CLEVELAND — The year was 1994. Tonya Harding (allegedly) orchestrated an attack on her figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan, moviegoers flocked to see "Shawshank Redemption" and "Forest Gump," TV viewers watched the debuts of "Friends" and "ER" here on WKYC just days apart, and the term "white bronco chase" became a thing.
But here in Cleveland, the Indians were finally turning things around, and it all began in 1993 with the soon-to-be-opened Jacobs Field playing a big role in baseball's re-birth in the city.
"We were playing in the old Municipal Stadium, they brought us here as a tour to see the new stadium, and we were kind of turning the corner and playing much better baseball," former Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. recalled in a recent interview. "We have this group of core players that were pretty young and talented, and then they brought us here to see the construction that we walk(ed) around."
For the team's longtime chief play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton, it was a perfect storm.
"This all culminated at the same time — you had the ballpark open in '94, you had all this young talent that had been gathered by Hank Peters, John Hart, and Danny O'Dowd," he said. "A lot of times, Hank doesn't get enough credit. ... You don't get Eddie Murray, Orel Hershiser, Dennis Martinez to come here. I mean, those were huge additions to a young ballclub that had dynamic talent, but needed people to show them the way."
Alomar agrees, saying the the addition of experienced players was a big boost of confidence for the team.
"Those guys were huge for us because they helped us to turn that corner, made us believe. And we felt like if we have veteran leadership behind us, that we can compete with anybody."
And the magic started in Jacobs Field from that very first game in 1994. Former Tribe second basemen Carlos Baerga remembers the feeling of excitement around what felt like a new era.
"Having a new ballpark, coming from the Municipal Stadium to come here, it was something special from that first day. ... Winning the game on the (11th) inning, it was a magic season for us," he said. "Every time we stepped on the field, this ballpark was packed."
Hamilton also credits a changing landscape with bringing much-needed excitement to the city.
"I think it was was also the beginning of the renaissance here in downtown Cleveland, where people literally fell in love with the ball club and felt like for the first time ... in 40 years, that they were the bully. They were no longer the city getting sand kicked in their face."
And that's pretty much the way that 1994 season played out. The Cleveland Indians led the major leagues in hits, runs, home runs, and batting average. They thrilled night in and night out at Jacobs Field, and were firmly in a playoff position and chasing down a division title at 19 games over .500.
But on Aug. 11, the music just stopped — a players strike spoiling an Indians summer. A month later, Acting Commissioner Bud Selig announcing that, for the first time since 1904, there would be no World Series.
"It looked like we had our Camelot, and that's not how Camelot is supposed to come crumbling down," Hamilton lamented. "You just felt like everybody was robbed."
For both Baerga and Alomar, the lost potential of what could have been still weighs heavily all these years later.
"It was a hard moment for all of us, because we was (sic) playing like it was (a) playoff (game) every day," Baerga said. "We believed in ourselves, and then when they stopped the season, it was hard for all (of us), because we thought there wasn't going to be (more than) just a month (wait) or something like that. And then when its over, no season ... it was very sad."
"Until we canceled the season, we were playing the best baseball ... and we felt like we can compete with anybody," Alomar reflected. "Not saying we were going to win it, but what if that was the year? To see the the the progress we had made in that in that amount of years and what the organization did, it was devastating that we have to stop the season."
The Indians picked up right where they left off in 1995, winning 100 games and cruising to the American League pennant. They returned to the World Series in 1997, but unfortunately, those great teams could never finish the job. The club has now gone 76 years without a championship.