After the heartbreak that was the 1997 season, the Indians were desperate to get back to the world series in 1998. They had been one of the most dominant teams of the last 4 years, but had nothing to show for it. They were quickly joining their mid 90s contemporaries, the Buffalo Bills, as an example of a team that could just never quite get it done.
The ‘97-’98 offseason was fairly eventful. Matt Williams asked to be traded, preferring to be back on the west coast, and after a disappointing 1997 campaign that saw him, while remaining productive, fall dramatically short of his usual brilliance, the Indians obliged.