So we’ve learned “The Decision.”  The world is still rotating on its axis.  The sun still rises in the east and sets in the west.  And yes… Cleveland is still standing.  In fact one could make a case that the city is standing stronger and more unified than at any other time, especially in recent memory.  Everyone, and I mean just about everyone has made a case for why Lebron leaving has been a disaster the likes of which the city may never recover.  While yes it would be easy to agree with these kinds of statements, is that necessarily the case?  Maybe everyone is looking at this from the wrong angle.  Maybe Lebron leaving is a blessing in disguise. 

Losing the best basketball player in the NBA is a blow that not many teams and cities could withstand.  Throw in the fact that this player was also on a career path to put himself in conversation for “greatest of all time” status and it becomes even that much more difficult to come to terms with.  But this is Cleveland.  We know about heartbreak.  We know what it takes to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and attempt to climb back to the top.  “The Decision” and its aftermath is only another chapter in the story that helps define where we’ve been, not where we are headed. 

Thanks to the cowardly actions of someone whom we considered to be one of our own we begin a new chapter as both a city and as fans.  The past few weeks have served as a wake up call; a realization that it’s about the name on the front of the uniform that matters.  We’ve spent too much time and effort praising the talents of one player and allowing him to hold our city hostage not for the sake of the name on the front of the jersey, but the name on the back.  Now the name across his chest has changed for what he believes to be the betterment of his brand and legacy.  From what we can tell so far, both have suffered irreparable damage, the likes of which have never been seen before. 

And that’s where the truth about “The Decision” takes an interesting twist.  Every chapter thus far in our sports legacy has left us battered, bruised, and worse off.  Jordan defined his legacy with “The Shot.”  Elway built his legacy with “The Drive” and “The Fumble.”  Art Modell won his Super Bowl thanks in part to “The Move.”  The greatest run in Indians history ended with “The Jose Mesa Game” and proved that a World Series title can be bought not built.  Each time, Cleveland has been left lying in a pool of it’s own fan’s blood while our murders dance with joy in celebration of victory.  But this is different. 

“The Decision” wasn’t a murder.  It was a suicide.  Lebron James, through his own actions, killed his legacy, reputation, and home town ties.  This only hurts so much because we loved him so dearly.  We didn’t want him to do it, but he did it anyway.  The week of his free agent meetings we tried to save him from himself, but some people are beyond saving.  So on “The Decision” Lebron picked up the knife and plunged it deep into himself, not the backs and hearts of Clevelanders everywhere.  In front of millions on national television, Lebron James ended his legacy as the greatest basketball player of all time and Cleveland’s chosen one.  Worst yet, we are left picking up the pieces and wondering why since the bastard didn’t have the decency to write a note.  We’re angry, we’re bitter, and we want answers.  Unfortunately those answers won’t come, at least not in the near future. 

Instead of wallowing in our own self-pity, Cleveland will do what it does best.  Pick itself up, dust itself off, and start climbing back up that mountain.  That’s what it means to be a fan of Cleveland sports.  That’s why Cleveland teams are so important to me and to all of us.  We take pride in the name on the front of the uniform and the colors.  We cheer unconditionally for an orange helmet, stand and applaud the tipping of a cap with Chief Wahoo on it and go insane as the wine and gold streak down the floor on a fast break.  This is why I love Cleveland.

Over the past 7 years we’ve gotten away from that.  We’ve relied on one player as our saving grace, even going so far as to imagine what he’d look like playing for the Browns.  One person, one player cannot deliver a championship.  Lebron James has proven that to us.  It is a lesson we should never forget. 

So when we look back on “The Decision” ten, twenty, or thirty years from now what will we think?  What will we tell our children?  How will we use it to help define who we are?  Me personally, I’ll mark it as the turning point.  I’ll explain to my son or daughter that it was a dark time for Cleveland sports and lot’s of people thought it was the end for us.  I’ll explain to them “The Shot,” “The Drive,” “The Fumble,” etc. and what all of it meant to me. Tell them why it’s all important and why it all needed to happen.  Most importantly, explain to them that without those things, there would be no Cleveland sports and I wouldn’t be who I am just like my dad did for me.  Hopefully, they’ll understand. I’ll explain to them who Lebron James is and why he’s hated so much in Cleveland.  Then, and only then, will we pack into the car and head downtown.  The reason you ask?  To sit along E. 9^th St. and enjoy a victory parade for Cleveland. 

