Indians

The Indians' logo, as it appears on Backyard Baseball 2001 and 2003

BBL Champions

AL Central Champions

BBL Champions

## Overview

The Cleveland Indians are an MLB team in the American League Central. They are playable on Backyard Baseball 2001 and 2003, and have been used in the BBL four times. Since the release of the games, the Indians have discontinued their Chief Wahoo logo and will soon change their team name entirely. As of 2022, they are now called the Guardians.

They are one of two team names to win the World Series twice, the other being the Athletics.

## Season 2

Newcomer Ellman joined the BBL in season 2 and chose his favorite MLB team, the Cleveland Indians. Despite a decent offense that scored just under 10 runs per game, the Indians struggled to a division-worst 4-10 record.

## Season 3

Season 3 was a stark contrast for the Indians, as Ellman improved upon his previous performance. The Indians' run production doubled, and they stole an incredible amount of bases. Star Moonbeam and Tommy Pickles (custom player) stole the 2nd most and most bases in a season with 50 and 52, while the Indians as a team set the record with 216 stolen bases (all of those records have since been surpassed). The Indians also set a record with 251 singles (since surpassed), which shows how they set themselves up to steal so many bases.

The Indians' regular season was much better than their last, and at 9-5 they snuck into the BBL playoffs as the wild card. In the ALDS they upset the 11-3 Monsters 2 games to 1. In the ALCS they pulled off one of the greatest upsets in BBL history, sweeping the 13-1 Royals 2 games to none to reach the World Series. In the S3 World Series, Ellman faced off against defending champion gmchappe and the Expos, beating them in the winner-take-all game 5, a final series total of 3-2. The Expos won their game five 43-1, but the Indians won their side by an incredible score of 74-0. Both teams reached the 50 point safety net (the Expos did so after the home team multiplier), but the Indians won because they gave up fewer runs.

## Season 4

Season 4 was not as kind to the defending champion Indians. Despite similar offensive production, season 4 was the most offensive-heavy season in BBL history, and the Indians stumbled to a 5-9 record. They were offered a spot in the Tier 2 playoffs, but coach Ellman declined to participate.

## Season 6

For the first time in BBL history, the Indians were coached by somebody other than Ellman, as crazyei8hts took the reins and renamed them the Crazy Indians. They also wasted no time in shocking the league. After selecting the draft board with the #7 overall pick, crazyei8hts did some wheeling and dealing and also ended up with the #8 overall pick. The Indians then selected Sammy Sosa and his clone Cheryl Reynolds with their first two picks. Not only did this give the Indians two of the top sluggers in the game, it also helped out their AI defense. With two RF locks, one of them was free to play another position for the computer version of the Indians. This eventually led to Sammy Sosa playing catcher for the Indians. With a rocket arm and high stamina, not many opponents would try to steal off of him.

The Indians didn't just start off strong in the draft, they started off strong when the season began, too. They entered the All-Star Break with the only perfect 7-0 record in the league. They didn't play quite as well in the second half of the season, but they still finished 11-3 and sealed the top seed in the AL playoff bracket. With a league leading 22 home runs, a 0.721 batting average, 44 RBI and 40 runs scored, Cheryl Reynolds was voted as the Season 6 MVP by the league.

One memorable game in the second half of the season came in Week 12 when the Indians traveled to Eckman Acres to face jyknight and the Pittsburgh Pirates. crazyei8hts and jyknight decided to stream their games on Discord at the same time. With jyknight's game in the books, crazyei8hts was pitching in the bottom of the 6th with a 1-run lead. But in that final inning, the Pirates' Kimmy Eckman hit a fly ball down the left field line, hitting the fence near the foul pole, where it is off the screen and counts as a home run in the game. That one run gave the Pirates the tie, and they won the tiebreaker due to being the home team.

The Indians entered the postseason as the top overall seed. In the first round, they faced the wild card Boston Red Sox, coached by BBL legend gmchappe, who had given the Indians their first loss back in Week 8. However, the rematch had the opposite results, as the Indians were able to make quick work of the Red Sox, sweeping them two games to none by scores of 13-5 and 12-1.

