CLEVELAND — In a given week, there are 10,080 minutes, but Cleveland Browns fans can tell you it can take only two to disrupt the others.
"This one was really hard to put behind me. I never was that mad after a game in a long time," said Browns season ticket holder Kirk Collins of Brook Park. "I think, like everybody in Cleveland today, I am completely dumbfounded."
The salve, though, for his still-open wound on Monday would be found just a few blocks away at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario, as the first-place Cleveland Guardians closed a home stand Monday that saw them squeeze nine games into eight days with an 11-4 win over the Twins, bringing them to 8-2 for the week. The win puts the team up 4 games on the Chicago White Sox. They kick off a three-game series, their last head-to-head matchup of the year, Tuesday in Chicago.
"I like their enthusiasm with each other. They really seem like a team," said Betsy Wolschleger of Aurora. Jed Trombley of Painesville said, "it's just been a joy to watch these young kids play."
Young is the operative word. The Guardians are the youngest team in baseball. They also have the 27th-lowest payroll in the game, and they're winning doing it. That's something that captured the attention of Forbes this week with a headline story, "Is Payroll Size Overrated? The Cleveland Guardians are Making Their Case."
For Karl Schneider of Bay Village, it's bringing back memories of another Cleveland team from 2016.
"2016 we didn't expect to go to the World Series — anything can happen right now," said Schneider. "Even though the Yankees and everybody else have a better record, I think we're peaking right now at the right time."
