: the bleachers, even though I was too dumb to use the Pepsi bleacher ticket offer. Oh well. Sunday, I got Nick and I intentionally bad seats ($8) with the idea that we won't actually sit in them. There are plenty of ballpark locations where one can check out the game.

- I'm still working on what gear I'm going to sport to the games, as we all know how strongly that impacts the team's performance. I own three Indians jerseys, one having been stolen from my sister Lance, and three Indians hats. I may try to pick up some wristbands as well. As for the hats - one is a free Progressive Field trucker hat and one is a winter hat, so we'll be going with my prized year 2000 vintage Chief Wahoo blue cap/red bill for all three games. It ain't even a question. Jersey-wise, I'm torn. Much of my vaunted live winning streak was constructed wearing my dark blue/red jersey, and the sole loss I've attended over the past four seasons was in my new home white one (I also posted an Opening Day win in said jersey). I think I'll go with blue for one game and white for one game, though I haven't decided who gets Friday and who gets Sunday. My blue looks a lot like JHH's, so maybe I'll save that for Sunday.

What about Saturday? I'm going with the Penguins jersey, that's what. That's right, Stanley Cup Finals, Game 1. I've gotta show some support, plus Wahoo will still be on the hat.

As always, Go Tribe!