Cavs for Mavs

For whatever reason, after having never appeared on ESPN in the first 30-odd years of my life, I've been all over The Worldwide Leader this past week. First was my nonchalant performance watching Carl Crawford's home run sail a few feet away from me at an Indians game, and now we have my first appearance in print on the site, on ESPN Dallas, of all places.

The story from the PD's Jodie Valade is about Clevelanders pulling for the Dallas Mavericks to defeat the vile Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, with one industrious Clevelander designing the cool "Cavs for Mavs" shirt shown at right. I like that slogan - it reminds me of Pedro Cerrano saying "hats for bats." I'm quoted as "Cleveland resident Andy Francis," which is both accurate and cool-sounding. I'm going to start introducing myself as such. My first quote is solid, I think: "I've already been a 76ers fan, a Celtics fan, and a Bulls fan within the past two months - no reason I can't pull for the Mavericks now."

But it's my second salvo where I think I really represented FCF. Even in a story about basketball, located on a site expressly for Dallas fans, I managed to stick it to the steelers a little bit (Cowboys fans have no love for Pittsburgh either): "It's the same principle as Browns backers everywhere rooting for Green Bay in the Super Bowl - you support anyone with a chance to knock off your arch-nemesis. Let's hope the Mavericks are as successful as the Packers."

After last night, the Mavs are down a TD early, but hopefully Dirk Nowitzki has a little Aaron Rodgers in him.