Things that will happen before a Cleveland team wins a world title in anything.

[HughBeaumont]

Christ, this is just embarrassing.

Long ago, back when the Browns were good, the Plain Dealer asked "What do you think the Browns NFL championship prospects look like?"

One person's response that has stuck with me for over 15 years stated "I don't think a team from Cleveland will ever win a championship".

I think he's going to be right.

I mean, it's truly looking like 44 years and counting of zero rings. Possibly 45. The Cavs, after getting thoroughly embarrassed this game and series, have no cap room and no draft picks; blame that on horrible trades by the previous GM and the current one paying mediocre and never-were players top-shelf cash. Short of an off-season miracle to get LeBron some legitimate and night-in-night-out HELP, we're stuck with this brick-wall of a team for at least another two years, with vastly improving Chicago waiting in the wings and a Spurs team that will still have three players you cannot stop.

The Indians? Please. They can't even beat the goddamned Reds or Royals. You cannot lose to forever-basement teams and be expected to be taken seriously.

Don't even get me started on the orange-and-shit mess of our "football team", which inexplicably has one of the worlds largest fan-bases and sells out every game in mostly sub-zero weather. All it tells me is there are more masochists and depressed drunks in this city and this planet than are being counted out loud.

It's just phenomenally depressing to be from the most continually snake-bitten sports city in history, with nothing but more heartbreak and near-misses in the future. Some other team will always always ALWAYS have the missing piece of the puzzle that we never seem to have. I really thought this would be the year this stupid curse finally ends, but as usual, I was wrong and let down yet again.

[H2O Man]

1. Other.

"Hang On Sloopy" is re-issued by the McCoys, and reaches #1.

[HughBeaumont]

2. I'm FROM Ohio and I'm sick of that song.

I'll bet the McCoys wish they never recorded it.

Cleveland teams are so lethargic, we half-claimed the Buckeyes when they won the NC in 2002.

[H2O Man]

3. My children

have come to hate it. I still play it, from time to time. I have a version that Jimi Hendrix recorded in Europe that they find particularly offensive.

[H2O Man]

6. Paging Trumad:

What was Dorothy Sloop's middle name?

[devilgrrl]

4. The Buffalo Bills will win the Super Bowl

:silly:

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Cheney admits crimes and Bush admits errors

Talk about the impossible.

How about the Pope becomes Presbyterian?

[Auggie]

7. ALL OF THE ABOVE. And whatever gets posted below.

[HughBeaumont]

8. Schadenfreude or just hate LeBron/Cleveland in general?

[Auggie]

9. I grew up in Cleveland and would love to see them win a championship.

I suppose it underscores just how difficult it is to get all those pieces of the puzzle in place. Luck, it would seem, is one of those pieces. Aside from winning the LeBron lottery, Cleveland hasn't seen much of it lately. Maybe it's a small market curse.

[HughBeaumont]

10. They WILL win a title, just not this year.

LeBron is just too good a player NOT to win a title. He isn't like one of those guys that already peaked.

As for the other two teams, sheeeeeesh. I'm losing hope in a hurry. The Tribe is doing their usual June Swoon against basement teams like the Reds and Royals and I really don't think the Browns are EVER going to be worth a dime. If it ain't bad management that's killing them, it's bad luck.

[Auggie]

14. LeBron's title may not necessarily come via Cleveland.

In a few years he could (more like, will) be somewhere else. He needs a supporting cast. I wouldn't blame him for leaving.

[HughBeaumont]

15. I don't think he'd build a mansion the size of a mall here if his intent was to leave . . .

He knows how important he is to this city. He made the finals, so he and Dan Gilbert know it can be done. Getting over that hump is going to be an even greater issue with no cap room and expensive dead weight like Ira Newble, Donyell and E-Slow on the bench.

I think the issue is that it seems their goal was only to MAKE the Finals. I don't think it was that strong of a goal to WIN the Finals, which is why they're all "well now that we're here, what do we do?". Many even said they were a year away; that he still didn't have a reliable go-to guy at his side.

