Cleveland celebrates 2016 team, an unforgettable season and a World Series that slipped away

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Sometimes it's OK to celebrate heartbreak, even if it still stings.

In Cleveland, where a World Series title has remained elusive since 1948, finishing second is still reason enough to throw a party.

Ten years after losing a drama-drenched World Series in seven games to the Chicago Cubs, who ended their 108-year title drought at Cleveland's expense, the Guardians are honoring their 2016 AL pennant-winning team this weekend while triggering memories mixed with joy and pain.

Nearly all the members of Cleveland's '16 team — known as the Indians back then — and including former manager Terry Fracona, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were on hand at Progressive Field on Friday to relive that unforgettable year spoiled by the Cubs.

It was a chance for the former players to reconnect, share laughs and swap stories from a season and postseason they'll never forget. They'll talk about Rajai Davis hitting his iconic homer off Aroldis Chapman in Game 7. They'll grumble about a rain delay that many Cleveland fans remain convinced saved the Cubs. They'll consider what might have been.

Mostly, they'll be teammates again.

“It's so good to see so many of these guys’ faces,” said Jason Kipnis, Cleveland's starting second baseman in 2016. "We could have a group text and all that stuff, but to get back and get that hug and reminisce with them, that makes it a lot of fun.

"There’s always people who are like would you rather not go to the playoffs than go to the World Series and lose it? No, because the memories of that run have lasted a lifetime already.”

Strengthened by the acquisition of elite reliever Andrew Miller at the trade deadline, the 2016 Indians went 94-67 in the regular season to win the AL Central before beating Boston and Toronto in the playoffs to set up a date with the Cubs in a Series pitting two teams with generational championship dry spells.

After splitting the first two games at home, the Indians won two straight at Wrigley Field and opened a commanding 3-1 lead. However, the Cubs squeaked out a 3-2 win in Game 5 at home and clobbered Cleveland in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all finale.

Chicago carried an 6-4 lead into the eighth inning, and with the flame-throwing Chapman on the mound, Cubs fans could taste Champagne they had only sampled in dreams. That's when Davis turned on a fastball and lined it over the left-field fence for a home run that would rank among the greatest in baseball history if it hadn't come in a loss.

All these years later, Kipnis' body still reacts when discussing the moment.

“The noise, the looking around, I’m getting chills right now,” Kipnis said, peeking at bumps rising on his forearms before Friday's game. "For the first time I felt like, oh, that’s what pandemonium is. It’s hard to describe the noise and just everybody going crazy and the momentum shift and just what it meant to us right there.

"God, you could run through a wall right then and there.”

But it wasn't meant to be as the Cubs, perhaps aided by a 17-minute rain delay that allowed them to regroup before extra innings, scored two in the 10th and hung on for an 8-7 win.

Chicago's suffering ended on Nov. 2, 2016. Cleveland's endures.

For Corey Kluber, who started three games in the series, looking back isn't fun.

“I feel like it’s easy to reflect on October, November, not so much," said Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner. "I try to avoid thinking about. The further you become removed from it, I don’t want to say that wounds heal, but they become less deep.

"You’re able to look at the bigger picture and realize what we were able to accomplish. Even though ultimately it didn’t go the way we wanted it to at the end, leading up to that was special and you appreciate that.”

Francona's fondness for the '16 team has only grown over the past decade.

“I don’t think you have to win the final game,” he said. “They’re a special group and they always will be. They played the game right. They played hard. They were selfless. They put the team first. All the things you talk about on Day One of spring training, they lived it out and it made it really fun."

While they didn't win a title, to Francona, they finished on top.

“I wish we could have had a parade, but pride won out over disappointment,” he said. “I was so proud of that group.”

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