Cleveland’s Curse Bedeviling to City’s Sports Teams

Nobody can take a joke like a Clevelander. After all, this is the city where a river caught fire and dorky native son Drew Carey became a big TV star.

But they’re having trouble laughing off the current state of professional sports here.

A rash of serious injuries to key players over the past two years crippled all three of Cleveland’s major sports teams, leaving them with little chance to end the city’s world championship drought dating to 1964.

“Anybody know an exorcist?” Cavaliers coach Randy Wittman asked. “There’s some demons around here.”

Some think the town’s cursed. To make matters worse for Clevelanders, the man many consider the devil himself, Art Modell, is one win away from the Super Bowl.

Modell will never be forgiven for moving the beloved Browns to Baltimore. And if the Ravens win the AFC championship on Sunday in Oakland, Cleveland fans will take it to heart.

They always do.

“Generally, life here is pretty good, pretty tranquil,” said Terry Pluto, a sports columnist for the Akron Beacon-Journal whose book “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” chronicled the Indians’ years of misfortune. “It’s our teams. It’s a calamity a day.”

Sure, Cleveland rocks. But when it rolls, it’s usually on an ankle. The curse might be behind it all -- bad teams, bad trades, bad coaches, bad luck.

From Indians pitcher Herb Score getting hit in the eye by a line drive in the 1950s to massive Browns offensive tackle Orlando Brown being felled by a 3-ounce referee’s penalty flag in 1999, Cleveland knows what it means to take one on the chin.

“About the only thing people around here understand is how to read MRIs and injury reports,” Pluto said. “We’re masters at that.”

Injuries are just a part of it. Tragedy, too, is intertwined in Cleveland’s history of sports failures along with The Drive (John Elway), The Shot (Michael Jordan) and The Move (Modell).

Ray Chapman, an Indians second baseman, died in 1920 after being hit by a pitch. In 1961, the Browns acquired Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis in a trade. Soon after, he died of leukemia at 23. Eight years ago, Tribe pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident at spring training.

In the past two years, Cleveland’s pro athletes have been moving through emergency rooms and onto X-rays tables at an alarming rate.

Browns quarterback Tim Couch broke his thumb on the final play of practice in October. Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas broke a bone in his foot -- again -- while running. And Indians outfielder Kenny Lofton dislocated his shoulder diving into first base.

Then there’s Brown, whose right eye was permanently damaged when struck by referee Jeff Triplette’s penalty flag loaded with BBs.

Only in Cleveland.

The Indians haven’t won a World Series title since 1948. Some blame the prolonged slump on the club trading Colavito, one of the city’s most popular players who was dealt to Detroit in 1960.

He came back to Cleveland five years later, but the Indians gave up Tommy John and Tommie Agee to get him. John won 268 games after he left Cleveland and Agee won a World Series with the New York Mets. Not the Indians.

Typical.

The Indians, who once hired a witch doctor to chase spirits out of the old Cleveland Stadium, have come up short in two recent trips to the Series. Last year injuries did them in.

They lost 60 percent of their starting rotation with arm injuries in one day and set a major league record by using 32 pitchers.

Star slugger Manny Ramirez, now with Boston, missed 42 games with a pulled hamstring and by the time he got back, it was too late to catch the Chicago White Sox. The Indians missed the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

It’s been no different for the Browns.

Couch’s season was over after seven games when his hand crashed into a teammate’s arm while throwing a pass. It was the kind of injury that gave further credence to the Curse, and by season’s end the Browns had 14 players--including five offensive starters--on injured reserve.

“I spend more time during the game talking to the trainers than the assistant coaches,” coach Chris Palmer said before being fired Thursday.

Then there are the poor Cavaliers, who lost a player a day during one recent stretch. They’ve been under the Curse’s grip for their entire 31-year existence.

They were poised to make a run at an NBA title in 1976, but center Jim Chones broke his foot before the conference finals. In the late ‘80s, the Cavs were twice beaten at the buzzer on shots by Jordan.

When Jordan retired, the Cavs were one of the teams to beat, but All-Star center Brad Daugherty’s career was cut short by a back injury and guard Mark Price’s knees wore out.

In ‘98, the Cavs signed the 7-foot-3 Ilgauskas to a seven-year, $71 million deal. But the Lithuanian center has spent the past two seasons on crutches with foot problems, and the Cavs currently have four players on the injured list and a fifth facing surgery.

It’s so bad that one of the Cavs’ team doctors has his arm in a sling with a shoulder injury.

“Is it in the water here?” asked Wittman, who has learned all about Cleveland’s past in two years.

Some of the Cavs think there might be something supernatural at work.

“I just don’t know what it is here,” forward Lamond Murray said. “I don’t want to think about no curses, but you don’t know what to think.”