All the reasons superstitious Cleveland fans should be worried about World Series Game 7

Should Cleveland brace for karmic retribution?
 By 
Sam Laird
 on 
All the reasons superstitious Cleveland fans should be worried about World Series Game 7
A Cleveland fan watches his team lose Game 6 on Tuesday night. Credit: Justin Merriman/Getty Images

As the World Series heads to a decisive Game 7 Wednesday night, there's a fact that can't be ignored: All the juju is most definitely not in Cleveland's favor.

Should Cleveland fans be afraid? Maybe, but probably not. But then again, maybe. This is some paranormal weirdness we have going on.

Our story begins with last season's NBA Finals, in which the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors in June. The sports internet has since been a nonstop parade of jokes about this massive collapse, with quips coming from Cleveland and beyond. LeBron James even used his Halloween party Sunday night to take another shot.


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Now here we are -- with another loss to the Cubs on Wednesday night, the Indians will blow a 3-1 lead of their own. The internet, of course, did not let this go unnoticed when the Indians lost Game 6 on Tuesday night.

Then there's an anomaly of cross-sport trivia that plants further seeds of doubt about Cleveland's World Series fate.

In the NFL, the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Redskins tied on Sunday. The previous Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals tied. That is super flukey! You have to go all the way back to 1997 to find the last instance of back-to-back NFL ties.

By the way -- 1997? That's the year of Cleveland's most recent World Series appearance. Which the Indians lost. In seven games.

Queue the spooky music.

Finally, there's this: In 2014, the Cubs pulled off a coup by landing the prized free agent pitcher Jon Lester. Part of the team's recruiting pitch included sending Lester a fictitious DVD showing the Cubs winning their first World Series since 1908 -- in Game 7, no less. Now Lester is likely to pitch out of the bullpen in a real Game 7 on Wednesday.

So it all adds up. Kinda. Maybe. In a metaphysical sort of way.

Not that Cleveland fans should be worried or anything. Nope, not at all.

On the day before Halloween, the official Twitter account of the Cubs -- the team that was down 3-1 in this World Series -- joked that perhaps the franchise should dress up as the Cavaliers for Halloween.

Chicago is now one win from turning fantasy into reality, just as Cleveland's NBA team did in June.

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Sam Laird

Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.

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