Here's the ground rules:
- The city has to have at least two franchises in the big four professional sports leagues: the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.
- No expansion teams since 1980.
- No team in that city has not won a championship in the last 20 years.
- The closer that city's team(s) was/were to winning championship but could not close the deal the better (or worst).
No major professional sports franchise has not won a championship in my beloved hometown since the incomparable Jim Brown led the Brown to the NFL Championship over the Baltimore Colts 27-0 in 1964.
Much like their brethren on the eastern shore of Lake Erie (Buffalo), the fans truly believe there is a curse that hovers over the city like a dark cloud waiting to drop the other shoe whenever the Browns, Cavaliers or Indians decide to wake up out their doldrums and have a good season. The locals call it the Curse of Rocky Calavito. A lot of the old-time Cleveland sports fans blame Cleveland sports woes on the Indians trading popular outfielder Rocky Calavito to the Detroit Tigers for second-baseman Harvey Keene in 1959.
Unlike Buffaloans, who are generally optimistic about their Bills or Sabres, Clevelanders cannot allow themselves to enjoy the moment without the pessimistic thought creeping in their minds of "how are they going to blow it this time."
The Indians have had two playoff seasons and Cleveland's favorite franchise, the Browns, have made one playoff appearance this millennium. But the first Cleveland Sports franchise captured the city's hearts and took the city on a five-year ride they will not soon forget.
The Cavaliers:
Cleveland landed the Cavalier NBA franchise in 1970 and were flat-out bad for the first five years. Then the Miracle at Richfield happened in 1976 when the Cavs beat the Washington Bullets--who changed their name to the Wizards in their response to the rampant violence that was occurring in our Nation's Capital in the late 1990's--in seven games of the NBA Eastern Conference Semi's during their first playoff run in franchise history. But the Cavs lost center Nate Thurmond to a knee injury in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to eventual NBA Champions Boston Celtics in six games.This season, for the most part is only special in Northeast Ohio as Akron Beacon-Journal writer Chris Tomasson points out in his 2001 article 'Memories of the Miracle of Richfield.'
Memories of the Miracle of Richfield do not extend much past Northeast Ohio. The late Bobby Phills, a Louisiana native, once asked when he was playing with the Cavs, "Why did they call it a Miracle year? Didn't that team win only one playoff series?"
The Cavs have always been the third fiddle in a football-crazed town. Even the Cavs' misfortune is overshadowed by the Browns.
The Cavs made another run at the NBA Title in the late '80's and early 90's with perennial All-Stars in point guard mark Price and center Brad Daugherty. But they could not get past Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, and this was during the Bernie Kosar era of the Browns. So the Cavs were second in the hearts of Cleveland sports fans and the local media.
The next ten years the Cavaliers regressed from being mediocre in the late 90's to being just terrible in the early 00's until they were bad and lucky, enough to land the number one draft pick in 2004 (which happened to be the same year as high school phenom and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's product LeBron James entered the NBA Draft.
Seven years later Cleveland sports fans rested their hopes to quench the thirst of their 40-plus year championship drought in the city's third-fiddle Cavaliers. Ironically, the local message boards and sports-talk air-waves were more filled with "who should be the Browns' starting quarterback--Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson?" than what the Cav's management should have done to keep James in Cleveland?
Which leads me to 'Cleveland-Sports-Heartbreak' #1 in this post: The Decision!
In the summer of 2010, James was up for free agency. James milked the process for all it was worth getting wooed by the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets, the Cavs, and dark-horse Miami Heat. I got so sick of ESPN NBA analyst Chris Broussard showing his ineptitude on a nightly basis on Sports Center with his "he could go to the Knicks, he could go to the Bulls, or he could stay in Cleveland. but check this out, he could even go to the Clippers!" Thanks for saying a lot and not saying anything, Chris!
Finally, James made his decision in front of the Boys & Girls club of Norwich, CT and in front of millions of viewers on the hour-long ESPN special to announce that "he was taking his talents to South Beach," along with the championship hopes and dreams of Cleveland sports fans.
As Rob Scheider's character said in The Waterboy "Oh no, we suck again!"
Esquire writer and Cleveland native Scott Raab puts it best:
"It's one of the things that's devastating about LeBron leaving. For those seven seasons, increasingly as his career went along, there was a sense of hope and possibility (that he and the Cavaliers could deliver a championship)," Raab says. "The jobs aren't coming back, the weather's not going to get any better (in Cleveland). The cool factor, to the sense it even exists, is contrived or ironic. And the teams, to me at least, seem further away than ever at this point from getting it done."
The Indians:
The Indians have not won the World Series since 1948.Let that sink in. Harry Truman was President the last time the Wahoo Warriors won a 'ship!
For as long as I can remember the Indians was the American League version of the Chicago Cubs finishing in last place of the old-configured AL-East. I remember the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals hammering the Indians constantly in the 70's and 80's. It got so bad Hollywood made two movies based on the improbable reality of the Indians actually winning ANYTHING--Major League 1 and Major League 2 because the Indians would only win in fiction!
The Curse of Rocky Calavito seemed to be breaking in 1995 when they moved to sparkling-new Jacob's Field, and won their first AL Pennant since 1954. They lost to the Atlanta Braves in six games, helping them to avoid being on this list and the National media to stop calling them the 'Buffalo Bills of the MLB.' Besides, we Cleveland fans thought we had a young nucleus of talent with OF's Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton and Manny Ramirez, 3B Jim Thome, and RP Jose Mesa that would get back to the World Series because the Yankees weren't that good anymore. We were on the wrong side of history on that one. Who knew Mariano Rivera would become the most dominant closer in MLB history and Derek Jeter would become the modern-day Joe DiMaggio.
The Tribe made it back to the World Series two years later against the recent expansion Florida Marlins with OF Gary Sheffield being their only star of note.
Mesa blew a chance to save a 2-1 ninth-inning lead, the first major championship in Cleveland since 1964 by giving up one run on two hits. However, much like the Bill Buckner game for Boston Red Sox fans in 1986 and the Steve Bartman game for Chicago Cub fans in 2003, the Indians still had opportunities to win the game but did not capitalize on the opportunites in the 10th and 11th innings. The Marlins did and won the World Series.
As we Clevelanders say OIC (only in Cleveland).
The Browns:
We Clevelanders live and die, mostly die, with our Brownies. What other NFL city would give their support and actually defend the following quarterbacks as legitimate, if not star NFL QB's since I've been a Browns fan in 1980?:- Brian Sipe
- Bernie Kosar
- Vinny Testaverde
- Tim Couch
- Kelly Holcomb
- Charlie Frye
- Derek Anderson
- Brady Quinn
- Colt McCoy
- Brandon Weeden
OIC!
The flip-side of that emotional roller-coaster the Browns put their fans on, I refuse to discuss the laundry list of disappointments to relive, and who has the time to read that much tragedy? So I'm going to The One! The Move.
Starting the 1995 season as a Super Bowl contender with a 5-2 record. Owner Art Modell announced that he was moving the Browns franchise to Baltimore. Caving under the pressure of this announcement, the Browns finished the seaosn 1-8, moved to Baltimore, drafted Hall-of-Famer offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden and sure-to-be-Hall-of-Famer Ray Lewis in the first round of the 1996 draft won two Super Bowls in 17 years.
What did Browns fans get in return for our loyalty? The team colors and history, an expansion team with an absentee owner who was more interested in his British Premiere League franchise than his NFL franchise, a two-year revolving door of general managers and coaching staffs, and a who's-who list of draft busts.
That's what Art Modell gave to me in the 13th day of Christmas.
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