Cleveland is a city of professional sports. Professional ice hockey, baseball, basketball and football all live here! Our Lolly the Trolley tour carried us past the various arenas and stadiums where the teams play.

Cleveland is also a city of champions. Starting the winning year of 2016 were the Cleveland Monsters pro ice hockey team who won the coveted Calder Cup championship. They beat the Hershey Bears in game 4 with an exciting 1 – 0 overtime to a sell-out crowd. The Monsters play at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland. Believeland!

Known as “The Q”, the Quicken Loans Arena is also home to the Cleveland Cavaliers who came back from a 3 – 1 deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors in this year’s NBA Finals Game, making them the first team in NBA history to do so. It would be difficult to talk about the Cavaliers without mentioning LeBron James. The Cavaliers and LeBron are true heroes to the City of Cleveland with this championship. The Cavs, as they are affectionately called, held a parade for their fans downtown a few days following the championship game. 1.3 million (yes, that’s million) people toasted the Cavs as they slowly progressed along the 1.3-mile parade route. It took 4 hours to reach Mall B for the rally there. All 1.3 million people wanted to say “Hello” to the team. Believeland!

Almost as we speak, the Cleveland Indians have defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series games to go on to the World Series which starts October 25 in Cleveland. Indians fans are beside themselves with joy. There’s a lot of shouting and jumping up and down going on in living rooms. Some people I know are traveling via auto, listening to the game and having trouble sitting still in the car. The Indians are homed at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland within sight of “The Q” arena. The World Series starts Tuesday, October 25, at Progressive Field. Looks like they’ll be playing the Cubs. Believeland!

There are a variety of additional sports that happen in Cleveland from city leagues to high school La Cross, but these are the main, professional sports.

Opps……Clevelanders and Ohioans are faithful Browns fans. The Browns, in case you haven’t heard, are Cleveland’s professional football team. No one can remember when they last won a game, but…. they play, Ohio watches. At least for awhile. It can be disappointing causing a lot of naps on couches and in recliners. Not a lot of jumping up and down. But, hope springs eternal that one of these days the Browns will come through and so their fans tune in. The Browns are housed at the Lakefront First Energy Stadium.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes are at home in the state capital, Columbus, at one of the largest educational institutions in the country, Ohio State University. Named after the famous nut, the Bucks are anything but as they are 6 – 1 for the season so far. Brutus Buckeye couldn’t be happier!

If you love sports, Cleveland Rocks at it and is the place to be. And, even if you don’t love sports, it is catching here. You will become a fan of all of them!