A Life Beyond Climbing: Family and Sports Teams

-Post 4-

Whew...squeaking this one in.  Good grief it's only day 4 and I'm feeling the pressure!

 
Anyone who really knows me knows that I love sports and have a passion for a few professional teams.  Most of those teams have outright sucked been terrible for longer than I can remember a number of years but I still love them because of family connections.  Hey, it's better than saying, "I like the Yankees because they win."  By the way, I'm a fan of any team that's playing the Yankees...yes, that includes the Red Sox.

First, a little family background....


My parents met in Cleveland, OH.  Dad was originally from the West Side in what is now a pretty rough neighborhood.  My grandfather and his brothers ran a hardware store over there until they finally (mercifully!) shut it down and sold the property about 5 years ago.  Dad grew up working in the store and naturally learned a lot of basic carpentry and home repair skills, things I'm always grateful that he passed on to me.  My grandfather's family always had a "do-it-yourself" attitude.  "Why pay someone else to do a job I know I can figure out myself and learn something in the process?"  These are people that grew up during the Great Depression.  They found work by doing whatever odd jobs they could do to get by.  This kind of attitude (and the need for these skills) was ingrained in me at an early age.  So it's no wonder that I fix my own car, do home repairs (yes even on my rental apt and have the landlady deduct), cringe when I see something I want but know I can build it myself (and build it better), etc.  I just absorbed a myriad of skills from family.  And so this Jimmy Buffett lyric really resonates with me:

"I suppose, the need to focus never arose.  So something like a Swiss Army Knife, that's my life....cause I got a schoolboy heart, novelist eye..."

My mom is originally from Ponce, Puerto Rico.  My grandfather met my grandmother when he was stationed in PR during World War II and prior to heading to Europe.  He promised he'd come back for her.  She probably thought, "yeah right."  Obviously he made it through and did come back for her.  They lived in Ponce until my mom was 9 years old.  My grandfather had the itch to move back to the States.  The only place he could find work close to where he grew up (Uniontown, PA...close to Pittsburgh) was Cleveland.  My parents met on a blind-date.

Back to sports now...

My folks moved to Virginia back in 1970...I think.  Growing up in my neighborhood, all of the kids my age had bikes.  All of us played baseball and traded baseball cards (back when Topps still had gum in each pack).  Dad had played and coached baseball back in Ohio as had my Grandfather.  I was and still am a fan of the Cleveland Indians (you can stop laughing and/or feeling sorry for me now) First, and foremost they are the sports team that I follow.  Through the ups and severe downs (mostly downs) I still hold out hope that someday they'll play .500 ball return to the front of the pack.  I just hope it's before the world ends in my lifetime.  An addiction to Following the Tribe has always been something that my Grandfather, Dad and I could talk about; no matter what else was going on in life.  I love Jacob's Field (I refuse to call it Progressive Field) and am quite proud of my cousin who works for the Indians.  I've been on TV a couple times because of that connection!

Am I a Brown's fan?  Out of pity. Sorta.  I will watch them and of course I love the Pittsburgh rivalry.  I was happy thrilled to see them beat the Steelers this year, though they should've crushed them by a lot more (seriously guys...8 forced turnovers and you still barely won?).  It helps to keep that rivalry alive.  I'm sure my Steelers fan friends would say "meh...we had to let you win that one to keep it interesting" or something like that (yeah, this is directed at you...How Did Batch win that last game???:-)  Whatever.  Hopefully the new ownership finally has the Browns on the right track.

Overall, as a Cleveland fan I'm used to the utter futility mediocrity of the sports teams.  The punk band Rancid had it right when they sang:

"Good morning heartache.  You're like an old friend, come to see me again....look up, you're in Cleveland again.  A solid line that never ends.  I got stories that you'll never believe and I know, I wear it.  I wear it on my sleeve.  There must be something 'bout you that I liked but right here in the rain you know it just don't seem right.  I always go out, I never hide, but in Cleveland - I shoulda stayed inside."

After moving to VA, I think the cultural influences of the area had a more profound effect on my parent's allegiance to a football team than any other factor.  Well, that and the fact that you couldn't get Browns games on the TV back then.  All of their friends were Washington Redskins fans.  The games were on the local radio stations (including WINC where Dad worked) and TV stations.  I even remember when my parents couldn't stand the TV announcers' commentary they would mute the TV and turn up the radio.  This of course was before you had big differences in broadcast delays.

So Mom and Dad became huge 'Skins fans.  Billy Kilmer, Mark Moseley (who lives near them now), John Riggins, and later Art Monk, Gary Clark and Darrell Green, etc.  Those were their heroes.  Those were the players I remember watching as a kid.  Through the ups of the 90s and the seemingly bottomless downs of the past 15+ years (until now! RGIII!!!) all of us have stayed 'Skins fans.  But my loyalty to the Indians will never be trumped...even if you do see me donning a Nationals hat and cheering for Bryce Harper and Co. :-)

One last thing...I don't really like sitting and watching games on TV much unless it's with someone else or a group of friends.  Especially if my team loses, I feel like I wasted 4+ hours of my life on something of which I can't actually effect the outcome.  I'd rather work on the car or something else with the game on the radio in the background.  That way if they lose, which more often that not is seemingly likely (sorry, don't mean to be a downer just stating the obvious) at least I accomplished something with the day!