Cherish Tuesday, October 25

Tuesday, October 25, 2016 is going to be a day unlike any that Cleveland, or any other city in the country, has seen before.

By now we all know the story that the Cavs will be celebrating their championship with shiny new rings and an exquisite new addition to the rafters inside Quicken Loans Arena. That alone would have the eyes of the sporting world fixated on Cleveland. There’s also another event with the capability of attracting an incredible amount of attention, and that would be Game 1 of the World Series, where first pitch will be thrown roughly 1,000 feet from where the 2016 NBA season will tip off.

Tuesday is a night that Clevelanders should cherish, because it’s an extremely rare occurrence. Since 1950 when the NBA was born, only once has a city captured a World Series title and an NBA championship in the same calendar year. Los Angeles was able to do this in 1988 with the Dodgers and the Lakers¹. After not winning a championship of any kind in nearly 52 years, Cleveland has the opportunity to win two this season.

Much is being made about the drought the Chicago Cubs have since their last title in 1908, and rightfully so. 108 years is an incredibly long time and I’m sure it has been extremely difficult for Cubs fans to watch their beloved Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls build dynasties while the Cubbies were referred to as the lovable losers. Like I said, 108 years is an incredibly long time, and not something I would want to wait through.

However, Cleveland did wait through a drought even longer than that. Between the Browns winning the NFL Championship in 1964 and the Cavaliers coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the 73-win Golden State Warriors with the NBA’s first ever unanimous MVP² to win The Finals, 142 seasons had passed. That’s an even longer drought for those that struggle with math.

Now that we’ve established how long this drought was and how it compares to the Cubs streak of not winning championships I can get to the real message of this writing.

Cherish this moment. Cherish being NBA Champions. Cherish the World Series.

Cleveland waited a historically long time to be a city of champions. 142 seasons is no joke. Obviously, Clevelanders done our fair share of celebrating in the past four-plus months, but things can change in an instant as Cleveland has seen so many times before. Cleveland easily could wait another 142 seasons to celebrate a title again. Having this much success in such a small area³ is something so rare it should be enjoyed as if it will never happen again, because there is no guarantee that it will.

Notes

1. In 2001, the Lakers as well as the Angles won championships, however with the Angels technically based in Anaheim at the time and not The Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim or whatever stupid name they go by these days.
2. I’m going to toss in a joke about how the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in The Finals almost every chance I get.
3. Thank God First Energy Stadium isn’t located in the Gateway Plaza.