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Thomas Moore

2012 06 internet eckersley windupA few weeks ago, while at the Indians game with some of our fellow writers at The Cleveland Fan, there was a point in the game where we looked around and seemingly everyone in our group was busy looking down and tapping away on some kind of device.

Being the only person in the group without a smart phone made us realize how much technology and social media has changed the way we watch and interact during sports events. We can be at home on the couch, at the stadium or the arena, and still interact with a community of Indians, Browns and Cavs fans across the country and around the world through Twitter, Facebook and e-mail. (And that doesn’t even take into account the numerous high-quality fans sites devoted to Cleveland sports).

That got us thinking about some of the biggest Cleveland sports moments in our lifetime in the pre-blog and social media era, which we are defining as anything before 2004. Because while Syknet may have become self-aware in 1999, sports blogs didn’t become prevalent in town until 2004, the same year Facebook was created, and Twitter did not launch until 2006.

So we came up with the 20 biggest sports stories that would have made the Internet blow up in Cleveland had these various social media platforms existed at the time. We’re starting today with Part One, highlighting No. 20 to No. 16.

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Lars Hancock

JudgeLast Saturday, my wife competed in a competition to determine who the most fit people were in Austin. If you recall, I was helping to train her, mainly by throwing a medicine ball into her face for toughness, but also by doing more constructive things such as building upper body strength and helping with her mechanics.

Well, we get to the event and I’ve never before seen a more intimidating group of humanity assembled in one place. The aggregate body fat of the group doubled when I got there – everyone looked like Greek gods and goddesses with musculature that was just insane. My wife steps right into the event and starts kicking ass right off the bat. It was a decathlon-type format with ten different speed, strength, and endurance events designed to measure aggregate fitness, and nearest I could figure, she won her age group in the first five events.

“Nearest I could figure” is the operative term. There was a website setup to do live score updates, but it was only updated way after the event was finished, and even then the data was specious and changed occasionally. Scores and standings evolved throughout the day, and at various times my wife was winning the overall, winning her age group, or in third place in her age group, depending on which math errors were being presented at the given moment. At some point on Saturday the event organizers gave up trying to declare any sort of winner and sent everyone home to wait for details.

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Adam Burke

KingsCupTen months of grueling practices, late night plane rides, being away from the family, and three or more games a week has come to an end. Every player’s dream in September when training camp begins has become a reality for the Los Angeles Kings. Dustin Brown became just the second American-born captain to be instructed by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to come and get the Stanley Cup. What transpired was a celebration that gives every hockey fan, regardless of their allegiance, chills. Well, except for New Jersey Devils fans.

The Kings’ improbable Stanley Cup run reached its crescendo on Monday night when they finished off the Devils with an impressive 6-1 drubbing. Most of the doubt was removed early in the game when Devils forward Steve Bernier took a five-minute major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct when he hit Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi from behind. The hit followed a series of borderline dirty plays from the Kings in the neutral zone that went uncalled by the officials.

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Lars Hancock

its overLast night right before bedtime, Mrs. Hancock and I got into a fight. I’m playing Words With Friends and live tweeting the NBA game from bed, as per my norm, and she’s reading her book. All is well and then she throws out there “it bothers me that you hate my home town.” Uh oh, someone wants to fight…

Now, she’s from southern California originally, near LA. This accusation is not only true, it is fundamental to my character. I hate everything about southern California. I hate the traffic, which is stupid – I’ve been in a traffic jam there at midnight on a Sunday night. I had a good friend get killed on those freeways because of stupid driving. I hate the strip mall faux culture. But mostly, I hate the people.

Southern Californians, to generalize, are artificial. There is a culture around the movie industry there, where starfucking and ego is the norm. Your fame and your wealth is your value to society, only the pretty people are relevant, and if you’re not blonde with blue eyes big tits and a Mercedes, you’re just not good enough. That culture system is an affront to every value I have and respect, and is fundamentally destructive to society and damaging to kids that buy into it.

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Adam Burke

nhlAs the seconds ticked down on New Jersey's valiant Game Four victory, one that ensured at least one more home game for Martin Brodeur in his illustrious career, very few people believed that the win gave the Devils any kind of chance in the series. After all, only three teams in NHL playoff history have erased a 3-0 series deficit to come back and win the series and none of them have happened in the Stanley Cup Final. However, in a series that has been very evenly played except for a late Game Three meltdown by the Devils, there was a little bit of justice. The Devils have played well enough not to be swept. They'll get at least three more days out of the NHL season thanks to winning on Wednesday night.

Much has been made in media circles and among fans paying close attention to the series about the bandwagon nature of the Los Angeles Kings fanbase. Like any fanbase, there are diehards and casual fans, but the Kings aren't the apple of the LA market's eye when it comes to sports. With two very high-profile teams, the Lakers and the Dodgers, in the fold, it's understandable to see why the Kings are a second, or even third, rate team in LA. Sports anchors in LA have mentioned goaltender Jonathan Swift (Quick), defenseman Drew Doty (Doughty) and center Anze Kopidor (Kopitar) during their nightly reports. None of that matters to the players as long as they win the Stanley Cup, but on some level, there are a lot of people rooting for the fans of New Jersey. New Jersey has had their successes, but they're in the fairly distant past as far as championships go, unless, of course, they take credit for the Yankees.

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