The Cleveland Indians can drive you crazy. After playing well against contenders immediately following the All-Star break, they are playing with seemingly no purpose in losing 9 of 12 versus teams out of the race.
In the meantime, the front office (including the ownership) is busy patting themselves on the back because they spent over $9 million on draft picks taken in the June amateur draft. Isn’t that what a good “small market” franchise is supposed to do?
Since the odds of the team signing any major free agents are slim, the lifeblood of the organization must be in player development. That’s how the Minnesota Twins remain competitive. They keep adding good young players to their farm system and then they develop them.
That’s also the biggest reason the Tribe has floundered for much of the last ten years. Poor talent evaluation and poor draft picks usually mean a long period of time looking up at other teams in the standings.
Make no mistake, it’s better that the Indians spend money on the draft than not. However, fans get tired of the constant promotion when the franchise decides to pony up. They don’t care. They just want to see a winning team, a team they can be excited about. They don’t care how you get the talent, just as long as you get it.
The Dolan family and the front office seem to want to tell you when they do well, but they are offended by criticism when they don’t. This is the mentality that has to change on the corner of Ontario and Carnegie. Just get better and get competitive.
Stop talking about the pitfalls of being a smaller market team, and stop griping about how unfair the system is. Fans see plenty of examples of teams in similar size cities that are successful, there aren’t many, for sure, but the Twins, Reds, Rays, and Padres are having good seasons. Instead of moaning and complaining, just get to those teams level.
It seems like the Indian ownership would rather wallow in their mediocrity. Instead of complaining about the inadequacies of baseball, tell fans how you are going to combat it and win anyway. It’s possible. However, if all you focus on is that life is unfair, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Maybe the Dolans should adopt the philosophy of their manager, Manny Acta, who has been quoted as saying “life’s not fair, grab a batting helmet”.
There are even rumors that among the changes being made at Progressive Field next season is a reduction of suites, because the ownership doesn’t think the park can have more than 40,000 seats anymore.
Here’s a clue…get a better team and watch people buy tickets! There will be sports dollars available in this market over the next few years due to the departure of LeBron James. If the Indians can get back to the top of the AL Central Division, the fans will come back.
Right now, everything about this franchise is defeatist. That’s has to end. When Phil Savage made his infamous comment about the “woe is me” attitude in Cleveland, the Indians took this to heart.
Please Mark Cuban, call Larry and Paul Dolan and make them an offer. Baseball fans in this city will be forever grateful. They would like to be optimistic about the Cleveland Indians.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 