Cleveland — Epicenter of Sports, Battleground Politics, and more!

Today’s post is a mixed bag. We begin with a nod to one of the most memorable days in local sports history, one that likely eclipsed the wildest dreams of the powers that be when they snookered county voters into passing what may prove to be an eternal sin tax to build the Gateway sports complex with the lie about 28,000 new jobs. We also talk a little politics and note some upcoming events. Finally, we highlight a pair of short videos made from different vantages but that are distinctly yoked.

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We wrote yesterday about the emotional resonance of sports in American life, and how it grabs hold of youngsters with a strong primacy effect. Ok, that’s not necessarily what we were thinking when we wrote it, but, to quote Frank Jackson, the man who may soon announce his intent to become the longest-serving mayor in Cleveland history, “It is what it is.”

What it was undoubtedly was a pretty special day to be a Cleveland fan. The Cavaliers hoisted their first-ever NBA Championship banner to the rafters at Quicken Loans Arena at the first game of the 2016-17 season. 

2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers
Championship Ring

Just a short dash across Gateway Plaza, the Indians were getting off to a fast start both on the mound and at bat to grab the opening game of the World Series. Both home teams finished with impressive victories that augur well for continued success.

In a break from their regular beat, the noted political data analysts over at Five Thirty Eight took a look at how last night’s results shifted the World Series odds for the Cubs and Indians. Have a look here.

Cuyahoga County is epicenter for politics as well as sports these days

Moses Boyd started Show Your Power
to help drive voter turnout nationwide

Our Vote Matters! bus stopped at
Cleveland Urban League last Friday

Slow growth in our region and state compared to the rest of the country means that we are gradually ceding our importance as a battleground. But that’s not happening just yet. Both presidential candidates were here in person last week and Hillary’s campaign in particular is working overtime to get out the vote in these parts. A big Democratic margin in Cuyahoga County can overcome a Republican advantage downstate. This is why the Urban League’s national president, Marc Morial spent last weekend here as part of a well-coordinated GOTV drive in northeast Ohio. I was delighted to see at the kick-off press conference last Friday morning the presence of a strong coalition of unsung African Americans leaders funding a significant GOTV effort at their own expense. The Our Vote Matters coalition was all over Northeast Ohio via custom bus to awaken citizens and spur them to the polls. I saw their bus both downtown in the morning and later in the day in University Circle.

Chelsea Clinton returns to the Cleveland area once again to campaign for her mother. She is scheduled to appear at the Solon Community Center, 35000 Portz Pkwy Solon, OH 44139 for a 3:30p event after earlier stops in Cincinnati and Columbus. Tomorrow, Hillary’s running mate, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine will appear at 12:15 pm at Lorain High School in Lorain, joined by Minnesota U.S. Sen. Al Franken.

To punctuate this effort, Jay-Z will be performing at a free concert on Friday, Nov. 4 to rally support for the Clinton-Kaine ticket. Details, including time and place, have not yet been announced but those wishing free tickets may sign up here.

A World Series Game Seven is scheduled for Cleveland on Nov. 2, so if the series goes that far, hopefully things will get crazy around here with a victory party that would likely dwarf the 1.3 million fans who showed up following the Cavs’ NBA championship.

Cleveland Calendar: Area fundraisers on the horizon

But that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves, besides being someone’s job to worry about. And of course, the Cavs’ celebration is not really over, especially if you ask local DJ Steph Floss of WENZ/107.9, who serves as the team’s official DJ. Floss, who has garnered acclaim as Cleveland’s Best Club DJ, started a foundation in 2014 to encourage better health and financial literacy for area citizens. To aid in bringing awareness and raising money to support these initiatives, the Steph Floss Foundation is presenting a host of activities starting tomorrow and running through the weekend.

