SECTION: Sports; Pg. 61

LENGTH: 546 words

HEADLINE: SHAKY START OUR FAULT  WE'LL HIT STRIDE JUST LIKE YANKS

BYLINE: BY FILIP BONDY

BODY:


IT IS HARD to take the Indians too seriously, with their cartoon caps and their 86-win season.

So a lot of us Bleacher Creatures got a little complacent last night in Sect. 39, a bit distracted. We didn't do our homework. We didn't harass the Cleveland players early on as often or as loudly as usual. We were too busy collecting ticket money and drawing up seating charts for the ALCS. We couldn't even identify one of the Indians out in right field, mysterious No. 34, shagging flies before the game. And so, because we didn't do our jobs, Cleveland scored five times in the first inning. The Indians jumped all over David Cone, because we let them.

"This is your fault, box seats!" yelled Rob Andre, one of the Creatures from Long Island, after Sandy Alomar bashed the big homer.

Except, to be fair this time, it wasn't. We weren't ready. We were bad, in the bleachers. Luckily, we rectified things by the sixth inning, when we willed three successive Yankee homers over the wall for an 8-6 victory.

"They're nothing," Larry Palumbo of Syosset said. "A sweep."

"They're losers," Chris Byrne of Manhattan said. "Only good for a little entertainment. Their cap is a disgrace to Native Americans."

The Indians are pathetic, for sure. They folded fast, once we finally got our chants in perfect, nasty, working order.

But it took us too long out there. The Creatures must be sharper if we want to go all the way against tougher competition.

Last night, Yankee employes at the back gate examined our tickets for a minute at a time, hoping to discover they were counterfeit. The bathrooms were broken by 7:15, which made beer consumption a real hazard.

But those are alibis, excuses are for losers. Next time, we have to warm up faster.

Just not as fast as Brendan Deehan from Queens.

Deehan came into the Stadium with his game face on and was thrown out of the bleachers twice, with the game still 90 minutes from starting.

Two pregame ejections were a world record for Deehan that may never be broken, sort of like Joe D's 56-game hitting streak.

Deehan was ejected the first time for smuggling liquor into the game. Then, after buying a second ticket for $ 20 outside the Stadium from a scalper, Deehan stood on a bleacher bench and started screaming about his great triumph over the security guards.

So they threw him out a second time.

At this point, Deehan began to think and talk very fast. He explained to a guard that he was coming to claim the liquor confiscated from a previous game. The more he babbled and showed his claim check, the more he confused everybody. And before too long, Deehan was at his seat for a third time.

There, Deehan joined the usual crowd. Tom Brown had come from a new job at the World Trade Center, where he left his tie and shirt under his desk. We can't believe they welcomed Tom into the corporate world, but somehow he passes. Milton Ousland brought his cowbell, the one that won the Met series, and went to war with the phony cowbell in the box seats.

By late in the game, when the Yanks rallied in the sixth for the win, we were finally ready for the postseason.

We were ready for Game 2, and the mystery Indian shagging flies in right field.

Notes: Bleacher Creature



GRAPHIC: MIKE ALBANS DAILY NEWS AW-RIGHT! Tino Martinez home run in fourth inning last night brings Yankee fans back into game.

LOAD-DATE: October 01, 1997