Dan Parker on the streaking Blue Jackets: WFNY Podcast No. 572
January 5, 2017Browns Film Room: Missed opportunities hurt team in season finale
January 5, 2017I know this might come off as an overly emotional post wherein it seems like I’ve lost my grip. Just imagine me coming off a week-long vacation where I’m pretty unemotional about sports. I am not sad or mourning or anything like that. I just found this to be an interesting lens through which to look at the Browns—specifically their need to apologize for how bad their season was, and what it means going forward. That said, I accept the Haslams’ apology about this year’s Cleveland Browns season.
I don’t know if anyone else did, and I wasn’t bowled over by the letter to season ticket holders, but I found it appropriate. It’s a positive thing to hear Jimmy Haslam step up once again and claim responsibility for his horrendous record as owner of the team. There’s luck throughout the universe for sure, but it only exists at the margins. You can’t be as bad as the Browns have been since Haslam purchased the team and blame that on downside luck. So he did owe fans an apology because he’s the only one who has any ability to change things. Accepting an apology is one thing. Forgiving Jimmy Haslam and his crew is going to take a whole lot more.
The internet is riddled with conversation talking about the difference between accepting an apology and forgiveness. It seems that there has to be a combination of these two things in order for people to move along from something that warranted an apology. The apology is like the turning point from the downward trend and hopefully signals a new one upward. Forgiveness can only be achieved as improvements and amends are made on the way to a better future together. Absent that, the apology either signals the end of a relationship or a reminder of a negative past and an unfulfilled promise to change and do better.
I know this is all a little bit emo for a sports website. The issue here is that Jimmy Haslam can’t guarantee success. He can keep the people he’s hired for three years or longer and let them work on their plan, which is continuity and somewhat positive by itself. He can stop being meddlesome with a hair-trigger firing finger, but what that means to a spurned Browns fan is something else entirely. For far too long Browns fans have bought tickets and followed a team based on tradition and habit. The team has spent most of its re-existence daring fans to quit smoking the Orange and Brown for their health and well-being. He can only do that by winning and unlike other kinds of apologies and forgiveness cycles, this isn’t just a change in his own behavior.
We’d all like to believe that if Jimmy just stops being the Jimmy that hired and fired Chud, Ray Farmer and Mike Pettine that he’ll achieve our mutually beneficial goals on the field. We’d all like to think that Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta and Hue Jackson are the most perfect hires ever with inevitable Super Bowl appearances and victories on the horizon. The question remaining is whether or not Jimmy Haslam can achieve forgiveness by being a good owner even if his team fails to advance to the playoffs in the next two to five years. This presumes that you can be a good owner while also not making the playoffs in a time span of two to five years. I don’t know if that’s even reasonable. Can you be considered a good owner if you operate with continuity and dignity while also not achieving playoff appearances and competitive seasons?
This is where we sit in 2017 as Cleveland Browns fans. We’re ready for another high draft pick. Jimmy Haslam has started to make amends by jumping over the lowest possible bar by not firing people. You can only celebrate that so much. There’s no guarantee that this plan with these planners is going to yield acceptable results until it actually does. That’s why even though I accept Jimmy Haslam’s apology I’m not going to advocate for my family to buy season tickets next year. For me, that’s the difference between accepting an apology and forgiveness with the Cleveland Browns. They’ve got a hell of a lot more work to do.
121 Comments
haaa … i just googled your call name & was surprised … it was actually NANKER PHELGE & references Rolling Stones songs between 1963 & 1965 … i did not know this.
Looking forward to see Goff play for a coach who is not Jeff Fisher or his interim replacement
Also, Goff was not available for the Browns to select
Season ticket holders are what drive ticket sales, not individual game tickets.
As of 2015 (latest #s I could find) the Browns had sold 60,000 out of 67,000 seats to season ticket holders.
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/index.ssf/2015/07/cleveland_browns_have_terry_ta_11.html
So although the stadium is empty, those seats are bought and paid for. Assuming a dip in STH of 10% (unlikely) that still means 54,000 out of 67,000 seats were bought and paid for. The highest face value of a Browns ticket is $110.
