As a fan base so familiar with professional sports disappointment that we’ve named our failures like they were pets, we still shouldn’t overlook those great, exciting and altogether tremendous moments mixed in with the headline-grabbing horrors of “The Drive,” “The Shot,” “The Mesa Meltdown,” “The Decision” and so on, ad infinitum. Memorable moments in sports, as in life, are often determined by the time and place they occurred, so the five magnificent snapshots of sweet Cleveland fan joy offered are enormously subjective and not presented in any specific order: 1: Force defeat Chicago Sting, MISL Eastern Conference quarterfinals, 1985: This first entry is the wild card of the lot. Cleveland’s defunct indoor soccer team was my initial foray into Cleveland sports, as my father, who worked for a graphics company that printed materials for the team, was always able to get free tickets. Force games were great fun as the fast-paced nature of the game usually led to a bushel of goals. The franchise also became locally very popular, and as unlikely as it sounds, the Force somehow drew a raucous sellout crowd that jammed Richfield Coliseum for the playoff game against the Sting. I sat with my dad in the upper deck, waving the light-up wand (the Force had a “Star Wars” theme at the time) given to patrons at the gate. The Force won the contest in overtime on a Kai Haaskivi goal, and I was one happy little dude. 2. Browns beat Jets in double-overtime, AFC Divisional Playoffs, Jan. 1987: This was the first Browns team I followed closely, and an ardor grew so strong that my 12-year-old idiot self ragingly punched through a living-room window after my sister told me that the Browns “stunk.” The 1986 Browns most certainly did not stink, thank you. A 12-4 season led by Kosar, Mack, Slaughter, Langhorne, Brennan, Matthews, Minnifield, Dixon — names that will draw nostalgic smiles (and maybe a few tears) from any fans who cheered through that should-have-been glorious era. The divisional playoff against the Jets is considered one of the greatest games ever to be played at the old Cleveland Stadium. Flashes of the final four minutes of regulation and the two overtimes are branded into my hippocampus, from Mark Gastineau’s helmet-first spear into Bernie Kosar’s spine that led to a late Browns touchdown, to Mark Moseley missing a chip-shot field goal in the first overtime, to Moseley’s lovely upright-splitting redemption in the second overtime. At that instant, with the killing anvil of John Elway still eight days away, the possibility of a Browns freakin’ Super Bowl seemed inevitable. 3. Kenny Lofton scores from second on passed ball, Game 6, American League Championship Series, Oct. 1995: Perhaps the greatest stand-alone moment of an historic Indians season. The best leadoff hitter of the ’90s bunted safely to first, stole second and then blazed home from second on a passed ball by Randy Johnson to ice the ALCS and send the Tribe to its first World Series in forever. The next day, still feeling giddy, I wore a knockoff 80s-era plastic Indians batting helmet to classes at Cleveland State. High fives surpassed withering glances of contempt by a healthy 3-to-1 margin that fine day, I tell you. 4. Entirety of the Oct. 1997 Indians’ playoff run: The ’97 Tribe had a mediocre regular season in winning the awful Central Division, with most prognosticators expecting it to fall in the opening divisional playoff series against the defending champion Yankees. That lack of expectations made the team’s flash run to the World Series all the sweeter. As a student at Ohio State University, I watched almost every game with a group of die-hard Cleveland fans in a cramped Chittenden Avenue living room. My friends and I went full-out nerdlinger for those games, everyone wearing the high red socks popularized by slugger Jim Thome and passing around a baseball bat like a good-luck talisman for every Tribe plate appearance. The Indians ended that October in hellishly painful fashion, but I don’t regret the ride for a second. 5. LeBron James scores 25 straight points, Game 5, Eastern Conference Finals, June 2007: Yep, Douchebag McGee makes the list. How could he not, after this superlative, hypnotic performance that witnessed James pouring in his team’s 25 final points and getting them within a breath of the franchise’s first-ever NBA Finals appearance? It was a once-in-a-generation feat one rarely sees in such a high-stakes athletic event; a 22-year-old kid knowing he’s unstoppable and then ripping through the competition to prove the point. It was a jaw-dropping display of athleticism and crazy talent, with James crushing dunks, knifing through the pain for layups and splashing fall-away threes like the rim was the size of a hula hoop. In a word, “Jordanesque.” The Cavs’ run that year ended in disappointment, a tune so familiar to Cleveland fans we should be getting monthly royalty checks. Until we can clog the streets singing “We Are The Champions,” our woulda, coulda, shoulda memories will have to suffice.