CLEVELAND — During two nights when the Cuyahoga River flowed into Lake Erie, Cleveland bubbled not with water, but with champagne.

For the hometown team — and for us — it has been a September to remember, with an October appetite for more.

Still, let us not get ahead of ourselves as we celebrate the moment. The Cleveland Guardians — "Boys of Summer" turned "Men of Autumn" — have carried us here, playing with the hunger of a team chasing the Fall Classic as the leaves turn around us.

The Guardians are in the postseason, and we ride along, for they are us and we are them. The joy is all the sweeter because, in July, they trailed by 15 ½ games in the American League Central — only to hit their way back in the final weeks of summer.

The team reflects our Northeast Ohio character: gutsy,

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