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October 29, 2009Browns Fans Attempting to Organize “Brown Out” (Update: Randy Lerner’s Comments)
October 29, 2009
Can you hear me, Bud?
Don’t hate the player. Hate the game. No, I am not going to talk about urban slang from the 1990’s. Then again, the message of that statement is so true. It certainly describes my current feelings about the game of baseball which have been changing and shifting since the Indians traded Victor Martinez to Boston. That trade was a tipping point for me. I had talked myself into the trades of Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia over the last two years. I had cast myself in the role of small to mid-market underdog with business realities. I felt ok. I felt above the hurt and pain of watching these two pitchers go elsewhere. Then the Indians traded Victor Martinez and the world changed.
Up until that point, whenever the big vs. small market conversation arose, I would automatically key in on two parties. First the Yankees for being the Yankees. Secondly and more importantly, the Red Sox for acting just like the Yankees while proclaiming to be some sort of anti-Yankee club. I hated the way the Red Sox stole Manny Ramirez from us. I hated the way the Red Sox fans cried about the Yankees after being the only other bidder for Bernie Williams’ services before he signed his final lucrative contract. Those two teams were my focus and I cast myself as a front office member of my hometown Indians club. I spouted the company lines about winning with value players, and the ebbs and flows of competition and rebuilding. “Build the base and spend on free agency when the time is right.” I will feel that way again at the beginning of the season, I am sure, but not right now.
Today, I am livid with the sport of baseball in general. I am angry with Bud Selig. I am furious with the MLB Players’ Association. I am angry with them for letting their system (d)evolve to this point. I am disgusted that my hometown team is unable to make decisions on players in a way that factors their talents and abilities to play baseball above all. Yes, it is all bubbling to the surface because Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia faced off in game one of the World Series last night, but the seed was planted long ago.
I know that none of the professional sports leagues in the United States (and sometimes a bit in Canada) are perfect. Small market teams still do salary dumps in both the NFL and NBA. I know that the bigger markets will still have some kind of advantage financially. Then again, there are a few things that make it all feel a whole lot different. Tim Duncan, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Karl Malone… I could keep listing for days if I wanted. Somehow in these other games, there is enough structure so that in a great majority of situations where a true franchise player reveals himself, that the team can keep him. That is just simply not the case in baseball. Even in our own case with LeBron James, we know there is a chance he can leave. We also know that it won’t be because another team will outbid the Cavs for his services.
I am just venting, I know. I don’t have any conclusions. I don’t have any words of wisdom. I am not making some sort of ultimatum that I am switching allegiances or that I am going to stop watching the Indians. Also, don’t confuse this rant as absolution for the Indians organization and ownership. Just because they work in a corrupt system doesn’t absolve them of anything. I grew up with the team and no amount of logic, emotion, or anger can go back in time and change that. Still, I have to continue to put whatever disappointment I have in this game out into the ether. I still have hope that it will change someday.
I have hope that one day baseball will realize that it isn’t about the clubs competing against each other. It is about their sport competing against the other pro sports. I have hope that the sport will one day reflect the fact that the Yankees could never be the Yankees unless there were Indians, Pirates, Royals, Brewers, etc. for them to play against. The MLBPA and Bud Selig should be taking dead aim at the NFL, NBA, Nascar, the NHL and the UFC to try and make sure that they are the best, most relevant destination for entertainment dollars and disposable income. Right now baseball has tradition on its side, but that won’t last forever.
Ask the music business that never considered Napster, YouTube, and iPods as they were forcing their fans to buy the same album for the third time on CD after buying the vinyl record and tape before it. The 2009 Indians are just like an album that it feels like we have bought five times over. It won’t last forever without meaningful change. One day maybe my team will be able to keep its best players based solely on the fact that they do things well on the baseball field instead of unloading the ones who do too well and make disproportionate amounts of money. I don’t want to sound like a political slogan, but we desperately need change in this game. Without change you are a stagnant, rotting river of discontent and heartbreak.
