There may be nothing more torturous in sports than being a fan of Cleveland teams.
The Cavaliers made it to the NBA Finals for the first time in their history earlier this year and promptly got swept by the San Antonio Spurs. It was as if LeBron James and friends were the Washington Generals to Tim Duncan’s Harlem Globetrotters.
The Browns haven’t won the NFL championship since 1964 and have never to a Super Bowl since the game’s advent in 1966, though they came agonizingly close in the 1980s, losing twice to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, once on John Elway’s legendary 98-yard drive and then on Earnest Byner’s fumble on his way to scoring what would have been the winning touchdown.
Then, there are the Indians. While they are no longer a franchise to model a comedy movie like Major League after, their World Series title drought reached 59 years Sunday night when they lost 11-2 to the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park.
Thought the final score makes the game look like a rout, it was only 3-2 going into the seventh inning and that makes it easy for the Indians and their fans to wonder about what might have been. Factor in the Indians blowing a 3-1 lead in the series as the Red Sox rallied to win the final three games and it becomes even easier to play the what-if game.
And no one had more of a right to play that game than Indians left fielder Kenny Lofton. He has been to 11 postseasons in his 18-year career but still has zero World Series titles.
“You can’t think about what if,” the 40-year-old Lofton said. “The bottom line is we lost. There is no what if. You’d just drive yourself crazy if you thought about it.”
Maybe not but you can be sure a lot of people along the shores of Lake Erie will be thinking that way until the last of the lake-effect snow melts next spring.
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