I have been a Cleveland sports fan for virtually my entire life. Well, since I can remember being legitimately into sports. For a while, in the 90's anyhow, being an Indians fan was pretty great. The teams were consistently strong and even made the World Series a few times (yeah they lost but getting there means something right?). Ever since the 90's, however, being a Cleveland sports fan has been a dismal affair. I'll break it down sport by sport.
The Cavaliers have been one of the only bright spots in Cleveland sports in the past decade. It seems hard to remember that because Lebron felt the need to rip out our collective hearts and take a steaming dump on them. Things were abysmal before he got there, improved greatly to make the Cavs a relevant team with the addition of Lebron, then collapsed faster than James Gandolfini in a marathon after Lebron left. Once again, the Cavs are barely treading water in a pool of mediocrity. The Cavs did garner the first overall pick in the draft following the first season without Lebron, so it wasn't all bad. Kyrie Irving has had an awesome rookie season and is going to be a stud and Tristan Thompson has been decent as well. As a realistic Cavs fan, I was hoping the team would be competitive, but still be just bad enough to garner another early pick in the draft. Early in the season the Cavs were surprisingly competitive, going so far as to stay in the hunt for a low seed in the playoffs. Much like a zombie apocalypse, this was both thrilling and terrifying. Logic prevailed, however, and the Cavs exploded like the Death Star at the end of "A New Hope". We should be looking at another early pick in the draft. Hope on, Cavs fans, hope on! There's always next year!
Next we have the Indians. After falling into irrelevancy in the early 2000's, the Indians managed to sneak in a stellar run in 2007, I mean, "the year the must not be named." Sorry, I know saying that year out loud is taboo. There isn't a lot to say here. I love the Tribe and they have kept a steady routine of building up great players in the farm system, having them for a few years and then being forced to get rid of them for salary cap reasons. Not everyone can buy good teams, Yankees. As usual, a small glimmer of promise was shown last year when the Indians were in the hunt for the division for most of the season. That was until the Tigers decided they were done fucking around and hulk-smashed the division into a fine powder and then snorted said powder just to prove their dominance. Despite this, their is hope...and next year.
Finally, there is the pile of terrible named the Cleveland Browns. They are by far the most frustrating of the Cleveland franchises. They've had one playoff season (and one near playoff season) since their return in '99. Yet, every year, myself and other Browns fans cling to the foolish belief that the Browns will have a great draft or smart free agent acquisitions or trades to make the team better than awful. And every season ends the same. The Browns crash a freight train of disappointment directly into the fans hearts causing us to slowly, methodically, shit out bits and pieces of our soul until we're left as nothing but hollow shells that can only utter the words 'next year' upon seeing our vacant, dead eyes in the mirror. Fortunately, Browns fans have adapted the ability to slowly summon their souls back to their bodies through astoundingly blind optimism in the off-season. Speaking of which, I will say that Joe Haden has been a promising player and it looks as if the Browns are at least making an attempt to draft better (but after Butch Davis it's not that hard). I also can't help but feel the Browns will be better than they were last year. They have to be right?
It isn't easy being a Cleveland sports fan. The failures far outweigh the successes, but something keeps me coming back for more. Hey, I can see my reflection in the computer screen. Next year, baby!
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