An incredible thing happened to me today. As I was walking home from class, the sunshine streamed across College Green and a cloudless sky enveloped Athens. Even more incredible was that I was surrounded by a multitude of Cleveland Indians paraphernalia. Chief Wahoo was everywhere - on T-shirts, hats, shorts, book bags and more. As I was contemplating this phenomenon, I realized what I had always been against had finally happened. And much to my surprise, I found this newfangled mass of Cleveland fan-dom fascinating.

I am not and probably never will be a Cleveland Indian fan. I have nothing against you "friend of the feather." I just choose to put my loyalties elsewhere. I am, however, a fan of baseball, and I find Cleveland fanatics interesting.

As someone who has been dedicated to one team all of my life, the so-called fair-weather fan has always be my one true vexations. I cannot express how frustrating it is to see the public jump onto a collective bandwagon when a professional sports team pulls out of a multi-year slump. It happens in all sports and in all cities, and unfortunately, it happened most recently in Cleveland. Or so I thought ... until today.

Why today? Good question - one, in fact, I cannot answer. The Indians are having a great year. The team is composed of a talented group of men who seem poised to bring Cleveland its first World Championship since 1948. The Indians are so close to winning, in fact, Tribe fans nationwide are already chilling the champagne.

It would seem that now should be the perfect time for me to complain about fan conformity. Yet somehow I am stopped by a thought that crossed me this afternoon. As I trekked across campus, proudly displaying my team's logo jacket, I noticed for the first time the faded, well-worn, well-loved Cleveland apparel. And I thought: Perhaps Indians fans have always been Indians fans, perhaps they have just been hiding from the monotonous jokes and perilous cruelty that have been aimed at them for years. Maybe I had underestimated the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio and its citizens. In the end, I knew I had been terribly wrong.

Cleveland Indians fans just might be some of the most dedicated fans to follow the game of baseball. They stayed with their team through the tough times and are now celebrating the good times. It has been the ignorance of non-Cleveland supporters, such as myself, who caused the isolation of the once proud Cleveland Indians fan.

And so I apologize for my ignorance. I wish the Cleveland Indians and their fans the best of luck during the 1998 baseball campaign. I hope Cleveland fans rejoice in the glory that comes to a good team and hope they remember what caused their pain and go easy on the fans of lesser contenders, for example, the Detroit Tigers. And above all, may baseball once again reign as the true national pastime.

Balazs, a sophomore broadcast journalism major, can be e-mailed at cb982296@oak.cats.ohiou.edu.

contributed to this story