Comments on: Lot of smoke regarding possible trades of Lee and Martinez

By: terje

terje — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:41:48 +0000

that "america the beautiful" crap was the beginning of my intense dislike of current mlb. good people all over the world die an undeserving death while bud selig continues to live. there is no god.

By: alan t.

alan t. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:42:01 +0000

It's been years since I've gone to an Indians game. Way too long a round-trip drive for me. I do miss those days when I would buy the very worst ticket in the house, and then my buddy and I would watch the game from box seats.

Question: Are the Indians now one of the baseball teams doing that politically correct and excruciatingly unbearable and evidently permanent destruction of the 7th-inning stretch by shoving "America the Beautiful" down everybody's throat?

By: terje

terje — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:14:55 +0000

i've never had a problem with the dolan's spending. they've had the team in the middle of the pack. a reasonable level for the payroll.

i dared pluto over at the peedee to flesh out a comparison-the trajectories of the 2007-2009 colorado rockies vs. the cleveland indians. the rockies have a lower payroll than the tribe and the teams were very similar in performance until about 2 months go during that time span.

this is where my problem with the dolans comes in. colorado didn't cash the season in a month into the schedule. they made a change and it worked. now, they took betancourt off the tribe's hands for table scraps. i can't respect the dolans for letting shapiro and wedge run the team into the ground because they don't want to be stuck paying two g.m.'s and two managers. it's choking the life out of the franchise and a miracle is going to have to take place to revive fan interest.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:18:05 +0000

Whether fans want to believe it or not, this statement is true: THE DOLAN FAMILY CARES MORE ABOUT THE CLEVELAND INDIANS THAN DICK JACOBS EVER DID.

The Dolans told us from Day 1 that they are lifelong fans of the Tribe, and they've opened their checkbooks for the highest payrolls in team history. Cheap? No way. But after Jacobs fleeced them, they've had to be realistic in their spending. Other recent teams have been World Series champions with HALF of what we spend.

It's not that our owners haven't spent. It's that our GM's business plan has been flawed from the get-go. And Shapiro is the best PR guy in the biz in making himself sound brilliant—a man with "a plan." Trouble is, there was little talent to complement the plan.

By: alan t.

alan t. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:25:28 +0000

Who am I, Robert M. Kraus? Apparently you've never seen any of the Batman movies or the Batman TV show. Thank goodness my secret is still firmly intact, I was a little concerned at first.

By: Robert M Kraus

Robert M Kraus — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:54:48 +0000

Egad, but this blog stuff is revealing. Who the hell is this guy Alan T? What a memory . . . . . . . he's got a lot of good words . . . . and he writes with authority . . . . . . I wonder what he can tell us about Larry and Charles Dolan . . . . . and poor Mark Shapiro.

By: ClayMatthewsSchoolforLaterals

ClayMatthewsSchoolforLaterals — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:22:08 +0000

Wow, Alan, that was the best roast job of a dead Indians owner I've ever read. It totally eclipses the rant I launched into when Gabe Paul died, and this hapless friend of mine went into the whole "He-kept-the-Indians-in-Cleveland" crap. In between wiping spittle off my chin, I remember frothing about the Chris Chambliss trade to the Yankees, and countless other idiocies inflicted on us by that New York-loving toolbag. (Oops, is "toolbag" a blocked word on this blog?)

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:32:24 +0000

Excuse me after he and David bought the team.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:31:42 +0000

Bravo Alan. I didn't like the guy from the very beginning when he refused my 12 year old son an autograph at the Wahoo Club after he and Dick bought the team. This is an awful thing to say but did the wrong Jacobs brother die first?

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:32:27 +0000

Thank you for pointing out what I've always felt was painfully obvious: The Indians are in the current mess because of Dick Jacobs. What, he wasn't rich enough? So he had to cripple the new owners financially?

Those who hold Jacobs up like some kind of hero or savior don't know the facts. The man basically drained every last cent from this franchise, then he walked away. And died. And we're left with this quagmire we may never escape, all because of one man's enormous greed. That's the real truth, folks.