The Cleveland Indians Will Drive You Mad

The Dolan Damage Control Machine seems to be making the rounds again and I expect it will need to make plenty more passes before the start of next season. This time the focus is on convincing Indians fans that the owner of the Cleveland Indians, Larry Dolan, is not a cheapskate and his invisible wallet has nothing to do with the Indians mess. All sorts of numbers are being tossed around to prove that Larry does dip into his money bags once in a while and it's more often than some other MLB team owners. But by using selective stats, ignoring any data that won't help, and putting a fancy spin on things, numbers can seemingly prove whatever the Indians want them to. Unfortunately for Larry, Tribe fans have heard this song before and they're still not buying it.

The fact remains that Dolan didn't do what said he'd do, what he promised he'd do. He said he would "spend money when the time was right". It's fair to assume he meant he'd spend big-time money, not just enough to cover basic necessities and perhaps a minor tweak or two. Well, the time was "right" on several occasions and he didn't do what he said he would.

If manager Eric Wedge hadn't led the team to a ridiculous, mind-blowing collapse (the first of two in his horrible managerial career) during the final week of the 2005 season, the Indians had a real chance to be the team to beat in the World Series. So wasn't the 2005 off-season the right time to spend big money? The perfect time to keep the 93-wins team intact and add a nice piece or two so the Tribe could win it all in 2006? Time to dust off Larry's wallet?

Didn't happen.

Instead, Tribe GM Mark Shapiro dismantled the best bullpen in baseball, lost starter Kevin Millwood to Texas without even putting up a fight, added Jason Johnson (who?) and Jason Michaels (WHO?), then traded away Coco Crisp for Andy Marte (W-H-O?). The team responded by posting a sparkling 78-84 record in 2006.

Strike one.

How about writing some big checks after the 2007 season then? You know, the year that Wedge apologists always bring up because the Indians "won 96 games!" and "came within one game of going to the World Series!". If not for the second ridiculous, mind-blowing collapse led by Wedge, the Indians almost certainly would have gone on and beaten the Colorado Rockies for the World Series championship. The elusive championship that Clevelanders pray they'll see before they die.

So wasn't the 2007 off-season the "right" time for Dolan to spend lotsa greenbacks, keep the 96-wins team together, add a solid missing piece, and go get a World Series ring in 2008? You'd think so, but it...

Didn't happen.

The Indians didn't add anything of value, and didn't cough up the money to keep 2007 Cy Young winner CC Sabathia in Cleveland before he became a free agent. Dolan didn't spend mega-bucks, he just sat on his big fat...wallet. The Tribe ended the 2008 season with a 81-81 record and Tribe players and fans could only watch the World Series from their living rooms. Again.

There were all sorts of explanations and excuses for failing to even make the playoffs.The usual stuff losers lean on. The only memorable part of the 2008 season was the fire sale at the halfway point. It was a big one that included saying goodbye to CC. Tribe fans were not happy.

Strike two.

But certainly it was finally the "right" time to spend piles of money in the 2008 off-season, "right"? At least enough to "right" the ship? Plug a few gaping holes that were opened during the fire sale? Set a new course for World Series Island and make sure you had enough fuel to get there?

Nope. Apparently it was only time to overpay for a player the team didn't need -- Kerry Wood. The Indians gave $21.5M to a guy who has a 4.70 ERA and 5 blown saves - so far. Shapiro knew he only had one spot in the 2009 starting rotation filled -- Cliff Lee -- but the only move he made to fix that was to sign Carl Pavano off the scrap heap for $1.5M.

So going into the 2009 season the starting rotation consisted of Cliff Lee, God Only Knows Who, Carl Pavano (a total crap shoot), Another God Only Knows Who, and rounded out with Still Another God Only Knows Who. Dolan wouldn't spend any more money to correct that little starting rotation problem. You can put plenty of blame on Shapiro for ignoring the starting rotation problem and basically throwing away $21.5M on Wood but Dolan gave him the green light to do it. In that instance I guess you could argue he was only 50% cheapskate with the other 50% attributed to being baseball stupid. Whatever.

Meanwhile, the Indians refused to even negotiate with 2008 Cy Young winner Cliff Lee in the off-season. That worked out real well. No hint of being cheap there. They later made history by trading away the 2nd Cy Young winner in the middle of a season two years in a row. Then they basically gutted the rest of the team -- including Victor Martinez, the fan favorite, the unofficial team captain and the heart and soul of Indians baseball in Cleveland. Dolan wasn't going to pay anybody Shapiro could find a taker for no matter what it did to the team. The explanation was that it had to be done in order to make the team better in 2010 and beyond. Right.

Strike three. Larry Dolan, you're out. Or we wish you were.

The simple truth: Dolan shouldn't own the team if he refuses to spend big money when the time really is right. And he has refused to do so multiple times.

What? The poor billionaire had no idea it would take a ton of money to build and keep a championship caliber baseball team? He didn't know ahead of time that Cleveland wasn't a big market? Or that economics could someday be a factor? Or that there's no salary cap in baseball? Or that revenue sharing is a joke?

Please. That's almost as ridiculous as believing Dolan didn't know he was waaay overpaying for the Indians when he bought the team. I mean, come on. What kind of business-ignorant billionaire is Dolan? He doesn't have any financial or legal advisers? He overpaid alright. But no way do I believe he didn't know it at the time.

There's a reason for everything and I think people should look at reasons why a billionaire would knowingly set himself up to take a loss. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to think of a few right away. Just sayin'.

Now, thanks to a myriad of inexplicable moves and non-moves by Dolan, Shapiro and Wedge over the past 7 years, the World Series pursuit is back at square one. And Dolan's PR crew is desperately trying to convince people that it has nothing to do with him being unwilling to spend money "when the time is right".

Kool-Aid, anyone?

If you're a Tribe fan you're already looking forward to next season. Not so much because you have high hopes for 2010 but more because you can't wait for the 2009 season to end. It feels like the Indians have played 500 games this year and lost all of them. That's not easy to do when the regular season only has 162 games scheduled. But it sure feels like they did it -- thanks largely to Eric "You Can't Fire Me" Wedge, the Cleveland Indians..."manager".

At least Wedgie will no longer be managing the Tribe in 2010. That is, if there's a Baseball God in Heaven. (Have mercy, hallelujah and amen.)

If anyone knows a legitimate reason why Wedge hasn't already been fired would you please tell me what it is? How he's been employed for the past 6+ years is beyond me. And why Mark Shapiro, the general manager of the Cleveland Indians, thinks Eric can walk on water is a real mystery. As the old joke goes, maybe Wedge just knows where the stones are. On the other hand, the fact that Eric is still mismanaging the Indians is a major miracle, so who knows? Maybe there really is some kind of divine intervention going on...by a cruel, sadistic baseball god who hates Cleveland.

Regardless, the important thing is to make sure Wedge is fired as quickly as possible once the 2009 season is over. I don't see any reason to wait until the post-season is over before firing him but I'm willing to let him stay that long because I'm a softy at heart. And because I have no choice.

That said, sometime between now and the start of the 2010 baseball season, let's be sure to cut ties with Eric, okay, Mr. Shapiro? PLEASE?