Cleveland

Andrew Regan asked:


2007 has been a great year for sports fan in Boston, with the city’s national sides in all of America’s major competitive sports tasting a degree of success, from baseball to soccer.

The Boston Red Sox have quickly become America’s favourite baseball team, outshining their east coast rivals, the New York Yankees. The Sox topped their Eastern Division, and then beat Central Division champions the Cleveland Indians by four games to three in the American League Championship Series play-offs; before storming to victory in the World Series, defeating National League champions, and World Series rookies the Colorado Rockies. The Red Sox won the Series in four games, sweeping the Rockies to collect their second World Series championship in four seasons and their seventh overall. It also marked the third sweep in four years by the American League champions. In the process, the Red Sox became the first team to win the last two World Series they had appeared in since the New York Yankees who achieved it in 1998 and 1999.

Not to be outdone, Boston’s football team, the New England Patriots, recorded another successful season, being crowned Division Champions for the fifth season in a row. If their current form continues through the play-offs, they could well find themselves in the 42nd annual Super Bowl in March 2008 as American Football Conference Champions.

Things are also looking promising for Boston’s basketball team, the Boston Celtics, who hold the record for most NBA championships ever with 16. After a disappointing 2006-2007 season, which saw them play to a 24-58 record, the second worst in all of the NBA, the Celtics are once again sitting at the top of the Atlantic Division, having won twenty games and lost only two so far this season, and are almost certain to make it to the play-offs.

Another team improving on their fortunes after a disastrous 2006-2007 season is the Boston Bruins, Boston’s ice hockey team. They finished bottom of the league last season, but have fought their way to serious championship contention this season, currently sitting in second place of their Northeast Atlantic Division.

The NFL, NHL and NBA seasons are all still in full swing, and anyone wishing to catch Boston’s teams in action on their home turf can book into a hotel in Boston.

Although they don’t play in Boston itself, the Foxborough-based New England Revolution soccer team represents all of New England. Up until their 3-2 victory over FC Dallas in the 2007 US Open Cup, the Revolution had never won a major trophy in Major League Soccer in their thirteen-year history. They were one of three teams in MLS that date back further than 2005 to have not won one of the three major titles in MLS (MLS Cup, US Open Cup and the MLS Supporter’s Shield). They came close five times, reaching the US Open Cup final in 2001 and the MLS Cup finals in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

There’s never been a batter time to be a sports fan in Boston, and those fans will be hoping that trend continues for some time.



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John Grant asked:


The man known to the world as Jesse Owens was given the full name of James Cleveland Owens when he was born on the 12th of September in 1913. His parents were Henry and Emma Owens, who provided for their ten children by planting various crops on their farm in Oakville, Alabama.

Financial difficulties forced the Owens family to relocate to Cleveland, Ohio. The seventh of the ten, young J.C. earned the moniker Jesse when his teacher mistook “JC” for Jesse, and it stuck with him.

Life still proved difficult for the family, and young Jesse had to perform various odd jobs after school to help. Nevertheless, he still found time to engage in his favorite activity: running. And it was in one of these gym exercises that coach Charles Riley saw the potential in the young man.

Jesse Owens joined the high school team, and there was no turning back. In his last year at high school at Cleveland East High he equaled the 100 yard world record, and duplicated the feat when he competed in the Chicago Interscholastic Championships.

Although a budding track star, Jesse Owens experienced many more hardships especially when he entered Ohio State University in 1933. Racial discrimination was still widespread; he could only participate in “blacks only” campus events, and was also denied scholarship. Furthermore he could only stay and enter hotels and eateries that were for blacks. Yet he persevered.

On May 25, 1935, Jesse Owens established three world records and equaled another. This feat, which took place in Ann Arbor, was made all the more remarkable because the time involved spanned less than 45 minutes. In addition, Owens had an injured back. Yet despite this, he equaled the 100 yard dash time of 9.4 seconds. At his very first attempt at the broad jump, he leapt 26 feet 8¼ inches, smashing the previous mark by six inches.

Next, he clocked in 20.3 seconds at the 220 yard dash, obliterating the old record by three tenths of a second. Finally Jesse Owens set another world record at the 220 yard low hurdles, setting a new mark by completing it in 22.6 seconds.

It was against this background that Jesse Owens entered the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Here, Adolf Hitler wanted to prove to the world that the German Aryan race was superior, but Owens instead emerge victorious in the broad jump,100 meter, the 200 meter sprint and was part of the 400 meter relay team that took the gold.

For all his success on the field, Jesse Owens still had financial problems. He could not get any endorsements because he was black, so he had to resort to performing in exhibitions, running against baseball players, race horses, bikes etc.

Eventually he became involved in public speaking engagements and this proved so successful he managed to establish his own PR firm. He spoke for Olympics committees, companies, and also the youth.

In 1976, US President Gerald Ford awarded Jesse Owens the Medal of Freedom for having fought and defeated the forces of racism and bigotry to emerged triumphant.



