Can LeBron & Co. ...end the Cleveland curse?

By MIKE McLAIN

news@vindy.com

The gift of patience is a virtue not always easily applied, unless it’s for the maturing of a vintage wine or the discovery of a great love.

Patience certainly isn’t applicable in the world of sports, where owners of some professional franchises are primed to fire coaches before they’ve allowed them a chance to implement their systems.

For fans of those teams, the thought of going a few years or perhaps a decade without celebrating at least one championship is akin to a form of mental duress.

No group of fans has endured endless heartaches and been void of the championship feeling more than those who follow the teams that call Cleveland home.

The football Browns and baseball Indians were once known for collecting world championships, but that was when most of the photographs taken were in black and white. They’ve combined for 10 championships (eight by the Browns and two by the Indians), but there have been none since the Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts, 27-0, in the 1964 NFL Championship Game.

The Cavaliers, who began operations in 1970, are still searching for their first NBA title. The dreams of all Cleveland fans are firmly bonded in the hope that it will all change in the coming days as the Cavaliers continue their best-of-seven series with the Golden State Warriors to crown the NBA champion. Game 2 is today in California.

Parades in Cleveland are what cruise down Euclid Avenue on St. Patrick’s Day. Championship parades are reserved for places like Boston and Chicago, cities that have celebrated a combined 31 championships since 1964.

The quest for a championship in Cleveland reached a desperate point in 1997 when 50,000 people showed up for a parade to honor the Indians, who had just lost to the Florida Marlins in the World Series.

“It has been a long time for Cleveland fans,” said Paul Warfield, Warren native and Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver, who was a rookie for the 1964 Browns. “In retrospect, I didn’t think it would take that long for the Browns, Indians or Cavaliers to win a major sports title. I’m sure there’s a tremendous amount of excitement. It would be good for the area, and the city, if the Cavs are successful.”

The list of crushing defeats is long and has been steadily hammered into the hearts of Cleveland fans with jokes by late-night comedians and television specials like the recent ESPN production of “Believeland.” Moments like “The Drive,” “The Fumble” and “The Shot” are as much a part of the city’s sports history as is a Jim Brown toss sweep.

You have to ask yourself if any area in the country could have remained loyal to its teams during such a long stretch of futility. It’s as if there’s an innate trait in Northeastern Ohioans that prepared them for what has been tossed in their collective laps.

“There’s a fair amount of loyalty fans put into their players, and a lot of players embody that,” said Andrew Zajac, a Struthers High School graduate and a graduate assistant at Youngstown State University. “I remember when the Indians traded Victor Martinez, and he was crying about leaving. That represents a lot of the heart that Cleveland fans have [for the players].”

Zajac, 25, recalls the Indians failing to close the deal against the Marlins in Game 7 of the ’97 World Series. The Indians took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning and had Jose Mesa, among the best closers in the game, on the mound. The Marlins tied the game and went on to win, 3-2, with a run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Beyond that, Zajac is too young to remember Earnest Byner’s fumble that cost the Browns a chance to win the AFC Championship against the John Elway-led Denver Broncos in the 1987 NFL season. The 98-yard drive Elway constructed a year earlier that tied the AFC Championship Game and set up a field goal by Rich Karlis, who was born in Salem, to give the Broncos a 23-20 overtime win is another memory Zajac knows of only from what he’s been told.

Zajac doesn’t believe that someone who sat in the stands at Municipal Stadium when the Browns won the championship in 1964 has exclusive rights to being owed a title.

“Even though I’m 25, I think being Cleveland fans we don’t take winning for granted,” Zajac said.

“Whereas you have organizations like the Steelers or Patriots or the Yankees when they were winning. A lot of their fans are used to having a winning tradition. We’re almost more passionate and hungrier for a winner for that reason.”

Such thinking is why winning a championship can have a positive effect on a city or an entire area.

The Mahoning Valley lived that experience when Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini was a rising boxing star in the 1980s.

When Mancini successfully defended his lightweight title against Ernesto Espana at Warren’s Mollenkopf Stadium in 1982, the place was packed.

The fight attracted 15,000 spectators and was televised nationally by CBS Sports, placing the area brightly in the national spotlight.

“It’s a residual effect,” said Mancini, who returned from California recently to live in the Valley.

“It [a championship] will benefit all Northeast Ohio, but Cleveland specifically. It’s just pride – saying I’m from Northeast Ohio. This area is relevant once again. We have the best basketball team with the best basketball player.”

Jim Tressel, president of Youngstown State University, sees the same parallel possibly coming into play if the Cavs can bounce back from their current 1-0 series deficit.

“There’s a confidence and an energy, then there’s expectation,” Tressel said. “I’m with Boom on that. Success does breed success. You love bringing in successful people to talk to people at YSU. Success has a way of being contagious.”

Mancini’s reference to a specific player refers, of course, to LeBron James, who broke the spirit of Cleveland fans when he took his talents to Miami in 2010.

James won two titles with the Miami Heat before his celebratory return to Cleveland in 2014.

All cities love winning teams, especially when the star player is home-grown, as is the Akron-born James.

Some fans set James’ jersey on fire when he bolted to Miami. Most of those same fans readily accepted his return, knowing that it gives them their best chance to finally have the ultimate celebration.

“I’ve never seen an athlete go from the outhouse to the White House in the amount of time he did it,” Mancini said of James.

“He did it by winning and being humble. He went away and won a title. I get it. Then he came back and is better than ever.”

If the Cavs are able to bring Cleveland its first major sports championship in 52 years, James will fully understand what Warfield was able to enjoy in 1964.

Warfield recalls an incredible level of support from fans despite the fact the Browns were a decided underdog against the Colts, who were led by future Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas.

“It was a phenomenal game that we won,” Warfield said.

“It was beyond my wildest dreams at that point. I was happy to be in the league with my favorite team. The fan base in Cleveland had been terrific, and they were rewarded probably more so than what was expected. While the fans didn’t doubt us, the rest of the nation doubted us.”

The Cavs are in a similar position for a second straight year against the Warriors, who posted the best regular-season record in NBA history (73-9). While most Cavs fans are hopeful that this is their year, many national media experts expect the Warriors to successfully defend their crown.

Tressel thinks the Cavs might have the Warriors exactly where they want them, which is in an overly confident position primed for letting down their guard.

Tressel, who grew up near the Browns’ training facility in the Cleveland suburb of Berea, dates his roots as a fan of the Cavs to his tenure as the team’s first ball boy in their expansion season.

“It would be especially meaningful for me, 46 years later, that the team I did laundry for and ran the 24-second clock in practice and rolled balls out to would become a world champion,” Tressel said.

It seems appropriate the Warriors and Cavs are clashing in consecutive seasons. There’s a belief the Cavs would have prevailed last year if they hadn’t lost Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving to injuries.

“If you listened to the pundits, Cleveland wanted Oklahoma City.” Mancini said.

“Of course you want to play the team you match up [best] with. But if you’re a baller and a warrior, you want to play the team that beat you. Like a fighter, you want the guy that beat you.”

If the series plays out as Cleveland fans hope, there will be a party like it’s 1964.