$110 x 13,000 seats x 10 home games = $14,300,000
Let’s say it was worse than that though and the Browns STH slid allll the way back to 2011 when they had 50,000 holders (and let’s assume they bought the cheapest seats first and no one bought the most expensive):
$110 x 17,000 x 10 = $18,700,00
Let’s up the ante by assuming each of those 17,000 would have spent $100 EACH on concessions:
($110+$100) x 17,000 x 10 = $35,700,000
Yeah, somebody else already had the NankerPhelge screen name, so I had to improvise.
And as I understand it, the name doesn’t have to do with the songs. It was (still is?) the band’s own pseudonym.
the worst owner is not always the one with the worst record in any given year 🙂
Would Gilbert be considered piling on?
I keed, I keed…
TB, if you had been the captain of the Titanic, you’d have said, “No need for the lifeboats, chaps. The ship’ll right herself. Just give her time.”
you are correct … after i re-read it , it all makes sense.
Cool. Factor in playoff revenues, international merchandise sales, etc, and compound those over consecutive winning seasons. Compare Browns revenues to revenues for teams like the Steelers, Patriots.
I get that the raw numbers indicate holding on to $110 million is better than winning in a single year, but I can’t buy that any successful business man would find long-term business failure to be better than long-term business success.
It would. But he can handle it.
Now I have this uncontrollable urge to yell, “Travis Hafner!”
To your first point: I’m not.
To your second point: Good point.
And it’s not always not the one with the worst record.
And here we are, arguing over which goes worse with liver, brussels sprouts or asparagus.
You moved the goal-posts. You asked for the math that proves $110M in your pocket is worth more than going 10-6, not going 10-6 for an indeterminate amount of time 🙂
Let it Bleed – one of my all time favorites.
If I can’t move the goal-posts, how can I win the argument????
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/280cc94263c2fed7fe919a6208bda95bd95d3e772957f96c9c1c3d88866f07eb.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8ff2934baf2240e7cad360e4390d167f245ea32a76d75e7dc74f5cb07f928ad.gif
In fairness, that ship has been upright for over a hundred years. Solid construction!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9be0da75d1b879e58e7a08fac303056f244f1abffd266ff0295dd56ad3b1d2b.jpg
The additional projected $110M will come in the form of Browns’ sale of merch for FA signees (such asTony Romo jerseys).
The revenue will be huge based on the 147 uniform combos of: Orange with brown stripes, White-orange combo, Brown orange with white accent, White and Brown polka dots with orange circular trim…
(Note the correct usage of apostrophe)
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/62/62f538b129e13afc6c7d9b9278b63f63f4c91e1f8fd1077c36e088039bf538f8.jpg
Given that “Browns” is plural, a single apostrophe is appropriate. In that instance.
And the only color combination that matters is orangier orange from head to toe. I am intrigued, however, by the polka dots.
Your use of the apostrophe has also earned you this badge:
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/62/62f538b129e13afc6c7d9b9278b63f63f4c91e1f8fd1077c36e088039bf538f8.jpg
asparagus is delicious
Looks around for a player w/ 10yrs on Indians and OPS+ 138 or higher…
only four names appear
Tris Speaker
Nap Lajoie
Jim Thome
Travis Hafner
Not buying it. As Mork said, “Asparagus is hated throughout the universe.”
Hang that banner next to the AL pennant!
http://t10.deviantart.net/LJDMDbvkQMDhcgfjnvDRp-E_JKg=/300×200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre05/2c87/th/pre/f/2008/118/f/9/pronkville_by_intrepidllama.jpg
Funny that right after they named it that, he stopped hitting it . . . to anywhere!
Best part about an otherwise depressing 2016 was the script flip that left the Dolans the big spenders and the Browns the penny-pinching cheapskates.
Haslam is Trump.
Trump is Haslam.
2009-2012
.268/.361/.453 125 OPS+ (126 extra base hits)
All despite playing with one working shoulder and other ailments. Played in 94, 118, 94, and then just 66 games.
