CLEVELAND — Indians fans should be happier than Reds fans.

        Their team plays in a jewel of a ballpark while the Reds play in a partially demolished temporary home. Their team went to the World Series twice in six years while the Reds went on vacation.

Andrew DiMauro of Centerville admires the autograph of Indians OF Ellis Burks he got Friday night at Cinergy Field. (Gary Landers photos) | ZOOM |

        Their team makes trades to win, while the Reds make trades to dump salary.

        But listen closely to Indians fans at Cleveland's Jacobs Field or Public Square and they sound an awful lot like Reds fans at Cinergy Field or Fountain Square.

        They sound scared.

        They talk about the Battle of Ohio series this week as if it's a battle for their team's very survival.

        “Indians fans are worried,” says Bob Rosen, president of the team's fan club, the Wahoo Club. “They're very nervous.”

        Why so much despair over a team that's in the playoff hunt for the seventh straight year? A team that's in second place and loaded with veteran talent?

        The easy answer: The players are getting old and this year might be their last, best chance to win it all.

        But there's another reason Indians fans are afraid: history.

Fans crowd the railing for Omar Vizquel's autograph. | ZOOM |

        “It was so many years before we got good,” says Mr. Rosen, who grew up rooting for last-place Indians teams. “Who knows when it will happen again?”

        For Cincinnatians to understand this kind of fear, it's first necessary to understand how Indians fans are fundamentally different from Reds fans. They are conditioned for disappointment and, for the most part, raised on failure.

        Sure, Reds fans may worry during this miserable season about when the good old days will return. But for Indians fans, the worry is that the bad old days are just around the corner.

        And in Cleveland, the bad old days were very bad.

        The Indians last won a World Series in 1948. The team lost the series in 1954 and went 41 years before it got another whiff of a pennant race.

        Those years were the dark ages for Cleveland baseball. Bad trades. Ugly injuries. Broken promises. A beer night riot.

        The team went three decades without finishing better than fourth. The losing was so epic that Hollywood made a movie about it, Major League.

        The years of losing still hang over the city today. Jim Small is a parking attendant next to Jacobs Field, and he's seen the worry on the faces of fans all season.

        “They've had a good run at it, but it can't last forever,” he says. “They have to do it this year.”

        Mr. Small is 59 years old, and he's seen plenty of bad Indians baseball. He's not eager to see an encore. He takes off his Indians cap and looks over his shoulder at the stadium.

        “You know,” he says wistfully, “if they could just win it once. Just one year ...”

        His voice trails off. He sighs and slips the cap back on his head.

        “I'd be satisfied with that.”

        Mark Murray works a block away at the Dirty Dog pub. He's not as big a fan as Mr. Small, but he roots hard for the Indians every game. His business depends on it.

        Pre- and post-game crowds regularly pack the pub on game days. But if the Indians lose, there is no post-game crowd. “We are so dependent on the Indians,” says Mr. Murray, the pub's chef. “As a businessman, I'm really scared.”

        His friend, Dan Klasch, leans back in his chair and chuckles. The notion of basing any business on the success of the Indians still seems crazy to him.

        Mr. Klasch remembers watching teams that lost 100 games at old Municipal Stadium. At age 26, he's convinced he won't live long enough to see the Indians win a World Series.

        “No way,” he says. “I don't think they'll ever win a championship.”

        The same kind of pessimism can be found almost daily on the Internet and radio call-in shows. An online message board recently asked fans to explain “why the Tribe will not even make the playoffs.”

        “They stink,” one fan responded.

        “Agreed,” wrote another. “It is over.”

        Most of this fear and loathing is based on experience. It's hard for fans to get a half-century of losing out of their system. They have learned that the Indians rarely reward optimism.

        Make no mistake, Cleveland fans are thrilled the team is good. They're just not sure it will ever be quite good enough.

        “We've had a great run. It's been terrific, but we haven't won it all,” says Mike Snyder, sports director for WTAM Radio in Cleveland. “The window of opportunity is starting to close.”

        Mr. Snyder says the fans' frustration reached its peak in 1997, when the team took a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series against Florida — but blew it.

        “They had the damn thing in their grasp,” recalls Mr. Snyder, a Cleveland native.

        He says the series this week against the Reds is crucial for the Indians, who trail the Minnesota Twins by five games. If the team is going to make another run for the World Series, it needs to win now.

        “This is the year you look at and say, "This is it,'” Mr. Snyder says. “I think we're in for a little bit of a downturn after this.”

        And that's what everyone is so worried about.

        After all, the last downturn went on for almost 50 years.

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