31 Comments
I agree 100% Craig, well written. I was just having nearly the exact same conversation about baseball with my wife last night. She was mad because she wanted to watch game 1, and I refused to change the channel.
Anyhow, I still would have been okay if they hadn’t traded Victor. I’ll forever have a vision in my head of he and his boy in tears when they found out they were traded, and I’ll always hate this management for pulling the trigger. They gave away the heart and soul of my baseball team for Justin freaking Masterson of all people.
I can honestly say I don’t know when I’ll ever spend another dollar on this team. This whole thing stinks, and it’s unforgivable for the near future.
here here.
Chris, I feel your pain. I wouldn’t even qualify the Victor trade as to WHO it was for. You could have just stopped by saying, “They gave away the heart and soul of my baseball team.”
Victor is the kind of guy you build around. He was the unquestioned leader; he was a solid hitter; he was a solid clubhouse guy; and he WANTED to be here. You just don’t trade that. Especially not 18 months before his contract is up. I don’t care how good Santana is/will be.
Boo, beisbol!
Well, you can certainly complain about certain aspects of the organization but they tried. They were spending more than most teams on a per capita basis.
http://www.deepintosports.com/2009/07/21/mlb-baseball-television-market-shars-tv-households-nielsen-dma-payroll/#more-1611
Note that the Yankees, whose payroll was double Cleveland’s – and this was before the trades – are hardly spending at all. They are just printing money.
my sentiments exactly. mlb is a joke. absent a salary cap it will be the redsox or yanks in the world series … forever. sorry pitt, kc, cincy, milwaukee… and now us. they’re literally killing the game.
bill simmons and his buddy jacko smugly call the NL ‘quadruple A’ in the podcasts. news flash… outside of the redsox and yanks… the rest of mlb is AAAA.
it’d be a hell of a lot more honest if they did a relegation system like english premier league soccer. at least there a wigan shows up and makes a run at ManU or Arsenal.
This is why I’ve been a casual observer, not actually a fan for the last 5+ years.
@jimkanicki… Randy Lerner’s ears just perked up…
Amen Craig. I can’t stand the format of baseball b/c the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In N.C., there are an excessive amount of Yankee fans and it’s impossible to reason with them that the format is broke. They all say it’s the small market teams faults for not going out and spending at that money in one year to bring in people. I agree they could spend more, but 99/100 they will be severely outbid by a larger market team
I wasn’t so upset about a trade the Indians had made since Kenny Lofton or Carlos Baerga were traded. It just felt like a punch in the gut. The Victor trade still hurts because he was the heart of the team and he wanted to be in Cleveland. Hurts even that much more than we got nothing for Victor or Lee.
in 2008 indians made the 4th most money in baseball at 30 million….the red sox made 4 million, yankees were lower than that….it’s not baseballs fault…we just have a cheap ass owner that doesn’t want to win
First, I say be careful about generalizing this to a few teams. Absolutely the Yankees buy rather than actually work to develop talent. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Last year’s world series featured neither the Yankees or the BoSox. I think instead of focusing on those teams, cast a wider net to teams that pay a lot (too much) money for a team. Not sure of the specific number, but the Yankees pay hundreds of a millions of dollars PER YEAR for their team? Huh? Does that really make sense? Not to me. With that said…
I applaud Craig. Unfortunately because WFNY is not Eastern Sports Propaganda Network, this point is falling on the choir’s ears. However, this point is valid and must be made. I think when you said “Even in our own case with LeBron James, we know there is a chance he can leave. We also know that it won’t be because another team will outbid the Cavs for his services.”…that was the test of whether a bargaining agreement system is really fair. The test of a sports league’s corruptibility in trading is best summed up by the answer to this question:
“Why is the player leaving?”
