Teams I Support (AKA: My Life as a Tragedy) - vaughn99's Blog

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vaughn99's Blog

Teams I Support (AKA: My Life as a Tragedy)

Posted on November 12, 2008 at 12:38 PM.

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Ok, so I grew up in Akron-Canton Ohio. Close enough to Cleveland to care, but too far away to really know exactly what was going on up in the "big city." Road trips to ball games weren't really on my parents' agendas (with the 4 other kids and school and union strikes and job losses and all that -- ah, the 80's, thanks Reagan-omics), and 56 miles is a long way to ride a BMX with a reversed fork.

So I had Herb Score and Joe Tait to paint the pictures with words, and WUAB in black and white (and then CRT tube colorphonic glory). I grew up thinking there were certain events that were true:

� Joe Charbaneau and Andre Thornton were the 2 best power hitters in history (well, since "The Rock").

� The (d)evolution of the PROFESSIONAL RB:

Jim Brown > Leroy Kelly > Greg Pruitt > Kevin Mack > Eric Metcalf > end.

� Tom Candiotti and Phil Neikro were "Real" pitchers, man.

� Greg Swindell's fastball was better than The Rocket's. And the Ryan Express. I have no idea why it didn't have a moniker all its own.

� World B. Free is a REAL PERSON'S NAME. He was our best player.

� Hot Rod Williams is a REAL PERSON'S NAME. He was our best player.

� Julio Franco was a better fielder than Ozzie Smith. Or maybe they're the same guy.

� The Crunch were a real team.

� Indoor Soccer was a real sport.

� Signing a scrappy vet named Terry Francona as our DH was genius, and home runs are an over rated statistic (he went on to hit an awe-inspiring 1).

� Waiting 4 hours at the IGA in the snow to get Brian Brennan's autograph is a totally logical thing to do on a Wednesday night when you're 8.

And this twisted reality has continued to fester inside me since moving back "home" to the North Coast from the "other" Brooklyn in 2000:

� LeBron James will win multiple championships.

� We have an NFL team named "The Browns"

� Ryan Ludwick didn't "fit" in our system.

� Travis Hafner is fine.

That was the long of it, so here's the short of it:

Teams I Support: