Another baseball season has ended, at least for the Cleveland Indians it has. The Tribe finished this season with four more wins than they achieved in 2009, finishing at 69-93 for the season, their second consecutive 90-loss season.
By the way, the last time the Indians had back to back 90-loss seasons was 1977-78, over thirty years ago.
And of course, the team announced the promotions of several front office people, including Mark Shapiro to team president and Chris Antonetti to general manager.
So, the team has the worst two years in a row in over 30 years, and people get promotions. Who doesn’t want to work for the Dolan family?
Actually, the only people who need to be replaced are the ones signing the checks. Until the ownership decides it needs to spend money to make money, the Cleveland Indians are doomed to be a franchise that will contend every once in a while, but won’t be able to sustain it.
There are other blogs that continue to spout the company line regarding this baseball team, and they can point out how attendance in 2007, a division winning season, did not compare to the Central Division dynasty years of 1995-2001. But the perception of the fans is that as long as the Dolan’s are running the ship, there is no confidence in the franchise.
And that is why the people here are reluctant to come out and watch the team play.
Another blog showed the Indians in comparison to teams like the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, pointing out how many years it has been for those teams to be competitive (1997 for the former, the 1980’s for the latter), thus showing the Tribe in a good light.
However, the Indians’ fans have seen a lot of great players leave the organization in the last five or six years. Two Cy Young Award winners (C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee) and Victor Martinez were all traded in the last three years. This is following the departures of future Hall of Famers Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Roberto Alomar and Omar Vizquel since the turn of the century.
Who have the Orioles lost? Mike Mussina left as a free agent after the 2000 season, and the team traded Miguel Tejada, who won an MVP for Oakland, after 2007. That’s not quite the same now, is it?
As for the Royals, they had star players like Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon, Raul Ibanez, and Mike Sweeney in 2000, but all but Sweeney were gone by 2005. And although they are all good players, none carry the resume that Sabathia and Lee have, that is, major award winners.
That’s part of the reason for the malaise of the fans. They don’t understand why the organization can’t keep at least one of the great players they’ve enjoyed watching over the years. And that’s why these people point to Minnesota, who was able to keep Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, while trading Johan Santana and allowing Torii Hunter to leave as a free agent.
Put all these things together, the unwillingness of the ownership to spend money, and therefore having to deal very good players before they hit free agency, and you have what is ailing this franchise.
Until these things change, the Tribe brass is going to have problems creating excitement about their franchise.
It’s not a mystery, but it needs to turnaround. 2011 is a good place to start.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 