Money matters shine better light on Tribe, Dolans
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports write
Myth sometimes seeps into sports.
It's a natural byproduct of emotion and outside perceptions. Fans — and often media — don't know everything about the inner workings of a team, so judgments are made from the outside looking in.
In some ways it's part of the fun of following sports. Until it gets too far.
The Indians have been dealing with a lot of myths lately, fueled by their trade-deadline moves.
Sending Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez packing hurt, and the decisions can be questioned fairly.
But the moves were not made because the Indians believe they cannot compete. They made the moves because they believe it gives them a better chance to compete — next season and beyond.
Anyone can disagree with that belief. It's our right as Americans.
But that was the thinking.
And the trades were done in the context of the financial market in which the Indians work.
It would be nice to eliminate that market and pretend the Indians can spend $200 million on payroll like the New York Yankees, but they can't.
Pretending they can is a myth, and pretending their actions aren't dependent on financial realities is also a myth.
Which brings us to the issue of payrolls and all the myths that surround them. The ''cheap'' Dolans and all that stuff.
This myth is perpetrated by one reality: The Indians aren't winning the way they did in the heydey of the Albert Belle-Manny Ramirez-Jim Thome-Mike Hargrove days of the '90s.
It doesn't matter that that stretch was a rare one in which several factors came together. Nor does it seem to matter that it might not happen again — for the Indians or for any team.
Because the Tribe is not winning that way now, perceptions grow.
The Dolans are cheap.
They don't spend.
They won't let employees use paper clips.
This kind of drivel is spouted even though another professional team in town laid people off despite the fact their league's revenues went up. The Dolans made extra efforts not to lose a single employee.
One team can't do wrong even though it's had two winning seasons since 1999 (both marred by disastrous losses that could be classified as choke jobs) and another can't do right even though it's never failed to be honest with its fans.
At some point reality has to enter the equation.
So let's do that.
And to do that, let's review annual payrolls since 1988, when Dick Jacobs owned the team and it played in Municipal Stadium. (Candor moment: This study is motivated in part by the research of an online reader and frequent blog contributor named Alan Tucker. His work and suggestions could not be ignored.)
Let's take the study beyond just the mere numbers, though. Because comparing numbers in 1988 to today isn't fair because of inflation. So numbers must be adjusted to produce an accurate comparison.
This review produces some interesting numbers (see chart).
For consistency's sake numbers were taken from USA Today's annual baseball salary figures, with inflation adjustments from the Bureau of Labor Statistics buying power calculator.
The figures can be debated. The Indians state that their Opening Day payroll was $86 million, the figure used here is $81.6. The difference does not skew the results:
• In actual dollars, the highest payroll of the past 21 years came from the Dolans, who shelled out $92.66 million in 2001 for a team that won 90 games.
• The second and third highest? The Dolans.
• The fourth and fifth highest? The Dolans.
• The sixth belonged to Jacobs, but the seventh belonged to the Dolans. Meaning that six of the seven highest payrolls in the past 21 years were under the Dolans.
• Adjusted for inflation, the Dolans rank first and second, and have five of the top six.
• Seven of the eight lowest adjusted payrolls came under Jacobs, but this is not entirely fair given many of those years were in the old stadium.
Considering Progressive Field figures alone, Jacobs averaged $49 million in annual payroll. The Dolans have averaged $65 million.
• Attendance was higher in the Jacobs years than it has been in the Dolan years. In Progressive Field, average attendance for Jacobs was 41,290. Average attendance for the Dolans: 28,557.
The reality: The Dolans are spending more money with lower attendance.
Which means all appearances indicate that the Dolans have spent a higher percentage of revenues on payroll than Jacobs. A source familiar with the team's finances confirmed this appearance is reality.
• The percentage of a team's payroll to the highest in baseball (usually the Yankees) is very revealing because it indicates how cavernous the gap between highest and lowest payrolls has become.
