Trust and the Cleveland Fan

This is an article about the Browns.

But first, I must digress.

In the last few days, the Cleveland Indians traded away a Cy Young award-winning pitcher, Cliff Lee, and one of their most popular position players, Victor Martinez.

As a Cleveland fan, you'd think we'd be used to fire sales by now, but personally, I never get used to the bad taste in my mouth after watching my home team raise the white flag on not only this season, but next season as well.

Whether or not the trades are ultimately good or bad is a debate for another time. My focus here is on perception versus reality.

The reality is the Indians aren't going anywhere this season. The perception is we got a lot of minor leaguers for one of the best pitchers in the league right now and that we've traded away the Cy Young winner two years in a row.

That's a lot frustration for one fanbase to take.

My personal take on the situation is we got a good deal for Martinez, but I'm afraid we might have gotten taken to the cleaners on Lee. I could be wrong, but I'm not happy with the Lee trade on Aug. 1, 2009.

My bigger concern is how this will shake out from a fan collective in the immediate future. The front office and ownership of the Indians just told Cleveland, "We stink, and we're really sad about that, but to add insult to injury, we're trading away everybody to cut payroll due to lowered attendance figures."

Anyone with half a brain can figure out the Catch-22 the Indians are falling into. Lower attendance means lower revenue, which means the payroll needs to be cut, which means there's less talent on the field, etc., all the way back to the beginning.

The late Dick Jacobs bought low and sold high on the Indians, but he understood the simple concept of selling a quality product. The Indians in the 90s sold themselves to the tune of 455 straight sell-outs.

The Dolans seem to be running the team on a shoestring budget and hoping for the best. Now that they've got the worst, where's the bottom?

Which brings me back to the Browns.

Owner Randy Lerner certainly is in a better financial position than the Dolans, but at what point does the roster stop turning over and the team exhibit a winning record?

Indians fans were promised a "plan" in 2002 that ultimately got us nothing.

Browns fans have seen so many rebuilds since the franchise returned in 1999 that it feels like driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, always under construction, no end in sight.

The reality is we have a new head coach and general manager. Both of these men are vastly different than their predecessors. The perception is the Browns are going through yet another rebuild, albeit one that looks like it's actually going somewhere for a change.

It's about trust. The fans have to trust the front office actually is doing their best to put a quality product on the field that is capable of making a playoff run. As an Indians fan, the Dolans have betrayed that trust now. I'll never believe anything that front office tells me again.

The Browns aren't far behind. The tag-team of Eric Mangini and George Kokinis are on a very short rope with me. Until they prove they can win games, their past accomplishments mean absolutely squat to me.

I want to believe, and I am excited about the upcoming season. But after the last few years of close calls by all three Cleveland teams, someone has to deliver, or it's time for new ownership.

(I excuse the Cavs from that last statement, for reasons obvious to anyone who's the least bit interested in basketball.)

The Dolans appear to have spent all their money buying the team and no longer have the money to run it. They also don't appear to have the guts to make the big decisions regarding the front office.

Lerner appears to be more interested in running English Football Clubs than American Football Teams. He also doesn't seem to have the slightest inclination on how to hire front office people once the person in the chair starts self-destructing.

It's time for a change, and Mangini must lead that charge. The good fans of Cleveland are depending on him.