Inside Conditions…Spoiled brats’

The Cleveland Cavaliers recently won the NBA Championship. This was the first championship won by the city in 52 years, wow….  Yay, whoopee, ding-dong the witch is dead, the witch is dead.  Ding-dong the wicked witch is dead.  The “King” is dead, long live the “King.”  All is now well in the city commonly known as: “the mistake by the lake.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers have won 6 Super Bowl trophies, The Penguins have won 4 Stanley Cups and the Pirates have won 2 World Series titles since the last time that the city of Cleveland has won anything other than the right to have the first pick or close of any sports draft.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, many fans of the black and yellow colors are never satisfied unless their teams win everything, every year but….. wait.  The Steelers were not always the mighty Steelers because Pittsburgh languished for 40 years without winning a championship of any kind until they won the AFC Central division title in 1972. Two years later Art Rooney one of the most popular NFL owners, received the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Steelers’ victory in Super Bowl IX. Lest we forget, in the 1950s under the leadership of the late great Paul Brown, the Cleveland Browns were had a locker room stocked with a plentiful and almost endless supply of cans of “whoopass” and didn’t mind using it on every NFL team, especially the Pittsburgh Steelers.
At least Cleveland will support an NBA team.  In winning and losing I see some dark similarities between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
Even though the Pirates won the 1979 MLB World Series with an All-Star lineup featuring right fielder Dave “the cobra” Parker, Parker was often booed, derided and abused for no reason other than he was making huge loot and the color of his skin. Even one of his teammates joked that Parker was “a legend in his own mind.”  Objects were mainly thrown at him from hometown fans from their seats and many of those fans were oftentimes never ejected from the ballpark.
In 2010 when LeBron James bolted to the Miami Heat seeking to win a championship, Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert had this to say: “Dear Cleveland, as you know, our former hero who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.  This was announced with a several day narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever witnessed in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.  Clearly this is bitterly disappointing to all of us. The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor Never will betray you.”
Gilbert betrayed Cleveland by putting a vice-grip on the purse strings of the Cavaliers ownership group or LeBron may have never left.
Recently, trade rumors have swirled around Pirates All-Star Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen based partly on him being in a slump.  Hell, there were times that former Pirates infielder Pedro Alvarez would be mired a slump while simultaneously throwing balls into the stands just by attempting to execute a normal putout.
Throughout sports there are periods of winning and losing because that is just the nature of “games of chance.”  Just remember, every time two teams prepare to compete against each other, ninety-nine percent of the time, one team will win and one team will lose.  I can guarantee it.  (Sources for this article were profootballhof.com and espn.com)
Aubrey Bruce can be reached at: abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412.583.6741
Follow him on Twitter@ultrascribe