NEW YORK — We interrupt this World Series to feel sorry for Cleveland.

Let’s review the sports menu this week for the good folks of northern Ohio. It’s been like choosing between liver, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.
They could watch the Cavaliers start the season 0-2. How’s that LeBron-Shaq dream date going so far?
They could ponder the future prospects of the Browns. That might require a strong constitution, however, since the Browns are 1-6 and just lost to the Packers 31-3.
Or Wednesday night, they could have watched Cliff Lee outduel CC Sabathia in the first annual reunion of former Indians’ Cy Young-award pitchers, otherwise known as Game 1 of the World Series.
What must Cleveland have been thinking? “They can’t be feeling too good about it,” Lee said the other day.
Lee, of course, is now employed by the Philadelphia Phillies. Sabathia, of course, now works for the New York Yankees. And just because the Indians finished 30 games out of first place this season with the 13th-rated pitching staff in the American League should not detract from the gala nature of this occasion.
A call was put in Thursday to Cleveland radio talk show host Tony Rizzo. So how is his town enjoying the Series, so far?
“It’s like watching two of your ex-wives hit the lotto,” Rizzo said. “People here are absolutely sick.”
Maybe this is where we should add that the Indians haven’t won the World Series since 1948.
Also, these guys are two of Cleveland’s only three Cy Young winners. The third is Gaylord Perry. Maybe someone should ask Charlie Manuel if he’s starting Game 4 for the Phillies.
Cleveland’s sour perspective brings into focus the financial realties of baseball - and how sometimes those realities feel like a bat in the stomach.
It is not all bad news. You want the glass half full?
There has been more parity than what was feared when the spending binge accelerated; that a few elite big spenders would grab up all the hardware and ride in all the parades.
In the previous 10 years, 15 different franchises have played in the World Series, and eight have won it.
Compare that to the past 10 Super Bowls - 14 different teams, seven winners. Or the past 10 NBA Finals -11 different teams, five winners. Baseball does not fare badly. The past 20 World Series have included 21 of the 30 franchises. Including the Indians.
Baseball has its Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals, but payroll control does not rid the world of chronic losing. Otherwise there would be no Detroit Lions or Los Angeles Clippers.
Prefer the glass half empty?
It is still difficult for the lesser endowed to break down the wall, and nearly impossible to stay there once they’ve done it. The Florida Marlins come, the Florida Marlins go.
Cleveland happens to be the epicenter of frustration at the moment. Sabathia and Lee were both popular there. Nobody doubted their quality. They left because the decision was made they could not be afforded.
So a city utterly starving for a championship watches both men pitch in the World Series for the rich neighbors down the street. Having been summarily dismissed by Lee, New York’s Derek Jeter mentioned, “He knows what he’s doing. I don’t care what league he’s pitching in.”
Cleveland sighs.
“That’s the way this game works sometimes,” Lee said. “That’s the nature of the business.”
This is not the first time Cleveland fans turned on a major sports event and watched a horror story spill out of the television set. There was the black Sunday when Art Modell - who evacuated the old Browns to Baltimore - was handed the Super Bowl trophy for the Ravens.
Which was worse?
“Art Modell winning the Super Bowl, by far,” Rizzo said. “A lot of people here are rooting for CC and Lee.”
Baseball can be a sentimental game, but the business of baseball has no heart. Cleveland knows.