As a Cleveland resident and huge Indians fan, I love this post. It is indeed a World Series unlike many in the past in that both of these underdog teams managed to pull off a winning season, beating out all of the "popular" teams in order to make it where they are right now. Many baseball fans around the country are most likely shaking their heads in disappointment that "only" the Cubs and Indians made it to the World Series this year, how boring, how disappointing, I won't watch it, etc. The impending doom is present on both sides -- each city wants that long coveted World Series title, however the doom is slightly different on both sides. Cubs fans have the longer drought as far as baseball yes, but Cleveland fans have had the longest drought in sports, period. Throughout this series, there has been bias. There is a lot of talk of Cubs this and Cubs that, leaving the Indians as quite the bad guy underdogs with barely a mention, just the "team the Cubs have to beat". It puts fans here in an even more frustrated mode, as though our team is not as deserving as the other, our time in the limelight is brief and pushed aside to make way for those Cubs. As someone from Cleveland, that puts a lot of frustration on top of our doom. We have the doom because yes, our team was doing so well....and then blew the lead, last night being a quite significant debacle. But, we also have the doom because so much rides on the championship not only from a sports perspective, but as a direct reflection of our city which is always the underdog, always associated with a bad reputation, etc. As if the sports curse in this town is not enough, the bashing of the town in general by everyone else is just about at the breaking point and to highlight that by the media, by overshadowing us in favor of the Cubs, is yes, a frustration that has most fans here worried, feeling that doom....but also angry, full of indignant pride which is beginning to be shattered by these recent losses. We are also riding a fresh championship with the Cavs so there is still some mode of disbelief that we are even speaking of two championship teams, let alone in the same year, combined with just a touch of pride that hey -- we got one championship, what if we showed the rest of the country that we can get TWO?? And it's all crashing down after last night. So tonight...dread, doom, nervousness, maybe a bit of excitement....maybe, as Kluber is our pitcher tonight. So the mindset of many fans is illogical in normal times -- they often forget it is just a sport, just entertainment, put on the field by very highly overpaid athletes -- but during this time, this year...the mindset of most people in this town, sports fan or not, is rooted in doom not only for our baseball team, but for our city itself. Because here in Cleveland, our reputation has largely been a laughingstock of the rest of the country. Winning this series tonight symbolizes more than just a baseball win, it symbolizes at least some extent of success here, some decent amount of pride, if only for a short time. A decent lifting of the chin and saying "See? After all the Cubs hype, we underdogs in Cleveland beat you, beat all the bias, beat all the smack talk, or lack of talk about us at all and it feels GOOD.." it would be nice to be able to say that after tonight. Despite that, both cities are nervous waiting for something that for a long time has been lacking - a baseball championship. Either way it goes, it is nice to see one of us in this long drought finally leave the ball park a winner.
02 Nov 2016, 9:57 am
