I was born in Boulder, Colorado and lived my first few months on this planet in a little town by the name of Nederland. Not long after my mother took me to live closer to family in NE Ohio, more specifically the Cleveland metro area. We spent time in a number of communities, but just before I was to enter high school we opted to move to the west coast to be closer to those mountains she loved so much. Portland, Oregon was a wonderful place...beautiful mountains within driving distance, a gorgeous coastline, mysterious rainforests, it was an outdoorsman's dream. In high school I moved even farther away, to Nagasaki, Japan, where I spent a year studying nothing and having fun away from home. I would go back to Portland for another year after that, but quickly returned to Japan for what I hoped would be eternity...

...Visa complications would sideline that plan for the time-being and I was forced to return to the US...but to where? I chose to go back to Cleveland for a little while to see what was up with the relations...and ended up staying another 3 years. In that short period I reaquainted myself with the hometown teams, the Indians, Cavs, Browns, and Buckeyes...and became that which I'd always feared: a rabid fan.

People ask me how I have the energy to cheer for teams perpetually in the cellar and to them I reply: Cleveland is home. The city I love is mocked across the US for having a high crime rate, a dirty image, a cursed sports scene, and just simply because people have never gone there. I love it though. Sure it doesn't have a nightlife like New York, a hot beach like Miami, the glamour of Hollywood...and you know what, I don't care. Clevelanders are a hard-working people. We break our backs to support families and like to take a load off afterwards with our beloved teams. We have barbeques with friends and family on the weekends, grab a cold one after work at the local hole-in-wall bar and live honest lives.

I don't live there anymore, but I love Cleveland. I cried uncontrollably when my Tribe gave away game 7 in 1997...and again when Visquel's tear-filled face was plastered on all the newspapers across the country. Again the Indians got me in 2007 when they gave away the ALCS to those Red Sox after holding a commanding 3-1 series lead. A match-up with the lowly Rockies in the World Series was a championship lock as far as I was concerned.

2009 represented the first year I truly believed Cleveland's once abysmal basketball team, the Cavs, had a chance at greatness...and were stuck with the worst match-up possible in Orlando. LeBron's heroics couldn't save the squad from elimination...and left them with too much doubt heading into the next season, the last of LeBron's contract.

Aside from those of you living under rocks, or foreign countries...you probably know how it turned out. We lost in 2010 to an aged Celtics team and LeBron bolted for the sunny shore of Miami.

To clear up a misconception, it's not the fact that he left his fans in the lurch...it's the cruel method by which he made his "decision." With absolutely zero heads up for the owner that gave him everything he wanted for 7 years, the players that made their careers as LeBron's teammates, and the fans that supported him since high school, he announced to the world on national television that he's hitting the road. I felt like I was punched in the gut and stabbed in the back...how could we not?

The truth is we were foolish. We should've seen this coming 2 years ago, afterall LeBron did. Though at this point it's nothing more than an assumption, I am convinced Reilly, Wade, Bosh, and James had a plan in place as far back as the Beijing Olympics. Why collusion on this level is accept by Stern is beyond me. This is on a bigger level than ref fixes...this is the inmates running the asylum and no one being able to do anything about it. I pray to whatever deities are out there that Dan Gilbert's investigation finds what it needs to and puts a stop to this madness...but that's a topic for the coming months.

In the meanwhile, we Clevelanders must pick up the pieces and realize James was never one of us. James can claim he was never a Clevelander, that's fine. He rooted for the Yankees, Cowboys, and Bulls as a lad...a frontrunner through and through. Akronites however, are Cleveland sports fans. James is no Akronite either.

What separates us from LeBron (aside from the millions he earns) is loyalty. We are loyal to our state and not afraid to admit it. We try to defend Ohio from the slings and arrows of the New York media (ESPN) and though we can't fight them all, we never give up. This is a city of winners, because winners never quit. LeBron James quit and there's no way around it. He stopped playing for the Cavs even while he was still on the payroll. If that doesn't deserve Dan Gilbert's scorn, I don't know what does.


So it's almost 2011. I'll be 26 in less than two weeks and might be 46 before another Cleveland team competes on a national scale. I am resigned to my fate because I love Cleveland teams and would never root for another.

Just a game? Perhaps. But it's also a love...a passion...something that brings NE Ohioans together and affects the economy in a big way. To marry my wife I left Cleveland behind...essentially breaking up with my teams and only being there in spirit. Today it feels more sad than it ever has before...because Cleveland needs it's fans. We're down but not out. 3 teams stuck in a rut and I cant be there to cheer my guys and boo the opponents. It brings a tear to my eye.

I miss my hometown and am having a hard time adjusting to life away from sports...and I'm probably the only jackass you know that actually cries at the end of Major League.