¡Feliz CumpLeBroños! Looking at LeBron’s Birthday Games
December 30, 2014Ray Farmer addresses Johnny Manziel’s partying, future
December 30, 2014If you thought that 2013 was one crazy year in the world of Cleveland Sports, 2014 once again proved that there is rarely a dull moment. There were good times and bad, hirings and firings, wins and losses, homecomings and award winners. As the year comes to a close, like we have done the last six years, WFNY will take a look at what we view to be the ten biggest sports stories to grace our local sports scene over the last 12 months. Each day through the rest of the year, we will be counting down from ten to one. Do enjoy.
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has a feature just to the left of the main gate where multiple elephants occasionally cross from one patch of land to the other. The viewing capabilities are wide-ranging, offering herds of visitors—pun fully intended—the opportunity to watch these modern marvels methodically maneuver their gargantuan frames about the expanse. It’s a big deal. There is also a flying saucer-like glass-enclosed, man-made rainforest wherein guests can get up close with (what’s alleged to be) 10,000 plants and 600 animals that would otherwise not be able to exist outside of the climate-controlled exhibit. Say what you will about the layout and how other local zoos may compare, but Cleveland’s Zoo has some solid attractions. Just don’t ask them to provide anything in the way of Wi-Fi or enhanced mobile phone service.
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Making my way from a landing area designed to feed a few lettuce-coveting giraffes to the picnic area in attempt to feed myself something off of the Pizza Hut menu, I felt the vibration of my iPhone in my right pocket. The entire city of Cleveland was already on high alert following a week’s worth of rumors surrounding cupcakes and plane trips and dev code that any faint motion of my mobile device set of a tidal wave of synapses which involuntarily forced my hand into my pocket to whip out that three-year-old phone and see what the screen said. It was a Friday afternoon so the WFNY email chain was firing along as usual. I had just arrived back from vacation thus missing all of the craziness that unfolded in the preceding days (something that I would recommend for everyone—it’s great watching Tyler Zeller get traded when you’re poolside), so when the link—the link—was passed along early that afternoon, the only thing I could see was the URL from Sports Illustrated that included the words “LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers.” I feverishly thumped on that URL, attempting to get it to load so that I could see what was transpiring, but it wouldn’t be long before other writers from this very site began piling on with tidings of joy. It was happening. The sports world went apeshit.
The number of dominoes that had to fall in order for this news to even take place is nearly unquantifiable. There had to be losing by both the Cavaliers and Miami Heat, but just enough so that the whole first Decision was somehow justified. There had to be an aging Miami roster with a fairly terrible point guard and a front office staring down the barrel of tedious financial decisions. There was Cleveland winning the NBA Draft Lottery three times in four years under the watch of two different general managers, one of which subsequently landed one of the game’s preeminent point guards. There was the apology. The trades. Zydrunas Ilguaskas. Salary cap management. The whole managing to not do something irreparably dumb in the four years that had passed so that all of this was even remotely possible. Oh, and don’t forget the whole luck and geography thing
What exists ahead in this storybook is anyone’s guess. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that the future is certain, regardless of how much talent you put on a given team. If this were the case, Jacobs Field would have a few extra banners over in right field. But I will state that, regardless of what transpires, no one ounce of Cleveland sports-related news could immediately put one of the city’s teams into better contention than what’s been dubbed Decision 2.0.
I never did get that URL to open. Not at the Zoo, anyway. I had to wait until I rolled into my home, where my Wi-Fi could power my entire cul de sac, brought it up on my iPad, crashed into the middle of my couch, tossed my feet on to the ottoman and let it all sink in. I’ll never forget anything about that entire week, and especially won’t forget about that Friday afternoon. Even the elephants were smiling.
3 Comments
Glad he did although more I read this site or pay attention to the local “broadcasters” the more the small part of me wishes this city would have Wiggins and the rest back.
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” I’ll never forget anything about that entire week, and especially won’t forget about that Friday afternoon.”
Well Said. If this thing turns out the way we all hope it does, no one will ever forget where they were at 12:16pm on that Frday afternoon.