Indians 5 Rangers 2: Ding Dong! The streak is dead!
June 12, 2013USA shuts out Panama 2-0 in front of special Seattle crowd
June 12, 2013I feel like we’ve said this every year for a while now, but I can’t think of a worse time in Cleveland sports.1 I’m really not going out of my way to dwell in the negative here. I think there are some good things going on in all three Cleveland sports teams right now. I think the Browns have a decent young roster that might surprise us all if coached up properly this season. I think Byron Scott lost the Cavaliers, but I think with their positioning this off-season and all Chris Grant’s “assets” there’s a really good chance for a positive makeover year-over-year. Lastly, the Indians are mired right now in a nearly whole-team slump, but they’ve turned over a lot of those veterans that have been dogging Indians fans for much of the past five summers. All that being said, and without any of that “Look at us and respect us for our suffering!” clamor, it truly couldn’t get much worse, right?
Let’s look at the negative streaks fans have endured in all the sports recently.
The 2012 Cleveland Indians had an 11-game losing streak, 9-game losing streak, 6-game losing streak, and a 5-game losing streak all in the same season. Nearly 20% of the MLB season was spent slumping hard in Manny Acta’s last year in Cleveland.
The Cleveland Browns start 2012 with five straight losses. They also ended the season with three straight losses as Pat Shurmur was shown the door and Randy Lerner sold the team.
The Cavaliers had a 6-game losing streak, 4-game losing streak, 5-game losing streak, 6-game losing streak, 10-game losing streak and a 6-game losing streak all in the same season. That’s nearly half the season spent in pretty exceptionally bad streaks.
The Indians brought in the most exciting manager hire of my lifetime as an Indians fan, turned over the roster pretty dramatically, and were mired – until last night – in a pretty exhausting losing streak. Think about it. In 2013 so far the Indians have had two 5-game losing streaks and thankfully just ended an 8-game losing streak last night in Texas.
None of those streaks even mention off-the-field issues involving Jimmy Haslam, Quentin Groves, Chris Perez and Josh Gordon. The streaks also don’t mention LeBron James marching toward a second straight NBA title2 and Art Modell‘s old team winning the Super Bowl in memoriam.
I honestly am not looking to hold this up as a suffering badge of honor to the rest of the world. I’m not trying to make anyone feel sorry for me or the rest of Cleveland sports fans. I’m simply pointing it out because it truly is remarkable. I don’t think I’m even reaching hard to grasp at negatives. I think all of these are obvious and would slap any sports city in the face.
I hadn’t really stepped outside of the daily grind of being a sports fan to think about it, but between my conversation this week with Scott Raab and another one I had today with a friend of mine, it really hit me just how far down these teams have been for Cleveland fans in just the last 18 months or so.
Again, I’m not totally negative on the prospects for the teams either. Maybe that makes me stupid, but I believe the Indians still have a chance to get hot or at least warmer than their recent ice cold streak. I think the Browns coaching changes (and possibly the schedule) could make a real difference as to how we think about the current state of the Cleveland Browns this year. I also think the Cavaliers are going to make over the roster and play more competitively with Mike Brown’s defense this upcoming season.
Again, though, when you really put the losing out there all in one place with all the negative streaks it really is remarkable. Extraordinary even. I’m not even depressed as much as I’m in awe.
I have no conclusion really. Just thought I’d let you know where my head is right now as I continue to write articles and do podcasts.
57 Comments
I went on a canoe trip in the Allegheny mountains once with a bunch of friends. Everything that could go wrong, did, and it rained almost the entire time. At one point, when yet another downpour had begun, and lightning streaked across the sky, one of my buddies skooh his fist angrily at the sky and bellowed, “COME ON!!! IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!?!??!?”
5 seconds later…golf ball sized hail
Moral of the story…NEVER ask i things can get worse. They can. And often do.
And then what happened to your buddy Ned Beatty? It couldn’t have been worse than hail, was it?
The late 1970s-early 1980s were a really bad time as well. The Kardiac Kid Browns falling apart due to drug abuse, the Cavs under Ted Stepien and an Indians team that was always on the brink of moving.
But out of that rubble we got the Cavs teams of Daugherty, Price and Nance; the Browns of Bernie and Co. and, eventually (OK, a long eventually) an exciting Tribe team.
We could be on the brink of another era like that … you never know.
squeeeeeal!
another point to it is when was the last time it was fun to be a fan of any of these teams? they have all had their moments since these times below, but these were the last sustaining periods of joy IMO:
Browns – 2007 until the 2nd Bengals game DA gave away and the Colts giving their division rival Titans a pass to the playoffs in wk17.
Indians – 2008 until the season started and we started trading away our best players (that year and next).
