Indians and Nationals are Winning?

Usually during this time of the year I focus my attention on NHL and NBA playoffs, while I barely notice that baseball season has started. But do not look now, because the Indians have the best record in the American League while the Nationals are above .500.

At 12-4, Cleveland is tied for the best record in the majors, ahead of last year’s division leader Twins and perennial power Red Sox who are both struggling at 5-10. The Tribe are third in the majors in homers, fifth in ERA, and second in opponents batting average. Cleveland’s hot start can be attributed to the healthy returns of Travis Hafner, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Grady Sizemore, as well as contributions from youngsters Michael Brantley, Justin Masterson and Josh Tomlin. After being above 500 for only one game in the past two seasons and picked to finish fourth their division, hopefully the Indians can keep this up and give Cleveland fans some much needed hope.

Meanwhile, the Nationals are turning heads as well. In a season without Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, Washington is currently above .500. While that might not seem like much, keep in mind that since their inaugural season in 2005, the Nat’s have been above .500 for only 33 games. Of the 810 games has DC taken the field, only 4% of the time have they had a winning record. Three of those seasons they never had a winning record at any point, and the longest they lasted before turning south was May 28^th. Despite subpar batting (27^th in average) fielding (22^nd) and Ryan Zimmerman on the DL, the Nationals are getting by due to four starters with sub 3.4 ERAs. Hopefully Washington can keep glimmers of hope alive in upcoming series against Pittsburgh and NY Mets before facing San Francisco and Philadelphia in early May.

Not bad for two teams in the bottom eight in salary in the league.

Strasburg Adds to the DC and Cleveland Sports Curse

After the latest news that Nat’s rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg tore a ligament in his arm and needs Tommy John surgery, taking him out of next season, I began to think DC sports is cursed, just like Cleveland. Cleveland has the longest title drought of cities with three teams, while DC is the longest with four teams. Well, which is worse?

Both cities main fan base is with football, so we’ll start there. The Browns won multiple titles in the 50’s and 60’s with Jim Brown and Otto Graham but have never been to a Super Bowl. The Redskins have won three Super Bowl titles, but none in the past 18 years. The Browns are infamous for Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, and the move to Baltimore. Washington has Dan Snyder, Norv Turner, Gus Frerotte head butting a wall, and the reattempted fake field goal. Unfortunate Loser: Cleveland

Both cities have an NBA team of similar franchise lengths, with equally tortured pasts. The Cavaliers have never won a title and only appeared in their first final four years ago. The Wizards won a title back in 1978 as the Bullets, but have not made it past the 2nd round since 1982. Cleveland endured the Shot, numerous losses to Jordan in the 90’s, and now the Decision, numerous early playoff exits to the Celtics. DC has suffered through the Jordan/Kwame years and gun totting Gilbert Arenas. Unfortunate Loser: Cleveland

Since the Nationals have only been around five years, I cannot compare them to the Cleveland baseball team, so I’ll take a look at the Capitals’ failures in comparison to the Indians. The Tribe last won a World Series in 1948 and lost two World Series in the 90’s. The Capitals have never won a Stanley Cup in their 36 year history, failing in their only appearance in 1998. Cleveland is infamous for the baseball version of the Catch, the Major League movies, the Blown Save, The Stop Call, and countless players finding success after bolting. Meanwhile the Caps choked in the playoffs to Pittsburgh seemingly every year in the 90’s and 00’s and endured the Jagr blunder. Unfortunate Loser: Cleveland

That leaves us with the fourth and newest sports franchise in DC, the Natinals, err Nationals. After moving from Montreal, the Nationals have not had a winning season in six seasons, including this season, 20 games below .500. Including two 100 loss seasons, they are already on their third manager, second general manager, and couldn’t even sign their first round pick in 2008. The Strasburg injury is not the first costly one to the Nationals either, with Nick Johnson missing a year with a broken leg, and Jordan Zimmermann requiring Tommy John as well. Loser by Default: Washington

Unfortunately for Cleveland, not only do they appear more cursed, but Washington has more hope for the future with Ovechkin, Backstrom, John Wall, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, a healthy Strasburg, and Redskins with an improved front office. Meanwhile, Cleveland has the remnants of the Lebron-less Cavs, lowly Indians with only Grady Sizemore, and the Browns whose only good young players are a left tackle and kick returner. Loser for being born in Cleveland and living in DC most my life and rooting for these teams: Me

Cleveland Sports 101

Do you remember things when you were three years old? How about four years old? Or perhaps when you were six? No? Well welcome to the world of Cleveland, where you are born into dashed hopes due to the exploits of all time greats named Jordan and Elway. Look closely at the highlight reels of the now instant classic hall of famers, who are the sad saps wallowing in misery? Yes, that is Cleveland. That is the city I am from and proud of it for some reason. Granted I only lived in the mistake by the lake for three years, but most of my family is from there and I went there every Christmas to enjoy real snow. But once again, the point is that I grew up living and loving this town and its sad sap teams regardless of the horrid heartbreak that came with it.

