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SOMMA DIS AND SOMMA DAT
By Keith Castle

Which Team Will Bring A Championship To Cleveland First?

Now that the Boston Red Sox have broken the supposed curse for their whiney fans, pardon me for asking but, when do you supposed the “Sports Gods” will show a little love for the beleaguered fans of Northeast Ohio?

Let’s see now, the last time the Indians won a world series was in 1948. The Browns are the most recent local world champion by way of their 27-0 win over the Baltimore Colts in 1964. That championship and the players still alive to talk about it were celebrated prior to the 2004 Browns “crash and burn” season. The Cavs...well let’s just say that the last time the Cavs won the NBA Title was...uh...never.

And while Cleveland fans can’t point to any significant former player, like Bosox fans pointed to The Babe to blame their curse on, they can point to a succession of inept owners who mismanaged their respective teams so bad, that no curse was needed. The Red Sox and their fans and the “Bambino Curse” have nothing on Cleveland fans and Vernon Stouffer, Art Modell and Ted Stepien.

True sports ownership ineptitude must stand the test of time. This means that none of the current owners have enough time at the helm to really qualify. Gordon Gund however, was getting dangerously close to being inducted into the Cleveland Sports Owners Hall of Shame before a lucky ping pong ball in the 2003 NBA Draft rescued him...for now.

So which team will reward the area’s long suffering fans with a championship trophy first? That’s a tough call. Some fans born and raised in this area have a cultivated sinicism so ingrained that they truly feel that none of the teams will ever win one. That might not be true, but winning one in our lifetimes might be nice.

The following is a look at one man’s assessment of each of the teams; their chances at a title; and which one will get there first.

The Cavs: As mentioned earlier, the Cavs under Gordon Gund’s ownership were going nowhere fast before that lucky ping pong ball in 2003. And I hate to mention it, but they were only in the position to get lucky because they were the worst team in the NBA the year before. This means they were building from scratch with an 18-year old budding superstar, a center with a history of foot injuries and not much else.

I’m about as sure as I am about anything that LeBron James’s stay in Cleveland will be the obligatory five years of his contract. I hope I’m wrong, but it says here that if new owner Dan Gilbert and the Cavs can’t put it all together in the next two years (after this year), that James will bolt to a city (New York or L.A.) where he can maximize his endorsement potential while leading THAT team to a championship.

Believing that within that time frame, the Cavs will figure out how to; get to the play-offs; get all the way through the Eastern Conference, including the Detroit Pistons and rejuvenated Miami Heat; then defeat the best that the Western Conference has to offer in a best of seven game series would be optimistic thinking to say the least.

The Browns: Thanks to NFL parity, any team in the league can rise up and win a Super Bowl in any given year if things come together. Naturally, this takes astute talent acquisition, players who believe in their coach and his system, and a lot of good luck with injuries. Unfortunately, that climate didn’t exist under Butch Davis and only time will tell if the “Phil Savage / Romeo Crennel duo” will fair any better.

As disappointing as it is to Browns fans, unless Savage and Crennel have “pulled a rabbit out of their hat” with their recent free agent acquisitions and the college draft, it’s likely that the recent overhaul will further delay any travel plans to the Super Bowl in the near future for the Browns and their fans.

The Indians: Regular visits to the play-offs and a couple near misses in the World Series in the 90’s, after forty years with no play-offs in the Wigwam, gave area Tribe fans hope during the Dick Jacobs Era.

After inheriting a bloated payroll, certain to go higher with the impending free agency of Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome, new owner Larry Dolan thought better of it and decided to bring fiscal responsibility to a sport where that normally doesn’t win you much.

A bright young GM in Mark Shapiro and his management team have embarked on a journey into the Minnesota Twins / Oakland Athletics way of thinking of developing young players and acquiring inexpensive veterans that they hope will blossom with a change of scenery, all while keeping the payroll around $40 million. This to compete with a Yankees squad whose payroll is in excess of the $200 million mark. Hmmm.

The Verdict: If I have to pick one...it’s the Indians. In spite of the Yankees payroll, they have somehow managed NOT to win the World Series since 2000. Plus, the Indians don’t have to play in the same division with the Yankees and Red Sox.

In the Central Division, everyone’s payroll is relatively in line. Expensive players eventually price themselves out of the Central Division, no matter who they play for. This leaves a more level playing field for all the teams in the division. From there, it’s develop your young talent and acquire reasonably priced veterans as the final pieces to the puzzle.

Obviously the first puzzle is to win the division. And from where the Indians are at this point, that goal seems reachable, even as soon as this season, in spite of Chicago’s fast start. Once you get “invited to the dance” anything can happen, especially in that first best of five Divisional Series. It’s the team that’s hot, gets great pitching and timely hitting that wins it all.

So looking at the challenges ahead for all three teams, it says here that the Indians will be the first team to bring a world title home to Cleveland in over forty years. That doesn’t necessarily mean THIS year. It just means I think they’re closest.