Factory Of Sadness
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Cleveland Indians: 3 pre-approved potential names for the club

By Chad Porto

Cleveland Indians (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Cleveland Indians (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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CLEVELAND, OHIO – JULY 05: In this handout image provided by the Cleveland Indians, Jake Elmore of the Cleveland Indians tosses a ball during a summer workout in preparation for a shortened MLB season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at Progressive Field on July 05, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Dan Mendlik/Cleveland Indians via Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OHIO – JULY 05: In this handout image provided by the Cleveland Indians, Jake Elmore of the Cleveland Indians tosses a ball during a summer workout in preparation for a shortened MLB season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at Progressive Field on July 05, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Dan Mendlik/Cleveland Indians via Getty Images) /

Cleveland Crunch/Force

Named after the indoor soccer club of the ’90s-’00s the Cleveland Crunch was technically the first major sports team in Cleveland to win a title since the Browns. Doing so three times in 1994, 1996 and 1999. The team was fortunate enough to be perennial winners of the National Professional Soccer League before the league folded in 2001. The team then spent a few years in the Major Indoor Soccer League, before calling it a run in 2005. It never reduplicated its success in the MISL.

The team was actually very popular considering the town was already supporting five other teams, from the Indians, Cavaliers, Rockers, Browns, and the Lumberjacks. It routinely averaged over 6,000 fans in attendance for every game, which averaged about half of the Columbus Crew’s totals in a smaller market, with more competition.

So not bad at all.

The team had a huge run, namely in part to local icon Hector Marinaro, who scored 1099 goals for the club across two leagues in his 15 years with the Crunch/Force. While Marinaro doesn’t get talked about nearly enough for bringing three titles to Cleveland and goal scoring talents, re-naming the Indians after the once-proud soccer club would be a wonderful gesture and having Marinaro at the name change celebration would be a fitting cap to his time in Cleveland.

Runner Up: Cleveland Rebels of the Basketball Association of America. It’s not a name with a lot of notoriety but it’s pretty cool. The Indians have long been a rebel team, opting to do things that many consider being against the grain of success. Yet they keep finding new ways to win.

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