In the cases of Brett Favre and maybe (hopefully not) LeBron…a departure by those players is to play more (Favre) or to play on a better team (LeBron)…NOT for money. In the case for Manny Rameriez, CC, Lee, Johnny Damon…those players left for money reasons (maybe not personally, but money was a main or at least important factor). This is disgraceful to the tradition of baseball. This used to be a working/common man’s sport. Now its all about money. Anyone see the front rows last night at Yankee’s stadium. Did anyone see any kids there at those rows? Hell no, because each seat fetches a five figure price. Would you’ve found that problem 50 years ago? Again, hell no.
Personally, I kind of wish baseball continues on this downward spiral…it stopped being America’s Pastime a while ago.
…bitter…
Brain, your source is just wrong. There is a lot of hidden monies that just don’t get calculated. Unless you can show me your source and it includes the HUGE TV deals the big boys have, your point above means nothing to me.
Not that you care what I think, just one man’s opinion.
I was going to say the same thing: I would like to see the source that shows Dolan making $30 million in 2008.
it’ll never happen, but baseball needs a salary cap. it got away w/ it b/c everyone loved the sport.
now, far less people like it and it is slowly dying. there may as well only be 6 teams in the league and we can just hold the play offs at the beginning of the season.
Unfortunately, a salary cap will never happen because the baseball union is too powerful. Only the threat of contraction (and loss of major league roster spots) could bring about change.
at least the indians are in the central and so they have a shot of having everything come together once every 5-6 years to win the central. once youre in the playoffs, anything can happen (unless CC chokes!). the teams in the AL east have it the worst. absolutely no chance of any of them winning the east on a consistent basis and any are lucky to be in the wildcard hunt. i know tampa won the east last year, but it was more of the stars aligned for them in that they had the perfect season, boston got the wildcard and NY had so many injuries they couldnt even buy their way back into it. the chances of that happening again are slim to none.
Amen, Craig. My thoughts exactly.
Am I to assume that you were crying for the Pirates/Royals/etc. in the late 90’s when the Indians bought up Juan Gone and Robby Alomar and Orel?
So here’s a radical idea.
Since the have’s realize that the have not’s are almost obligated to sell off their talent, they no longer make legitimate offers when trading for the soon to be free agents. For example, the Blue Jays did not like the Phils offer for Halladay so they kept him and we will see how that goes. Shapiro felt even more compelled to trade and got (what some think) less than fair value.
So put incentives into these trades. If the traded players hit certain incentives on their new team (such as Lee is doing) then team that traded them gets a certain number of top tier players to choose from. So philly would have to cough up Drabek now that Lee has performed for them. And CC would have produced the top Brewers player(s) for succeding last year.
Shapiro is now at a complete disadvantage. Not only does he have to sell his top players, but the big boys know he HAS to do it so they are starting to offer less and less. Mandate it so they can’t do that.
Both sides win. The big boys get their free agents and the have not’s get their young, cheap talent.
Great post Criag. I agree 100%. The time between basketball and football every year is always a sports dead zone for me.
gmoney – even as recently as the late 90’s, there was more of an evening of the playing field from ticket revenue. the indians COULD spend more and at least sort of keep up with the redsox and yankees since cable TV revenue was really at its infancy. in those days, the indians were selling out every game and were making a killing so it was easier to keep up. now, with cable TV revenue, there is no way the indians, or royals, pirates or whoever can keep up with the yankees or redsox even if every game is a sell out.
kevin makes a great point. Phily low-balled Tor and Cle since they could. boston is low-balling seattle as we speak for felix hernandez. they know these teams have to trade these guys because if they dont, bos or NY will get them in free agency. the built-in incentive right now is to trade them a bit earlier so that the receiving team can get another year out of the player. lee had more trade value with another year left. if this were his walk year, the indians would have gotten nothing for him and shapiro knew he couldnt wait for next season.
Selig is the most inept commissioner of any sport that I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. He’s killed the game of baseball for me and many, many others.
And on that note, Selig was on Letterman last night. Made me sick watching his smug face.
“David Letterman – Bud Selig On The Juice?”
