The last time the Cleveland Browns were legitimate contenders for the Super Bowl, UJ and I had season tickets.
We sat in the upper deck of old Cleveland Municipal Stadium during the late ’80s and early ’90s. We watched as the Denver Broncos and John Elway — may he rot forever in hell — broke our hearts with The Drive, and the next year we watched the great team that eventually fell, again, to Denver thanks to The Fumble. (It’s all part of the immense burden of failure lugged around by Cleveland sports fans, most recently recounted by this piece in the New York Times.) It was fun going to the games and great to watch good football, but eventually we gave up our tickets as the Browns jacked up prices and other obligations intervened.
But now Russell will be returning to the Midwest. He loves the Browns, and from the Cranbrook campus in the suburban Detroit area he’ll be within a reasonable drive from Cleveland. So, we talked about it during Russell’s Mother’s Day visit, and we decided to pull the trigger. Once again, I’ll be a season ticket holder, taking in the NFL in all its spectacle and wretched excess with Russell as we watch from our seats in Section 536 of Cleveland Browns Stadium.
I don’t think the Browns will be very good this year, but you never know . . . and sometimes you just have to put your money where your mouth is. This season, we’re betting on the Browns.
The expectations were low for the Tribe this year, and the season is still young, but this team seems to be a lot better than anticipated. Amazingly, right now the Tribe is one of the best slugging teams in the majors. Their starting pitching and bullpen have been solid, and they have some guys who know how to play in the field, too. They just swept a four-game series with Oakland, and they’ve got an interesting collection of players — as well as an experienced manager, Terry Francona, who appears to be touching all the right buttons so far.
It was an exciting season for the Blue Jackets, and even non-hockey fans like me had to appreciate this team that wouldn’t quit and ended the season playing as well as anybody in the NHL. Still, I’m not much for moral victories. The fact remains that the CBJ didn’t quite play well enough to make the playoffs, and that is the bottom line.
This year, no one except the most ardent fan had any reason to expect anything different. The Blue Jackets had traded their best player, Rick Nash, and had a grab bag roster. But the team has jelled under the stewardship of coach Todd Richards and has a hot goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky, who has instilled confidence in his teammates. To the delight of fans, the team has been terrific in April and has been especially good on its current west coast road trip, on which the Blue Jackets have won four out of five games. With 
Akron, Ohio, the place of my birth, falls squarely within the Cleveland sports orbit. Parentage and pedigree played a role, too, as my parents and grandparents were all Cleveland sports fans. Rabid support for the Browns and the Tribe was a kind of birthright for the boys in our family. I gladly participated, going to Indians games with my grandparents and watching the Browns with UJ on autumn Sundays. Little did I know that, during those hopeful days of the late ’60s, I was signing on to a lifelong commitment that, for more than four decades, would not be rewarded with a championship.
It’s tough because the Buckeyes looked lost in the first half of this game. They settled for three-pointers, couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean, and played listlessly as Wichita State went out to a big lead. The lead got even bigger in the second half, as the Shockers built a 20-point lead. 20 points! But this loss also is tough because Ohio State didn’t quit and kept coming back. It made me proud, but it also made me wonder how the game might have gone if Ohio State had played with that kind of effort for the full 40-minute game.
The win tonight against Arizona was a tough, hard-fought battle — just what you would expect from two great programs and two deep teams. Arizona looked very good for most of the game and built a big lead in the first half. But the Buckeyes rode Sam Thompson and Deshaun Thomas — whose icy shots kept Ohio State within range — and stayed close in the first half. The Buckeyes then played nails defense to start the second half, Aaron Craft made some great plays, the Buckeyes got out to a lead, built it, and then held on as their latest clutch shooter, LaQuinton Ross, made bucket after bucket to keep the Buckeyes ahead. Ross eventually made the game winner that advanced the Buckeyes to the Elite 8.
We’re to the point in the season where every team still playing is very good, and very scary. The Buckeyes’ first opponent, Arizona, certainly fits that bill. For years, Arizona has been one of the premier programs in college basketball. This year the Wildcats, seeded sixth in the West, are 27-7 and crushed their first two opponents in the NCAA Tournament. They are led by three players averaging more than 10 points a game – guards Mark Lyons and Nick Johnson and forward Solomon Hill — and have lots of size on the inside. Equally important during high-drama tournament games, Arizona has a number of seniors on its roster who can be expected to provide steady leadership during the high-stress moments. Arizona’s talented and deep roster appears to present a number of match-up problems for Ohio State. To top things off, the Wildcats’ coach, Sean Miller, is a Thad Matta protege who knows Ohio State’s coach well, and Arizona will have a home court advantage of sorts by playing in neighboring California. All told, I think Arizona will pose an enormous challenge for the Buckeyes.