This year's second DJ Steph Floss Weekend [Oct. 27-30] includes nightly parties hosted by celebrity DJs, a surprise assembly with performances to reward a high school for their scholastic achievements, a paint & sip led by a celebrity artist, a ‘Run With the Winners’ 5K run that includes prizes, a renown card game show, a bowling tournament, and more. Full event details including info on weekend passes can be found here. Proceeds go to the Steph Floss Foundation to fund its initiatives.  Element13 LLC Marketing and Management is coordinating activities for the weekend.

Less limber or adventurous folk may wish to attend tomorrow’s 14^th annual Famicos Foundation fundraiser, “Growing Glenville: The Homecoming”. the 14th Annual Fundraising, which starts at 4:30pm at MOCA Cleveland, 11400 Euclid Ave. Famicos, the community development corporation for the Glenville neighborhood, has recently completed a master plan for neighborhood revitalization that secured input from more than 500 residents. Tomorrow’s event will highlight some of the plan’s initiatives. Call Amy Eiben at 216.791.6476 ext. 249 for more information.

The Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation will take place Saturday, November 5 at Landerhaven, 6111 Landerhaven Drive in Mayfield Hts., where Dr. Alex Johnson, president of Cuyahoga Community College, will be honored as Black Professional of the Year. For more information, call Marcella Brown at 216.229.7110 or visit www.bpacf.org.

Last on this post’s calendar but certainly not least, The Association for the African American Cultural Gardens hosts its second annual fundraising dinner on Nov. 19 at the Tudor Arms Doubletree Hotel, 10660 Carnegie Ave. The event will feature dinner, dancing, live entertainment and a silent auction. The Association has done yeoman’s work in supporting the establishment of the long-overdue African American Cultural Garden. Phase One is now complete. Funds raised at this event will be used to support Phase Two. For more information, call AAACG at 216.509.6427 or write info.aaacg@gmail.com.

We promised you two videos; we are giving you three.

Intriguingly, they are all related to civic involvement. For us they illustrate [1] what we are up against here in Cleveland, [2] what we can and should do about it as a minimum, and [3] the utter instability and hypocrisy of a certain candidate in his own words, recorded and preserved before the decision to run for public office was made.

Our longtime good friend Leon Bibb of WEWS/TV5 sent us the first after he read this post on Glenville, and contains scenes many of you will recognize. Our new good friend, Cat Gund of Aubin Pictures, shared the second video, which is part of a larger project, and features local Clevelanders familiar to many. And the third video, well, let’s just say it needs no introduction. 

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Yesterday, some of our emails contained a link gone awry due to an editing error. {Does that sound a poltician's apology? How's this? I screwed up.] This is the correct link.

Home and the World Series

It's fascinating what impact place imprints upon us.

I was born in Washington DC at World Series time in 1945[1]. Only the faintest echo of memory remains from going to that town's Griffith Stadium with my father and brother to watch the hapless Senators. But baseball became my favorite game, and the Senators my favorite team. I can still remember much of their starting lineup, names like Eddie Yost, Mickey Vernon, Pete Runnels, and Jackie Jensen.

My love of baseball fueled my early love of language. I read the sports pages avidly, listened to games on the radio, and fell in love with the sounds of ballplayers’ names. 

I had no clue back then that a man's name could be an indicator of his ethnicity. Hell, I didn't know what ethnicity was, or race either for that matter. I was just a child in mid-century America, an innocent in an era which many people — not just the current GOP nominee — likely use as a reference point for a time when America was Great, Good and Ruler of the Free World.

I was only obliquely conscious of what it meant to be a Negro. I rooted for Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson without even knowing why; it was just something in the air. I certainly wasn't conscious that the Senators were all white because that's what their owner insisted upon. I was not to learn for decades that the leadoff hitter with the keen batting eye, 3B Eddie Yost, sold his house because a black man moved into his neighborhood. I didn't even understand that Washington was a segregated southern town until sometime after Brown vs. Board of Education. All I really knew was that ball players had really cool-sounding names like Chico Carrasquel and Sandy Consuegra [KON-sue-A-gruh].

