Proud Cleveland Sports Fan and Here Is Why

I am a Cleveland sports fan. I lived in Cleveland for 18 years. I grew up in a small town one hour from Cleveland surrounded by Cleveland news and sports, so I am a lifer. So what,you ask? Well, kids, take a seat and let me explain to you why being a Cleveland fan has been so very important to all of us, who haven't seen a championship any of us can remember. The last championship Cleveland won was back in 1964.
Cleveland has been repeatedly beaten up in my lifetime for a varied amount of things. We have been called "The Mistake on the Lake", Loserville and all kinds of sundry names, some not appropriate to put in print. Being a Clevelander means you have real guts. It means when you say you are going to do something, people really expect you do it. It is the Heartland. Some folks from other regions have no concept of why being from Cleveland is so important or how we got the name "Heartland", until they go and spend time with people from Cleveland. We are stoic, sturdy people who lead with their heart and not their wallet or ego. Most folks where I come from are not rich, or insanely famous. There is no celebrity culture. The news people walk around town like everybody else and are expected to behave kindly to their fellow Clevelanders. I worked downtown when I was in my twenties. Everyday I would spot someone who I had seen a million times on TV growing up. They would wave and say "hi" as if I were their neighbor from across the street. One such person introduced himself to me and said how happy he was to meet me, because he had heard such great things about my teaching at the health museum. I stood stunned and humbled that this broadcaster even knew I was in the room. That is just one part of what being in Cleveland meant. Everybody counts in the Heartland.
I have followed sports in Cleveland since I was little. I will never say I am a die hard fan who watches every game. Sports to me is a social outing and a reason to throw parties on game days and Sundays. I went to Indians games, where in the old stadium, we drug in cold pizza from a box, sat 3 miles away from the field, smoking cigars and drinking beer. I went to Browns games that were so cold we took sleeping bags to hide under, keeping the high winds from the lake shore from freezing us to death. I went to Cavaliers games, when only half the seats were filled, the concession stands stood mostly empty and the only thing holding it all together was the fans who refused to believe that all hope was gone. I watched hockey games go from WHA, to NHL, to a farm league when we had a goalie who could not for the life of him skate backwards. As heartbreaking as it was to see hockey be reduced to an after thought in my hometown, I kept going, being the Clevelander that I am, hoping we would soon have a better team.
That is what being from Cleveland really means. We never give up or give in. When Art Modell took our beloved Browns team to another city, we fought back and got to keep our name. Nobody else has done that. When New York bullied us to get the Rock hall of Fame , we gathered and rallied and petitioned until we proved once and for all, Cleveland is the home of Rock-N-Roll.
When jobs left, corrupt politicians tried to ruin our city, and hard times fell directly on our heads, we have time and time again taken our city back. When the river burned, we cleaned it up. Most people just don't understand the resilience of the heartland. They just can't wrap their brains around how a city who has suffered so much could continue to hang on, but we get it. It has never been about fame, money or even winning. It has always been for the love of the town and the game. It has always been about neighbors, beating hearts and hope.
My Cleveland is the city of Hope. It was never a plum or what ever else ridiculous marketing strategy the shakers and movers wanted to make it. It has always been about folks helping each other, rooting for the home team regardless of ranking or status, proudly showing that not only have we not given up, we have the audacity to believe we can win.
If you don't anything else about Cleveland, know this:
We will never give up, on our teams, our city or the hope we have clung to for as many years as I have been alive and then some.
Cleveland fans are the best, most loyal fans you will ever see in your lifetime.
Clevelanders are not politically correct, because as the honest people they are, they feel no need to BS anybody for any reason. If you want the truth, go the heartland and ask the hard questions. Trust me, you will always find someone who will gladly tell you the truth, regardless of how distasteful it may be.
Cleveland has a simple mind set that if it doesn't happen this year, we always have next year and are willing to wait until we see our championship come. We will get it the old fashioned way, we will earn it.
We make no apologies for our temper, because of our patience we feel we have the right to show you exactly what we think if we feel we have been wronged. We are forever loyal to those who are loyal to us. Ask about a guy named Michael Stanley or the quarter back Bernie Kosar.
I know there are those critics who say we are ridiculous for our strong reaction to Lebron's announcement. The truth is most of us knew he was going, but the way he rubbed our noses in it is what caused the problem. We respect our sports stars and in return we expect them to respect us. That was not the case last night in the ego fest heard around the world. The good news for Cleveland is this is the exact thing that does not defeat us, but rather spurs us on to work even harder to get the ring we got left for.
That's the thing about being from Cleveland, you just can't keep a good city down.