This is one instalment in a team effort by The Cleveland Fan, highlighting the top local sports figures by jersey number. Please weigh in with your thoughts, in the Forum. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”
Ten. That’s the number of League Championships that our three major franchises have brought home for the city of Cleveland. Though we might consider the Force, the Barons, the Thunderbolts, Crunch, Gladiators, Monsters, and Lumberjacks in our “By the Numbers” series, I have to be real about which Championships actually matter more than a couple of square blocks away from the Wolstein Center.
Having said that, in 218 seasons of mainstream professional sports, and we have to count the All-American Football Conference, which the Browns dominated, there have been a grand total of ten championships won. About half of those 218 seasons have been played in my 34 years on this planet, but not a single one of those ten were played in my lifetime. So, it should come as little surprise to me that the talent at #10, at least from my lifetime, was so few and far between. I was resigned to settling for someone a little too mediocre for a list like this when I found my obvious winner.
Not everyone with a .228 career batting average and a World Series ring should be recognized and, in turn, honored for their accomplishments in a Cleveland uniform, but we’re willing to make an exception for Jim Hegan. He is our winner at #10, and it really isn’t all that close. The disclaimer is that Hegan also wore 30, 40, 14, and later 4 for the Indians, but the glory of Jim Hegan exists in the form of #10, so we'll emphasize the great things for Cleveland and Hegan in they years he wore that number.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.
If this town has anything like “glory days” for those fans born after 1965 or so, it’s got to be that stretch in the mid-90’s when the Indians were a powerhouse, and The Jake was the place to be 81 times every summer...and a few more times in October. The last two articles in our series have featured Lofton (#7) and Belle (#8) from that team, and I fully expected to be following suit at #9 with Carlos Baerga. That is, until someone reminded me of the greatest hockey player in Cleveland history. 
In Cleveland sports history, there may not be a more feared player than Albert Belle. Opposing players feared him, his teammates feared him, the media feared him, and family and friends feared him. Belle was an intense competitor whose personality most resembled a burning stick of dynamite. It was all a matter of how long the wick was on that given day.
This is one instalment in a team effort by The Cleveland Fan, highlighting the top local sports figures by jersey number. Please weigh in with your thoughts, in the Forum. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”