By the time the Brown decision came down in May of 1954 we had moved to Cleveland where my father had been called to pastor one of the city's oldest black churches. It was in fact the only nonwhite Congregational church in the whole state. I was beginning to learn about race and ethnicity by then, courtesy of living adjacent to the Cultural Gardens and being in third grade class with those white Central European-American kids whose families were on the tail end of white flight from our middle class Glenville neighborhood.

Without even knowing it I quickly became a fan of the Cleveland’s sports teams, the Indians, the Browns, and even the Barons, a minor league hockey team reportedly so good they were looked upon as the NHL’s seventh team. It was easy to identify with the Browns and the Indians. Not only were both teams regular winners; several of the players lived in my neighborhood — Bill Willis, Marion Motley, and Dave Pope, to name a few.

My first full season in town, 1954, the Indians won 111 games, then a major league record, and featured one of the best pitching staffs ever, with all time greats Bob Feller and Hal Newhouser still fabulous but limited to spot starts and bullpen duty, respectively, behind a Big Three of Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia.

The Indians' historic record and tremendous pitching, which included the remarkable duo of Don Mossi and Ray Narleski, made them prohibitive favorites to beat the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series, even though the Giants had the already incomparable Willie Mays. But Mays’s incredible Game 1 catch and Dusty Rhodes’ cheap 10^th inning home run kicked off a four-game sweep by the Giants that has yet to be exorcised in Cleveland’s collective sports brain.

These memories come flooding back as Cleveland prepares to take on the Chicago Cubs tonight in the 2016 World Series opener here in town. Were I younger, richer, hardier, or more devoted, I might have forked over a few hundred dollars to sit in the bleachers on a chilly night and cheer on the hometown representatives. They are certainly worthy American League Champions, featuring a budding superstar in the infectious shortstop Francisco Lindor, the amazing Swiss Army knife relief pitcher, Andrew Miller [his superlative skill belies his incredibly pedestrian name], old school dirt eaters like Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli, and the irrepressible Jose Ramirez.

They face off tonight against a team that has even more incompetence in its history than the Indians. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908; when they last appeared in one — 1945 — there were no black players in the major league baseball.

But these Cubs are big favorites to win this Series. They have more talent at virtually every position. They field with historic precision, have a deep starting rotation, several bona fide sluggers, and a closer who regularly throws 102 mph.

By contrast, the Indians one undeniable advantage is in being baseball’s best team on the basepaths. Of course, they will first need to reach base safely to unleash this talent. This skill hardly seems enough to overcome the Cubs’ multiple advantages.

New York Giants fans likely felt the same way about their underdog team in 1954. 

But I have observed a few lessons about professional sports over more than six decades. As in life, talent matters, but so do character and attitude, qualities this Cleveland squad has in abundance. And the best team does not always win, especially in a short series. So don’t be too surprised if this continues to be Cleveland’s year, and the Billy Goat bleats once more.

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[1] The Chicago Cubs won Game 6 of the Series that day in extra innings, but would go on to lose Game 7 to the Detroit Tigers. Incidentally, 1945 was the year that gave rise to the Curse of the Billy Goat, which, hopefully, like me, has yet to complete its course.

Looking Back, Going Forward

As far back as I can remember I have found myself repeatedly at points of cultural confluence. As a consequence I have been blessed with an understanding that the black community has never been monolithic, even when we were largely united around certain broad public policy goals like ending American apartheid and promoting equal opportunity. Or celebrating heroes like Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson.

Yesterday I was speaking with my youngest daughter about the radical shift that occurred in Cleveland’s Glenville area when my family relocated here from segregated Washington DC in the mid-fifties. Cleveland was still a high-energy town back then. Unbeknownst to practically all of us, the city was just past its high-water population of 914,808 and about to undergo severe constriction in size and stature.

Much of the town’s energy continued to come from its status as a haven for immigrants and refugees. The renowned Cultural Gardens were less than a block from my neighborhood elementary school and offered endless out-of-school lessons in geography and history. Many a weekend, as we rode to Saturday choir rehearsal or Sunday worship, we passed Lithuanians, Albanians, Italians, Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and others dressed in native garb celebrating or commemorating Louis Kossuth or some other hero.