He was better and played more often than people remember.
Build that statue! (It should be in the form of an albatross.)
Found a good image of one
http://images.performgroup.com/di/library/sporting_news/8e/c8/grady-sizemore-012314-ap-ftr_xn8wpto3aejf14pr983s1wxq4.jpg?t=1127326780
Wow. Grady was just sitting there innocently, minding his own business, and then . . . WHAM!
baste w/ olive oil, then liberally apply salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese before grilling
“He can stop being meddlesome with a hair-trigger firing finger …” My bigger issue is his hair-trigger HIRING finger. As in tossing the keys to the latest guy whispering evil to him about the current guys in charge. That’s how both Farmer and Sashi ascended. When a billionaire acquires a business he knows absolutely nothing about and immediately becomes a civic punch line, he will long to trust someone who might make it stop. Randy had the same tendencies, but tried to solve them ejecting everyone and trying to find his Magic Man outside the org: Savage, then Mangini, then Holmgren.
If Haslam believes the current people and process is right his apology ain’t nothing but pure straight p.r. – and that is fine. He wants to show fans he does care, and there are only so many ways the owner of a 1-15 team can do that short of firing the “right” dudes he just hired.
Ok. As long as we only have another 30 years of this until he figures it out.
Except $110M unspent is not true. $110M is the cap available to them for which less than half is the cumulative rollover of cap space from the last few years. And Jimmy is paying a stiff fee to previous, ahem, employees.
Now if they start next season with $110M in cap space, it would be accurate. But Haslam would probably have to spend half of it on personal security or never be seen in public in Cleveland.
parmesan after grilling, for sure.
Also, brussels sprouts braised with maple syrup and bacon are delicious.
Liver wins as the worst! Hence the existence of liverwurst.
Your larger point on tossing the keys is a good one. But there is a difference between sincerity and competence. Despite having the business background of a well trained ferret, I believe he is sincere in wanting to build a winning franchise and it’s not just PR. Whether he is capable is a whole different story.
I would also add that if he really needs to do something with that trigger finger, he should leave the football people alone and look closely at the media relations and PR side of the shop. Bush league would be galactic improvement for that lot.
I don’t know about best case, but certainly is the track record pre-16.
both
You choose your criteria quite skillfully.
Belle, Ramirez, and Elmer Flick had better OPS+ but only played nine years.
Rosen had an OPS+ of 137. Averill had a 136. Calavito, 137 over eight years. Larry Doby also posted an OPS+ of 140 during his ten years with the Indians. (All of them also played more than 68 games in the field.)
I thought we only built statues for mercenary free agent power hitters who shun our city in favor of division rivals?
Not sure what playing games in the field matters to your hitting statistics
But, yes, you can even add Shoeless Joe’s 181 OPS+ & Charlie Hickman’s 141 (though each in far less PA).
Hafner still Top 10 All-Time Indians hitter
—————————
The main point was that people think of Pronk and think of someone who disappointed and was always hurt. But, he wasn’t hurt as much as people remember nor did he play poorly (just not at his best levels). Argued it while he played and I shall continue reminding people from time to time.
Also, Garry started it 🙂
A large industry metric is Per/Cap – the amount of money spent by fans per person in attendance. You can sense how your team is trending in the public by watching per cap.
Story time; so after the Indians went deep in 2007, Wedge and Shapiro came to Hafner and they said he wanted him to work on fielding b/c they wanted him to be better 1B for interleague and potentially WS games.
NOW – so the Indians were only able to get Hafner b/c Texas knew his shoulder would never allow this and he’d be a permanent DH.
Hafner, a big team guy, said sure. He never protested. Sure enough, his shoulder issues that plagued him in TEX come back and he cant play 60 games, and his socket is now so messed up he can never get it back. Yes, there were potentially some other minor things, but that is why Hafner went from a stud on what was still a team friendly contract, to a injury-ruined player.
Randolph Lerner was a worse Browns owner than Art Modell.
At least Trump wins…..