"Mays spears it, spins, and fires it back to the infield.
A spectator slaps himself in the head."
- Mark Winegardner, Crooked River Burning
After a six year absence, the Cleveland Indians returned to the World Series, this time against the New York Giants. During Game 1 which Willie Mays made "The Catch." Cleveland sports are always about "what if" and if Mays hadn't made "The Catch" (or if the wall at the Polo Grounds had been just a bit closer) then the river would never have caught fire, the Hough riots would never have happened, the city would never have gone into Default, LeBron would never have left, and so on.
But we're talking about Willie Mays. Show the man some respect.
In any event, Cleveland has never made a World Series appearance since.
There are those who speculate that Cleveland's major league woes are due to some "curse." Boston had a curse, right? Why not us. Must be a curse. The name "Rocky Colavito" is tossed around, but really, who the hell is that? I know who Babe Ruth is, Rocky Colavito is some made-up name. Classic Cleveland "me-too" action.
In 1946, two years prior to the last World Series victory Cleveland will ever have, the team adopted a charming new logo:
By 1954 they were using this logo, which is either more or less offensive, as if you could measure such things:
You want a curse? There's your curse.
And so in 1954, the New York Giants swept the Indians in the World Series.
No comments:
Post a Comment