Ashtabula... Elyria... Cuyahoga Falls... CAVS!
I am to understand that a major professional sports team from Cleveland is playing for a championship.
As predicted earlier in this space, starting now, I love, love, love the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I will be rooting hard, perhaps even watching the game (games? does the NBA identify its champion by way of a series?) as Cleveland takes on the San Antonio Riders.
My leap onto the bandwagon is easy and graceful, though, because I am well schooled in the art of assigning myself to a successful team's fan base at the last minute.
In light of the developments of the day, I thought I'd assess my five most ridiculous all-time maneuvers in this department -- including where the Cavs fit in.
5. Ohio State Buckeyes football, 2002
Credibility: 8 (on a 10-point scale). Had lived in Ohio and had rooted for the Buckeyes. Spent much of the season in Ohio. Watched more than half of games.
Style: 8. Carried fan support back to Pennsylvania; made fool of self on Second Street in Harrisburg after bowl win.
Result: Bucks top Miami 31-24 in double overtime at the 2003 Fiesta Bowl to win an improbable national championship.
For some reason, more than any bandwagon-related endeavor, this one draws fire from my pals. But viewed objectively, it was more of a large step than a leap. I was in the middle of making the transition from Pennsylvania back to Ohio and spent probably half of my fall weekends in Athens or Cincinnati. I absolutely, positively watched all of the games against Northwestern and Penn State. By midway through the season, I was paying as much attention to the Buckeyes as I was to any other team. I took in most of the Purdue game ("Holy Buckeye!") from my couch in Harrisburg, much of the Illinois game (decided with the help of some friendly officiating) at Jillian's in Covington, Kentucky (which is de facto Ohio) and the whole Michigan game at an apartment in Athens. And we held up the music at the bar as the game stretched into the night of January 3, 2003, at the conclusion of which my shouts of O-H were answered not by I-O's from the disinterested friends whom I talked into watching the game with me, but by the I-O's in my heart.
Furthermore, the Buckeyes were on my short list of teams prior to 2002... and they're still on that list (see the news links to the right). I will hear no objection to my claiming of a stake in this championship.
4. West Virginia Mountaineers football, 1988
Credibility: 7. As a Pittsburgh kid, was already following WVU, Pitt and Penn State football and had heard of Major Harris. Still following Mountaineer football.
Style: 7. Had fired a gun by this point in my life, but not a rifle, like the mascot has. Didn't flip anything over or light anything on fire at the end of the season.
Result: Mountaineers fall to Notre Dame 34-21 in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl, closing the books on an otherwise spectacular 10-1 season.
I think it would be fair to call this one my first bandwagon experience. It was quick and ended with mild embarrassment but a strong interest in trying again, as first experiences often do. WVU caught my ten-year-old attention by pounding my Pitt Panthers early in the season, then rolled the rest of the way on the strength of the arm of one Major Harris. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that, at the end of this season, Major Harris was my number three all-time sports hero, behind Bernie Kosar and Mario Lemieux. (Bernie and Mario are still first and second on that list. Major, not so much. On the bright side, Tony Rice is as good a punchline to any remember-the-'80s joke now as the other #9 is.)
Again, I note that I still follow the team in question, and -- as with Ohio State -- I was more than aware of the team all season long.
3. Cleveland Cavaliers, 2006-2007 (okay, just 2007)
Credibility: 5. Lifelong Browns fan and advocate for the city of Cleveland and northeast Ohio.
Style: 6. Have never blogged about a bandwagon jump before.
Result: TBD.
The Northcoast has not seen a major professional sports championship since 1964. Since I assume the Browns will never manage one, and the new rule in baseball is that every team in the AL Central except the Royals has to finish above .500 every year, the Cavs could represent Cleveland's best shot. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I haven't watched all of an NBA game (not series, game) since 1997, when Chicago beat Utah 4-2 in the finals and I was dating a Bulls fan (note that I was willing to watch those games, but I was not willing to root for the Bulls).
This year's Cavs have everything a fan could want. LeBron James. The other kid his age (Gibson?). The guy from one of the Baltic states. A coach, presumably, unless LeBron is the coach. The building that hosted the 2003 MAC men's basketball championship.
2. Arizona Diamondbacks, 2001
Credibility: 3. Was not sure until October 2001 that Arizona was in the National League.
Style: 4. The emotions that spurred this leap -- baseball, apple pie, America! -- were valid, but really, the U.S. does not have a long and storied history relating to sports in a desert.
Result: Diamondbacks edge the Yankees, 4-3, to win the World Series.
Now we're getting dumb. These were the Johnson-Schilling D'backs who conjured up a championship. For me, it was about centering myself again after September 11. I had to pick a team, the other team was the Yankees, and I was having none of that. I experienced some legitimization only in the last at-bat of the series, when former Cub Luis Gonzalez slugged the walkoff hit that brought in former Pirate Jay Bell as former Pirate Tony Womack (who was on first) crossed in the foreground. I reasoned then that this was as close as either the Cubs or my Bucs were going to get to the World Series anytime soon, and they haven't disappointed me yet.
1. Florida Marlins, 1997
Credibility: 2. And those two points only because Jim Leyland was managing the Fish.
Style: 0. Even under the most charitable analysis... this was just dumb.
Result: Florida wins the World Series, 4-3, over the Cleveland Indians.
Ten years later, I don't understand what went wrong here. On paper, this had the makings of a brilliant bandwagon leap... onto the Tribe's bandwagon. I had no strong feelings one way or the other about the Marlins. While I didn't follow the Indians, I was well into my love affair with Cleveland. The Tribe had recently been thwarted by the Braves, and I had rooted for Cleveland in that series (obviously). So what was I doing pulling for Florida here? Sure, there was Leyland. And former Bucco John Cangelosi (series totals: a hit and two strikeouts in three pinch-hit appearances). But how was that enough?
Maybe I was feeling stung by the loss of the Browns (this the second of their three autumns in hibernation). I was about to break up with my high school girlfriend -- could that have distracted me? Working too many hours? Too much time invested in Model UN prep? (The OU team did take first place overall that year, for the first and only time, squeaking past Case Western. Screw you, Case Western.)
Explanations all... but no excuses here.
The fog lifted a couple of years later, and I saw what I had done. It hurt. But only a lesser man would have given up on bandwagon jumping. I knew I could bounce back. And I did. That's the man whose words you read today... the man who can proudly say he has been a stalwart Cleveland Cavaliers fan for literally almost all of June.
