darn yankees
From today's Chronicle-Telegram:
The city is looking for its first World Series championship since 1948 and, as always, the Yankees stand in the way.
The Indians were 0-6 against the Yankees during the regular season and lost to them last time they faced each other in the playoffs -- the 1998 American League Championship Series.
Strangely, I remember where I was when that happened. I was a freshman in college, doing laundry. Back then, I would sit in the laundry room, reading or doing homework -- that is, until I realized no one in Darrow Hall was going to steal my clothes from the dryer, nor were any of my clothes particularly valuable or stylish. I distinctly recall sitting there on the gaudy orange folding table and listening to the game on my boombox, and I remember what a pointless game it was.
This plummet, coming after 1997's hotly contested World Series run with the Marlins, pretty well soured me on the Indians for a few years. It's probably hard to call me a "fair weather fan," since such a term requires being a bigger fan than I ever was to begin with, but I did get caught up in the post-Municipal Stadium Tribe fever back in the '90s.
I feel it happening again this season, so I went out and bought a 'division champs' t-shirt for the first time in 10 years. Cleveland sports fans are riding a bit of a high right now, what with the Indians clinching home field advantage for the playoffs and the Browns' recent win over the Ravens, bringing their season to an even 2-2 record.
Some might warn not to get too comfortable or optimistic, but frankly, in the realm of Cleveland sports fandom, there's no such thing as "pessimism"; it just is what it is. You take what you can get, and if you're a Browns fan, that usually involves some cheap watery beer thrown in for good measure.
Hence, I won't say I'm "pessimistic" about the upcoming tango with the Yankees, but I'll certainly buckle up and hang on for the ride. Enjoy the rest of your day in Cleveland, America's rock 'n' roller coast.
So there. I wrote a blog post about sports. I have a hard time believing it myself.
8 Comments:
I'm happy for Cleveland sports fans and all that, but I don't think I know anyone on the team except for C.C. Sabathia and Kenny Lofton. It's just been too long since the Indians had a viable team.
And I used to be a huge Indians fan - don't know if you knew that or not.
Though I haven't lived in Ohio for 58+ years I still root hard for the Indians and also the Browns.... we could use a miracle.
As far as the National League is concerned : GO DIAMONDBACKS !
Yay! Aunt Evelyn commented! :)
And Anne, here's a little visual guide for ya: Travis Hafner, a/k/a "The Pronk," is the one who looks like Vin Diesel; the manager Eric Wedge is the one who kinda looks like a younger Mike Hargrove; and Grady Sizemore is the one who looks 25. Because he is.
Er, uh, that's probably not quite what you meant, but there you have it. I'm a visual person.
If you think Clevelanders are excited, you should try living a few miles from Wrigley Field. Oy.
Holy crap, I hope we didn't use up all the magic tonight. 12 to 3, four homeruns?? My dad picked a good game to go to.
I don't think that Cleveland sports fans are pessimistic - more like realistic. My Dad is a prime example of the species. After years and years of believing in all 3 of our major teams, and getting his hopes CRUSHED year after year, my Dad has finally become a "realist" fan. He hopes for the best, enjoys watching the game, and takes our defeat in stride.
I think a large part of this turn in his fan-dom came with our family's advent with Mount Union Football. Unlike most of Cleveland, we have a "local" team that rarely lets us down. We can expect that every year, Mount will go to the play-offs, and only get "crushed" IF we either don't get to go to the Division III national championship or if we happen to lose said game.
I look forward to the Cleveland miracles, but my trust in sports lies solely on Larry Kehres (head coach at Mount).
I always prefer the total blow-out games, like Game 1 (just like Tom - I must get it from him) ;) but that Game 2 was incredibly exciting, wasn't it?
And the Yankees seemed like such sissies the way they couldn't deal with the bug infestation - especially Derek Jeter.
I agree about the sissy-ness of the Yankees and the Lord of the Flies. Our guys didn't exactly look happy about it (who would?) but they seemed to take it in stride. I saw Derek Jeter up at bat, and he kept trying to shoo the bugs away. While I don't blame him, I think it was pretty obvious to everyone after the first 2 attempts by everyone earlier that the bugs aren't going anywhere, and that the only solution was to towel off and apply some Off!
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