Cavs – game5 vs. Celtics 2010
On the bright side the Bruins start the Stanley Cup Finals tonight! Sorry had to do it but these are definitely dark times for the rebellion I mean Cleveland sports. It’s actually worse but Scott hit upon enough to give the general idea. I feel most optimistic about the football team (owner excluded never thought I’d say that so soon again) while the baseball team should level out to where most thought and the basketball team, well, I’ll try and be pessismistic but the thoughts of selecting an injured/project at #1 along with rehiring an ex-head coach will be hard to overcome.
Quick side note but does anyone else have issues with viewing some stories using Google Chrome? When I tried this all I got was a blank white screen. It’s happened a few times now.
I agree, Tom. But to me the hopelessness, the dreariness fatigue, the cynicism is what makes this era way worse. Then, some really fun Cavs and Browns teams had just ended and we (naively) expected a quick rebound, at least for the Browns. The Tribe was another matter, but the “sleeping giant” cliche about tribe fans ready to turn out was justified: whenever those bad teams had a smidgeon of temporary success there would be a true fan excitement, a flash walk-up crowd at Muni of like 25-30,000. And then a quick collapse and back to emptiness. I remember excitement when the Indians acquired former high school phenom David Clyde from Texas, he pitched a great first game and peeps were actually thinking we stole an ace. And then …
Now, no one believes. The feces has been falling from the sky almost without pause. We’re no longer fans, we’re cringers.
http://youtu.be/uaqf4DsjWYU
I’m going on 13 years of marriage this year, and my wife has been a converted Cleveland fan for about 7 of those years (beginning with the 2006 Indians, though the creep started with Buckeyes football while I was at OSU), having never before cared at all about sports.
Two nights ago, as the Tribe was putting the ellipses on their 8th straight loss, she looked at me with anquish, weariness, and, frankly, scorn on her face and said, with bitter sarcasm, “Thank you for this.”
Hey, you’re welcome, babe!
My wife is from Kansas City and is slowly making the conversion too. We went to opening day for the Tribe in 2011. When Fausto was getting shellacked in sub arctic temperatures she turned to me and said “I hope you know how much I love you.”
at least KC has had some big-time droughts. my wife is from LA and grew up cheering for the Angels/Dodgers, Lakers, and USC.
A couple of years ago, Mrs. O accompanied me to a Browns/Ravens game in Cleveland in December. You can imagine how that went. I think she said something to the effect of “never again.”
There probably needs to be a support group for these poor, dear women.
comments-RSS doesn’t work for me in chrome and sometimes it picks the mobile version of the site even on my desktop. not sure why Disqus doesn’t like chrome, but there do seem to be some issues, so I just use Firefox for this site.
when that is translated to “female” it says, “you will pay for this. in 6 months when you are least expecting it”
man, I remember people getting excited and trying to start an Andy Allanson ROY campaign. not that it had any merit, but there was legitimate hope regardless of circumstance back then.
True story: I know a guy that was struck by lightning. TWICE.
After the first, he had to think his bad luck had run its course . . .
Cleveland fans are never willing to walk away from the franchises, so the team owners never feel any urgency to put a winning team out on the field because the money will be coming in regardless. There’s a reason why the most popular Cleveland team has only had one mediocre season in the past decade, while the team that came closest to winning a title is the one that (a) fans would walk away from, and (b) had an owner that actually understood that he needed a winning team to make money.
Whenever I’m watching a Cleveland debacle…er…game (which isn’t too often, as I live in Massachusetts), whenever I call out to the TV for someone to do something (“Shoot it!” “Throw it!!” “Take Jimenez out of the game, he’s terrible!!!!”) my wife calmly turns to me and asks “Is that what they should do?” When I answer “yes,” she will say “Then they won’t do it. Because it’s Cleveland.”
It’s like she KNOWS….
see, she thinks she knows. if she were “from Cleveland” then she would know it doesn’t matter what they do; it’ll be the wrong decision.
How I long for those halcyon days when we were good and then we’d get our guts ripped out in the playoffs and I’d lie on the couch in the fetal position for a week and wallow in depression. Ah, those were the days. Good times.
after the second one, I hope he started buying lottery tickets
Does he have an electrifying personality?
I use chrome, firefox and IE depending but thanks. It’s working now so who knows.
Great game last night Dodgers vs Dbacks!
Cavs-Celts Game 6 was the last playoff game for any of the teams. That’s a little nuts considering it’s been 3 years.
Halcyon – nice!
Actually, quite the opposite. I only knew him very briefly, in the context of pre-deployment before going to Iraq, but he was very quiet, and had a strange, far-off look (wonder why?).
Needless to say, he didn’t make it very far through the pre-deployment screening. Apparently, the Army figured he’d seen enough. (And frankly, who really wanted to be in a squad or vehicle with that guy?)
The off-field stuff exacerbates the situation, too. Haslam’s company gets popped just months after he buys the team, it’s comedic in a tragedy way…all we can do is be negative, cynical and dreary in response. I hate it…I hate the attitude and how aggrieved the ‘whoa is us’ types get about CLE sports. I’m certainly a little apathetic these days, and wonder which of these franchises will give fans something to real to cheer about.
