CLEVELAND, Ohio — As I was saying, Cleveland is an irresistible sports town.
Not for Corey "Adios, Cleveland" Coleman or Isaiah Thomas, apparently. Then again the vibe in recent days tells me the feeling is mutual.
Nowhere else could HBO’s deep dive into a hapless football organization be cause for a city-wide watch party. Nowhere else would an audience be hanging on every last word.
Whether Browns fans are watching to discover the secret sauce behind all that non-success or simply looking for any good reason to believe two decades worth of winter discontent is finally behind them, at the heart of both motives is an uncommon passion.
This was a tantalizing sports town even before Frankie Lindor and Jose Ramirez began making the supremely difficult act of hitting look as easy as tee ball. The only thing missing from their carefree play: post-game juice boxes.
It’s never boring here. And, well, I guess I couldn’t always say the same about retirement.
That might explain why today is my first column since May, but it’s as much about the approaching calendar in a sports town that knows too well the thrill of occasional victory and the agony of more frequent defeat.
The Indians are a World Series contender armed with multiple Cy Young Award candidates (yes, we’re still counting Trevor Bauer and expect he will pitch in the post season even if it requires him to ride a Bird scooter to the mound). They have multiple MVP candidates, a bolstered bullpen, and a manager who knows his way around October.
The Browns, the undeserving darlings of an unapologetic football town, have surprisingly after all these years adopted an approach cemented in new (for them) thinking: that two quality quarterbacks just might he an improvement over none.
Who wants to miss that?
So I start writing a weekly column again today for WKYC while also sharing the (sometimes lunatic) ramblings of readers in my You Said It column.
Let it be known I did consider writing a Sports Illustrated valentine to Northeast Ohio upon my return, but the interest — like the dating experiences of so many You Said It contributors — was not mutual.
My reasons for returning are as follows:
- Actually wanted to keep sitting on the sidelines — what I call a Veteran’s Summer Off — but then I saw Jarvis Landry’s impassioned speech about effort in the Hard Knocks debut. So here I am working again while fighting the urge to wear a bucket hat.
- Didn’t want to miss another undefeated Browns preseason and all that it clearly promises.
- Finally getting to cover a Browns GM who dresses like a sports writer? Sign me up.
- Couldn’t resist the lure of a highly acclaimed journalistic career being revived at WKYC... But enough about Leon Bibb.
- Moving forward, I want to lead the charge against abolishing the term “moving forward.”
- Ran out of ways to say no to her daily question: “Since you’re off today, are you going to the gym?”
- Remembered what Rollie Massimino said upon coming out of retirement to coach Cleveland State: “There’s only so much golf you can play.”
Not sure that’s true. But when you have 160 yards to the pin on your second shot and 170 to the pin on your third, it’s time to admit that more than the golf ball is going in the wrong direction.
- Didn't want to miss Ramirez and Lindor hitting their 74th home runs of the season. In the same game.
- Or Brandon Guyer being hit for the 84th time in his career.
- Hoped to be able to comment on the culture-changing discipline of a new regime in Berea following rookie receiver Antonio Callaway’s issues.
But that will have to wait since it’s hard to tell whether he was being punished or rewarded by playing so much against New York last week. Dean Wormer has nothing on Hue Jackson.
Take that, rookie…who, um, needs the work.
- (The Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki motivated me to return and publicly clarify something. When I said the Browns would win a game last season, I meant wouldn’t.
- The realization that if Pat Shurmur can get another high profile job, why not me?
- Wanted to re-live my sports writing youth. And the 2018 AL Central race is the closest thing I’ve seen to a mismatch and quick knockout since Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks lasted 91 seconds.
- The possibility that I could be in attendance when all 22 defensive starters in a NFL game are ejected for helmet fouls was too much to pass up.
- Did I mention Dez Bryant? Because if I did, it was a typo.
- Didn’t want to be left out of the Sam Dekker Era.
- Saw a story that the Cavs will travel the least amount of distance in the NBA this season and needed a forum to wonder aloud if it’s because LeBron’s crab dribble won’t be added to their mileage.
- While I was writing at cleveland.com, and the PD, Stipe Miocic didn’t lose title defenses. Just saying.
- As I mentioned, any sports town stoked to watch a documentary on a 1-31 organization obviously hasn’t yet raised the bar high enough to exclude my return.
If you made it this far, there’s a Bud Light cooler filled with free beer waiting for you. Have on on me after the Browns win their first game.
(Friday: The Inaugural WKYC You Said It.)