Shin-Soo Choo: Will Indians OF'S DUI Ruin Cleveland's Winning Ways?

Shin-Soo Choo, the sweet-swinging outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, was arrested and charged with DUI last night, according to multiple media outlets. 

Choo, 28, was pulled over outside the Cleveland area just after 3 A.M. on Monday morning and charged with driving under the influence, making him the sixth player to be charged with drunk driving since spring training of this season. Of those six, only Choo and Atlanta Braves pitcher Derek Lowe (who was busted late last week) occurred during the season. 

Choo was finally starting to heat up at the plat for the Indians before this arrest, hitting .250 with four home runs and 15 RBI for the Tribe on the year. 

The Tribe currently hold first place in the AL Central with a 19-8 record on the year and have already built up a 4.5 game lead on the rest of the division. But could Choo's arrest mark the end of Cleveland's run of fantastic form on the season? 

We all know no one expected the Indians to play this well this season, riding the resurgent bats of Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner to a blazing first month of the year, as well as some fantastic pitching up and down their staff. 

But coming into this season, no one would have denied that there wasn't talent in Cleveland, just that the Indians couldn't keep that talent on the field.

From the frequent injuries besetting Sizemore and Hafner, to nagging issues with the pitching staff, Cleveland hasn't been able to keep its talent healthy. 

Now, we see this team making a run at a division title, much like the Indians in "Major League" (except for the fact that those Indians made their run down the stretch, not at the beginning of the year) because of the health of their talent. 

But, perhaps Choo is the signal that the luck with injuries is over. This team was riding a wave of good emotion to one of the best starts in franchise history and suddenly, Choo manages to break the wave of good press coming from around the sports world.

Baseball players (and fans, and writers, and coaches, and the guy who sells nachos) are a superstitious lot, so it doesn't take much to get them fearing a change in the karmic powers that affect day-to-day baseball life and turn lengthy winning streaks into unexplainable slumps. In their minds, Choo's arrest could be enough to snap the good vibes and turn it into negative energy. 

While it is possible (and I'm fairly sure every fan in Cleveland just collectively freaked out at the thought of the injuries descending on this club now that the good juju is gone), the potential for the Korean outfielder's foible to ruin the good thing Cleveland has going seems negligible at this point. He's not going to miss any time because of the arrest (at least, not yet), and as long as Sizemore is healthy and the pitching staff is still riding this high, the Tribe figure to keep finding a similar level of success. 

Sure, we can talk about the vibes around this club until our heads spin, but Choo won't mess up this team's hot streak unless he shows up to the ballpark drunk. 

Cleveland's got a good thing going right now, but if it ends, it's going to be because the pitching staff remembered that they're really not this good, not because Shin-Soo Choo was pulled over for a DUI. They've got the offensive talent to be putting up these kinds of numbers and given their 13-2 home record, it seems to me that their home cooking might just be a big factor in this strong start. 

In other words, if the streak ends soon, don't blame Choo's DUI, blame the pitching staff or a long road trip.