Published on: June 21, 2016 by Blair Haas
My marketing team tells me that all of my blogs should be about Electronic Enclosures but it is impossible to be sitting in suburban Cleveland Ohio and not write about the Cavs winning the NBA championship. For those who have been living in a cave, this is the first professional sports championship for Cleveland in 52 years. We have been close many times, but no one is talking about horseshoes. The tough part about this is that the losses became embedded in the Cleveland psyche and became the perfect analogy for the decline in our manufacturing base, our shrinking city, and the definition of the rust belt. People remembered our burning river, our default, the iconic lake effect snow, and of course, our sports teams. When you talked sports in Cleveland, it has always been “wait until next year”, but somehow, next year never came.
Suddenly, it is next year in Cleveland. While Cleveland’s renaissance as a city has been underway for some time, with a nationally recognized restaurant scene, a newly vibrant downtown (there are wait lists for most apartments and condos), affordable housing, the top Orchestra and hospital system in the country and so much more, somehow Clevelanders were still mentally stuck in the sports slump. On Sunday night, with minutes to go, most Clevelanders did not dare to hope that it would turn their way. Suddenly, it did and the collective Cleveland community was both emotional and stunned. We did not know how to deal with winning…what it means to be a winner. But we are learning fast. The enthusiasm is incredible, the pride is thrilling to experience, and the sudden self-awareness is nothing short of miraculous. So, forgive me for not writing about our electronic enclosures. I’ve waited a near lifetime for this moment when at last, we are no longer a national joke, but are now recognized as the Champions we have become.
