Extra!! Extra!!! Read All About It!!! Eric Wedge and Mark Shapiro Have Killed Attendance in Cleveland!

Remember the days when "the Jake" had a sellout streak, and the Cleveland Indian fans were known as "the 10th man", and performed as such to a national audience? I sure do. Wasn't it great? It sure was. Somewhere along the way, that stopped happening, and with just a bit of analysis, the picture clears up really fast.

When looking at attendance figures on the chart below, we can more thoroughly investigate this major concern for our beloved team.

This represents the Jacobs/Progressive Field era. (1994 and 1995 were shortened by the strike)

Any questions?

Judging by the lack of questions done by the media about this MAJOR problem, one would be inclined to think that there weren't any questions, but I'll go ahead and answer them anyway!

2002 was Mark Shapiro's first season in charge. He started trading away people like Robbie Alomar (for junk, I might add...)and then Jim Thome left, with the firing of Charlie Manual (who has won at every level) playing a big part in his departure.

2003 arrived, and Shapiro's evil takeover had arrived with it, as he hired Eric Wedge as the new manager, and gave him an unprecedented amount of control in the baseball decisions. Attendance plummeted to well below the league average, but it was only going to be for a short while, as 2005 was promised as a year that the team would be back.

2004 saw the emergence of hitters like Hafner and Martinez, with Peralta and Sizemore breaking in toward the end of the season, but besides the great Omar playing his last season, the team was made up of too much "non star" quality , like Matt Lawton, Ronnie Belliard, Casey Blake, and Ben Broussard. Hardly the kinds of players people want to spend a small fortune watching play when the TV will suffice.

2005 lived up to it's promise, making the Shapiro and Wedge team look like they might be onto something afterall, but nobody really cared, partially due to yet another Eric Wedge led slow start that put the team (and the fans) out of the race early. Their second half surge surely helped attendance, but we don't get the real picture if we only count the good stuff. Attendance was terrible for a team that won 93 games.

2006 was another collapse under Wedge, and it was yet another disaster with the attendance during his reign, as he and Shapiro decided to have the likes of Jason Michaels as their corner outfielder. Wow, they were practically begging people to come watch this team at expensive prices, huh? It was a season lost, and they lost all of their ticket sales momentum once again.

2007 was the only year under Wedge where the team got everything firing from the start. They struggled during the middle of the season, but turned it on when Lofton came back. Lofton cost the team prized catching prospect, Max Ramirez. If they wouldn't have been hellbent on having a platoon in the corner outfield of David Dellucci, Trot Nixon, and Jason Michaels, Kenny Lofton could have been brought in at the start of the season, and Ramirez wouldn't have been traded for him. Remember how Kenny was treated like the mayor of the city by the fans? The glory days couldn't be touched by this group of players who couldn't find consistent success on Wedge's team. For a first place team that was in 1st place most of the year, the attendance deserved to be looked at, but the media wouldn't touch it. They wouldn't examine how having players like Nixon and Michaels, and employing platoons is ticket office poison. People want to go to see their favorite players. If you don't know if they will play or not, why take the chance of wasting a trip? The 2007 attendance figure is the most telling of them all. This proves that it's the boring product, regardless of the record. Wedge dissing the fans (who were proud of their earned 10th man nickname), and telling them that "homefield advantage doesn't matter" probably didn't help matters, and, of course, it end up costing us a World Series when he found out how wrong that was in Boston.

2008 was the first season as Progressive Field, but another Eric Wedge slow start and platoon fetish kept the fans away in droves. They seemed to be trying every promotion under the sun to get people to come to the stadium, but people weren't interested. The team was as boring as their manager. Casey Blake was paraded around like he was a star. Lofton, a big attendance draw and king of the world in Cleveland, was blown off in favor of a Dellucci/Michaels platoon. Still, they told the media that they brought back the same exact team that was one game away from the world series (despite that not being true at all, due to Lofton's dynamic being gone), and on cue, the media rolled over and said the same thing Shapiro instructed them to say for him. He's quite the puppet master with the media sometimes!

2009 is just more of the same. A slow Eric Wedge start, and now an even more bizarre platoon fetish and daily lineup shuffle going on. Attendance continues to suffer. The media continues to be afraid to address it and demand accountability. How do they even look at themselves in the mirror? We continue to lose, and we can't draw interest when we are winning, and you have to hold this regime responsible, especially the manager, who should have been fired after 2006's collapse.

Oh, NO! Another 81-81 might be enough.

If the Indians manage to finish the season with a record of 81-81 again will Shapiro use that as a reason not to fire Wedge? He might.

In spring training Shapiro remarked he didn't feel comfortable with the Indians starting rotation going into the season. How comforting it was to hear that from the team's GM! Of course it came as no surprise since no one knew exactly who would be in the rotation.

We knew Cliff Lee would be the ace, the #1 starter. We knew Fausto Carmona would be the #2 starter because there was no one else to choose from. Carl Pavano was signed to be the #3 starter even though no one knew if he could stay healthy or what to expect from him. The #4 and #5 spots were left wide open. In fact, they're still pretty much wide open.