Allow me to agree with your words and complaints, and to spill some wet tears on this page:
:'(
There. Done.
Fans of the game need to organize themselves to conduct a massive boycott across several of the long-time abused markets. Next year should be marked by a massive protest whose principle would be “not a dollar spent until the playing field is level.” True fans of the game need to oppose aggressively the rotten league that manages it.
I agree, I was done with baseball after last season’s trades
How do you think Justin masterson feels? Getting traded from a contender every year to a town that really doesn’t deserve him. If you ask any of the Indians players what it was like going to Boston the last three games of the season they would tell that Justin was the Man. You have a pitcher that only gave up 1 run in 9 innings and still got the loss. Where is your hitting Cleveland.
Well said and well written . I too am disgusted with MLB and all the disparities in Major league sports. Baseball has become the biggest joke. MLB might as well disband small and mid market teams or just treat the Yankees as if they were the Harlem Globetrotters and have them play fixed games against poor talent just so they can be guaranteed a place in the playoffs and the World Series every year. It seems to me that the sports media isn’t happy if they aren’t spending October in New York slobbering over Derek Jeter and A Roid. The Yankees are ringers, bottom line. 200 million in payroll does not guarantee they will win but gives them too much of an advantage over the rest of the league.
I agree with your statement. I can hardly watch the tribe on TV, nor do I want to afford to go to the game itself, it is so expensive. Baseball tickets (probably sports tickets in general) are one of the most inflated commodities over the past 15 or so years. I remember going to the last 3 games at Municipal Stadium as a kid. My dad got the tickets for myself, my brother and him. I bet those three days we spent at the stadium were for less or equal money than one game now in similar seats. It is sickening, baseball is dead to me, and ownership has the nerve to complain that people don’t come to the games. We can go see the same game for cheaper in Lake County, Akron, etc. We are a team of Minor Leaguers anymore. The fact that you bring up UFC fighting in your article is a good point. I am not a UFC fan, nor will I ever be, but the real fact is that it could surpass baseball and have a larger fan base. I read an article on ESPN.com that showed how the target audience for baseball has shifted away from young boys to basically old, rich men. Its true and sickening. You can’t even buy a pack of Tops baseball cards for a decent price anymore. Kids are not going to be interested and the sport will die for them as well.
Here is the ESPN.com article(many of you may have already read this).
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=091005yankeestickets
I just noticed this article and even though no one will read my comment, I’ll comment anyway. Theres no debating the truth of this article. Baseball is broken. My personal turning point was when we came within a game of the world series and our big off season acquisition was masa kobayashi. I don’t fault shapiro or wedge or even dolan. Yes, they made some bad moves but there is zero room for error. This is not competition. I believe at one point last year, the yankees had more money on the dl then the indians had payroll. Bud selig loves to point out that they have had more teams playing for the world series then for the championships in other sports. But that’s hogwash. Bottom lone is a small market team can compete once every 4-d years if EVERYTHING falls into place. So you get the yankees, redsox and some random other teams that have no shot the following year. I believe ultimately there will be a salary cap. But until then,I can’t follow baseball. A browns fan is loyal, a cavs fan pre-lebron is loyal. An indians fan is an idiot. The ground on which the yankees and redsox walk.
I jumped off baseball officially when the Yankees spent a half a billion dollars in a couple days for three players. I tried to hang in there with the Indians this year but after the Cliff Lee and then the Victor Martinez deals I did not follow nothing in baseball. For the first time, I did not know who finished first in their respective leagues or who was competing for the wild card in either division. I will not support any MLB any longer, sick and tired of the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers sucking up all the talent from the rest of the league. Major League Baseball will not get my attention no longer, the game is all about the Yankees. I have not watched any of the play-offs or the world series this fall and will not watch anymore MLB until they change. Baseball sucks at least the NFL, NBA, NHL and NASCAR get it right, TRUE COMPETITON, BASEBALL IS STUCK IN THE PAST. No more, baseball is for Yankee fans only.