Scout.com > Cleveland 1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little ... Story URL: http://indians.scout.com/2/768200.html Chuck Murr IndiansInk.net Jul 9, 2008 Attention all young Indians fans struggling to relate to this year's team! Go ask dad if he remembers Victor Cruz, Dell Alston, Horace Speed, Eric Wilkins, Sandy Wihtol, Tex Cox, Tom Veryzer and the boys. They all played for the 1979 Tribe, which until Wednesday night was the last Cleveland baseball team to lose 10 in a row. An 8-6 loss in Detroit after leading 6-0 matched that old juggernaut. Next up? Give grandpappy a call and see if he can recall when he was just a little tyke. It was a mere 77 years ago when the Indians last lost 11 in a row -- on the way to a team-record 12 straight setbacks in 1931. That Cleveland club had Hall of Famer Earl Averill hitting .333 with 32 homers and 143 RBI in the middle of the lineup, too. There's no chance any of this year's bunch is going to approach those numbers across the board. Heck, the Indians that year had a .296 team average. They scored runs, even with third baseman Willie Kamm (.295) hitting zero homers and shortstop Ed Montague (.285), catcher Luke Sewell (.275) and right fielder Dick Porter (.312) hitting one apiece. But Jensen Lewis could be the new Roxie Lawson (0-2, 7.60 ERA for the '31 Tribe). Andy Marte may be a distant relative of Jonah Goldman (.129 in '31). And Rafael Betancourt is looking more and more like Belve Bean every day. Belve would only be 103 years old if he had lived another 20 years -- and likely would have more life on his fastball than Betancourt has displayed of late. What's the point of it all? The point is that the 2008 Indians, who entered the season with World Series hopes, are experiencing a backslide of historic proportions. It's more fun to dredge up names like Cox, Speed and Bean than to focus on what happened Wednesday when the club hit a new nadir under manager Eric Wedge. With nine losses in a row tucked into their pockets, the Indians came out and hit the Tigers with a quick six-spot. Happy days looked like they were here again. Jhonny Peralta had an RBI double and Shin-Soo Choo singled in a run in a three-run first inning off Eddie Bonine -- whose name sounds like he belongs on the '31 Indians. All-Star Grady Sizemore had RBI singles in the second and fourth to make it 5-0 and Cleveland added another run on an error in the sixth. ] Meanwhile, Paul Byrd pitched like he was on a high wire, giving up hits aplenty but leaving baserunners stranded. He yielded a run in the sixth, allowed a leadoff single in the seventh and was replaced by Betancourt. Uh, hold off on those handshakes, Paulie. A single, walk, double, RBI groundout and two-run homer later -- the score was tied. It all happened before Wedge could even say, "Edward Mujica, here, take the baseball." The teams battled on in futility until the bottom of the ninth, when Lewis was summoned. Joe Borowski couldn't have botched it better. Lewis yielded a leadoff single to Marcus Thames, got Carlos Guillen to foul out, then served up home run to Miguel Cabrera. Game over. Losing streak intact. And three decades from now, you kids will be able to tell the tale to tykes dreaming of the day that the Indians finally win a World Series. Those young'uns will be astounded to hear that fellas named Craig Breslow, Sal Fasano, Jorge Velandia and Jason Tyner suited up for the Tribe this year. In fact, it's rather incredible to think of it today. Copyright © Scout.com and IndiansInk.net