But it won’t be the first of the post Lebron era.  As it turns out the end… was only the beginning.

…………………..

Keith Vlasak

Growing up in the Cleveland area (North Royalton myself) and rooting for our teams is NOT all about being long suffering.  Cubs fans and Red Sox fans nay have always just rubbed their long-suffering all over themselves in ecstasy … but every other area of the civilized world thinks Cleveland is the worst crap hole in the universe.  Rooting for Cleveland teams is mostly about trying to get people to stop laughing at us for being from Cleveland.  Cubs fans believe everybody loves them … and also believe Cleveland fans should be euthanized to put the rest of the world out of its misery.

I remember when Barker had his perfect game, I commented to a Tigers-Lions fan here (NW Ohio) about it and he snorted and asked who they were playing, and correctly guessed the Blue Jays, who had the worst record in baseball at the time.  Think about how all the media nationwide, but especially in New York, automatically assumed LeBron was only passing through Cleveland (in retrospect, did anyone other than a Cav fan, think LeBron might re-sign with the Cavs?).

But, … BUT … those from elsewhere who are old enough to have memories of the fifties and sixties (like of Jim Brown, Bob Feller, Otto Graham, Herb Score, and on and on) tend to think of Cleveland as one of the elite sports cities.  No one had any problem putting the football hall of fame in Canton because they knew the significance.  It’s maybe kind of like Yale and national championships.  Who fears the Yale football program today?

The glory of Ohio, of Cleveland, and of our Browns and Indians is all in the past and, honestly, tear down the mural because it means absolutely nothing to what a bunch of young guys will do on the field.  That history is important to those of us who remember a little of it or those of us who’ve had it told to us by someone we care about with the love of the game shining on their face.

The stories are handed down by fans, for fans, and specifically parent,-uncle-grandparent to son-daughter which make generations of stories and generations of Browns and Indian fans.

The first baseball game I saw (and with my father) was one of the late season homestand against the White Sox when the Indians lost their chance at the pennant.  The following spring, before the season, some Cleveland station rebroadcast several of the games from 1959, including Rocky Colavito’s 4 consecutive home runs game against the Orioles.  I’d love to see that game once more.  Does it exist anywhere?

I don’t think it was until the 1970’s that the Browns had their first losing season.  Every fan in the whole country knew Paul Brown was one of the greatest coaches ever.  And the Browns were the first team to have face masks!

There was no Cleveland basketball back when I was growing up, but there was news that made sports page headlines — the Celtics and Bill Russell’s run and the amazing achievements of Wilt Chamberlain (to point out that the NBA was already a star driven league).  Here in Ohio there was the Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Bob Knight Ohio State team.

My grandfather remembered and talked about the 1920 Tris Speaker Indians, the unassisted triple play, the death of Ray Chapman, the only player ever killed in a baseball game.  Did you know Bob Feller threw an opening day no hitter — or that he was clocked in 1946 at Griffith Stadium at 107.6 mph?  Jim Brown is still mentioned enough that fans are still a little bit aware of what he did … but 5.2 yards per carry, 126 TDs in 9 years, or that he gained 1863 yards in a 14 game season, and won the rushing title 8 times, and, I believe, he’s still the only one to average over 100 yards per game for his whole career?

To me, being a fan isn’t about longing for a winner, but about the players and the teams of each era — it’s Joe Tait shouting “Bingo!” and Turkey Jones flipping Bradshaw (or Brian Sipe wandering around the field in a daze after Lambert pounded him), and Sam McDowell facing Harmon Killebrew in the 9th inning and taking his full windup, letting the runner on first steal 2nd, then 3rd, and striking out Killebrew on three pitches, or it’s even a game I recall against the Red Sox where George Hendrick was the 4th or 5th batter due up in the 9th and you knew if only he’d get up to bat — and he did drive in a run! 

