Faithful Fan Waits for Cleveland to Rock

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On a Thursday in May, Hugh Hewitt was not at the Burbank studio where he records his nationally syndicated radio program or at the downtown Los Angeles law firm offices where he is a partner. He was at an NFL Draft party in his brother’s house in Warren, Ohio, praying the Cleveland Browns wouldn’t squander the fourth pick on Johnny Manziel.

That’s because Hewitt, 58, is a lifelong Browns fan. He was born and raised in Warren and went to every Cleveland home game between 1965 and 1974. He’s also held season tickets since 1999 – but hasn’t been to a game during that span.

The team has been one of the league’s worst during that stretch, and he’s been holding on to the tickets in the hopes of eventually going to a playoff game.

“It’s a long-term investment,” he said. “When the Browns become good again – and I’ve been saying this for 15 years – it’ll be impossible to get tickets.”

He’s even gotten seats with January playoff weather in mind, under the overhang at the 50-yard line.

“No matter how awful the weather, I won’t be wet,” he said. “I’ll be freezing, but I won’t be wet.”

As for the draft, Cleveland did end up with Manziel – but with a later pick resulting in a better draft haul.

“I think this will turn out to be the best (Cleveland) draft ever,” he said.

Time Traveling

Jan Brzeski’s summer vacation plans are heavy on the reminiscing.

First up, a trip to Hanover, N.H., for his 25th class reunion at Dartmouth College. He’ll go to a few reunion events, but he said more than anything he’s looking forward to getting outside and taking advantage of New Hampshire’s greenery.

“I don’t want to be antisocial, but I want to find some time to go off the grid,” said Brzeski, 48, managing director of Westwood bridge lenders Crosswind Financial and Arixa Capital Advisors. “Hopefully I’ll get to do some canoeing on the Connecticut River or do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail.”

A native of Northern California and a lover of the outdoors, Brzeski opted to attend Dartmouth in large part because of the school’s proximity to mountains and open spaces.

After Hanover, Brzeski and family will head to one of the places where that passion for the outdoors began: a tiny town in the Swiss Alps.

Forty years ago, when his professor father was on sabbatical, Brzeski and family spent a year in a village called Wengen. Now Brzeski is taking his kids, ages 13 and 10, albeit for a shorter visit.

“That’s another place where I picked up a love of the outdoors,” Brzeski said. “We rented a house and we’re going to revisit that. I haven’t had a chance to go back there in a long, long time.”

Staff reporters Alfred Lee and James Rufus Koren contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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