Cavs, Indians converge for super Cleveland sports party

CLEVELAND, USA – Cleveland sports fans, who endured more than 50 years of futility, will celebrate in style Tuesday, October 25 (Wednesday in Manila), with an NBA title, a return to baseball’s World Series and a truckload of ice cream.

For some, the partying has already started ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers raising their NBA championship banner before the league season opener against the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Indians playing host to the Chicago Cubs across the street at in Major League Baseball’s best-of-7 playoff final opener.

“It’s a special day for our fans, for Cleveland, for northeast Ohio to be able to enjoy,” Cavaliers star LeBron James said. 

“It’s a day that will go down in history for anyone that lives (here), they’ll never forget it. I’m happy I’m a part of it.”

Not since the 1964 NFL Cleveland Browns has the city known such sporting success, and many of the failures in between were epic. It’s a city once ridiculed by some as a “Mistake by the Lake.” It’s Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire in 1969.

That’s the legacy that helped prompt the Cavaliers’ hashtag “WonForAll.”

“Knowing what our city has been through as far as our sports and everything for the last 50-plus years, our fans deserve it,” James said. “Our fans, no matter what has been going on, the Browns, the Indians, the Cavs, they continue to support us.”

Downtown businesses are already decorated, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame adorned with the C logo used on Indians’ players caps.

There will be a rap concert, giant television screens and even ice cream thanks to an offhand comment James made when asked how the party could get any better.

“It’s going to be great,” James said. “We get to host the World Series and we get our rings on the same night at the same time. If we had a retractable roof it would be probably the loudest we ever heard, so it’s pretty special.

“From a fan’s perspective, is there any better way? I don’t know, having an ice cream truck outside of both arenas at the same time as well – the icing on the cake.”

Midwest-based Blue Bunny ice cream has sent a truck that’s expected to be parked between the venues, tweeting, “Hey Cleveland, KingJames asked for an ice cream truck to make tomorrow even more fun. Free ice cream is coming – see you soon!”

The Cavaliers moved their tip-off time 30 minutes ahead to avoid the games starting at the same time, and giving James the chance to watch the Tribe after his game.

“If our game ends before theirs then I’ll watch it, for sure,” he said.

Cleveland’s title ‘vibe’ 

Indians pitcher Corey Kluber, who starts the opener for Cleveland, said the “vibe” James and the Cavaliers started in June with their NBA Finals victory has been an inspiration to them in their quest for a crown.

“It was an unbelievable run they went on,” Kluber said. “It definitely sent a vibe through the city. You could just feel the energy through that run after they won. It has been great for Cleveland the fact they won a championship. And hopefully we can bring them another one.”

James has been a very public supporter of the Indians but long has been known as a backer of baseball’s New York Yankees and the NFL Dallas Cowboys because of their winning history.

“I’m a supporter of winners,” James said. “As a kid growing up I needed inspiration to get out of the situation I was in.

“But I’m definitely in support of what the Indians are trying to do right now.”

And he loves having helped ignite the spark.

“That’s what we want to do,” James said. “Part of my whole mindset is to inspire as many people as I possibly can from kids growing up in my inner city to professional athletes.” – Jim Slater, Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com