The True Heartbreak City
Some people just don’t get it.
In his latest ESPN column, Bill Simmons explains why he is bored by the Red Sox this season. He lays out some really good reasons, as always, but, as the national media is wont to do, he misses the mark when he compares Red Sox fans – and fans of other teams – with Cleveland fans.
His misstep comes when he talks about how, since the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and 2007, the games don’t take on the “life or death” aspect they used to (we’ll overlook the fact that sports are entertainment, not life or death) and only a few franchises still have that hunger for a championship, writing that:
“Nobody wanted to live a full life, then die, without seeing the Red Sox win a championship. Cubs fans know what I mean. So do Vikings fans, Indians fans, Maple Leafs fans … only the true sufferers know.
“In just the past decade, five franchises lost life-or-death status. Boston in 2004. The White Sox in 2005. St. Louis in 2006. Philly in 2008. And really, the Yankees in 2009 – since every Yankees fan was secretly having a heart attack about the fact that they were 0-for-the-century, the Red Sox/Yankees dynamic had flipped and A-Rod had become the Reverse Curse of the Bambino, so we have to count them.
That leaves San Francisco and the Cubs as the last remaining big-market, life-or-death teams … although you certainly can count Cleveland, Houston and Milwaukee as well, and maybe even Seattle, San Diego and Texas if you’re feeling magnanimous.)”
So we’re lumped in with Houston fans, Minnesota fans, San Francisco fans? Seattle? San Diego? Really?
Here’s where Simmons tripped up, just like almost every other national writer:
All those other fan bases? They only have to live with their misery for one season out of the year. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series in more than 100 years? Well, those fans also get to root for the Bears and saw the Bulls win six titles over an eight-year period.
The Giants haven’t won a World Series since the team moved from NY? It must have been real hard after baseball season ended watching the 49ers win five Super Bowls.
Same with Boston. For all the “misery” and “why us” wailing from Red Sox fans, they still knew when baseball season ended the Patriots and their three Super Bowls or the Celtics and their 17 NBA titles would be there.
Cleveland? We live with our sports misery 365 days a year. The Indians (last championship in 1948) finishing another title less season rolls into the Browns (no championships since 1964) breaking our hearts which rolls into the Cavs (no titles ever) over and over, like the French distress signal playing on a loop on Lost.
Even when we get a taste of success, something always goes wrong. The Indians make it to the World Series in 1995 and become the only team to lose to the Braves. That’s followed up a few weeks later by the announcement that the Browns are moving to Baltimore.
Or consider 2007, collectively the greatest sports year in Cleveland in 40 years:
- The Cavs make their first NBA Finals – where they are swept by San Antonio.
- The Indians take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS – and lose the series to Boston.
- The Browns finish with a 10-6 season – and miss the playoffs because of tiebreakers.
So you tell me, how can any other town even think they have suffered like we have? Simmons himself put all three Cleveland teams on his list of fully tortured sports fans, what does that tell you?
Red Right 88 