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Jake Truman asked:


The main story for the Cavaliers in the 2006/07 season, as it has been for the past three and probably will be for the foreseeable future, is LeBron James. LeBron is by far one of the best young players that the league has seen in a very long time, and his performance last season was as impressive as any other players in the NBA.

LeBron James was third in the league last year with 31.4 points per game. His scoring numbers have improved every year since he has been in the league and there is no reason to expect a drop in production anytime soon. One thing that Cavaliers fans would be happy to see is an increase from his 6.6 assists a game. Once thought to be the heir apparent to Oscar Robertson, James still has a lot of work to do in getting his teammates more involved.

Playing aside LeBron in the upcoming season are role players such as Larry Hughes and Zydrunnas Illgauskas. Larry Hughes is coming off a slightly disappointing season in which he was injured for two-thirds of the year. He should benefit greatly from playing an entire season next to one of the best players in the league and return to his 2004 form when he averaged 22.1 points per game. Illgauskas is a great scorer at the center position and is usually the key to how well the team as a whole does. If he is able to set a tone early, the Cavaliers are very tough to beat.

Other role players who are expected to contribute to the team include Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones and Anderson Varejao. Marshall is an inconsistent scorer at the power-forward position who has a long range. Jones is another inconsistent shooter who can light it up from the three-point range. Both players are expected to improve upon mediocre 2005 seasons. Anderson Varejao is a pure energy player who can give the team a boost off of his reckless play. Varejao has to stay healthy, however, and make it past the sixty games played mark for the first time in his career.

Second-year head coach Mike Brown may not get much press, but there is no question that he got the job done last year by leading the Cavaliers to their first playoff berth in a long time and winning a playoff series. More will be expected from him and the team, however, in 2006/07 and Brown needs to make sure that his team is not happy with last years results. This is not a championship team yet, but they are only one or two players away from that status.



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Billy Bonds asked:


The Cavaliers first began play in the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team. Under the direction of coach Bill Fitch, they compiled a league-worst 15-67 record. However, the team began to build around the 1971 draft pick, Austin Carr.

In the 1975-76 season, with Carr, Bingo Smith, Jim Chones, Dick Snyder, and newly acquired Nate Thurmond, Fitch led the Cavs, as the team is commonly nicknamed, to a 49-33 record, which was the best record in the Central Division. He received the league’s Coach of the Year award as the Cavs made their first-ever playoff appearance.

The Cavs won the series against the Washington Bullets, 4-3. Because of the many heroics and last-second shots, the series became known locally as the “Miracle of Richfield.” However, hampered by injuries, particularly to Jim Chones, the Cavs proceeded to lose to the Boston Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA playoffs.

In the 1980s, new owner Ted Stepien quickly hired and fired a succession of coaches, made a number of poor trades and poor free agent signing decisions. Stepien’s poor trades cost the team several first round draft picks, and led to a rule change in the NBA prohibiting teams from trading away first round draft picks in consecutive years. The rule is known as the “Ted Stepien Rule.” Stepien threatened to move the franchise to Toronto, but brothers George Gund and Gordon Gund purchased the franchise in the mid 1980s and decided to keep the team in Cleveland. In 1993, Toronto would, in fact, get an expansion franchise, the Toronto Raptors.

In 1986, under the Gund brothers as owners, the team acquired, either through trades or the draft, Brad Daugherty, Mark Price, Ron Harper and Larry Nance. These players (minus Harper, who was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers for the rights to Danny Ferry) formed the core of the team that led the Cavs to eight playoff seasons in the next nine years, including three 50-wins plus seasons. However, in 1989, the Cavs were paired against the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs. It was a best-of-five-series. Cleveland managed to beat the Bulls in overtime, 108-105 and tied the series 2-2. Home court advantage went to Cleveland.

The game was evenly matched, until Cleveland managed to score on a drive and raise the lead by 1, with 3 seconds left. Chicago called time. The ball was inbounded to Michael Jordan, who went for a jump shot. Cleveland’s Craig Ehlo jumped in front to block it, but Jordan seemed to stay in the air until Ehlo landed. “The Shot” went in as time ran out, with Chicago winning the series 3-2. The buzzer-beater is considered one of Jordan’s greatest clutch moments, and the game itself one of the greatest. But the pinnacle of the Cavs’ success came in the 1991-92 season, when they compiled a 57-25 record and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, losing again to the Chicago Bulls 4-2. Cleveland had no success in the playoffs during this period.

After then, an era of decline came for Cavs. With retirements and departures of Nance,Daugherty and Price, team lost its power and no longer was able even to fight for playoffs, where once they used to be the greatest trouble against the Bulls.

For several years under leadership of point guard Terrell Brandon, Cavs became the most defensive team of NBA, setting its tactics all on defense,being the NBA’s least point conceding team. But offensive inproductivity caused Cavs to have no success in this era.

Later on, players like Ricky Davis and Zydrunas Ilgauskas were added to the team, increasing the quality, but without any success.

However, after the Cavs’ glory days came several losing seasons. Those seasons saw the Cavs drop to the bottom of the league, becoming a perennial lottery draft team. After another disappointing season in 2002-03, the Cavs landed the number one draft pick in the NBA Lottery. The Cavs selected high school phenom LeBron James.

