Open Mic: Ohio Disappointment, Sport Accomplishments

Disappointment.

That's a normal word which has always existed in sports, especially in Ohio—the state of disappointment.

Just recently, there have been three Ohio State National Championship losses, an ALCS Game 7 loss, an NBA Finals sweep, and even an Arena Bowl loss.

It seems as if Ohio is the state for second place finishers.

But the biggest disappointment I've witnessed is the 2006 BCS National Championship Game.

The Buckeyes went into that game as the favorites, poised to steamroll over the Gators and bring the National Championship back to the great state of Ohio!  And after the opening kickoff, everyone thought it was going to be that way.

Then Ted Ginn gets hurt celebrating and the Gators proceed to "Gator Chomp" the Buckeyes to pieces.

It was devastating, but even that doesn’t beat the greatest disappointment of all.

The Cleveland Indians.

They moved from terrible Cleveland Municipal Stadium into Jacobs Field and started winning.  They got to the World Series in 1995 against the Atlanta Braves, but it was finally the Braves' year, and they beat the Tribe four games to two.

Then the Indians made it again 1997 and faced the four-year-old Marlins.

It was Cleveland’s year.

They had Manny, Thome, Lofton, Nagy, Colon, Sexson—an amazing bunch—but then again, they also had Jose Mesa.

As soon as he came into Game 7, the Indians were destined to lose.

Edgar Renteria did it to the Cleveland fans.

Who will ever forgive Jose Mesa for that game?

He didn't even take the loss.  Charles Nagy did.

It was a true disappointment.  But in sports, there are also great accomplishments.

And what is the Greatest Sports Accomplishment of all time?

The old school Boston Celtics—no one will ever be that good for that long.

The “back in the day” Yankees.

The John Wooden Bruins.

None of those teams will ever be touched.  Not with free agency and kids leaving early.

Individually, it's the consecutive games streaks by both Brett Favre and Cal Ripken Jr.

In today's game, Brett and Cal will never be touched.  There are too many injuries and too many people just give 99 percent.

But the record that truly will never be broken is the wins record by Cy Young.  511 wins is a heck of a lot.

No pitcher will ever come close.

If there were a record whose breaking would upset me, it would be the hits record by Pete Rose.

Say what you want about Rose, but he was a damn good hitter.  No one can take that away from him.

The fact that he's not in the Hall of Fame is a crock of crap and MLB should be ashamed of itself for allowing this still today.

I've been disappointed many times by my teams, and I'm sure there will be plenty more, but the race and chase still grabs me every time.

Records are made to be broken and I can't wait to see more be broken soon.