Back To Beantown For Title-Hungry Indians

Saturday, October 20th 2007, 4:11 pm

By: News On 6

CLEVELAND (AP) _ Indians fans, hungry for a World Series berth, didn't get a home field pennant celebration and instead partied from a distance as Cleveland played Boston at Fenway Park Saturday night.

The hopes and prayers of this blue-collar city that hasn't had a sports title in 43 years went with the Indians, who led 3-2 in the American League Championship Series best-of-seven series heading into the sixth game.

In suburban Cleveland, the Ursuline order of Roman Catholic sisters was ready for the game with popcorn, Indians caps and a promise to handle fan-friendly prayer requests.

With the club leading 3-1 heading into Thursday's game, the e-mail prayer line run by the sisters got one prayer request from a fan.

After losing to Boston, there were 12 e-mail requests from fans as the Cleveland worry meter racheted up and the series headed back to Boston.

The sisters were asked to pray for a Cleveland win, for the health of the players and even to offer a special prayer request involving the ladies' favorite, Grady Sizemore, whose beefcake looks inspired ``Mrs. Grady Sizemore'' T-shirts.

``There's a couple of prayers for Grady Sizemore, in particular `please also pray that Grady Sizemore will be my future husband','' chuckled Sister Susan Durkin.

Another e-mailed prayer request said, ``Dear sisters, please pray that the Indians win, otherwise my mom will be in a bad mood.''

The reason for the spike in prayer requests for the Indians? ``I think people are relying on faith now. I think they got a little nervous,'' Durkin said.