CLEVELAND — One hundred seventy-five days ago — before Shane Bieber’s elbow ligament snapped, before a total solar eclipse cast darkness above Progressive Field, before the world’s best bullpen was concocted, before the starting rotation disintegrated, before Estevan Florial and Ramón Laureano and Spencer Howard and Tyler Beede came and went, before Anthony Gose came and went and came and went and came and went again, before José Ramírez flirted with a 40/40 season and Steven Kwan flirted with .400 and Emmanuel Clase flirted with a Cy Young Award, before seven walk-off wins and 42 comeback wins, before month after month of sitting in first place — Stephen Vogt said no.
After a season-opening win in his old stomping grounds in Oakland, Vogt’s first as a major-league manager, he politely declined the team’s championship wrestling belt, a red strap with a gold display and the Cleveland Guardians’ “Winged G” logo. Beede purchased the gimmick for $550. It’s awarded to the top performer of each win, and when Beede occupied a spot on the roster, he’d snap a polaroid of the winner to tack onto a corkboard in Cleveland’s clubhouse.
Vogt appreciated the gesture that night, but his stance all season has been that this is about the players, not the manager. He doesn’t want the credit or the spotlight. So, thanks, but no thanks.
The belt bounced around the locker room throughout the season. It rested in Andrés Giménez’s stall one day and Triston McKenzie’s the next. It sat, desperate for the next win, on the ping-pong table or atop some cabinets in the clubhouse.
When the Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers at the end of July, Austin Hedges, the team’s backup catcher, leader, motivational speaker and human form of a RedBull can, handed the belt to trade acquisition Lane Thomas, who had joined the club that morning.
“Let’s go, Ocho!” Hedges yelled. “Welcome to a winning ballclub! We celebrate wins!”
The Guardians will wrap up a division title in the coming days, but they didn’t want to wait to toast to their triumphant regular season. As they neared a playoff berth clinch, they decided that was deserving of a chance to soak the clubhouse in champagne.
When Giménez delivered a walk-off single to right field on Thursday afternoon, the celebration commenced. The team changed into navy shirts that read, “October Ready.” Ramírez, the club’s perennial MVP contender, grabbed a giant flag from the team’s furry mascot, Slider, and waved it for the fans at Progressive Field.
They moved the party to the home clubhouse, where the team gathered around Hedges, who held the belt.
“I think it belongs to one person in this room,” he shouted. “The new heavyweight champion of the world, Stephen Vogt!”
The crowd erupted. Beer and champagne flowed. This time, Vogt accepted the honor.
“There’s nothing better,” Vogt said later, “than spraying champagne and making the playoffs.”
He quickly escaped the scrum with a cigar and a champagne flute. The celebration ensued, a blend of players who got a taste of the bubbly and the Miller Lite two years ago and of players new to the scene.
Rookie Joey Cantillo, whose three consecutive strong starts have helped stabilize the rotation, asked how to untwist the wiring on a bottle of champagne.
“This is the coolest thing in the world,” he said. “This is why you play.”
Reliever Pedro Avila recorded himself singing and dancing to Junior Gonzalez’s “Tengo Derecho A Ser Feliz.” Giménez was headed to his locker but took a detour to dance in the background of his teammate’s livestream.
Hedges kept his shirt on — “That’s for playoff wins only,” he said — but he did dance like a maniac when “Rocky Top” by The Osborne Brothers blared from the clubhouse speakers. Josh Naylor stood off to the side, puffing a cigar, and handed Erik Sabrowski a lighter so the rookie reliever, who reached the big leagues a mere three weeks ago, could join him.
Brad Goldberg, a Cleveland native who has presided over the league’s most prolific bullpen, declared, “I’m the luckiest guy in this organization” as he shook his head in disbelief over being part of a celebration in a ballpark he frequented as a kid. As he detailed how every Cleveland reliever has a “low heartbeat,” Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith, two of his star pupils, summoned him from across the room. Smith, the robotic rookie who has totaled more strikeouts than any Cleveland reliever in a quarter-century, flashed a rare smile.
The relievers and their coach huddled together and shared a moment that was interrupted by Clase chugging too much champagne, resulting in him spewing it across the floor.
It was a fitting win to secure a playoff berth. The bullpen recorded 5 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings to buy the offense time to supply some runs. It was their second walk-off win in as many days. It was another afternoon of Vogt and his lieutenants pulling the right levers.
Told y’all we believed in Stephen Vogt.#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/sPT6pXzNv3
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) September 19, 2024
“We had one of the greatest managers in the history of baseball for a long time,” Hedges said. “I love Terry Francona with all my heart, but this is probably the best year of managing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Vogt, of course, deflected the praise to his coaching staff and to the players. And, really, it has required a group effort to survive the loss of Bieber, to compensate for the inconsistent starting rotation, to weather the offensive lulls and to stave off an unusually competitive group of AL Central contenders.
The players held a meeting Thursday morning, in which they agreed they needed to clinch in Cleveland on Thursday afternoon — not over the weekend in St. Louis, not because some other club lost, not on an anticlimactic off day. They wanted to flex their own muscle and secure it themselves in front of their home fans. The mission, naturally, took 10 innings to complete and it included the customary ingredients: a dominant bullpen, some timely hitting and a dugout full of players eager to pop bottles.
“That’s us,” Giménez said. “That’s the Cleveland Guardians, the whole year.”
(Top photo: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)
