The Requisite Post About the Indians Drafting Tim Lincecum
November 2, 2010What Do We Want Exactly?
November 2, 2010Here was the situation. Game Five of World Series. Seventh inning. A scoreless tie. Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee, two former Cy Young award winners, battling in an epic display of pitching. The only question was which one of these two would blink first.
There are two on and two out. First base is open, and the man who put the knife in our hearts in 1997, Edgar Renteria, stepped to the plate. Renteria was the hottest Giant going, but Cliff Lee is Cliff Lee. He is fearless. So did Ranger Manager Ron Washington elect to call for four wide ones to the San Francisco shortstop? Of course not. Lee is his horse, so he let him face Renteria.
Even after throwing the first two pitches for balls, Washington let Lee continue with the at-bat. Catcher Benji Molina set up outside (as you can see in the photo), yet the ex-Indian left his cutter right over the middle of the plate. Renteria deposited the 2-0 pitch over the wall in left-center to give the Giants a 3-0 lead that they would not relinquish. He rounded the bases and into baseball lore for the second time in his 15-year career.
You all remember the first time.
When an ex-Indian who I still have a fondness (Lee)for gets taken down by maybe the biggest (or at least most important) Indian killer of them all (not Clew Haywood, Renteria), I can’t help but feel the sting of 1997 all over again.
The San Francisco Giants became World Champions for the first time since 1954, ending the third longest title drought in Baseball. The Cubs and the Tribe still lead that list. Sometimes I truly wonder if the drought will never end.
Did we miss out on our best shots in ’97 and ’07? Only time will tell. But for this city, can we just get one title? Just one?
I received an email with this sentiment from a good buddy of mine, a born and raised Clevelander this morning. “Why is no one bitter that EVERY major city has titles out the wazzu but us?” he asked me. After my father passed away in 2004, all sports losses were put into perspective. I’ve told this story before, but I literally worked myself sick (i.e. vomiting profusely) about 15 minutes after Renteria’s single glanced past Charles Nagy in ’97. That was before retiring to the shower, where I began to weep uncontrollably. That would never happen to me again because I know unfortunately know what real loss is.
But that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hurt. Think about the hours and hours we have spent reading, watching, listening, talking, and thinking about our local professional sports teams. After one gut-wrenching loss after another, only in our fair city do we have names for our epic collapses. Sure, some cities have maybe one they know “by name” like “the Buckner game,” but Cleveland has “Red-Right-88,” “The Drive,” “The Shot,” “The Fumble,” plus Jose Mesa and LeBron James quitting on the team and the city against Boston. And of course, now you can add “The Decision” to the names list.
I don’t mean to get you all down, Cleveland fans. In fact, I want you to join with me. When my friend said he can’t take it anymore, I had a different take. We have no choice as Clevelanders other than to embrace what and who we are. I am born and bred in this town and I am proud of it. I wear these losses and these disappointments as a badge of courage.
Only we, nobody else, can understand appreciate what we have gone through and what it is like to be a lifelong Cleveland sports fan. It has toughened us up and made us who we are today.
I for one, am proud every single day that I am Cleveland born and raised. It will happen for us one day. It will. Won’t it?
As for now, we are still Waiting For Next Year.
28 Comments
Good post… I think of it like this. We may constantly lose, but when we will, we will enjoy it so much more than any other city has ever enjoyed winning a championship. At least I will
We win at losing!
Nice post TD. Even though I no longer live in NE Ohio, I am a proud Clevelander. As for whether or not we’ll ever win a title? I just don’t know. That Indians team from 1997 should have been the team to break the losing streak – no one saw them coming and they got all the breaks to get into the World Series. When the forced a game 7, I thought for sure they’d win and they were right on the cusp. Never has a Cleveland team been closer to the promised land in my lifetime than that team. And I fear that never will a Cleveland team be closer again.
Cleveland fans are one of the few cities that have true fans, we get no bandwagoners, we get no trendy fans. One day we might when one of the teams get a championship, but until then we will all be faithful and love watching our teams, win or lose.
Great post.
It’ll happen….I’m 26 so I’m hoping I get plenty of time to see us win something.
I was hoping SF would win last night…that’s a team that’s been bad for a lot of years. I have less venom for Renteria than I do for Jose Mesa because of ’97. I was actually happy for the guy watching him get awarded the MVP, he seemed extremely humbled by the whole experience so good for him.
Teams like San Fransisco and New Orleans winning championships makes me feel like the light at the end of the tunnel may be getting a little brighter.
Your mindset is exactly why I root for all Cleveland based teams. I may be an outsider to all this, as I am from the Netherlands, but there is something beautiful about all the tragedy Clevelanders have been through. About the hoping, waiting, and then getting smacked in the face time and again. As #1 said, when the time comes, it should be one helluva party. You Clevelanders deserve that, more than anyone.
