The first minor league baseball game I ever went to was in 1991. I was 9 going on 10, and my dad took me to go see the AA Canton-Akron Indians. The tickets, parking and food were all cheaper than the big league club, and the baseball was almost as good. Plus, the Indians had a couple of hot corner infield prospects on the team that Dad wanted to see live and in person. Reggie Jefferson was destined to be the Indians first baseman of the future, and 1989’s 13^th round draft pick Jim Thome seemed likely to man the hot corner for years to come. Thome didn’t start that game, but a stir went up around the ballpark when he was announced as a pinch-hitter late in a close game. This was our chance to see the Indians future 3B, and he had a chance to give the Indians a come-from-behind victory. After a long at-bat in which Thome fouled off several tough 3-2 pitches, the future Hall of Famer struck out, the Indians lost and that was that. I remarked to my dad that Thome didn’t look all that amazing, and thus began a future in very poor scouting on my part.

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This is one installment in a team effort by The Cleveland Fan, highlighting the top local sports figures by jersey number. Please weigh in with your thoughts, on the Boards. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”


It’s tough to pass over a Hall of Fame pitcher who won 300 games and was a mainstay of one of baseball’s greatest pitching staffs when you set out to select the best player to wear #24 in a Cleveland uniform. But that’s what happened to Early Wynn, the right-hander who spent ten seasons in Cleveland, and picked up more than half of those 300 wins with the Tribe.

This series has already recognized several players from that “other era” of baseball success on Lake Erie...recognizing as this town’s best, names like Avila, Averill, Boudreau and Feller among others, from the 40’s and 50’s teams that we’ve only read about. But some of those guys didn’t have competition like Manny Ramirez.

If you try to recall the players drafted and developed by the Indians in the last few decades who turned out to be bonafide “stars” - if only for a while - it’s a pretty short list: Belle, Thome, Sabathia...and Manny Ramirez.  In that respect, the kid from Santo Domingo, via New York City, was homegrown. He was all ours...till he wasn’t anymore.

Manny’s immense talent as a hitter exploded right before our eyes, in front of five straight seasons of nothing but sellout crowds. His career in Cleveland coincided with the most successful era of Indians baseball in our memory. Even as he was surrounded by other stars on the Indians teams of the 90’s, it was obvious from the start that he was a special player. That’s why Manny Ramirez is an easy choice at #24.

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This is one installment 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 Boards. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”

Wham Nance with the right hand!

You could count on Joe Tait to say that once or twice every time the Cavs took the floor.  More than we loved the Tait call, we loved Nance; hell, Tait loved Nance too.  Conceding that Lebron James obviously tops the list, Tait has gone as far as to imply that Nance was the most talented Cavalier he ever saw play.  Sure, Cavaliers History only goes back about four decades and change, but if Nance is second on that list, he must have done something right.

He’s the best Cleveland athlete to wear #22 (according to us), and basically anyone associated with the Cavs would probably agree, based on the fact that the number hangs in the rafters at Quicken Loans Arena, making him the last Cavalier ever to wear the number he wore for all but one season in Cleveland.  He was assigned #6 when he first checked in with the Cavs, after being traded from Phoenix in 1988.

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This is one installment 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 Boards. As David Letterman would say, “For entertainment purposes only; please, no wagering.”

As unfortunate as it was to have to live through the Browns move to Baltimore, after falling in love with the Marty Schottenheimer teams of the late 80’s who played with the hearts of lions, I feel fortunate that I’m too young to know of the Stepien Era of the NBA in Northeast Ohio.  It’s not inconceivable to believe that a decade earlier, the dreadful Cavaliers, owned by the worst owner (possibly) in the history of sports.

For that reason, mostly, we are going to make a questionable here at #21.  There’s a number hanging in the rafters at Ontario and Carnegie of the same value, and also a pair of Browns running backs that actually gave us a thrill or two in the color TV era, but they’re all going to get snubbed here in what might appear to be a ridiculous case of name recognition.  Truth be told, Lloyd Bernard Free is probably my choice at #21 anyway, but it’s so much more fun to talk about World B. Free.

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