Here comes my own heart breaking tale with this city’s teams in case you don’t know. The Cavs and Indians were terrible for most of the early 90’s, but the Browns were decent, until some guy, I will politely call an asshole, cut the favorite son in the midst of a good season. The Browns did win one playoff game against the Patriots (awkward) but lost to the Steelers. New Generation Lesson 1. And then oops. Another asshole decided to move the team to the Wire, I mean Baltimore. So that ends that gut wrenching tale. Lesson 2. The Cavs of course limped on losing to some guy named Jordan for years, and for some reason we had Shawn Kemp.

Once the Browns were removed, we had to turn to another team in the city, and luckily there was a new stadium, a new slugger, and new drugs no one knew about. Due to the awesome adventures of Kenny Lofton, Manny Ramirez, and Albert Belle the Indians went to the World Series when I was in 5th grade, but of course lost in 7 games. In hindsight, the Braves and their rotation were all hall-of-famers, but that year was their only championship in the ten years of their dominance, so it’s not as crushing. I guess Lesson 3. Two years later, we make some deals, and get to the World Series again against an expansion team. We’re winning in game 7 and have a good closer to seal the deal, but oops, not good enough, he blows it and I go to sleep crying and we lose in extra innings. Lesson 4. There will always be next year, right? Umm….not really. Welcome to MLB free agency 2k edition. Manny Ramirez gone, Jim Thome gone, Lofton gone, Alomars gone. So by the time the league almost got into another strike in 02 the Tribe was just a shell of its former self.

And then the Browns came back. (Notice no smiley faces or exclamation points). Due to the success of the Jags and Panthers expansion years, the NFL decided to shit on the new expansion Browns so the first couple years were quite uneventful. But one year we pulled it together with a backup quarterback and were beating the Steelers. (Tommy Maddox? Really?) This is when I learned first hand that throwing stuff at the tv during a horrible Browns collapse was not acceptable because the outcome was supposed to be expected. Lesson 5.


May 22nd 2003: The Day it should all change:

After many years mired in mediocrity between the Cavs, Indians, and Browns, the sad sap City won for once. The little bouncing ball went the to the city that had its own river go ablaze. Cleveland won the NBA draft lottery. (Granted we had the worst record that year and had the best odds to win it, but still) Mark it down. Just looking at Mr. Gund’s face, you knew who he was taking with that pick, Detroit at #2 was on the clock (they took Darko Milicheck instead of Carmelo, Wade, Bosh, etc different post, different time).

In the meantime, the Indians pulled out of free agency hell and put together a good team in the 07 season with the best player since Man Ram in Grady Sizemore. However, they never got over losing a 3-1 lead to the Sox in the ALCS and traded away consecutive Cy Young Award winners, who ended up facing each other in the World Series. The Browns struggled for many more years, but had a good season in 07, falling a game short of the playoffs. They of course tanked in 08 and are on their 5th head coach since coming back, which is as many as the Steelers have had since 1965. The new regime traded away several first round picks and is now starting a terrible qb to prevent incentives for the backup.

AL (After Lottery): After the Cavs won the lottery, they obviously took the Akron born home town kid Lebron James (Be warned, man crushing will ensue). After winning the Rookie of the year, the “King” took the downtrodden Cavs to the NBA Finals in 07. Of course, Lebron and his band of Fighting Cavaliers got swept by underrated Tim Duncan and the Spurs. Lesson 6. Then in the 09 season, Lebron won the MVP, best record, and swept his way into the conference finals. After dropping only the third home game of the year in Game 1, James came up with Cleveland’s first miracle in a while. Alas, it was not to be, as Mike Brown couldn’t figure out how to defeat the pick and roll, and the Cavs were done in six, preventing the Kobe-Lebron finals. After all the anguish and all the heart break this city has endured, we hopefully now have a savior. We now have a Jordan or Elway. If he goes to the Knicks in 2010 without delivering what he was born to do, the city with implode and destroys itself if it hasn’t already done so. Hell, if only he could play for the Browns.


Further enjoyment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zURAqa65F1Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlSdItmoZbk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evzSA7_yJHw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJAO7Dp1mds&feature=related
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1155655/index.htm