Nothing eerie here in city 'by the ocean'
CLEVELAND - Some people dig Paris. Others prefer Rome, New York, or maybe the bright lights of Vegas. There are artsy types who want only to relax in Santa Fe. Tony Bennett rightfully left his heart in San Francisco and you're no dope if Chicago is your kind of town.
Me? I've always fancied myself a Cleveland kind of guy.
No fooling. It would be OK with me if they made Cleveland the permanent home of the Super Bowl. I'd be happy and heartened if the International Olympic Committee gave Cleveland a long look for a Summer or Winter Games. World's Fair. Bring it to Cleveland. It's all good here.
Truly. This place gets a bad rap. Cleveland endured the Dennis Kucinich regime and the white-shoes, white-belt era, a look that came to be known as the "Full Cleveland." There's no shortage of Cleveland jokes - a lot of folks have said they spent a week in Cleveland one night. It's easy to mock.
Not by me. I love Rust Belt cities, and Cleveland is among the finest - right up there with Pittsburgh and Detroit. It has hard-working, kind people who care about the value of a dollar. It has clean, wide streets, taxi cabs and hotels with air conditioning, and late-night room service. All the ballparks are downtown and the airport is in the same state and time zone as the city. You won't need a loan to take your wife to dinner. It has a Great Lake and Big Ten sports nearby.
Fans of the local pro teams wear a lot of team garb. They may be championship-starved, but they adore their Browns, Tribe, and Cavaliers.
Which brings us to the Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Watching the Green warm up last night at Quicken Loans Arena (Horrible name; aren't quick loans the primary cause of our nation's mortgage crisis? Maybe they should call this place "Recession Arena"), I was reminded of playoff history involving Boston and Cleveland.
We were all here just a few months ago, watching the Red Sox and Indians in the American League Championship Series. You remember. The Indians took a 3-1 series lead over the Red Sox, and Cleveland was agog. The Tribe were poised to eliminate the Sox in Game 5 at the Jake (where the light towers look like upright toothbrushes). A lot of us were pretty sure that Terry Francona was a dunce because he hadn't started Josh Beckett in Game 4. There was an outcry to bench Coco Crisp for Jacoby Ellsbury.
The Indians trotted out Beckett's ex-girlfriend, Danielle Peck, to perform the anthem at the Jake before Game 5. It didn't work. Beckett beat the Tribe, and the Sox came home to win twice more before sweeping their way through the World Series.
Boston-Cleveland playoff jousts have not always been so successful.
The Sox suffered one of their worst defeats in a one-game playoff against Cleveland to finish the 1948 season. Sox skipper Joe McCarthy selected washed-up Denny Galehouse to start the game and Galehouse was predictably routed while Cleveland owner Bill Veeck watched from a box seat at Fenway.
It would not be the only time Boston succumbed to Cleveland in October. The Indians kicked the Red Sox out of the playoffs a couple of times in the 1990s. Remember ex-Sox catcher Tony Peña homering off Zane Smith long after midnight at the Jake in 1995? The Sox got their revenge in 1999 when Pedro Martínez came out of the bullpen to save the day and send the Sox into the ALCS against the Yankees. That was the night time stood still. The clock at the Jake stopped when Pedro came into the game.
Boston and Cleveland clashed in playoff football on New Year's Day in 1995. This oft-forgotten game featured head coaches named Belichick and Parcells.
The game was played at the cavernous old Cleveland Stadium - once dubbed "the ballpark by the ocean" by the inimitable Oil Can Boyd.
Bill Belichick was the Browns' beleaguered boss in those days, and it was in this game that Coach Chuckles first ate Drew Bledsoe's lunch. Belichick's evaluation of Bledsoe's strengths and weaknesses came in handy a few years later when the Patriots drafted a kid named Tom Brady in the sixth round.
But enough about baseball and football. We are here now for basketball, and the Celtics and Cavaliers share a surprising amount of playoff history.
My favorite Celtics-Cavs playoff moment came in the spring of 1985 during a first-round best-of-five series. Larry Bird missed Game 3 because of bursitis in his right elbow. Bird stayed back at the hotel and watched the game on TV and was furious when he heard the locals chanting, "We want Bird!" at the end of Cleveland's victory.
The next day at practice, Bird pledged, "They want me, they'll get me with both barrels." He was booed every time he touched the ball the next night, scoring 34 points with 14 rebounds in a series-clincher at the old Richfield Coliseum.
Seven years later, Bird played his final game with the Celtics, a playoff loss to the Cavaliers. Right here in the heartland of Ohio.
So go have your little fun, you fans in other NBA outposts. Enjoy the fresh air and majesty of Salt Lake City. Shop on Rodeo Drive and get a map of the stars' homes in Beverly Hills. Go visit Mickey and Minnie in the Happiest Place on Earth.
Give me Cleveland any old day.
