I do not listen to the Mike Trivisonno show on WTAM, because his views are made simply to be controversial, not to spur a debate. On Saturday, I was listening to another show on the station, and the buffoon called in to make his usually ridiculous remarks. They were so stupid, I feel the need to address them.
The highest rated afternoon radio host in the market (which is sad for our fair city), classified the Cleveland Indians of 1995-2001 as "losers". He said the city glorified this group of ball players, but they never won a thing, and they were in effect losers.
I have lived in this area since 1958, when I was born. Until 1995, I thought I would never see the Tribe in the World Series, but they went to two in ’95 and ’97. They also won the American League Central Division title six times in seven seasons from 1995-2001. To call a team that accomplished all of that losers is a joke. I guess the New York Yankees of the past three seasons are losers too!
This belief that now exists, that unless you win the World Championship you haven’t achieved anything is dumb. WKNR’s Kenny Roda is another who tells listeners the Indians never won anything. There is only one team the wins the ultimate game, to call everyone else "losers" belittles what athletes do.
Those Indians, guys like Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton, and Sandy Alomar are not and never were losers. It was a great team. No, they never won the World Series, but I hope Mark Shapiro and this current bunch of players wearing Indian uniforms can come close to being this successful. Hopefully, the Tribe will win another World Series soon, their first since 1948. If they do, I will hail those guys as the team that ended our drought. But, the players I mentioned previously will go down in history as among the greatest players ever to play in Cleveland.
The only loser in this case is the guy who made that statement.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 