Baseball Disgust

It occurs to me that back in the fifties the Milwaukee team was municipally owned. Perhaps it was expansion time, I'm not sure and am too lazy to check it out. But the point I want to make is what can be done if a owner of a MLB team does not have, or refuses to shell out any money to field a competive team?

The Cleveland team has one of the lowest payrolls in all of baseball and recently the GM stated that the team could not enter into the free agency market because they did not have any money to do just that. In other words the team does not intend now or in the future to spend any of the owner Dolan's money to improve the baseball team. I read in one of the forum's that if that was the case then the Indians fortunes would rely exclusively on luck.

The bottom line then is the team is making a profit even though they are the lowest in attendance. They are making a bundle from their television station and merchandizing the Indians brand. So it seems that two facts are sure things, one they will not improve the team, and two they will not sell the franschise.

Since the Dolan's are a member of the owner's club albeit the really cheap wing of same that follows the motto, Keep your nose out of my business, it does not look good at any time in the near future that Cleveland fandom will get their dearest dream, a new owner.

To compound the dreary outlook, the commisioner of baseball, stays out of the way of his owners in order to retain his job. Obviously in the commisioner job description there is no standard of performance that each team must maintain. Cleveland is the prime example of that. It is a baseball joke and pretty much a truism that they have become a feeder and developer of young talent to be made available to other clubs through free agency or one sided trades.

It is also obvious that nothing is going to be done short of a nudge from those people in Washington that businesses that represent municipalities must be maintained up to some level of competiveness among other like businesses.

But now we've brought politicians into the fray. Now Cleveland Indian fans plight if that happened would be in the hands of big business, politicians, and big baseball. Things are not looking good.

Here endith the most recent fairy tale from a battle weary, and a little battle scarred in the head Cleveland Indian fan.