As a humble representative of all the Featherheads on the Reservation, I'd like to welcome Pronk back to the Cleveland Indians' clubhouse. I don't know where he was, nor do I care to know where he has been for the last 4 months.
The only thing I care about is that he's back, baby!
Perhaps the Indians should pay for Mr. & Mrs. Hafner to travel with the Indians for the rest of the season if this is the effect that they have on their son when attending games. I'm all for it if only to see Pronk's dad, a mountain of a man in a plaid button-up from the Big & Tall Shop in Sykestown and an askew Tribe hat who couldn't look anymore like a farmer from North Dakota if he tried.
Last night, it was Pronk's turn (as one of the Indians' pillars) to put the team on his shoulders (C.C., Grady, and Victor are sore from doing it all season) with 2 HR, including the improbable BLAST in the 9th off of Joe Nathan with 2 outs to tie the game.
In all, Hafner went 2 for 4 with the 2 aforementioned HR and 4 RBI, including the go-ahead RBI in the 11th thanks to another prodigious drive that plated Frank the Tank after Torii Hunter tracked it down.
In the last 10 games, Pronk has a .978 OPS with 3 HR and 12 RBI.
Seeing as how those HR and RBI totals equal his June totals (yes, the whole month of June) and nearly match his totals from July (4 HR, 16 RBI...again, for the whole month), and realizing fully that 10 games a season does not make, it's time to welcome Pronk back into the fold.
This Indians' team was peaking and starting to score runs with Pronk still on the side of a milk carton, replaced by some joker named Travis.
Now, somebody must have made Bruce Banner...er, Hafner mad, because Pronk is back and his return to a hot Indians team just may be the final piece of the puzzle to get the Indians truly going on all cylinders, if they weren't already.
7 full games up with the Magic Number down to 18.
The Indians are (finally) running and hiding with the AL Central...and Pronk has come back to enjoy in the revelry of a playoff chase.