Up next was a fierce matchup against the defending champion Philadelphia A's and coach Nick Foles. In their previous meeting, the Indians beat the A's on a tiebreaker, which also ended up giving them the tiebreaker for the #1 seed and home field advantage in this series. Despite closer matchups in this series, the Indians swept the opposition yet again, beating the A's 13-12 and 25-19. Nate Kowalski had an excellent series. In game 1, for the AI Indians, he threw out Achmed Khan at the plate in what ended being a huge difference maker. In game 2, for the user-controlled Indians, his batting and running were boosted to 10 and 7, respectively. In the game, he went 5-6 with 5 home runs and 11 RBI. This was especially remarkable considering he only hit 1 home run throughout the entire regular season.

After beating the A's, the Indians advanced to the Season 6 World Series. There, they faced the winner of the National League, the Arizona Astros, coached by BBL rookie JorgesBankAccount. Two very different styles of play were apparent here, as the Indians focused on driving runners home with home runs, while the Astros loved to slap single and single and keep runners moving. The series also ended up being very back and forth. Game 1 was a blowout for the Indians, who won 14-5 as JorgesBankAccount had to get used to the Indians' defense and the menace Sammy Sosa behind the plate. Petra Chekov was the star of Game 1 for the Indians, smashing 3 HRs and 7 RBI. Game 2 was the opposite story. The Indians played live on Discord, and barely escaped with a 1-run differential. On the other hand, the Astros' bats came alive and they put up a whopping 26-run differential. Game 3 tilted back in the Indians' favor, as they won 16-9 behind good offensive games from Sammy Sosa and Todd Helton. On the brink of elimination, the Astros tied it up again in game 4, winning 25-12 after some big rallies.

In game 5, the Indians turned out the game of a lifetime. The Indians and Astros both turned in their game tape in both games were broadcast live on Twitch with jlund24 and TheRealSisu commentating. The entire broadcast can be seen here. The Indians scored 5 runs in the first inning, thanks to a home run on the first pitch of the game by Season 6 MVP Cheryl Reynolds, and a grand slam by Sammy Sosa. However, the Astros scored 7 in the first inning, so the Indians were facing an early deficit. Leading off the second inning, Paco Kaufman, not a renown power hitter, drove a 2-2 Corkscrew pitch into the left field bleachers on a line drive swing. Coach crazyei8hts described this feat by saying, "I could play Backyard Baseball for 100 years and never replicate [that]." This hit off of a power-up pitch gave the Indians a Screaming Line Drive to use later. The Indians also earned a Crazy Bunt after turning a double play in the field. Although they were hanging around, the Indians were still down 18-14 heading into the 5th inning. Even though Cheryl Reynolds grounded out to begin the 5th inning, the Indians rattled off 14 runs in the top of the 5th, their best inning of the season. The scoring included a 2-run Crazy Bunt HR by Wing Kwan, a 3-run Crazy Bunt HR by Nate Kowalski, a solo HR by Sammy Sosa, a 2-run Crazy Bunt HR by Paco Kaufman, a grand slam by Todd Helton, an RBI double by Sammy Sosa, and an RBI triple by Frank Thomas. That monstrous inning clinched the game for the Indians, and the final scored ended up being 30-19 Indians. The Indians claimed their second World Series title as a franchise and coach crazyei8hts finally captured his first championship, after being with the BBL since the beginning and losing the first two World Series.

Season stats for the BBL Champion Indians are below:

## Season 10

### 2003

The Indians returned in Season 10 after several seasons off. They were chosen by coach c0rn and played in the Frontyard League East at their home field of Steele Stadium. The Indians drafted a rather weak roster, drafting some Backyard Kids much earlier than they should have been. As such, the Indians struggled to an 0-10 start before coach c0rn resigned. rBBL newcomer Madoc then took over, leading the Indians to a win in his first attempt. However, that would be the only win the Indians would garner, and they finished 1-13, a league-worst mark.