It’s Rutigliano wanting to know if Ozzie had a big ass, so he could convert him to tight end.  It’s even Bill Cowher, special teams coach, being so upset an opposing punt returner signaled fair catch and then ran with the ball that Schottenheimer had to keep sending him away from yelling at the officials who threatened 15 yards if Marty couldn’t keep that “nut” away from them.  It’s Bernie drawing plays in the dirt, too — and both the hail mary pass the Browns lost on to Minnesota and the one Couch threw to Kevin Johnson against New Orleans for their first expansion team win.  What it’s not is Braylon Edwards and eventually probably not even LeBron James — those who pass through on their way to greener pastures.

And it’s those like my father, a few years before he passed away in 2001, going to an Indians spring training game down in Florida, and meeting his boyhood hero, Bob Feller, who autographed a baseball for him … which he gave to me.

It’s the teams and the players, not winning or losing … although, remember when Northcutt was the only guy on the one side of the field and Dawson kicked it that way and he got the onside kick?  Unbelievable!

………………….

GW

What does it mean to be a Cleveland sports fan?  It means remembering all the good bad and indifferent teams that have been put on the field, the court or ice in the last 48 years and caring about every last one of them.  It means having your heart which you wear on your sleeve stomped on again and again and still coming back for more.  It means being tough and enduring other’s scorn and insults and letting them bounce off because you love your teams, right or wrong in victory and defeat.
 
It means watching the Browns get stolen out from under us and replaced with a pretender that only now is beginning to resemble a team and still supporting them no matter how painful.  It means going to Indians games in the ‘60s, ‘70s, & ‘80s at the old stadium and having your own section to sit in with your own vendor, crashing the vacant seats besides you to try to start a rally.  It means watching Birdies Rocket in the Cleveland Press arcing towards the sky in July then crashing and burning in September and with it your hope for a pennant.  It means suffering through: The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, Red Right 88, Northcutt’s playoff drop, Jose Mesa not being able to get one last out and David Justice breaking our hearts.  It means hoping and praying that maybe THIS will be the year.
 
But it is also the joy when our teams do well.  Beating the Steelers and the Giants on national TV, watching Howard Cosell eat crow on a Monday night when we whipped the invincible Cowboys, Omar and Robbie turning a double play, The Rock, Andre, Joey B, Pronk and a host of others launching a ball into the stratosphere, Eddie Murray’s 3000th hit, staying up until the wee hours to see Tony Pena bring home our first post season win since 1948, Jim Brown sweeping around end, Paul Warfield catching a pass in traffic, Josh Cribbs & Flea Roberts taking one the distance, Walter Johnson, Jerry Sherk & Shaun Rogers smashing a QB, Bernie throwing sidearm, Brian Sipe jumping up to see over his linemen, Mark Price shooting a three, Larry Nance dunking over Manute Bol, Nate Thurmond swatting away another shot.  The Miracle of Richfield, the entire ’95 season when Manny made Eck say WOW, the ’64 championship game the first game I ever attended, The Kardiac Kids, 10 cent Beer Night, raising the Central Division Champions pennant over Jacobs Field.
 

It means getting up every morning and surfing the net to see the latest news, checking player stats and reading every story and blog you can find about your teams.  Freezing your behind off at an April doubleheader down at old Muni, baking in the August sun in the bleachers and dreaming that one day you would see October baseball in Cleveland.  Going to training camp at Hiram, Lakeland and Berea thinking this will be the year.  Going to a fight at the old Arena and watching a Barons hockey game break out.  Hating everything that is Black and Yeller and the inbreeders who wear it, watching Turkey Jones plant Bradshaw, booing the Ratbirds and their satanic former owner, laughing at the Bungles and their rap sheets.  Proudly wearing your Indians & Browns gear to other cities and suffering the slings and arrows of abuse from the unwashed and ill-informed that inhabit them.  It means being proud of your city and your teams even if our river did catch fire and not letting a front running, narcissistic 25 year old punk who dumped on the whole city upset you.  To be able to say F you world, I’m from Cleveland and I’m proud of it!

………………………..

Great job by these three and all of our entrants.  Much more tomorrow….on these reflections and more.

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