One Great Season
Being a Cleveland native means I don't have a long list of championship celebrations under my belt. Perhaps if the time comes, I can hit up a few Pittsburgh friends who've enjoyed Steelers' Super Bowl wins or Cincinnati buds who followed that great wire-to-wire season of 1990, and they can tell me the do's and dont's of parade etiquette.
Until I get to enjoy an Indians World Series triumph or a Super Bowl win by the Browns, mostly all I can do is look backward at the five best sports moments of my barely 40-year-old life (not in any particular order):
+ Dan Hanson's fourth state wrestling championship: Who's Dan Hanson, you ask? He's the guy whose name was on the signs welcoming drivers on Richmond and Highland roads to our fair city of Richmond Heights. I was never much of a wrestling guy, but my high school was a powerhouse back in the day. Prior to March 1987, only two Ohio grapplers had won four state titles, but on this night, Hanson was one of three to turn the trick. And I will never forget the hair-raising several-minute ovation Hanson got in the closing seconds of his final match, and then when the referee held his arm skyward and did a 720-degree spin -- very slowly -- to show him off to the adoring crowd at St. John Arena in Columbus.
+ Ohio State's 2002 national championship: Barry had the big-screen TV, plenty of good food and an endless supply of cold Budweisers in the fridge. It was a Friday night in Cincinnati in January 2003 and just a small collection of good buds watched every second of that nailbiter. And like a bunch of 5-year-olds, we went screaming out of the house when Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey's final pass fell incomplete and the Buckeyes had their first championship in more than 30 years. Unlike a bunch of 5-year-olds, though, we kept running past the train track on Wasson Avenue and landed at familiar R.P. McMurphy's Pub to further the debauchery celebration.
+ Cincinnati's win at Pittsburgh in 2009: This was by far the best game I covered on my excellent college football adventure last fall. Not only am I a proud UC graduate, but there were so many of the elements that make football by far America's best sport. It was cold and snowy, Cincinnati was seeking its first-ever 12-0 regular season and had a slim shot to get into the BCS title game, its coach was rumored to be leaving for Notre Dame, the conference title was on the line and Pitt took a huge lead late into the first half. Then, one big play after another brought the Bearcats to within striking distance, and quarterback Tony Pike eventually found a diving Armon Binns in the end zone with a half minute left to claim the 45-44 win. The post-game madness that ensued on the other team's field was something I'll remember forever.
+ Michigan at Ohio State, 2006: In the long and storied history of sports' greatest rivalry, these bitter enemies had miraculously never played each other as No. 1 and No. 2. But that's what happened when the 11-0 squads got together to settle the Big Ten championship, and to figure out who would play in the BCS title game. The day began when 105,000 fans in Columbus' Ohio Stadium offered a well-behaved moment of silence to honor legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, who'd died the day before. He and longtime friend and rival Woody Hayes sure cooked up a good one, providing sunny skies and perfect football weather for the 42-39 thriller that the home team won.
+ The Indians advancing to the 1995 World Series: Sure the Tribe did it again in 1997, and they lost both trips, but this was a huge first for Cleveland sports fans of my generation. It had been 41 years since the team's last World Series appearance, and the Tribe was game this time around. Sure they lost to Atlanta in six games, but five of the games in that series were decided by one run, so there was no shortage of drama. That postseason is largely what made me a fan of October baseball. When you're not used to watching a ballgame closely and you don't pay attention to the analyst's breakdowns, you don't realize how celebral the game is. There is so much strategy involved in every at-bat, and really in every pitch in postseason baseball, that it's impossible not to have great respect for it. Now if only my squad can get back there sometime in the near future!