CLEVELAND — The only things missing from Progressive Field these days are bell-bottoms and Members Only jackets.
The Indians have gone retro — and not in any way that’s considered cool.
The All-Star break arrived Sunday at 4:01 p.m. (For manager Eric Wedge, it came a couple of hours earlier when he was ejected in the second inning for arguing a balk call.) And just like the 1970s and ’80s, the season’s over for the Tribe before the Midsummer Classic is played.
Don’t be fooled by the four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays completed Sunday with a 5-2 win. All that proved was the Rays aren’t quite ready for the spotlight, every dog has its day and the ballpark’s always a good place to spend a beautiful weekend in July.
No matter what obscure statistic Elias Sports Bureau uncovers — the Indians were the first team in major league history to follow a 10-game losing streak with two straight five-run wins over a first-place team — this season will end with Progressive Field closed for the postseason.
But you already knew that. You were conscious last week when CC Sabathia was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for prospects.
Many people have compared jettisoning Sabathia with the free-agent departures of Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome. But the pain of 2008 runs much deeper.
It’s not just the loss of a beloved player. It’s the total collapse of a season, great expectations far from realized, a “collective” failure — to borrow one of Wedge’s favorite words.
In spring training, the Indians promised a season to remember. They were prepared to make everyone forget the October collapse in Fenway Park. They were ready to erase the memory of 59 years without a World Series title.
No, they weren’t.
Instead, they inflicted the most excruciating pain, the kind normally limited to childbirth and paper cuts.
At least in the ’70s and ’80s — when the Indians managed to finish above .500 four times in two decades, and never more than six games above the break-even mark — fans were prepared for the losing. The illusions of grandeur disappeared as soon as the 80,000 fans departed Municipal Stadium on Opening Day, many not to return until the following April.
This season was different. Experts near and far predicted an American League pennant or World Series title. That’s what makes the first half the most disappointing 3½ months in Tribe history.
The playoff drought from 1955-94 was dreadful, but the misery was spread over 40 years. The World Series losses of 1954, ’95 and ’97 were brutal, but they were all preceded by magical runs. The midseason trade of Bartolo Colon in 2002 sent the franchise into full rebuilding mode, but the offseason trade of Roberto Alomar prior to the season let everyone know that the glory years of the late-1990s had passed, despite the Dolans’ Pollyanna pledge to contend while rebuilding.
The most applicable comparison would be the 1987 season, which started with Cory Snyder, Joe Carter and Chief Wahoo on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It ended with a 61-101 record, manager Pat Corrales fired and the SI jinx forever a part of Cleveland sports misery.
But SI’s prediction of greatness for the ’87 Indians always seemed like a stretch. Sure, the Indians went 84-78 the year before, but they weren’t ready to contend for anything. That was obvious when the Tribe didn’t finish with a winning record again until 1994.
This year was supposed to be different. General manager Mark Shapiro had restocked the shelves with young talent ready to peak. The team’s psyche had been steeled by its first venture into the postseason.
But then the games began, the injuries hit and the team flopped.
Ryan Garko, Franklin Gutierrez and Asdrubal Cabrera couldn’t hold down everyday jobs. Joe Borowski and Rafael Betancourt couldn’t duplicate their 2007 success in the bullpen. Shapiro and Wedge didn’t have any solutions.
So the four-game sweep is a nice way to end a depressing first half.
But it’s too little too late in a season lost way too soon.
Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com.

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