Cleveland, Ohio.
The epicenter of flatulence. The place where hope is lost and players go to finish their careers in a tragic manner. It is a city doused with unfortunate circumstances regarding their beloved sports teams.
The Indians, Cleveland’s baseball team, were close to winning the World Series a good number of times after pulling it off in 1948, the most notable being their latest attempt a couple of years ago. They needed to win one more game to take the title, but they failed in three consecutive attempts (two of those games occurred in their home field) to the Chicago Cubs. They were so close yet so far.
For the Cavaliers basketball team, they had to play second-fiddle to the best teams in not just the Eastern Conference, but the NBA as a whole. Throughout their history, they were eliminated in the playoffs by the likes of the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, and New York Knicks. Like the Indians, they always attended the prom, but were never the prom king. Sure, their fortunes finally turned a corner when they won the NBA title in miraculous fashion against the Golden State Warriors in 2016, but even then, they again fell back to Earth as the latter unilaterally strengthened itself the next year to become the quintessential dynasty that fans all over the basketball spectrum have come to loathe.
In addition to their postseason woes, both teams fell victim to memorable sports moments in American history. For the Indians, it’s the Marlins’ walk-off base hit in-game 7 of the 1997 World Series and the aforementioned 2016 loss; for the Cavs, it’s that final-second shot made by Michael Jordan which upended them out of contention in 1989, thereby creating the legend behind the Bulls’ star shooting guard.
Yet despite all this, both teams can say with their heads held high that they’ve experienced some kind of success within their existence. Though it took the Cavs more than 40 years to capture their first championship, they made a respectable amount of playoff appearances in the lead up to it. The same can be said for the Indians, as their 4 pennant wins and 10 division titles since their 1948 championship (second overall; first one was in 1920) showcase their tenacity to repeatedly vouch to be champions.
