CLEVELAND -- One of the top things that comes to Jim Thome’s mind when reflecting on the magical 1995 Cleveland Indians season is the support that club received from fans.
Especially as the season went on.
“The fans were not leaving [games],” Thome said. “We’d get into the seventh, eighth inning, and they were staying in the ballpark, almost expecting something really good to happen. We fed off that. As that season got going, the confidence that they showed in us, it brought us to another level.”
Their confidence was well-founded. En route to a 100-win season and their first pennant since 1954, the Indians led the Majors with 48 comeback wins in 1995; the Astros (45) ranked second. Cleveland also tallied 12 walk-off wins, which ranked second behind the Braves (13).
That 1995 club remains revered in Cleveland, and it came together once more this weekend, as the Guardians held a celebration honoring the 30-year anniversary of the club. There was a group golf outing on Thursday, and members of the team were honored Friday in a pregame ceremony prior to the Guardians’ series opener against the Mariners.
Thome was among those to walk the red carpet from the Guardians’ bullpen during Friday’s ceremony Those in attendance included manager Mike Hargrove, Kenny Lofton, Charles Nagy, Carlos Baerga, Eric Plunk, Paul Assenmacher, Alvaro Espinoza, Rubén Amaro Jr., Albie Lopez, Chad Ogea, Paul Shuey, Bud Black and Julián Tavárez.
Nagy threw out a ceremonial first pitch to Sandy Alomar Jr., another key figure from the 1995 team and the Guardians' first-base coach who is in his 16th season on Cleveland’s staff.
“It’s wonderful,” Thome said. “To see everybody, to think about all those good times we had together, and then now to see where everybody's at, what they're doing, it's a joy. What a fun couple days it's been. Just to be around everyone is so great.”
It is a fitting weekend to hold the celebration; Cleveland beat Seattle in the 1995 American League Championship Series in six games to win the pennant.
Nagy recalled the enthusiasm that was felt in Cleveland, dating to a season prior, in 1994. Progressive Field (then known as Jacobs Field) opened that year, and the Indians went 66-47 before a strike ended the season in August and led to the postseason being canceled.
When the Indians reconvened in Spring Training in 1995 after the strike ended, they were hungry to pick up where they left off.
“Once we got going, the season just started rolling,” Nagy said. “We started winning right out of the gate. Confidence grew again, just like we [left] off in '94. So we were just excited to keep all that going, and then we found ourselves winning the [pennant].”
The 1995 team was known as a tight-knit group, which Thome credited to the organization’s culture and its leaders’ ability to get guys to come together. He shouted out Baerga’s knack to make people smile and have fun, both back then and now.
“Today, you can tell that our guys loved each other,” Thome said. “[We] really genuinely cared about each other and really wanted everyone to do well. Because if everyone does well, we do well. The biggest thing for me looking back was that special group of guys cared for one another like no other.”
And Cleveland cared for them greatly, too.
Though the Indians fell to the Braves in six games in the 1995 World Series, Cleveland held a gathering in Public Square downtown to celebrate a team that left an indelible mark on the city.
The Indians made it back to the World Series in 1997, something they were inspired to do by the support they received in ‘95.
“The fans were there like we won,” Lofton said of the downtown gathering. “Just to see the opportunity for the fans let us know that they have our back [was great]. So that made us want to get back there, get back to the playoffs and try to win, because we knew the fans were behind us 100 percent.”