The Opposite of Schadenfreude

It's selfish. It's bitter. I can't help it. Four times a year (it's not five since the Bluejackets are so terrible there never was hope... did you know they're the only team in the NHL that has never made the playoffs?) I look at the joy experienced by sports fans in places like Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Gainesville, L.A., etc. ... and it bugs me.

I was hoping the Phillies would win the World Series, My sister, brother-in-law, and their kids live in Philly, so I have a little connection. Now I have to hear all the stories about how Philadelphia hasn't had a "major professional sports championship" in 25 years, the huge parties in Center City, etc.

1948. This year marks Cleveland's 60th year without a "major professional sports championship" (Do AFL chmpionships count? I don't think so.) It's a record of futility that boggles the imagination.

The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 19o8. Poor Chicagoans. What about da Bulls and da Bears?

Red Sox fans endured The Curse of the Babe (cue spooky music, it's halloween) for 80 years. Of course, they had the Celtics and the Patriots to help them get over it.

Cleveland fans get to cycle back and forth between the abysmal and the oh-so-close-almost-but-not-quite-good-enough. Year after year, season after season.

Then you add in the Buckeyes. Now there you have pretty consistent excellence, but lately we've had a lot of the oh-so-close-almost-but-not-quite-good-enough. Let me re-cap a recent 12 month period of an Ohio sports fan's life:

--Ohio State football dominates whole season, Troy Smith wins Heisman, and, heavily favored, we get embarrassed by Florida in National Championship Game.

--Ohio State basketball, with one season wonder phenom (not that I'm bitter, he's having a great NBA career...) Greg Oden, dramatically work their way to championship game. And get stomped by Florida.

--The Cleveland Cavaliers, led by local hero (and Yankees fan, what the hell?) LeBron James, improbably make it all the way to the NBA Finals. And get soundly beat.

--The Indians cap a great season by blowing a 3-1 lead in the ALCS.

--And, finally the football Buckeyes manage to backdoor their way into another National Championship game, and get stomped.

As a fan, it's a little hard to get up off the mat after a year like that.

So really, I'm happy Philly won, good for them and their fans. Maybe THIS is the year for us!

Change?

We were standing around at work today (that happens in a bike shop when the weather turns cold...) and the talk turned to the election. On one side you had a recent college graduate from a comfortably well-off family (he's living at the lake house for now, if that gives you an idea) who is virulently anti-Republican and strongly pro-Obama. As his foil, the boss, forty-ish, from a staunchly middle class upbringing, who neatly straddles political stereotypes: a vegetarian with a concealed carry permit.

There was a lot of good-natured shouting and hollering, and finally detente was reached: politicians are all at least a little crooked and not much ever really changes, so it probably doesn't really matter in the end.

It occured to me a little later: George W. Bush has affected an immense amount of change in the last 7 1/2 years, in my opinion almost none of it good. So maybe we shouldn't be so cynical about "Hope" and "Change."

I sure hope I can hope for change for the better.

Ohio for Obama?

There's been some discussion lately by my brother Ethan and David Broder of the Washington Post about the change in electoral attitude in rural Ohio. This is a fascinating change, as Ethan mentions, compared to the way we remember it growing up.

So the big question is... with all this pro-Obama sound & fury in Wayne County, (and one assumes, elswhere in rural Ohio,) is it enough to overcome the 11,000-12,000 vote deficit in the county from the last two presidental elections in the county. Of the 70,000+ registered voters in Wayne County fewer than 40,000 voted in 2006, so I'll interpolate (swag) that Bush won with no less than 60% of the vote in 2004.

Of course, Obama doesn't have to take Wayne County, but there are deficits like this all over rural Ohio that are key to winning the state. To me, it seems unlikely that the vote will swing enough to the Democratic side here in Columbus or in the other liberal areas of the state to give Ohio to Obama. I made some rash predictions in 2004: when looking at the early returns maps I saw only rural Ohio reporting and Bush with a strong lead, I assumed Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, and Youngstown would swing the state to Kerry, but the margin was not wide enough, (these were the areas short on voting machines and long on lines at the polls, too, but that's another issue.) Bush's margin in 2004 was 118,775, so that's fewer than 1400 per county (Wow, that was really close... vote!)

With that number in mind, and the anecdotal evidence from Wooster, sounds pretty good for Obama, huh?