On December 27, 1964, the Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts 27-0 for their fourth National Football League Championship, since that day though no Cleveland sports team has won a title, the Indians haven’t won a World Series in Major League Baseball since they beat the then Boston Braves in 1948 4 games to 2, The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t ever won an NBA title in their history (they were founded in 1970), and the Cleveland Barons only played two years in the National Hockey League before folding in the 1970s. So when LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and the rest of the Cavaliers take on the Warriors on Sunday, they won’t just be playing for themselves.
Each of the three active franchises in Cleveland has their own heartaches that could be relinquished with a Cavs win, the Indians have won 3 pennants to get into the World Series since 1948, getting unceremoniously swept in 1954 by the New York Giants thanks to the exploits of Giants backup Dusty Rhodes and all-time great centerfielder Willie Mays. That one stings but compared to the more recent failures in 1995 and 1997, that is a drop in the bucket with 1997 hurting the most because the Indians had a 2-1 lead over the Florida (now Miami) Marlins in the bottom of the ninth inning of the deciding seventh game and closer Jose Mesa allowed a couple of base hits and a sacrifice fly that tied the game. The pain only got worse for Clevelanders when in the bottom of the 11th inning of that game with the bases loaded, Marlins shortstop Edgar Renteria, smacked a single that glanced off of pitcher Charles Nagy’s glove into shallow center field, for a gut-wrenching defeat. The Indians haven’t been back since.
For the Browns, the franchise’s pains since 1964 can be summarized with three phrases: the Drive, the Fumble, and The Move. The Drive was a 98 yard touchdown drive by Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway that tied the 1987 AFC Championship game (one of the NFL’s semifinals) with just 37 seconds left and although it did not lose the game (a field goal in overtime by the Broncos did that) not being able to stop a team over 98 yards is the ultimate defensive futility. The Fumble occurred the following season also against the Broncos when running back Earnest Byner, fumbled the ball 2 yards away from scoring a touchdown with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter, in a game Denver won by five points. The Move refers to former owner Art Modell moving the original Browns to Baltimore (where their opponent in their last successful title run played until 1983 when they controversially moved) before the 1996 season to become the Ravens. Since that time the Browns have cycled through 20 plus starting quarterbacks while the Ravens have won two Super Bowls.
The Cavaliers, the team that has the chance to end this misery has had their own share of misfortune, with owner Ted Stepien trading away so many first round draft picks in his short tenure as owner (the team went 66-180) the NBA now forbids teams from trading away first round picks in consecutive years . There is also the 1989 Playoffs where after sweeping the Bulls in the regular season in the deciding game Micheal Jordan hot “the Shot” to sink the Cavs. The team has made three NBA Finals appearances, all with LeBron James leading the team, one before he left for Miami in “The Decision” to win two titles and then the past two seasons, but they haven’t won yet. Tomorrow night they can, and maybe as it did three times, most recently in the 1960s the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland will catch fire, not with pollution, but with joy at finally extinguishing all the pain of the past 52 years. The Cavs have their chance Sunday night.
