Perception is reality. This is something the front office of the Cleveland Indians doesn’t understand, or else the fans are exactly correct about the management of the team.
They don’t care about winning.
They can bring out their spreadsheets and flow charts and mission statements all they want, but the perception of the people who buy tickets is that the only folks involved with the Indians who want to win are the players.
That’s their perception, and perception is reality.
The Indians finished below the .500 mark last season, but they were in contention until the beginning of September. The team that won the division, the Detroit Tigers, added a premier free agent, Prince Fielder, to their roster.
The Tribe basically did nothing.
On May 24th, the Tribe beat Detroit to run their record to 26-18 and had a 3-1/2 game lead in the AL Central Division. They still had weaknesses, getting no offense out of 1B, 3B, and LF. The front office didn’t feel the need to add to the roster.
A month later, on June 24th, the Indians record was 37-34, meaning they went 11-16 in the last 30 days. They dropped out of first place, but were just a half game out of first.
The same weaknesses remained and Derek Lowe’s season started to go south. The Indians needed to get some starting pitching along with help to cover up some of the other flaws, but the front office still did nothing to help out a group of players trying to keep their heads above water.
On July 24th, the Indians beat the Tigers to improve their record to 49-48, meaning they went 12-14 over the last 30 days. The dropped to third place, but were just three games of the pace.
The weaknesses remained, but the front office did nothing outside of replacing the 25th man on the roster, replacing Aaron Cunningham with Brett Lillibridge.
It the meantime, the White Sox traded for Kevin Youkilis and Brett Myers, and the Tigers got Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante.
The Indians’ front office claimed it was a slow trade market.
What they are really telling you is that they don’t care about winning.
Whether it’s the ownership holding the purse strings tight, and not allowing president Mark Shapiro and GM Chris Antonetti to add to the current roster, or it’s the executives not feeling this team needs help, the end result is they don’t want to win.
The disinterest has even seeped down to the dugout where Manny Acta seems void of emotion.
Three more blown calls which hurt the Indians were made in the series against the Twins with the skipper glued to his seat.
The one that occurred yesterday was protested vehemently by SS Asdrubal Cabrera, who seemed to be close to an ejection. Acta sat there like a statue while one of his best players argued.
Acta has done a good job keeping a team with more holes than swiss cheese around the .500 mark, but you have to wonder if he’s losing his team because he doesn’t seem to have their backs.
The perception, there’s that word again, is that Acta isn’t fighting to win, he isn’t defending his team.
Look, a manager can’t get kicked out of every game, but every once in a while, he needs to go out and show his team and the umpires that the Cleveland Indians aren’t going to be pushed around.
The entire organization seems slow to react to problems, slow to argue calls, slow to bring in more talent.
Then they wonder why fans are slow to show up to games.
It’s because the message they send is the Cleveland Indians do not care about winning.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 