The Observer, April 22, 2005
Volume XXXVII, Issue 26
After five years, Cleveland fans still have no champion yet keep hope
Five years come and go quickly at college. As Ferris Bueller said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Wasn't LeBron James just at St. Vincent-St. Mary? Where's Omar Viz-quel? What hap-pened to Tim Couch? In case you missed it, I'm going to stop and look back at what's transpired in the last five years in the world of Cleve-land sports.
It's hard to re-member who was playing for the Cav-aliers five years ago. The names all seem to run together – Milt Palacio, Trajan Lang-don, Danny Ferry. After Mark Price and Brad Daugherty left, the franchise may as well have gone the way of the Rockers until last season, when a kid from Akron by the name of LeBron came along. (The Rockers, by the way, were a WNBA team that played in Cleveland at one time, but at some point in the last five years, were disbanded. Nobody is too sure when, and I am one of five people who still remember them. You now make six.) So this James kid arrived in town after some lucky lottery balls bounced Cleveland's way for once, and is a bona fide superstar. As I write this, the Cavaliers need some help to make the playoffs, but are assured their first .500 season in seven seasons, which, de-spite an atrocious second half of the season, is a step in the right direction. Cavaliers fans are most worried about missing the playoffs by a game and their superstar leaving via free agency in three years. These things are not horrible when you consider Cleveland basketball fans really had nothing to worry about five years ago, because they knew their team wasn't going to win so there was no point in getting worked up over it.
The Indians are an interesting case. The team has almost come full circle. During the fall of my sophomore year, I was in the stands as the team battled Seattle in the playoffs. After a fast start to 2002, the team faltered, and true rebuilding began. General Manager Mark Shapiro had a plan, however, and unlike so many "five-year plans" this one actually worked. (Just like my academic plan at Case!) OK, so maybe we're a little short of five years of rebuilding, but after a 6-8 start this year, the team may or may not fully contend this year. But I would be shocked if the team was not atop the Central Division in 2006. Of course, there will be no complaining from friends of the feathered if Shapiro's plan comes to fruition this season. While headed back to their former winning ways, the current personnel is different from the version of five years ago. Beloved shortstop Omar Vizquel, the final link to the glory years of the '90s, finally left before this season. Nonetheless, the new Tribe of young, promising players makes it seem that the next five years should be better than the previous half-decade, so Indians fans can't argue with that.
When it comes to football, maybe some things haven't changed all that much – in the first NFL Draft while I was at Case, the Browns selected third, picking Gerard Warren. This year, in the last draft of my college career, the Browns are again picking third. (During this draft, I can legally drink a draft, however.) This is not a good thing. (The team picking so early, not the beer.) My former sports editor summed the last five football seasons up pretty well: "There were a bunch of losses, then the Browns made the playoffs, then some more losses." In the spring of 2001, we were ushering in the Butch Davis Era. Last fall we ushered him out. (In the words of Harry Doyle, "Thank God!") Now, Romeo Crennel is the coach who is supposed to lead the Browns to the Promised Land. The team seems to have direction under Crennel and new GM Phil Savage, which is something, I suppose, but after a 4-12 season, getting pelted with snowballs in Pittsburgh at a playoff game during a Browns loss doesn't seem quite so bad. If two heads (Savage and Crennel) prove better than one (Davis) in running this franchise, nobody will be surprised. In order to win more games in the next five years than in the last five, the Browns need only to average six wins per season. But bettering Davis is not the goal here. Winning a Super Bowl is. The Browns are a ways off from that, but parity in the NFL allows for quick turnarounds, so excitement for the new regime is not unfounded.
I only wish that in these last five years I could have written about a team bringing a championship to Cleveland. Is it too early to start wondering if it'll happen in my lifetime? I hope to go to a championship parade down Euclid Avenue. I hope to celebrate with friends and strangers alike when our common bond, a Cleveland team, brings home a title. I hope to buy all the memorabilia that comes with winning a championship, from the tshirts to the Sports Illustrated commemorative book. I hope. I leave you with these words, courtesy of Andy Dufresne: "Remember, Cleveland sports fans, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
