Everywhere Francisco Lindor went, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open.
In early November, Lindor and the Indians were coming off their improbable ride to the World Series, which ended with an extra-innings loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 7. Physically, it pushed their offseason back a month compared to most expectations when the postseason began. Emotionally, it was a draining mix of celebrations in Boston and Toronto and heartbreak in Cleveland.
For a week after Game 7, the Indians’ 23-year-old, always-smiling shortstop took on more of a zombie form.
“I was falling asleep everywhere I went for the first week,” Lindor said on Friday. “For the first week, I was falling asleep everywhere I went. At the mall, I'd sit down and just be mentally exhausted. On the couch, there was no one keeping me up. I didn't watch TV for the first week. That probably helped me sleep a lot.”
When Lindor was asked if he’d been able to completely get over the loss, he said, “I’ll let you know.”
Lindor, as well as many other Indians players who attended TribeFest this weekend, said they have’t gone back to watch Game 7. That includes Cody Allen, who said in the clubhouse after Game 7 that he wanted to go right to Arizona for spring training and get started again.
He looked then like he’d run through a wall to start the 2017 season the next night. Though, after getting about as close to winning it all without actually doing so, the time away might have offered some positives.
“It was good to get home, flush everything, take some time, decompress and move past 2016,” Allen said. “I think that was probably key for a lot of guys, just move past 2016 and just focus on what’s ahead of us. I think some time at home to decompress, it was good to do that. But after a couple weeks at home, the holidays come around, the itch, regardless with how you finish up, it’s like, ‘All right, it’s time to get going.’ That clock inside you is saying it’s time to get back to Arizona.”
Indians manager Terry Francona hasn’t spent too much time dwelling on Game 7, either. And he didn’t see a need to go back and rewatch it.
“No, I never—I was there,” Francona said. “I enjoyed it. I like the journey. I think the journey is fun and then I’m ready to move on pretty quick. Win, lose or draw, I’m ready to do the next thing.”
That next thing will be pitchers and catchers reporting on Feb. 12. The full squad reports on Feb. 16. Like every spring, it’ll be begin with a larger team meeting, led by Francona, to lay out what the Indians want to be about and how they’d like to do things. Francona isn’t always a huge speak-in-front-of-the-team manager, but he sees value in this larger message at the beginning of a lengthy spring camp and season.
This year, the Indians enter as the clear favorites in the American League Central and, to a certain extent, to return to the World Series. Part of this spring is turning the page and finding the balance between learning from experiences and not dwelling on any one thing for too long.
“We try to draw from everything, good or bad,” Francona said. “But once you draw from that, it’s time to move on. Even though you have a lot of the same names back and faces, it’s a different team. It’ll be another personality, their own, the 2017 team. That’s something we’ll talk about in the first meeting. We don’t want to be that team that come July is still talking about last year, because this year’s not so good.”
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Indians speak to dealing with Game 7 loss, look to turn page to 2017
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