As Tim and I have been talking about how to handle the site this summer, in the wake of an Indians team that has almost nothing interesting going on, a Cavaliers offseason that will likely be dramatic and chaotic (but also only sporadically insight worthy), and a Browns preseason that, truthfully, seems entirely unappealing right now, two days before the start of the NBA Finals, I got to thinking about the concept of a fair weather fan.
Not being a fair weather fan is a trait I’ve held dear to my heart over the years. If I dig deep enough, I could probably provide physical evidence of $10 tickets I bought to watch Ricky Davis and Darius Miles run up and down the floor in Gund Arena. Dad can attest to several bucks spent watching the lousy Indians teams that inspired Major League in Municipal Stadium, and several more dollars blown in the 2000’s on tickets that allowed us to sit in the ass crack of Jacobs’ Field (Section 519). Tim will tell you about all the times we woke up in LA, still drunk from the night before, to wander to a bar by 10 AM so we could see a shitty Browns most likely lose.
The Cleveland pro sports teams have been my way of staying connected to my family and my hometown, as I’ve traveled outside of the state. Abandoning them, I’ve always thought, would be a travesty.
I’m not so sure anymore.
When it comes to making decisions on how to spend my disposable income and use my free time, I now have a lot of options. More than when I was a kid, and even more than when I was in high school and college. The internet has made more music, more movies, and more books available to me. My advancing age has opened the doors to recreational drinking, concerts, and bars. As a freelancer who only makes money if I’m producing content, I have a ton of work to do most days. I could even try to find a girlfriend or a wife (although that would probably take a Herculean effort).
In short, there’s a lot of life to live, and I’m not so sure that it makes sense to use all, most, or some of my free time watching the Indians lose 100 baseball games or Brady Quinn throw deep balls out of bounds to try to prove a point about how I’m loyal to the city of Cleveland and to its sports teams.
Of course, if I’m watching these bad games played by bad teams alongside good people then that changes things. Let’s say the hypothetical girlfriend I mentioned earlier is a big baseball fan … then, yes, I’d go to Indians games with her. Tim and I watched plenty of terrible basketball games together this past season, and I’d do it all over again. The communal experience that sporting events can create counts for a whole lot.
But rooting for the Indians and the Browns above all else in life? Living and dying on every pitch, every snap, every misplayed ball and batter left on base, every fumble and every occurrence of poor gap integrity … I think my time doing that is slowly coming to an end. I’ve got movies to write, people to meet, and life to live, after all.
Just trust that I’ll be there when there’s something compelling - or even potentially compelling - going on in Cleveland sports. Which, because its sports, which are always home to maximum drama, means I’ll be there a whole f’ing lot.
Try to keep all of this in mind as the Cavaliers offseason plays out (you had to know it was coming).