The 97 WS game 7 is one of my first sports memories. I was 10 years old (23 now) and I cried like a baby for the entire night. The next morning my mom made me go to school after getting pretty much no sleep. So I proudly put my Omar shirt on, Tribe hat on, and went to school.
When the time does come, I will be in downtown Cleveland for what should be an unreal party. Unless its the Browns, I already promised myself long ago that if they ever make it to the SB, I’d be there.
Doubt is creeping in. I’m only in my mid-30s but with the current state of Cleveland’s teams, I’m begining to wonder if I’ll live long enough to see just ONE. Crazy that unless you were born in the mid 50’s or before, you have no memory of the last Cleveland championship. It seems like this is overlooked a lot of times in the national media.
There’s no doubt, Cleveland is the reason
We drafted Lincecum, so we kinda won last night?
I already know the phone call. Its to my dad, and i just tell him, “we got one.” I can’t wait. That one will mean more than any additional ones combined.
uhhh…not to rub salt in an old wound and all, but why did Hargrove bring in Nagy for relief when even I knew he ALWAYS gave up a couple hits and runs early in ALL of his starts, then settled in? Very possibly one of the worst managerial decisions ever
One thing’s for sure. Those Cubs fans need to shut up. They may have the longest drought for a MLB team, but they’ve had championships for the Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks over the past 25 years or so…and that’s assuming that no Cubs fans rooted for the White Sox when they won.
Isn’t it amazing how a team with guys like Huff, Renteria and Ross all came together to win? I think so. None of these guys were good enough for the Indians btw.
The old saying “good pitching beats great hitting” was demonstrated once again. Bruce Bochy WAS an underrated manager. He can no longer be overlooked.
Was watching sportscenter this morning with my wife (pittsburgh native) and we both heard that Bonds said he felt happy for the fans of SF, that no city deserves it more.
I mumbled, “I respectfully disagree” and my wife just smiled as she has heard it from me before.
CC, Cliff, Fausto, and Big-Time-Timmy-Jim.
/Captain Hindsight strikes
Browns are the only shot we have since the NFL allows for parity. The Indians will never win one with the nickel/dime ownership. The Cavs will never sniff a title again, we blew our chance with LBJ.
I am 31, so I believe that we will get one in my lifetime.
Don’t get me wrong, I would be ecstatic if the Tribe or Cavs get one…but the one I want more than anything else is the Super Bowl. I have no problem admitting that I will cry like a little girl when that moment arrives.
Proud to be from Cleveland, but i CAN NOT wait to get the hell out of here.
Definitely proud. I’ve tried to explain it to people not from Cleveland, but its pretty inexplicable. It’s something that you have to buy into and experience, that’s the only way to feel the pride, feel something shining through all the disappointment and sadness. I think we’ll get there someday.
And I think it’s amusing that the future players that win that elusive title for Cleveland have no idea how revered they wil be in town for the rest of their lives. Never have to buy a drink again as they say.
Google – Being a Cleveland Sports Fan Makes Me a Stronger Individual
Join the revolution.
One day my friends, one day.
@19 10,000 pts for honesty!
@21 I don’t think many modern professional athletes care about legacies or being revered. They care about getting paid first, staying healthy second and then maybe winning a championship.
@TD – good post, but if you are going to list Cleveland sporting failures in a write-up about the Giants winning the WS, you might want to mention “The Catch”…sure have seen enough of the replay this week.
My Philly-bred almost-husband has memorized the stories. He’s watched the Browns DVD, can recite Major League line for line, heard my Cleveland relatives and neighbors tell their version of the tales… The Fumble, The Drive, The Shot, etc. He sees what I have gone through personally with the Cavs these past 4 seasons, with Lebron, with the 2007 Tribe… he has “witnessed” those losses. (I hate using that word) They’re more like demises, no? Decapitations, obliterations, a sucker-punch that you never regain your breath from.
But he doesn’t KNOW. Because he asks me: “If this bothers you so much, why do you still follow Cleveland sports?”
We here know why, don’t we?
Yep Boogey, that was my point man. I think after the fact those individuals would be shocked on a daily basis on how this city (more than most) would treat them for the rest of their lives.
Just look how most still adore the 90’s Tribe (despite all their personal shortcomings)and they never even won it all.
Nice post, although I get a little sick of reading these types of stories every time some other city gets a ring. Just one championship would take a huge gorilla off this city’s aching back. That’ll be a great day indeed.
Thankfully I was alive when the Browns won championships in the mid 50’s and ’64. I am not very optimistic that I will ever see another Cleveland championship in my lifetime given the current state of the cities franchises.
I hope one of them can prove me wrong but I think my fate is to be a long suffering fan.