A little Byrd-ie told me

You get the feeling that in this town, if the Browns announced they had done nothing, absolutley nothing, for the day, it would be bigger news than an Indians pennant race. So you can imagine what happens when they become the first team in history to trade the quarterback who started their first game before they even played their second game.

Yes, news of the Indians reducing their magic number to 11 -- lowest in baseball, by the way -- reaches us in whispers while sky-is-falling rhetoric about the Browns and ex-quarterback Charlie Frye hits us from all angles. Yes, the Indians won 8-3 last night, right about the time that Charlie Frye was boarding a plane for Seattle, probably never to be seen again.

If you believe the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Frye will be the third quarterback on a team that saw fit to go into the season with just two of them. The incumbent, Matt Hasselbeck, won't be taking a seat on the bench anytime soon. And he won't be moving backup quarterback Seneca Wallace to wide receiver,either.

So while Patrick McManamon is stunned and baffled, while Terry Pluto tries to figure out just what the heck the Browns are doing, while Angry Tony looks ahead to Plan C, and while fans in the blogosphere call for the heads of everyone from Rover Cleveland to Art Modell, we'll just keep focusing on the Indians who just keep focusing on winning. Last night's 8-3 victory over the White Sox behind unsung hero Paul Byrd gives the Tribe 17 wins in their last 21 games. Their 6.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers is the second-largest of any division leader. And perhaps we've got some security through 2012, since the last-place Chicago White Sox decided yesterday that Ozzie Guillen's the man to run the show for the next half-decade.

Everywhere else they can decry the Charlie Frye trade. Here, we'll just keep counting down to 94 wins.