CLEVELAND -- As badly as the Cleveland Indians want their fans to look ahead to a brighter future, opening day at Jacobs Field will offer a painful reminder of the past.

Cubs' home opener snowed out

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs' home opener against the Montreal Expos was snowed out Monday. The Cubs postponed the game until Tuesday after a storm dropped several inches of snow in northern Illinois overnight. The game was rescheduled for Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. ET, and tickets from Monday's game will be good. Tuesday had been a scheduled day off for both teams. Zach Day (1-0) is scheduled to start for the Expos, while Matt Clement will (0-1) start for the Cubs. The last time the Cubs postponed their home opener was in 1990, when their game against the Philadelphia Phillies was rained out. The Cubs' last snowout was April 16, 2001, also against the Phillies. -- Associated Press

Bartolo Colon -- and his fastball -- are back to town. Unfortunately, winter never left.

Colon, whose trade last year signaled the end of Cleveland's championship era, was scheduled to start for the Chicago White Sox on Monday and face his former team for the first time.

"I will feel right at home,'' Colon said.

He will have to wait, however. With snow expected, the Indians postponed their home opener and rescheduled the game for Tuesday at 3:05 p.m. ET.

With Monday's weather forecast calling for sleet, 1-to-3 inches of snow and temperatures in the 30s, Indians officials called off the opener Sunday night before the first flake had fallen.

Colon pitching against the Indians this season seemed farfetched last June when the club decided to begin rebuilding by dealing the powerful right-hander to the Montreal Expos.

The trade then had a boomerang effect on Cleveland when Colon ended up with the rival White Sox following a three-team deal in January.

Now, Colon gets another chance to remind the Indians how much they gave up.

"At first it will seem odd and I will be a little nervous since I have played in the Cleveland system for 10 years,'' said Colon, signed by the Indians in 1993 after being discovered by a scout in the Dominican Republic. "But once the game starts, I will be OK. I am wearing a new uniform now.''

Tuesday's forecast is for temperatures in the upper 30s, but the Indians, who were also rained out Sunday in Kansas City, can count on Colon bringing some heat.

"He's going to be throwing the ball hard,'' DH Ellis Burks said. "We know what he's going to come with. He's going to come with the cheese. And we got to be ready for it.''

Colon went 20-8 last season, winning 10 games with Cleveland and 10 for the Expos following the trade. It was the type of season the Indians always wanted from the 29-year-old Colon, who tested the club's patience with spurts of inconsistency while developing into a No. 1 starter.

With his team losing ground in the AL Central last year, Indians general manager Mark Shapiro made the difficult decision to trade Colon and pitcher Tim Drew for left-hander Cliff Lee, infielder Brandon Phillips and outfielder Grady Sizemore.

Shapiro knew the move would not only be unpopular with fans, but it would mark the end of Cleveland's reign as one of the AL's elite teams. The Indians won six division titles since 1995 and made it to the World Series twice in eight years.

Colon figured he'd be around for the next visit to the Series.

"I didn't think they would trade me,'' he said. "It was a big surprise, but at the same time, now that I'm here, I'm content and I feel that it was a good trade.''

Nine months later, the coincidence of facing Colon in the opener has no special meaning for Shapiro.

"It's irrelevant,'' he said. "I'm focused internally. Who we're facing is not relevant. I wish Bartolo nothing but good luck and success except when he's facing us.

"But when I'll look at him, I'll think of him as the vehicle that brought us three players who are going to be important when we make another championship run.''

Phillips, a flashy rookie, beat out John McDonald for the starting job at second. Lee, who got hurt early in training camp, will likely join the club in June and Sizemore could be a future star.

Cleveland fans will have to keep reminding themselves of that when Colon fires one of his 95 mph fastballs past a hitter and into the mitt of catcher Sandy Alomar -- another of the former Indians.

"That will be exciting, catching Bartolo,'' Alomar said. "It would even be more so if they still had a lot of the players I played with. But now they are pretty much a whole new organization.''