I have been a Cleveland native for a long time since 1991 to be precise.....
I have been a good follower of Cleveland sports... Cleveland Browns (Football), Cleveland Indians (Baseball team) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (Basketball).....
During the early nineties, I was an avid fan of the Cleveland Cavs.... unfortunately for me and the CAVS, the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordon and his croonies (Pippen and Rodman) stood in our way .... although we did have some great times with Mark Price, Dougherty and Nance...... (Elango am I taking you down memory lane?) it just wasn't enough to hold my interest.... and my interests shifted to Baseball.... Initially had an aversion towards baseball for the obvious reason - cricket ofcourse.... but was kind of forced into following the Cleveland Indians.... why forced? well, during my early career with Cap Gemini, I was working with a team which had this Cleveland Indian discussion after almost every meeting.... and I couldn't contribute for jack..... anyway once I got into it... baseball turned out to be, not bad at all.... but even Baseball wasn't my saviour either.... instead of retaining the good players, the management traded them off and called each year a team building year.... we lost great players like Albert Bell, Loftner, Manny Ramirez, Sebathia to Chicago and Boston etc....
Amidst all this we had the obvious Art Modell situation which Elango and G Srinivas talked about in one of the earlier email threads. I am probably the only Clevelander who kind of supports Art Modell.... Art, the owner of Cleveland Browns( football team) had this old dingy football staduim which he leased to the Cleveland Indians to hold their baseball games... The city decided to build a new stadium for the baseball team.... they also decided to build a new arena for the Cleveland CAVS but when Art asked for a new stadium for his team, the city refused since Art wanted not only the stadium built but also wanted the keys to the stadium... basically wanted to own everything including Parking, concession stands, merchandize stands, ticket sales etc etc... city didn't agree.... he threatened to move his team, city folks called his bluff and guess what - he did move the team overnight to Baltimore and named them Baltimore Ravens. And what is ironical is, the city did build a brand new statdium for the new team after Art left Cleveland.... wonder why? Art would have loved to own the Browns franchize but for the uproar of the fans.... It is the only case (I could be wrong) in NFL where a team moved but couldn't take the name along.... Anyway, the Cleveland franchize lost football season for many years while they built the so called expansion team. And for the records, I think Belichick is a great coach and Bernie Kosar was an overrated QB who did not perform.
Then all of a sudden....I heard about this high school player from Akron who was deemed the next Michael Jordon..... he was awesome.... Cleveland CAVS got him in the NBA draft..... a homeboy from Akron (Akron is 20 miles away from Cleveland) who joined the CAVS and brought new hopes to me and all the other fans.... Yes I am talking about the one and only Lebron James !!!! And Guess what he does -- Self proclaimed King of Cleveland leaves Cleveland to become the Chump of Miami. Go figure !!! If he really thinks he can share the limelight with the other two stars, he and the fans of Miami are surely mistaken and have another thing coming..... My proclaimation -- I don't know how but within 2 years, the trio will breakup.... Lebron's ego is too big and he cannot share the limelight.... You think Art Modell is the most hated man in Cleveland, not even close.... that title now goes to Lebron James !!!
So thats my history of following Cleveland sports.... ever hopeful but always disappointed. :-|||| Since 1964 (for me since 1991) when the browns won, I don't think Cleveland has ever won any championship... so the pathetic, dissappointed sorry ass fans of cleveland including moi are taking solace in Veeramani's achievements.... Veeramani is a desi (abcd) and she resides in the same suburb of Cleveland as I do..... North Royalton Ohio. What did she do, you ask ? Well she brought home a championship - Scripps Spelling Bee Champion for the year 2010 Yippeee !!!!! Shows how desperate we guys are in Cleveland, doesn't it?
GO Veeramani !!!! :-) :-)
Author:
Mr. Bharani
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