I think they may have found their future "Parker" in Daniel Gibson. Now all they need is to somehow get a "Ginobli". Could it be Pavs (he's still very young and from what people say, you haven't even seen 50% of his game)? Could it be Varejao?

Oh yeah, on my way home, I saw David Robinson in Tower City. DAMN that guy's tall. The only ones who I saw in person that were taller were George Muresan (at Tower City) and Zydrunas, who lives about half a mile away from me (obviously, his house = about 10 of mine).

[Auggie]

19. Maybe... but many athletes live near family while playing in other cities.

And how long does regional loyalty really last? Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez were offered enough money by the Indians to be set for life, yet each left for teams that offered them a better chance of winning a championship. How long do you think James will last in Cleveland if Cavs management can't give him support? He'd be wise to move on, IMO.

[El Supremo]

11. In Cleveland, every failure has a name

The longest civic losing streak in North American major-league sports is now in jeopardy.

The city of Cleveland last celebrated a major sports title on Dec. 27, 1964, when the Browns upset the Baltimore Colts in the National Football League championship game.

In the more than four decades since, the Indians once took a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, while the Browns endured three of the more painful playoff losses in NFL history.

But no major Cleveland professional team has won another championship.

Those teams have played 123 combined seasons since the Browns' 1964 title, making Cleveland the hardest-luck sports town in the United States.

Philadelphia, with 96 straight titleless seasons, ranks a distant second.

On Sunday night in San Antonio, the Cavaliers lost Game 2 of the NBA finals and trails, 2-0, in the best-of-seven series. If Cleveland's streak is going to end this month, it will have to involve an upset as big as the Browns' victory over the Colts.

read the rest at >>> http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/11/sports/CLEVELAND.php

[HughBeaumont]

12. At least half of the misfortune is the result of idiotic management decisions.

Here's just one of many, MANY examples, but one that directly affects them today:

In the 2001 NBA draft, the Cavaliers made the unbelieveably intelligent choice (in their mountain high EIGHTH pick) of an unproven high-schooler named DeSagna Diop, currently averaging a whopping 2 points on the Mavericks bench. Here were the available players they passed up (drum roll please):

Joe Johnson.
Richard Jefferson.
Zach Randolph.
Gilbert Arenas.
Gerald Wallace.
Mehmet Okur, if your need was a big.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAND to add major insult, the guy who's currently burning the hell out of the Cavs' defense, one Tony Parker.

Grrrrrrrrreat scouting job, Cavaliers management.

[HuskerDU]

13. 'They're gonna find intelligent life up there on the moon

And the Canterbury Tales will shoot up to the top of the best seller list, and stay there for 27 weeks. And the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league!'- Cubs in Five by the Mountain Goats

Misery loves company my friend- here's to a Cubs/Indians WS!:toast:

[HughBeaumont]

16. Have they hung Bartman yet?

I felt so horrible for that guy. That's something you see in a sit-com.

The Cubs need to get their shit together and the Indians need to stop playing down to shite teams and learn how to play in June.

[HughBeaumont]

17. Great offensive showing, CAVES.

34 points between the Big Three and you still lose. Damn.

If anything, it teaches Potato to get an offensive coach, get an offensive PLAN. You have the most explosive offensive player in the league and you don't even use him all that well. This is ridiculous.

[leftwing9]

18. I know I'm not being a good, fatalistic, Cleveland sports fan by saying this...

...but how good would the Indians be if baseball had a salary cap?

What if that big right-handed bat that we need behind Hafner was Manny Ramirez?

What if Kevin Millwood was pitching every fifth day instead of Jeremy Sowers?

What if the Tigers hadn't been able to buy up I-Rod, Magglio, and Todd Jones?


But in any case, the Indians really need to develop consistency and get rid of Wedge, and they'll get better.



The Cavs may have no $ room or draft picks, but so many of them are young. Gooden, Pavlovic, Varejao, Gibson, and of course LeBron are all in their mid or early twenties. Those five alone would make a good starting five in about two years. I'm worried about the Bulls too but ostensibly we have a plan and dramatically altering it to stop another team would screw things up.




The Browns I have little hope for. Kellen is the only one who wants to dominate.




I do like our GMs in all three sports.