The only position player added over the winter was Mark DeRosa. He was supposed to be the Tribe's regular, starting 3rd baseman. But there's nothing regular about an Eric Wedge lineup card so it was unclear where and when DeRosa would actually play. Nothing has changed. It's still a day to day mystery. But overall DeRosa has done well. Not great. Not horrible. But well. I mean at least when he's given a chance to play somewhere in the infield. Or maybe in the outfield. Or as the DH. Or... ? At some point this season he may be the #4 or #5 starter, you never know. The regular, starting anything on a team managed by Wedge is nonexistent. Playing for Eric is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. You're playing 3rd base, hitting in the #2 hole today. Tomorrow you're out in left field - figuratively or literally - batting 7th. Eric's full of...surprises.

The bullpen was supposed to have been improved. Joe Smith was added. Kerry Wood was added at a high price because getting a closer was "the #1 priority". To heck with getting a solid starter even though without good ones you really don't need a closer. Wedge wanted a closer and that was that. You didn't expect Shapiro to say no to Wedge, did you?

Smith hasn't contributed much because he's been playing on the Disabled List team most of the year. Wood has been... Interesting. He hasn't had a lot of opportunities to be used but when he has, he's been unpredictable. More bad than good unpredictable. His record is a little deceiving. His ERA paints a more accurate picture.

So there you have it. That's the sum total of what Shapiro did to improve the 2009 team from the one that stumbled through the 2008 season. Those changes were supposed to make the Tribe contenders in 2009. To my knowledge Shapiro never specified exactly what they'd be contending for, but many fans thought it meant they'd be contending to play in the World Series. Maybe even win it.

Just kidding. This is Cleveland. The names Dolan, Shapiro and Wedge assure fans that winning a World Series championship will never happen, at least not by design.

Given that Shapiro's improvements haven't, in fact, improved the team (at least if you go by the silly win-loss record)

will that allow Wedge to keep his job? Will Shapiro take the blame for the team not showing improvement over last year's sparkling 81-81 record? Will he be satisfied with another 81-81 season with Wedge in charge? (Assuming the Tribe can somehow get to .500.)

I fear Shapiro will argue an 81-81 record is plenty good enough to keep Wedge employed. Remember, Shapiro and Wedge are incredibly close so it would take a lot to separate them. I suspect they routinely finish each other's sentences. It's really kind of creepy.

Anyway, will fans be satisfied with back to back .500 seasons? Or worse? I hope not. I believe fans deserve better. A .500 season isn't much of an accomplishment after 7 years of running the show.

Wedge and Shapiro need to go now. The 2010 season is in too much peril if they stick around any longer.

Whatever happened to the power of the press?

Here it is, year seven of the Wedge era of Indians baseball. Eric is still the manager and Mark Shapiro is still standing by his side, patting him on the back. Why? No one really knows. No one knows because the Cleveland media has been too afraid to ask tough questions. Too lame. Too uncaring. How embarrassing for them and for the city of Cleveland. And for Tribe fans in particular.

For several years, fans have been screaming for Wedge to be fired. They recognized long ago that he wasn't the right man for the job. Hey, Eric is a nice guy who has a nice wife and family from all accounts. So it's nothing personal. But it's obvious he shouldn't manage the Tribe.

Why has it taken so long for the media to acknowledge that? Just recently, a few local sports journalists and broadcasters have acknowledged that Wedge must go. Kudos to them. It took them awfully long to see the light, but they finally saw it. Now how long will it be before their peers open their eyes? And grow backbones.

"Eric, why didn't Cliff Lee come out to pitch the 9th inning of last night's game?" See, it doesn't hurt. It's just a question. Maybe there was a very good reason for Cliff not finishing the game. Maybe not. In fact, there wasn't. But if fans were waiting to hear the answer in the post game interview with Wedge, they were wasting their time. No one at the post game interview had the guts to ask the question everyone wanted the answer to. No one!

The sports media in Cleveland has lost its spine and replaced it with a big yellow streak up their backs. Fans shouldn't have to put up with that sort of ineptness. It's worse than making them wait for more than 6 years to say goodbye to Wedge.

So whatever happened to the power of the press? Did it waste away because it didn't get enough exercise? What is it that sports writers and sports broadcasters are so damn afraid of?

People make a big deal about the relentless, never-satisfied Boston media. Nothing makes them happy. They question everything. And the Red Sox finally won a World Series; two in fact. Could it be the power of the press helped push things in the right direction? Umm. Yes.

The New York media is known for putting everything under a microscope and then dissecting it until there's almost nothing left. Their sports teams can't afford to make even a tiny mistake and get away with it. Every error makes headlines. It's the topic on every sports radio show.

And all the Yankees have done in response is monopolize World Series wins over the years.

If they only make it to the World Series, they're a big disappointment. That's unacceptable. And if the Yankees don't make it to post season play at all... It's too horrible to think about. A complete housecleaning will take place.

But the Indians aren't in Boston or New York. They're in Cleveland, where the media is afraid of its own shadow.

It's time to fix that. It's time for the fans to take back the Tribe.