Consider that 1999 was the year that Jacobs spent the most on payroll. That $73.9 million payroll was 84 percent of the league's highest.
In 2008, the Dolans spent $5 million more, yet it was not even 40 percent of the highest.
This season's actual dollars is the second highest payroll in the past 21 years, yet it's only 40.5 percent of the Yankees' $200-plus million payroll.
A chart was published on Aug. 7 on Indians.com to go with a story by Anthony Castrovince — he works for mlb.com and by league rule his stories are not edited or touched by Indians officials.
That chart showed win-loss records since 2005.
As of Aug. 7, the Los Angeles Dodgers had 442 wins, the Yankees 441, the Boston Red Sox 434 and the Indians 394.
The Dodgers had spent $562 million for those wins, the Yankees a staggering $1.071 BILLION, and the Red Sox $707 million.
The Indians' total payroll since 2005: $330 million.
Which means that the Yankees spent $741 million more than the Indians — and got 47 more wins.
By my math that's $15.8 million per win.
No matter how it's viewed, that is a payroll imbalance. It's reality.
Of the 13 teams listed, the Indians' total payroll was the lowest, yet their record since 2005 ranked ninth best in baseball.
• An 80-win season is not the greatest, but it does indicate a certain standard is maintained. Most folks would look at the Minnesota Twins as a consistent, strong organization that does things right in a small market.
The Twins have had seven 80-win seasons since 2001, but none between 1994 and 2000.
The Indians have had five 80-win seasons since 2001, and 11 since 1994.
In that same time (since '94), the Detroit Tigers have had two, the Baltimore Orioles two, the Milwaukee Brewers four and the Pittsburgh Pirates none (that's z-e-r-o).
This does not apologize for anything.
A bad season is a bad season.
Bad decisions are bad decisions.
Bad drafting is bad drafting.
Bad starts are bad starts, and for the Indians, bad starts have become crippling. Attendance the year after the Indians came within one game of the World Series actually dropped — in large part because of a poor start.
No matter the money, teams need to operate the right way to win. Indians fans might point to the Twins as an example, and rightly so. But Tigers fans might point to the Indians.
Nobody knows how the recent moves for the future will work out, but nobody has more riding on them than the Indians.
Criticisms, though, should be based on reality. The financial figures are the financial figures.
Jacobs ran the team in a perfect environment. He took over with maximum revenues — all suites were pre-sold before the new stadium opened — and enjoyed the benefits of a young team growing together with no competition from football.
The stadium sellouts were unprecedented, and the talent level was high.
But even Jacobs suffered from the same problem the Dolans have faced: The inability to keep the top player in Cleveland once he became a free agent.
Jacobs also sold at the perfect time, when he got maximum money for the sale and before decisions had to be made on Thome and Ramirez and when the team built under his ownership was starting to turn old.
The Dolans have taken the brunt of those departures.
No owner with a working brain wants to see the best players leave.
An owner doesn't decide he can or cannot afford a player. He makes a decision based on the team's business and finances.
The Yankees' business and finances allow them to pay $23 million annually to CC Sabathia.
The Indians' business and finances do not — because $23 million would have accounted for 28 percent of the team's payroll.
The Indians budgeted this season for an attendance of 2.2 million. That projection budgeted for a loss, but management did it anyway because it thought the team could compete and the reward was worth the risk.
Team president Paul Dolan was quoted on Indians.com saying the team now will lose $16 million.
Those are the realities that led to the trades.
Nobody seemed to like the deals. In two years we might hate them more, or we might really like them.
Anyone can advocate and argue all we want about the decisions, whether they were wise or whether the return was equal to what was given.
That's fair, and part of sports.
So is criticism.
But it's always best when criticizing to do so with a sense of reality.
The Dolans' ownership is not perfect. But criticism should be based on actualities and not myths.
Harping on myths only makes the myths grow larger.
Link: http://www.ohio.com/sports/mcmanamon/54172012.html
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