Nor am i looking forward to 2014 when the “50 years without a you-know-what” narrative emerges. If people are crying in their beers now, just wait 6 months.
I think it only feels worse now because it is currently happening in the here and now.
If we were to go back to that time period and if the Internet was around back then, I believe we would be having this same conversation.
From 1973 to 1985 the Browns had a single legitimate playoff appearance that ended in a bitter defeat and a lot of bad years in there. Sound familiar?
While he wasn’t facing federal indictment, the NBA was practically ready to take over the Cavs because Ted Stepien was so incompetent as an owner.
And the Tribe was always bouncing from one plan to the other – look we have good hitters! (But no pitching!) No wait, we have good pitching! (But no hitting).
I agree that things are tough now, but there are a lot of similarities to some other times in Cleveland sports history.
Just not so sure the current times are the darkest they have ever been. Although it certainly feels that way at times.
Well there would have never been a dull moment so there was always that!
50 years…dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
On the bright side I just dropped a 191 word score on someone in WORDS WITH FRIENDS. IF YA SMELL WHAT DA ROCK IS COOKIN’!!!!
“Dull moments” wasn’t a huge problem.
I could respond with a treatise, containing lots of examples, but can’t spare the afternoon. Limiting myself to this: The “Miracle at Richfield” is a fallacy. The big deal was the astonishing fan reaction and noise – it was a reaction to the general drought of winning. Cleveland was hardly a bastion of NBA interest; the Cavs were an interesting step-child, and didn’t have that much bigger a fanbase than minor-league and WHL hockey then.
Here’s my point: the fans were waiting to explode for something. It’s different now. Too many wounds, too much salt poured. There’s a point we reached a critical mass of scar tissue – I think that point was The Decision – that’s brought us to this Scoff First place.
Mrs. _Pat grew up rooting for the Redskins, Os, and Bullets/Wizards. She feels my pain (except for those 3 Superbowl wins for the Skins during her lifetime, which I readily tell her excludes her from being on the same level as my own sports misery).
Gotcha.
Definitely a different time now and having an additional 30-plus years of angst has not made the situation any better.
I remember that dude. An A.J. Pierzynski attitude without the talent. Like Jody Gerut later, a couple months of real rookie promise and then Fizzle City.
Been there. Was throwing myself around during the Browns-Jets OT playoff game. Couldn’t eat after The Drive – felt like my guts were ripped out for almost a week. Champagne bottle literally in my hand ready to open in the 9th inning of game 7, 1997. Good times.
Nothing compared to my reaction to The Decision – disgusted with him, disgusted with myself for tying my happiness to sports in general and a manipulative, mentally stunted jock in particular. Actually, I should thank LeBron. He gave us a certain clarity about the fan-athlete relationship. Wait, what were we talking about?
Oh, so you want to wallow in The Decision a little more? Hey, I’m more than happy to help.
I knew FOR A FACT that James was not going to leave Cleveland based on my own irrefutable logic — to wit, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could possibly be so cruel, callous, and clueless as to tease us like that for weeks and then actually dump us. No human being could ever do such a heartless, inconsiderate thing. It was inconceivable.
Then again, when the rumors that the Browns were moving first started floating around, I mocked them as conspiratorial delusions because that was inconceivable too.
I’ve got a lot to learn about conception.
it almost settled the question of who would win in a fight, Mark McGuire or Matt Williams!
not only 3 titles, but during the formative years (assuming you two are of similar age). those are the best (I’ve been told)
I still have the Tops “Top Rookie” card for him. I firmly believe it was in direct response to our attempted campaign (because he barely deserved a card, let alone a special mention).
http://www.sportsbuy.com/images/ordscans/new_thumbs/book/4773523.jpg
we just passed the 10year anniversary of our last Browns playoff appearance. and, we have had only 1 season with more than 6 wins since then. and only 1 more season with more than 5 wins. It’s crazy.
Poor Charles Nagy looked out of place.
Not to mention nearing 20 years since the Browns’ last playoff win in ’94 against the Pats. Good lord we could go on all day.
I was in knots about James leaving or staying right up to the morning of the Decision. A buddy sent me a text early that morning, saying the scuttlebutt (from Windy, I think) had James going to MIA. All the tension just sapped away. I had reached acceptance at that point.
Didn’t watch a second of The Decision, but followed the carnage on Twitter and F-book. I could not believe people congregated at bars to watch that shiz.
I too think the Decision was the breaking point for many fans. Not to stop following the teams, but to embrace apathy, and a “letting go” of sorts of any championship hopes anytime soon, if not for a lifetime. Not saying the majority of fans are like that, but that’s my sense from a good portion of us nowadays.
yeah, I said to myself no way, who would be so idiotic as to self-immolate in a national tv special of their own creation?