Oh, what a new feeling

Everyone knows our folklore -- no championships since the Browns NFL title in 1964. Devastating playoff losses (The Drive, The Shot, The Fumble, The Mesa). Art Modell stealing our Browns away to Baltimore. A plague of locusts, all city residents covered in boils, and a river that turned into blood. Well, at least it seems like all those bad things have happened, kind of like how your parents tell you they had to walk uphill to school both ways in the snow without a jacket, and every time they tell you the story it gets even worse.

But it actually does get even worse in Cleveland. And that's why the Cavs are on the brink of something historic in Cleveland sports history. Not only have our teams not won a title since 1964, we've only enjoyed ONE playoff sweep. That's right, nineteen playoff series for the Cavs and not a single sweep. Heck, they've only even won five of those series, and in only one of those did their opponent not win multiple games. As for the Tribe? They've been in 15 playoff series, winning seven while sweeping just one. That was their first-round series against the Red Sox, which the Indians won 3-0.

So between the Cavs and the Indians we've seen 34 playoff series and enjoyed only one sweep. ONE.

Now the Cavs are on the brink of a sweep with the Washington Wizards. Hey, there's pretty much no question that the Cavs are going to advance. No NBA team has ever overcome a 3-0 series deficit in 78 tries. Heck, we pretty much had the Cavs penciled into the second round as soon as the second-round date with the Wizards was set.

But still, a sweep? That's bucking decades of Cleveland playoff futility. They sweep dirt roads more often than our teams sweep playoff series. Our river's caught fire 10 times! It might as well be a foreign language when you're talking sweep in Cleveland.

Here we are, though, one win away. Monday night could be a whole new feeling in this town.