Indians take SI cover as a compliment, not a jinx
GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Terry Francona played a season with the Cubs and managed the Red Sox for eight years. When it comes to curses and jinxes, he's run across almost all of them.
That's why when Sports Illustrated revealed on Tuesday that Corey Kluber and Michael Brantley were gracing one of the covers for their baseball preview and picking the Tribe to win the World Series, Francona wasn't fazed.
After all, what's another jinx to the man who helped vanquish Boston's 86-year curse?
"I used to tell the people in Boston I didn't think it was a curse but a lack of pitching. You get guys like Curt Schilling and the curse ends," Francona said before a Cactus League game against San Francisco. "I'm actually kind of glad that some people think we have a pretty good team. If anything you want to work harder."
Most Indians fans have come up with four-letter verbs other than "glad." The first thought that came to mind was the 1987 SI preview the proclaimed an "Indian Uprising" with Cory Snyder and Joe Carter on the cover. That team proceeded to lose 101 games. Nine years later, Manny Ramirez was featured with the prediction of a win over the Braves in a World Series rematch. The Tribe got to the postseason but lost in four games to Baltimore in the American League Division Series.
The SI jinx is not just confined to the Indians. In 1988, Browns QB Bernie Kosar was on the cover for the NFL Preview and he was injured in the first game. In his two tenures with the Cavaliers, LeBron James has been on the NBA Preview cover four times, including this season.
At least now when SI does season previews the covers are regional -- look at it this way, at least one team doesn't get all the bad luck. Besides the Indians, the Royals, Mariners and Nationals have their own covers.
Francona would later go on to say something that might have come straight out of a psychology textbook when it comes to jinxes.
"To be honest the odds are in their favor that the jinx works," he said. "I have complete confidence in our team, but I don't think the odds are we are going to win the World Series. For any team there are 29 other teams that are good and it is easy to say the jinx worked."
While SI in '87 was out on an island in calling the Indians one of the best teams in the American League, that isn't the case this season. National analysts have picked the Indians to make the postseason and some have predicted them to win the division.
More than anything, many in the organization view the cover as a sign that Kluber and Brantley are finally getting some much-deserved national recognition. The bigger accomplishment might have been SI photographer Robert Beck getting both of them smiling at the same time.
Brantley said that during the 10-minute cover shoot, the photographer took so many photos that he didn't know what they were laughing about.
"With a Cy Young winner and a couple of Silver Sluggers you can't hide," Lonnie Chisenhall said. "Brantley has been unbelievable the past couple seasons and Kluber all his numbers speak for themselves. To see them get the recognition they deserve is awesome."
Brantley said he has never heard of the SI jinx and asked if it was similar to the Madden cover jinx? When told they were eerily similar he didn't want to hear anymore.
Even with the increased attention, Brantley is not about to get caught up in living up to expectations or thinking about a repeat of last year's breakout season that saw him finish third in the AL MVP voting.
"Our job is to win as many baseball games as we can. There's no secret we are going to need everyone and then some," Brantley added.
Kluber looks at the cover more as recognition for things accomplished. Sure, predictions are nice to talk about the next couple weeks but they aren't going to mean much on April 6 when the season begins.
He added: "No one is going to roll over because Sports Illustrated thinks you are the better team."
Also for as much as people were quick to bring up the memories of 1987, only 12 of the players on this year's 40-man roster were alive when that cover came out.
In other words, if the Indians aren't fretting, you shouldn't either.
"I think it falls back on whatever happens we try to turn it into a reason to be motivated," Francona said. "For every magazine that picks you to be good there's another that picks you to be bad. If we go up and down because of that, we're not emotionally strong."
