Several cities have myths about curses that affect a certain sport or certain team of theirs. Cleveland is the only city I know of whose fans believe its entire sports industry—every single team—is cursed. The Indians have not won a World Series since 1948. The Browns last won an NFL championship in 1964; they have yet to play in a Super Bowl. The Cavaliers appeared in the NBA Finals for the first time in 2007 but did not win a single game. Cleveland is a town where fans ache for a victory but rarely expect it. (As I write this, the Indians are down 5-0 against the Detroit Tigers in the 5th inning.)
I don’t believe that I have ever met someone from outside the Cleveland area who identifies as a Cleveland sports fan (indeed, I’m struck by the virulence often leveled against our current best team, the Cavs). I know of Yankees fans with no New York connections and Lakers fans who have never been to Los Angeles. The reason Cleveland has few or no adopted fans is that no one would choose to put themselves through the agony Cleveland fans experience every year. In the last year alone we witnessed the epic collapse of the Browns, Orlando’s three-point freak show that sank the Cavs, and a current Indians season that can best be summed up by noting that the 5-0 lead the Tigers had one paragraph ago has grown to 8-0. We need not worry about fair-weather fans because there is no fair weather in Cleveland sports.
So why not pick new teams out of a hat? Why not become a “fan” of more successful franchises? Because, put simply, sports are not mere entertainment. Granted, we all enjoy good athletes and good teams putting on a good show. That’s why I watch championship games after my teams have been knocked out of contention. But Cleveland teams—particularly the Browns, as Cleveland is primarily, I believe, a football town—are a reflection of the city. In the first half of the twentieth century, Cleveland was an industrial powerhouse, a progressive hotbed, and one of the five largest cities in the country. It had even produced a U. S. president. During this time, its sports teams were feared in a manner becoming of a respected metropolis. The Browns won several championships and even the Indians had two World Series wins under their belts.
No Cleveland team has won anything since 1964. That decade also marked the city’s slide in prestige as racial unrest, deindustrialization, and environmental embarrassments began to take their toll. The story of its sport franchises since 1964 has been the story of the city itself: uncertain stumbling between periods of hope and despair, promise and regress. As each new season dawns and Cleveland teams begin anew the quixotic quest to bring a title to Cleveland they are merely reflecting the city’s larger search for redemption, its bid to earn again the respect that’s been lost, and its hopes of finally finding an escape from “The Mistake on the Lake.” So I would vigorously disagree that a national team represents a country better than a local team represents a city.The composition of the team is not the key; it does not matter that most players are not from the city they represent. It is nice that Lebron James is from Akron but it is not essential. To illustrate this, I want to step back to the darkest day in Browns history. In late 1995, the owner of the Browns, Art Modell, announced that he was moving the team to Baltimore. A great deal of litigation followed but in the end:
. . .Cleveland accepted a legal settlement that would keep the Browns legacy in Cleveland. . . Modell would in turn be granted a new franchise (the 31st NFL franchise), for Baltimore, retaining the current contracts of players and personnel. There would be a reactivated team for Cleveland, where the Browns' name, colors, history, records, awards and archives would remain in Cleveland.
They took the team's infrastructure, players and all, to Baltimore and called it the Ravens. For three years, the city of Cleveland had no active football team. But what ultimately was important was that the Ravens are not called the Baltimore Browns. The team is ours; it belongs to our city. Its name, its history, its colors are us. Modell could take all of our players and personnel but he couldn’t take our team.
The point here is not that someone can’t root for a team that hails from another city or that one can only truly enjoy a game if it happens to involve the home team. Rather, I’m positing that the home team fandom is in a league of its own. Admiring the technical prowess of a team or liking the players of a particular team on a personal level can never match the sheer emotional content, the deep personal significance of cheering for your city. Sports may seem like a diversion from everyday life but they are really a shift in focus from our individual lives to the life of the city. I doubt adopted fans would ever spend 45 win-less years behind several unsuccessful teams, through the lows and the lower lows, bearing the agony, depression, and anger every season of the year. That’s why Cleveland fans are among the best in the world (and the rowdiest).
Final Score: Detroit Tigers 10, Cleveland Indians 1
3 comments:
Nice one, Stanek. And you have actually reminded me of something that I, as a writer, always try not to forget-- to use the right word. When I said "sports don't matter," what I should have said is "sports shouldn't matter," because on the face of it 22 guys kicking a ball around should in theory not affect peoples' everyday lives. But it does matter, otherwise you wouldn't have people stabbing each other/becoming godfathers to each others' children for wearing a certain shirt. Sports, like anything else in the world, has gained meaning because we've put meaning into it-- like you wrote, Cleveland sports matters deeply in Cleveland for historical and social reasons, just like I'd imagine Detroit sports matter deeply in Detroit. Not being from a sports town, it's sometimes a little difficult for me to understand why people care so very much, but if I transpose it to, say, a city's cultural life-- is Portland a better city than Seattle, etc.-- I can sort of see where people are coming from.
I do find it very interesting that city > country in your argument, however. In my experience, however much rival cities might dislike each other, they 'dislike' other countries more. Granted, I'm mostly going off the Olympics and countries in the World Cup that aren't England.
I think you've hit on why soccer vs. American sports is a bit of an apples-oranges comparison. Take European (national) soccer teams. They represent political entities that, while once bitter rivals, are fusing economically, bleeding together culturally, and are left scrambling to protect their proud histories by hating on immigrants in a manner that would do an American Minuteman proud.* How is a patriot to keep the old hatreds (or, in the case of certain nations, the inflated sense of self-importance) alive? Sports, of course! Ditto for soccer-loving countries that were formerly under the yoke of said European countries.
As an American, of course, I couldn't care less about the vestiges of European--or post-colonial--animosities that play themselves out in "football" "matches." As a Clevelander**, I'm more interested in defending my city from a cacophonous crowd of nation-wide hecklers. Or, more accurately, supporting our squads of intercity warriors as they travel the nation defending the city's honor. Go team!
*Perhaps a bit of hyperbole.
**Regardless of where I happen to live.
I would have to agree that it means more to a sports fan if he or she cheers for a team from the town they were born. However, there are exceptions like Miami Heat, LA Lakers, and the Patriots where you either have star players or the teams winning championships more than other teams. The best sports fans are loyal, passionate, dedicated regardless of the team they choose to root for.
http://www.fanranker.com
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