We have often said how long we have been a fan of the Cleveland Guardians, we go back to the mid 1960s and the days of Sam McDowell, Max Alvis, Rocky Colavito, and Leon Wagner.
And much like today, those teams were built around pitching while scoring runs was definitely a struggle.
It also dawned on us that for most of the 58 years we have been a fan of Cleveland baseball teams, they haven’t been free with a dollar bill.
Early on in my fandom, it was a terrible park to watch baseball and mediocre teams that drove attendance down. The Indians didn’t draw one million fans from 1959, when they finished 2nd in the American League to 1974, when they were in contention into August.
Their best record in that span was in ’65 when they went 87-75.
Of course, the National Pastime as a sport wasn’t in the great position it is today. There was one national telecast of baseball each week, and as for local TV, maybe as many as 40 games were broadcast on a local station in a season.
The financial situation led to trading many good, young players such as Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Buddy Bell, Dennis Eckersley, Len Barker and others, usually for prospects. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
This went on until the Jacobs Brothers, Richard and David, bought the team from the estate of Steve O’Neill in 1986. The new owners immediately saw the terrible lease situation the team was in with The Stadium Corporation, run by Browns’ owner Art Modell, and set out to get their own ballpark.
When then Jacobs Field opened in 1994, fans flocked toward the new building in record numbers. Of course, it helped when the Indians were good for the first time since the late 50’s, and the sellout streak and more network television cash allowed Cleveland to be a factor in free agency, signing players like Eddie Murray, Dennis Martinez, Orel Hershiser, Roberto Alomar, and Jack McDowell.
Most of them helped the team reach two World Series and qualify for the post-season in six out of seven seasons.
Cleveland baseball attendance figures reached the three million mark from 1995 to 2001 and hit 2.6 million in 2002 when the team dipped below the .500 plateau.
Ironically (or not perhaps), the Jacobs family sold the team to the Dolan family at the end of the 1999 season.
Outside of that stretch when Jacobs Field opened until the sale of the team to the current owners, the folks in charge of running the operation have told us they cannot compete financially.
However, Progressive Field is being renovated, updated if you will, but it is still a great place to watch a baseball game, certainly better than Municipal Stadium. And there isn’t a landlord siphoning concession revenue and the like from the Guardians like there was in the 70’s and 80’s.
And we understand the local television deals for the bigger markets have exploded giving teams in large metropolitan areas more cash to spend, but that shouldn’t affect how much the Guardians can spend.
Various remodeling projects at the ballpark don’t allow the Guardians to draw three million fans anymore. The most they can do if they sellout every game would be a little over 2.8 million.
The conditions are very different from when we grew up with the baseball team in Cleveland, but still, all we seem to discuss is keeping the payroll low. The franchise still has to trade its best players when the time comes for free agency. Only Jose Ramirez stayed, but he left money on the table to do so.
Like it or not, that’s the reputation the Guardians have nationally. It’s why every very good player that plays here is involved in rumors by the national media.
The more things change, the more it has stayed the same, we guess.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 