Fear & Loathing in Northeast Ohio

Fear & Loathing in Northeast Ohio

By Tom Davidson

They’re burning LeBron James jerseys tonight, now that the King has handed down his decision after about 40 minutes of sports commentary hell tonight.
Apparently, somewhere, someone was losing sleep over the decision, although I suspect it wasn’t Mr. James, and I question whether the move carries with it any actual importance in today’s sports world.
What doesn’t need to be hyped is that this is yet another blow to a region that’s been battered, both on and off the fields and courts of play.
It’s the area the mills left long ago, for cheap-agent contracts overseas; it’s the place where the Tribe has toiled on the baseball field without a championship since 1948; the place the Browns abandoned for the greener pastures of Baltimore.
It’s a place where a team that won 111 times in 1954 was swept in the World Series, a place where the football gods played a series of cosmic jokes in the 1980s on hapless Browns fans.
Knowing several of their ranks, I have no doubts that The Drive, The Fumble, and The Drive II, left permanent psychological scars.
The Tribe turned the corner and started winning when the powers-that-be in baseball went on strike and canceled a World Series. They lost to a Braves team that was better-coached, then stumbled against the Marlins in a collapse that rivaled the Browns losses against the Broncos in the football playoffs of the 1980s.
The Cavs were the third, perhaps lowliest of the sports franchises until they found their savior seven years ago. Then, LeBron seemed like the gift of manna in the Old Testament that kept the Hebrews alive. When the team started winning, “King James” as they called him, seemed to be even Christ-like.
That’s no more.
It turns out, he was just another Judas and betrayed them.
What maddening for the Cavs and their fans, is money wasn’t the motivating factor, winning was. He gave the team seven seasons to produce a winner and it came up short.
Who can blame him for signing with a team that plays in the playground of South Beach? Where he can hobnob with superstars instead of maybe shaking hands with Drew Carey... plus there’s no state income tax in Florida and the climate beats the winter on the shore of Lake Erie.
He’ll be away from a region that’s so stuck on losing it can’t find a way to win when it counts, even with him willing all of his magical talents on the court.
What remains in Cleveland is a legacy of losing it isn’t able to live down, even with a homegrown hero of James’ stature.
“The Decision” is the latest in a long-line of sporting anomalies to curse Cleveland. For the rest of the nation, the question now is “Was it worth the hype?”
In the greater Cleveland area, there are no questions now, it’s just another kick below the belt that leads to a grimace, tears and a resigned feeling that losing is a way of life.