One down, five to go; maybe we’ll get a bonus month of baseball in October, if the stars align themselves properly this summer and somehow the Indians meet a fate unknown in these parts since 1948. The best thing about the month of April is that it isn’t March, so the games actually count and if a player is wearing a number in the 80s, it’s because he wants to. If you’ve been paying attention to Indians baseball the last two seasons, when they were under the charge of Manny Acta, you might recall that they sat in the top spot of the American League’s Central Division on May Day in 2011 and 2012, territory they’ve been unable to claim in the early days of the Terry Francona era.
The Tribe left Arizona with certain concerns, but first and foremost were the four giant question marks that would be starting on the mound on the days that Justin Masterson did not. The suspension(s) of Carlos Carrasco and the alarming news of Scott Kazmir's soreness in the Opening Series did not inspire confidence on that front either. Sure, Michael Bourn didn’t hit very well in the desert and Chris Perez didn’t do much in the way of pitching, but Bourn was sure to come around and Perez saved 39 games that counted a year ago after missing about as much of the exhibition season as he did this spring. The venue would be different on Day 1 in 2013, but the team in the other dugout remained the same, and we all hoped Masterson would turn in a similar Opening Day performance against the Blue Jays.
I may have dreamed it. Yeah I think it definitely was a dream, because this actually wouldn't happen. Somehow I remember seeing a bunch of people picking the Indians to win the division or win a wild card spot. 
Cleveland’s initial foray into interleague play featured the phormerly phearsome Phillies and the formerly formidable Roy Halladay and turned into a 14-2 laugher because it’s 2013 and not 2008. Zach McAllister posted another fine start, and Buff wonders if it’s time to stop referring to him as Replacement Level and start referring to him as Our Most Dependable Starter. He also lauds the Tribe’s use of Steve’s Magic Formula, outlined in the preface to yesterday’s column. Also, Ryan Raburn. As the kids say, “Woot!”
Last week, we began to consider items that might fill a Ripley’s-type museum full of Tribe-related artifacts. We are going to keep the stream of consciousness going.
A young Amish boy smiled and waved from a horse-drawn trailer as it passed, an apropos welcome to the miniscule community of Peoli, Ohio. Like nearly everything else along Route 258, a country road that meanders through the rolling hills and green pastures of God’s country in Ohio, the Amish trailer and its friendly passengers are a reminder of how some parts of the United States remain unadulterated. A quarter mile to the south, cattle are grazing. For miles and miles to the north, trees stretch toward the horizon line. To the east, the prototypical hill in the countryside, with deep shades of green and a wayward mother cow and her calf. A car, almost always a truck, passes every five minutes or so. This place is serene. It’s picturesque. The air is clean. The breeze is cool and refreshing.