I remember numbers 8, 7, and 5 through 1, and each one still stings. But when I get to number one, it's still a pain you can't even begin to describe - I still fill with a wistful, morose perspective, pondering what could have been if Fernandez hadn't committed that error...(which speaks to how much I love baseball, how much an Indians championship would mean to me, and how pathetic my life actually is).
*Sigh*...............
As is known to regulars of this blog, while I am a Cleveland Sports supporter through and through, the Indians are far and away my team of teams, and baseball the sport I love more than any other.
As many may also know, I am a broke graduate student living in New York city, which only worsens my financial situation.
That said, when looking at question #48 ("Which would you rather have? $5,000 [or] Your favorite team win a championship?") in this survey, I didn't think twice - "An Indians World Championship!" Then I remembered I'm broke, and I paused and thought, "well, would I rather have $5,000?" Upon further reflection, I came up with my answer.
No, I'd still rather see the Indians win the World Series. That's worth more than $5000 to me. I suppose if we were talking larger sums of money, I'd probably take the money, but I so desperately want to see my team win a championship, I could easily say "no" to $5000 (though, given that neither a World Series Ring nor the $5000 are likely to present themselves to me anytime soon, it's not a major concern).
I'd like to say, "but hey, at least I'm not materialistic!," but really, I fear I'm just pathetic.
And I'm OK with that.
JP Stormcrow pointed out two radically-different-yet-equally-startling things in this thread.
1) The Cleveland Indians' (1948) and Cleveland Browns' (1964) last championships are temporally closer to the founding of their respective leagues (1901 and 1950) than they are to today. (The Cavs have never won a title, so that eliminates them from this little game).
2) John McCain's birth-year (1936) is closer to Appomatix Court House and the end of the Civil War (1865) than it is to this year's election. John McCain: older now (72) than the abolition of slavery was when he was born (71).
Yikes.
Wally Szerbiak? Eh. (Though 13.1 is better than Larry Hughes - see below).
Ben Wallace, joining Zyndrunas Ilgauskas and Lebron James? Not Bad.
Extending Jamal Lewis' contract, giving the Browns a steady running back? Good.
Getting rid of Larry Hughes and one of the worst contracts in the NBA ($38.5 million for three years of 12.3 points per game)? WONDERFUL. This is hands down the best trade the Cavs have pulled since dumping Shawn Kemp on Portland (you're welcome, Erik).
I'm not making any unrealistic championship predictions, but given what the Cavs get by subtraction in this deal (no more Hughes, Newble's discontent, Drew Gooden's confounding lack of energy), where the Browns are, and where the Tribe is, it's not a bad time to be a Cleveland fan.
I'm pretty much too despondent to write very much write now, even though I saw this coming (my wife kept saying, "I think they're going to win tonight", but I said since Saturday night, "Boston's got this thing wrapped up" - I really loved and appreciated her optimism, but as a lifelong Cleveland fan, I knew better). Overall, as time passes, I'll be happy with this season, considering everything that actually went wrong for Cleveland:
-two of our five startes on the opening day roster didn't make it the season (Cliff Lee & Jeremy Sowers)
-despite the flops this year of Jesse Barfield, Andy Marte, David Dellucci and Trot Nixon, callups Asdrubal Cabrera, Franklin Gutierrez, Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis, and Aaron Laffey were unbelievably important in the second half of the season, and even Luis Rivas looked REALLY good in his few at-bats as a September callup.
-pitching was great, between our top 3 starters (even Paul Byrd got 15 wins), and the bullpen, while an adventure with Borowski, looks good with who we have for the future, especially Betancourt.
-the Tribe won 96 games despite Hafner and Sizemore having what is for them a terrible year in production.
But for the love of all that's good in the world.......if you'd told me we'd make it to the ALCS just two have our two top starters, Travis Hafner, Rafael Perez, Victor Martinez, Betancourt (last night), and several other players not show up for the series, stinking up the joint in ways previously inconceivable to the foolishly-hopeful Cleveland fans (like Charlie Brown with the football, somehow believing that this time was for real), and the fans who don't need any more suffering (thanks guys, but we already have the Drive, the Fumble, the Shot, Jose Mesa, and the NBA finals this year, not to mention the Buckeyes with Florida) something else (the 3-1 year, with "The Case of the Missing Aces"), well, I would have honestly passed. I bear no personal ill will to my Boston fans, but as a collective, they can go to hell (along with all the other cities that have won something in my lifetime - I'm looking in your direction, Philadelphia) - you have the Pats, you had the Celtics in the 80s, and you have this. Again. Meanwhile, it's been 60 years now (and counting) for the tribe, 53 for the Browns, 40+ for the Cavs, and no end in sight......
There are a lot of great things about the Cavs being in the finals (it's their first time in team history, which is always special; they came together well before anyone expected, as not one "expert" put them in the NBA finals; Lebron finally taking that big-time leap to super-stardom, both in playing and in leadership; the emergence of Daniel Gibson; the Cleveland-San Antonio matchup gets us away from this crappy "need" for it to be "big market" teams in order for the finals to be interesting; the opportunity to see how the best player in the world [Lebron] will do against what may be the best team in the world; etc.).
Brazil is loving the Cavs' arrival, too. Why? Because Anderson Varejão of the Cavs is the first Brazilian player to ever appear in the NBA finals. The globalization of basketball has been nothing but good for the sport, and Varejão's appearance marks another positive in the NBA's efforts to expand globally.
GO CAVS!!
As I've said before, we Cleveland sports fans don't really understand this "title" thing. It's something that seems like paradise, but since no Cleveland sports team has won a title in anything since the Browns won it in 1964 (pre-Super Bowl), the sheer ecstacy of winning a title is something I always wonder about when other teams win. I'll watch the celebration, the fans, and think, "I wonder what that must feel like". Not only do Cleveland teams not win titles; they periodically lose them spectacularly (Jose Mesa's masterful choke job in 1997; "The Shot" from Jordan; and, (enjoy, Lyrad) "The Drive" and "The Fumble").
Yet last night, for once, everything went RIGHT. A Cleveland team wasn't the victim of one of those legendary nights; it was the legend (in every good sense of the word). Will the Cavs win the title? Probably not. They may lose the conference finals (I would normally say, "of course they'll lose the conference finals," because I'm a Cleveland fan and I know how things work, but now, it seems, things are genuinely different). But that doesn't matter today - what matters is that, for once, everything went historically right, and people will talk about this game for decades to come.
Which is why the following quotation about Lebron James's unbelievable night last night makes total sense, explaining perfectly how bizarre it is to be a Cleveland sports fan and actually have
something go historically, LEGENDARILY, RIGHT for your team.
"If you're from Cleveland, you know what that meant and how it felt and what it was. Actually, if you're from Cleveland, you probably don't know what that meant or what it was."
