An ode to Cleveland Sports from a lifelong suffering fan

I am a 32 year old lifelong suffering, lifelong disappointed, lifelong die-hard, and always hopeful Cleveland sports fan. I am old enough to remember the drive, the fumble, the shot, the late 80’s and early 90’s Cavs being very good, and the Bulls of that same time being even better. And while I don’t remember watching the game, I got to hear from my dad about a cold day in January of 1981 when Browns fans had their hearts ripped out of their chest. I don’t think I need to beat a dead horse by mentioning the name of this play. But, since we seem to like name type acronyms in this town like K2, DA, JMIKE, AC, and LBJ to name a few, I’ll just call this play RR8X11.

I remember the ‘95 Indians being the only team the vaunted 14 consecutive division champion Atlanta Braves beat in a World Series. I also remember the ‘97 Indians, who were in their 96^th season, losing to a Florida Marlins team in their 5^th. Who was the first ever Wild Card team to win the World Series? Um, yeah. We all know how this series was lost, again, without trying to fully open those old wounds, I have to bring it up. It was as if the spirits of the still living bodies of Craig Ehlo and Earnest Byner helped to swing Edgar Renteria’s bat. Ok, maybe I could have used John Elway in place of Ehlo, but I’m trying to keep this all Cleveland. I’m sorry Craig Ehlo, you were just in the wrong shot at the wrong time. Ehlo was posterized before the term was invented and beaten to death in Bristol, Connecticut.

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I’m from Boardman, Ohio, the home of Bernie Kosar. This was a town in the late 80’s where you could find most people in the local grocery stores or at the mall sporting Cleveland Browns AFC Central Champions t-shirts. Now this town has become an abyss of black and gold, especially two weeks prior to and immediately following Super Bowl XXL. Can we say front-runners? Amongst all the Steelers oriented bars in the Youngstown area, and the Kordell replica jerseys that these people (and I use that term lightly) think are ok to wear now that it’s Santonio Holmes’ number, I have caught myself addressing my mail Boardman, PA. Oops! That’s right! This is still Ohio isn’t it? The thing that gets me are some of the people around here who root for the Steelers, Ohio State, and the Indians. This is further proof of the statement I made above in this paragraph immediately following XXL.

I know these down-trodden, woe is me, longtime suffering Cleveland sports fan stories have been told hundreds of times, but a fresh perspective is always welcome in my eyes. It’s what brings us together, kind of like brothers. We have different mothers, but in one way, we all have the same mother. That mother being the mother of a lake that caught on fire, the mother of a basketball arena in the middle of nowhere, known almost as much for the concerts and WWF pay-per views that took place there, than the basketball team it housed. The mother of an 80,000 seat stadium where real football was played, and well, baseball was played there too. This mother is Cleveland and Cleveland sports, which have given us memories of growing up that bond everyone reading this.

I literally bleed for my team, as I have a Browns tattoo. I’m tired of the disrespect of our city and teams in the national media, but in a way I understand it. Hell, they used Milwaukee County Stadium to film the games played in Major League. It’s kind of funny that 18 years later the Indians played a home game in Milwaukee, but this time in Miller Park. And if you add the acquisition of Mo Williams as an important part of Cleveland sports history, which it’s looking like it will be, we are halfway to a Six Degrees of Separation movie with Milwaukee. Two-thirds of the way there if you want to count Rick Manning having played for the Brewers.

How ironic is it that the most memorable 2008 Cleveland sports moment arguably came from the CSU Vikings and the ¾ court shot that beat Syracuse, and not one of our pro teams? That is unless you want to count off the field where our beloved Browns took that trophy. Speaking of beloved, did anyone have adulterous thoughts of jumping into bed with another NFL team this past season between the horrible play and coaching of the Browns? Or maybe because of the multiple “Brady Quinn is a hottie” references made by your wife, girlfriend, or female co-workers? Yes, I believe some of us had those thoughts, but none of us could go through with it. There’s something about Sunday and those orange helmets that takes us to another place, even if that feeling didn’t last much past halftime most games in 2008.

I hope that someday that Cleveland can be followed by a comma then World Champions, Super Bowl Champions, or World Series Champions (in no particular order), instead of Cleveland comma site of the house where parts of A Christmas Story were filmed.