James’ status as both a local star (having played his high school basketball at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in nearby Akron) and one of the most highly touted prospects in NBA history led many to view his selection as a turning point in the franchise’s history. The 2003-04 season offered great hope for the future, as James rose to become a dominating player, winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.

Hope was even greater for the 2004-05 season. James blossomed into a superstar, increasing his points average, shooting percentage, assists average, and rebounds average. Despite the loss of Carlos Boozer under very dubious circumstances, James teamed with Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas to form the core of the Cavs team. After a promising start when the team seemed to be locked firmly into the Eastern Conference’s 5th playoff spot, the Cavs began a downward spiral that eventually led to the firing of coach Paul Silas and general manager Jim Paxson. The Cavs failed to make the playoffs that year, tied with the resurgent New Jersey Nets for the eighth (and final) playoff spot (the Nets owned the tiebreaker over the Cavs).

The 2005 offseason was one of many changes for the Cavaliers. The team hired a new coach, Mike Brown, and a new general manager, former Cavaliers forward Danny Ferry. The team also signed free agents Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, and Damon Jones (four-year, $16 million for Damon) to multi-year contracts. Along with new owner Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers’ front office consists of individuals new to their respective positions. Despite the relative inexperience of many of these newcomers, the franchise sees great hope in rising star LeBron James, whom many have compared to all-time great Michael Jordan.

In March, the Cavaliers clinched their first playoff appearance since the 1997-98 season. They wound up receiving the #4 seed in the Eastern Conference and faced the Washington Wizards in the first round. After the two teams split the first two games in Cleveland, LeBron James scored a game-winning basket with 5.7 seconds remaining in game 3. The Wizards then won game 4 to tie the series. With the series back in Cleveland, the Cavs emerged victorious in the fifth game, 121-120 in an exciting overtime contest that saw LeBron James hit the game winning shot with 0.9 seconds left on the clock. Game 6 also went to overtime, on a Gilbert Arenas three-point shot at the end of regulation to tie the score. In the extra session, however, Damon Jones nailed a long jumper in the final seconds to clinch the game for the Cavs – advancing them into the second round for the first time in 13 years.

In the second round, the Cavs lost the first two games to the Detroit Pistons, but then won the next three, including one at the Palace of Auburn Hills (producing the Pistons’ only three game losing streak of the season). However, they lost a close Game 6 at home and then fell to Detroit, 79-61, in game 7. This game produced two records of futility for the Cleveland organization. First, they earned the record for least points scored in a Game 7, and secondly, they tied the record for least points scored in a half with 23.

The two playoff rounds were a showcase for the emergence of LeBron James, which he has achieved many “youngest ever to…” records considering his age (21 in the 2005-06 season). More importantly, it marks the rebirth of a once stagnant basketball franchise.



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Bobby Brister asked:


Baseball is full of curses and hexes that said to be the cause of the many failures of the team to win the World Series. Each team subjected to this curses will have years of drought. It is not like they end up being the worst team of the year but even if they give their best, they always lose. The non-believers of these curses may not take this as a logical explanation for not winning. However, the losses of the best teams seemed to be a puzzle to everyone.

The players, a prominent figure or a spectator may cause the curses of baseball. It is not like the olden days that they chant spells or perform rituals to summon evil power to cause bad things to happen. Gone are the days of cauldrons and witches. These supernatural hindrances to win a National League or American League or even a World Series were heavily caused by a bitter exchange of words or plainly an act of letting go.

Several people were associated to the mishaps occurring in several teams. The following are:

1. Rocky Colavito- Who could forget this handsome baseball player. Everyone loved him for his coolness. Yet he was the alleged reason why Cleveland Indians were not to grab titles from World Series or even the American League. There were traces of the curse year after year but he denied that he never cast one on them. We will never know, however, who would want to trade the leader in homeruns for the American League? Well, it seems Cleveland made a wrong decision and put them in a troubling scenario. Nevertheless, none of these stopped Colavito from being one of the best baseball players in MLB.

2. Babe Ruth- This is your chocolate man and not only nutty and chocolaty but also the best player in the history of baseball. However, this baseball icon did not escape the being associated to hexes and spells. After being traded way back in 1919, Boston Red Sox had to suffer terrible losses even though they can get themselves in the World Series. Good thing that in 2004, the Red Sox were able to break the curse and it is believed so that it has totally disappeared when they repeated the victory in 2007.

3. Donnie Mattingly- He is the curse of the New York Yankees. When Yankees hired him, the team never won anything. He stayed from 1980 to 1995 and within those years, the Yankees offense was not so good, they lost games even though the pitcher threw a no-hitter and they even placed last in 1990. When Mattingly left the team, the Yankees started winning games from 1996-1998.

These are few of the players, who were said to have negative impact in teams like Cleveland Indians, Red Sox, and the Yankees. It is funny how the names of these great players are attached to the different curses. However, of course, when you ask them, they will deny such allegations. Remember, they are baseball players, not warlocks.



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