These experiences helped me to understand that the white community wasn’t monolithic either. I never thought all white folk were alike. I learned that Dutch didn’t care much for Germans; that many western Europeans looked at their East European brethren with disdain; that Turks and Armenians were a combustible combination; that there was historical enmity between Chinese and Japanese. Eventually I came to appreciate that Caucasians [and some Latinos!] didn’t even become white until they emigrated to the United States.

Close to home, as black people were migrating to Cleveland from the hostile regimes of Alabama and Georgia to presumed meccas like Hough and Central and Kinsman, the white folks — with names like Abt, Mishny, Negenborn, Blankenship — were fleeing to Euclid, South Euclid, and Mayfield Heights.

Of course, I didn’t understand any of the social forces at the time, even as I strove to comprehend the lynching of Emmett Till in mysterious Mississippi. What I came to appreciate later was that there was an establishment in this town that sought to constrain the movement of black people and to profit from that constraint. The strategic arenas were political, economic and social. The battlefields were schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.

In little more than a decade, Cleveland would become the first major city in America to elect a black mayor. This fact for a time seemed to cement the city’s national reputation as progressive, consistent with the civic slogan “best location in the nation.”

But Carl Stokes’ 1967 electoral victory — historic and transformative as it was — actually masked the deep conservatism of both Cleveland’s white and black leadership. Cleveland’s Republicans, for example, were among Barry Goldwater’s staunchest supporters in 1964. And the evidence seems clear, despite the puppet political theater of the 1980s and 1990s, that ethnic-based leaders shook hands around political arrangements that protected interest groups at devastating cost to civic spirit and growth.

For reasons that are primarily historic and systemic, many of this area’s challenges — in housing, education, health, public welfare, criminal justice — have their greatest and deepest manifestations in the county’s blackest areas. Our communal failure to address our divisions honestly is a major factor in our ongoing urban crisis.

The good news is that as the remnants of old-style local leaders — Dimora, Hagan, Forbes, Pinkney, Voinovich — fade from prominence, Greater Cleveland at last has a chance to redefine itself in the public arena. Some of the new leaders are on suburban ballots this year, while others are likely to appear before the decade is out. We will be looking at a few of these bright lights in the next couple of weeks.

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At the end of yesterday’s post I mentioned that I would be on Civic Commons radio today talking about the mischief politicians sometimes seek to create with confusing ballot language. If you missed my dulcet dynamite you can hear the podcast here.

The core of the program is a discussion about ballot initiatives—their language, intent and affect on political behavior — hosted by Dan Moulthrop and Noelle Celeste. Featured guests include Jeff Rusnak, a well-respected local political strategist, and Daniel Coffey, political scientist and a Research Fellow at the University of Akron’s Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.

The Civic Commons was created last year with a $3 million Knight Foundation grant. Its mission is to educate, engage and empower citizens to be involved and active in strengthening the community using civic journalism, public engagement and social media. Moulthrop is curator of the conversation for the Commons, which describes itself as social media for stuff that matters.

One of CC’s most important issues is to increase northeast Ohio’s collective understanding of our global society. A key initiative in that regard focuses on the Middle East, which is more than a notion for any of us to understand. If your interests, like mine, skew to that sort of thing, check out this podcast, where Neda Zawarhi of Cleveland State University and Pete Moore of Case Western University, both members of the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies, discuss events in the Middle East. You can also hear Case Western Professor Dr. Ramez Islambouli talk about how his students perceive the Islamic world.

The Civic Commons podcast is a regional effort over the sixteen county Northeast Ohio region.  Its podcast is a dynamic half-hour public affairs program that features more citizen voices and  fewer talking heads. It airs Tuesday afternoons at 12:30 on 88.7 FM/WJCU, University Heights and Tuesday evenings at 7:30 on 88.5/WYSU, Youngstown. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or listen to it on Stitcher Smart Radio. (Download iTunes or Stitcher)

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