#86---CLE @ OAK, 4/3/1997

This game was kept on my horrible Excel scoresheet, examples of which I've posted before. Oakland won 5-4 on Geronimo Berroa's eight-inning homer despite Kevin Mitchell's three-run shot for Cleveland in the second. Mark McGwire went deep in the fifth off Orel Hershiser, the first of 58 he would hit this season.

#85---Dominican Republic v. Venezuela, 2/7/2010 (Caribbean Series)

The MLB Network has turned the Caribbean Series into either a great opportunity to watch meaningful baseball in February or a tremendous tease, depending on one's perspective. Yeah, it's nice to see some serious hardball action with some vaguely familiar names, but it lasts for a week and then there's a whole month until exhibition games return and two months before there is another game taken anywhere near as seriously. I prefer to see the glass as half-full.

#84---CLE @ HOU, 4/4/2009

This exhibition game just before the season started featured a ninth-inning rally by the Indians off the (amazingly still in the majors) Doug Brocail. With one out in the ninth, Choo and Espino singled, but Ryan Garko popped out and the Tribe was down to their last out. Jamey Carroll was hit by a pitch, then Grady Sizemore tied the game with a single to right. A throwing error by Chris Johnson scored the go-ahead run.

I was surprised when looking over this scoresheet that just a year and a half ago Shin-Soo Choo was batting sixth in a Cleveland lineup.

#83---DET @ CLE, 9/20/2008

I did not mess up the scanning of this sheet; it must have printed funny back in 2008 and I used it anyway. The Indians beat the Tigers in what was expected before the season to be a key late season game, but instead was a battle of two teams going nowhere, the Tigers collapsing and the Indians surging. Justin Verlander allowed four runs and made 97 pitches in four innings, and Shin-Soo Choo had a huge game with two singles, two walks, and a warning track fly.