Shane Bieber Recalls Lessons From Corey Kluber As He Prepares For Wild Card Start

Cleveland's ace will take on Tampa Bay Friday afternoon and his former teammate and mentor will be in the opposing dugout.

In 2016 when the Cleveland Guardians made a magical run to Game 7 of the World Series, Shane Bieber had just been drafted out of UC-Santa Barbara and 24.0 innings for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the New-York Penn rookie ball league.

But he was watching the then-Indians very closely as they made a run toward glory, and in particular was paying close attention to Corey Kluber as he led Cleveland's rotation on a special run.

Bieber always hoped he would be able to be in a position some day to do the same thing in Cleveland. He flew through the minor league system, pitching for all five affiliates over the next two years before making his Major League debut in 2018.

It also meant he got to spend a good bit of time with Kluber in Cleveland and he said he really benefitted from spending time around him. Terry Francona said several years ago that Bieber reminded him of Kluber in the way they went about their business and he thought Shane had a chance to be really special.

Obviously, that's worked out pretty well for all parties involved pretty darn well.

“When he first came up here, he was pretty polished,” Kluber said of Bieber at the beginning of the 2021 season. “Didn’t run into too many speed bumps along the way. … I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. He has a great work ethic, a good head on his shoulders. He has no reason why he shouldn’t be able to continue improving.”

Bieber's had a ton of success pitching for the Indians and Guardians over the last several years, winning the Cy Young Award in 2020 and he was also the All-Star Game MVP in his home ballpark the previous season.

Now, he's preparing to open the 2022 American League Wild Card series against Tampa Bay on Friday afternoon with Kluber watching from the opposing dugout.

Kinda fun how life comes full circle sometimes isn't it?

"Just because guys change uniforms doesn't mean you lose the fondness you had for them," manager Terry Francona said when Kluber pitched against the Guardians two weeks ago. "We don't want him to beat us tonight, or any time he faces us but that doesn't take away how special he was and is. When we were down in Tampa he came over just to pop his head in and say hello. You don't spend that much time with guys like that and go through what we did without getting really fond of people."

Bieber and the Guardians take the field Friday at 12:07 p.m. for the first game of the best-of-3 series, in which Bieber takes on one of the best pitchers in the league in Tampa's Shane McClanahan.

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