Thursday, March 29, 2007

"and they punched their ticket to Cleveland. Which, in this case, is a good thing"

The Women's Final Four. Seriously, does anyone care? I know we're all supposed to and everyone kinda pretends that they respect women's basketball, but we don't. And since it's in Cleveland this year, I'm really supposed to care.

It's taking up space on the local news and in the paper, see? Bill Livingston is writing about it, it's important!

I'm sure all the players aren't exactly thrilled. They have to come to Cleveland. The men are playing Atlanta (nice weather, strip clubs etc). Not really fair, is it.

But we don't care. And I'm actually a little embarrassed. The logo is awful. I hate how all national logos for Cleveland events like this (all-star games and the like) all incorporate a guitar due to the Rock Hall (Cleveland Rocks!).

Look, I love the Rock Hall. I love music. But if anyone thinks Cleveland is this great rock and roll town, they are mistaken. Hell, the Rock Hall doesn't even respect us; the induction ceremony? You know, where all the bands play and it's the one time all year that people think about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Well, it's held in New York, not Cleveland. Fantastic.

I guess that's my only solace; the teams can't particularly care to be here. And I don't particularly care that they are here.

The Women's Final Four 2007: where Cleveland pretends to care about women's basketball and women's basketball teams pretend to enjoy being in Cleveland.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

With that title, I believe you are referencing John Anderson's snide remark from the Tuesday SportsCenter. I sent ESPN a little note about that one.

Note to the rest of the country: We GET it! The river caught on fire! It's FUNNY! It's been funny for the past 38 years!

Seriously, is it that? Or the Carson monologues from the late 70s? The "poorest city" ranking, which changes from year to year? Why can't Cleveland stop being a punchline?

Sure, they make fun of other cities, too, but Cleveland is nothing but a punchline to much of the rest of the country.

No one needs to mock-clarify that a trip to Pittsburgh is a good thing. Or Baltimore. Or Detroit. (For the record, if anyone told me I won a trip to Detroit, my first question would be "WHERE in Detroit?")

I guess much of it is due to the fact that Cleveland doesn't have a very strong national voice with which to defend itself and educate people about how the city really is.

For crying out loud, the big-city media still thinks we deify Drew Carey in this town. When was the last time Drew Carey was relevant? 1997?

Ben said...

I really wish that we had a Cleveland print reporter that was both good AND TV friendly, if only to appear on Around the Horn and defend C-Town every once in awhile.

The Plain Dealer has failed us yet again.