Cleveland: The City That Creates Champions!

As I sit here writing this article it has been 44 years since the city of Cleveland has won a championship. That championship belongs to the 1964 Browns.

If you want to talk about the Indians it will be at least 61 years and the Cavs have never won one. Don’t worry this is not another one of those dreaded Cleveland is cursed pieces or the nostalgic/nauseating jaunt down the history of heartache ( The Drive, John Elway, The Shot, John Elway, The Fumble, John Elway).

This is a story however on how Cleveland makes other cities and players champions.

Lets start with this years LCS in Major League Baseball.

As I write this both series are still going on. Three of the four left standing have a strong tie to the Tribe, Let us begin with the Dodgers.

They have the strongest connection Manny! This connection is undeniable Man-Ram platoon right field from 1993 to 2000 as an Indians player. Most of you are like “So What? He became great in Boston.” I beg to differ.

The Indians drafted him in 1991 raised him through the farm system and if he hadn’t won a championship in Boston he might have gone into Cooperstown as an Indian. During his career in Cleveland he had 236 home runs, over 800 RBI’s, and in 1991 he reached his career high of 165 RBIs, which is the most by any major leaguer since Jimmie Foxx.

As an Indian, Manny went to two World Series. We lost both. After signing with Boston he has gone to two more, winning both, and still has a chance to win a third one this year.

Next up are the Phillies whose manger is Charlie Manuel, former hitting coach to the Tribe. He held this position for five years until he was hired as the manger(2000-2002), and was fired over a contract dispute.

He was then hired by the Phillies and has since led them to the brink of a World Series appearance. The next person is not a well known one, that connection would belong to the Boston Red Sox there pitching coach John Farrell was in charge of player development for 6 years.

He found talent such as Fausto Carmona, Rafael Perez, and Jeremy Guthrie. If you want to go through some other playoff teams the White Sox: Jim Thome, and The Brewers: CC Sabathia. Well, neither needs explanation.

Let’s leave the Indians and move to the Browns, the most famous Champion to have been bred here would have to be Bill Belichick.

He learned a lot from being here how to bench a good popular QB for a younger player. I’m referring to the benching of Bernie Kosar for Vinnie Testaverde and later he would do the same thing to Drew Bledsoe for a young Tom Brady.

Another thing he first tried in Cleveland was taking a chance on notorious NFL Bad Boys and giving the a chance in Cleveland. He had Eric Metcalf and in New England he got Randy Moss. Since leaving Cleveland he has built the best dynasty in the history of the NFL.

Another champion is Ernie Accorsi who was the GM of the New York football Giants until retiring before last season. Although he was technically not the GM, he built last year’s Giants team that won the Super Bowl. Accorsi made the draft day trade to get Eli Manning for Philip Rivers he also signed free agent wide receiver Plaxico Burress to sign as a free agent.

Ernie was the Browns GM in the 90’s. The Baltimore Ravens moved from Cleveland. Now, only one player was on that Super Bowl champion team that played for the Browns (Matt Stover). The front office of the Ravens is a different story.

Ozzie Newsome and Art Modell were major players and personnel for the Browns. The Browns’ influence even spreads to college football: Nick Saban won the National Championship with LSU. Saban was apart of Belichicks coaching staff.

So Cleveland fans, no worries we might not have a championship for ourselves in 64 years, but we have influenced championships everywhere.

In the last ten years we have helped create 7 championships: 3 Belichicks, 2 Man-Ram’s(1 being a Manny and Farrell), 1 Accorsi, 1 Saban, and a 75% chance we could get another one this year. Plus, if the worst happens I might have to amend my list and write about how Lebron James is winning other cities' championships. In the mean time hold your head up high and remember we are making the rest of the country (mainly New England) a very happy place.