Oh, oh, oh! I have ideas!

[debgeisler]

So, when you grow up in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1960s, you don’t grow up with a set of storied sporting teams.

The Browns did well...until there was a Super Bowl. Give the championship a name, and *pfffffttttt*! No more championships. Pre-Super Bowl (and mostly pre-Deb), they won in 1946, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 55, and 64. After that, the closest we came was the 2017-2018 “perfect season.” Sort of.

The Cavaliers...not so much. (At least not in my youth...they didn’t even come to Cleveland until 1971!) Cleveland won some basketball championships, but in the 30s, and not with the Cavs.

No hockey. There was an expansion team called the Barons for two years while I was in college...but they went nowhere (save out of Cleveland).

And then there was baseball. Dad took me to several Indians’ games in the 60s, but they kind of sucked a lot. And I was uncomfortable with the symbols, because we had Native ancestors.

So...like my parents, I still followed the Cleveland Browns(ish), but I grew to love teams from other places I lived and visited. The Boston Celtics...Real Madrid and Leeds United...no hockey teams...and the St. Louis Cardinals.

I love baseball. Love to watch it. Loved to play it back in the day. Love minor league ball at all levels. Love, love baseball.

And soon, I can feel better about Cleveland’s baseball team. They announced today that they will drop the “Indian” team name. They will announce their new team name this week or next.

I’m hoping for the “Cleveland River Burners.”

Hey! I *said* I was a child of the 60s. :-)

Comments

[debgeisler]

I got hooked on my Cards when I lived in southern Illinois (the closest major league team to Carbondale, and the team of my then-boyfriend). Then I remembered how much I just enjoyed *baseball*.

Frankly, the compressed air system sounds *hysterical* - they could have used that to have so much fun with the rabbit mascot! At least there was some fun there! From the Cleveland Indians of the 60s, I mostly just remember losing twice in a twi-night double header. But Dad took me, and it was fun. And he explained everything. I don't have a lot of really fun memories of Dad and me from my childhood, so I cherish them. Perhaps that's why baseball has such a warm spot in my heart, even if the Indians never got there.

Ah, well. KC has at least won the Series twice in your lifetime. :-) Cleveland last won the Series when I was minus 9. So you have that.

(My Cards, on the other hand, have done rather better.)

[kevin_standlee]

I've come to appreciate the minor league game as well. I've not been to a Reno Aces (AAA, Pacific Coast League, affiliated with Arizona) game in a couple of years, but they have a nice ballpark and reasonable prices. The San Jose Giants (Previously high-A, now low-A, California League, affiliated with San Francisco) has seen BASFA renting a box on the third base line annually (except this past void season, of course), and that's always been fun. No AA leagues in the West, though, and I never got a chance to attend a Kaizer-Salem Volcanos (Short-season A, Northwest League, formerly affiliated with San Francisco, now unaffiliated) during the time when Lisa lived in Oregon.

[debgeisler]

We have four minor league teams in striking distance: the PawSox (Pawtucket Red Sox in Pawtucket, Rhode Island), the Sea Dogs (Portland, Maine), the Lowell Spinners (Lowell, Massachusetts) are all affiliates of the Boston Red Sox. I’ve given them in order of quality: PawSox are AAA; Seadogs are AA; and the Spinners are short-season single A. There is a fourth team, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, which is the double-AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.

All of these minor league teams, and they’re all American League teams. Very sad.

(Mike gives me great grief for living in Toledo for two years and never going to a Mud Hens game. But I didn’t have a car!)

And we went down to New Yorkish to watch the Staten Island Yankees when they honored George and changed their team name to the Staten Island Direwolves for the day. The Direwolves have an unbeatable record: 1.000. (They won 10-1, beating the Hudson Valley Renegades .) You can see their logo and team uniforms on George’s LJ. It was great fun.

[kevin_standlee]

It's not likely that I'll be in the right place and time to ever see them play, but I'm quite taken by the SF Giants' AA affiliate, the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

[debgeisler]

We have two of their hats. :-) Saw them play the Fisher Cats...knew we had to have caps. (We have many caps. This is my fave. I think it was a mistake to change the Las Vegas team name.)

[kevin_standlee]

Agreed. We might have done something with that cap in promoting Westercon 74. But I don't think I'd ever want to watch a game in Las Vegas. Reno is hot, but our summer evenings are usually pretty comfortable.

[debgeisler]

That’s why I bought the hat separately. :-) Vegas in the summer? There’s one reason why I live somewhere that the air hurts my face in January.