Following yesterday's blog about the astounding complacency in Cleveland's sports media, I thought there would be value in looking around to see if anyone had bothered to point out the role of Cleveland Indians owner Larry Dolan and his son, Paul Dolan, in dealing off a Cy Young award winner for prospects as part of their 2008 Nick Mileti Emulation Campaign.
Whereas Mileti did Cleveland fans a huge favor by keeping the team in town as a caretaker (and while under a very bad lease deal with Art Modell), the Dolans seem focused on returning the team to its 1970 state as a third-tier provider of talent for well-heeled franchises.
As to whether the Cleveland media is calling out Dolan, the answer is a clear "no".
STEP ONE: WRITE OFF WTAM AND STO RIGHT OFF THE BAT
My search for critical commentary, of course, excluded WTAM, which has huge financial deals with both the Browns and Indians and which won't jeopardize those by ripping on the guy at the top of the food chain.
SportsTimeOhio is, of course, owned by Dolan and the station's general manager reports directly to him. STO can be effectively written off as a source of critical commentary on Dolan's management of the ballclub. This is, naturally, the fundamental problem with team-owned media outlets. You can't report the truth about yourself.
So, don't expect to find anything on those outlets other than spin and, at the most, a tiny bit of squeamish sniping at Dolan employees like Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge, in an attempt to look somewhat independent. They're not.
STEP TWO: ENDURE THE OFFICIAL SITE SPIN BLENDER
I probably shouldn't start with the team's website, which would be nearly as bad as WTAM and STO, but I couldn't help myself from taking a look at the dizzying spin.
We should probably start with the vomit-inducing "Letter to Indians Fans" written by Paul Dolan and carried, of course, by the team's internet presence. By the second paragraph, the owner's son effectively points a finger not at the ownership group's inability to pay the Cy Young winner their system developed over the course of a decade, but rather repeatedly at "the team" for not playing up to expectations.
This is another reason why I can safely claim that pro sports franchises are not real businesses.
Have you ever seen a CEO of a real business write a letter to customers blaming his employees? Me either.
Elsewhere, the Indians team "beat reporter" claims that it's "years, not dollars" that prevented signing Sabathia. This, of course, is spin and nothing more. The reporter's boss couldn't afford to keep the team's ace. Simple as that. Elsewhere I couldn't make it halfway through this ridiculous blanket of apologies written by a team/league employee.
If you want someone to tell it like it is, treat the Indians' official site, WTAM and STO as if they are lethal viruses. There are lots and lots of words there, but they're all covering for the Dolans.
STEP THREE: MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL MEDIA…
If one is brave enough to wander around to Indians-related commentaries in the local papers today, there's a lot of wishful thinking that this deal is similar to the Colon for Sizemore, Lee, and Phillips deal associated with a previous Dolan fire sale.
Unfortunately, there's no comparison.
This is like a Browns reporter suggesting Ernie Accorsi's raid of the USFL which launched the mid-80s Browns could be repeated at will. Ain't gonna happen, as the Browns proved in the early 1990s.
In the Colon deal, Shapiro was able to take advantage of Frank Robinson, who was trying to give Expos fans one last hurrah and didn't seem to care at all about trading away the team's future. The Brewers, while not exactly a model organization, are not nearly that charitable. The prospects that the Indians received will be nothing like that group. If they strike out with LaPorta, ranked prior to the season by Scout.com as the 65th best prospect in the minors, it's over.
Elsewhere, normally reliable News-Herald reporter Jim Ingraham swings and misses with his analysis that "it's not about payroll".
Yes, Jim, a smart and lucky club can sneak into the playoffs with a small payroll. A dumb club (exhibit one: Yankees) can stink if they spend money poorly.
A smart club with a large payroll can own Major League Baseball. Perhaps you've heard of a team calling itself the "Boston Red Sox".
Clubs with small payrolls like the Dolan Indians can sometimes tiptoe into contention if they sign young promising players early, get lucky breaks with injuries or players coming out of nowhere, and have players developed by your minor league system coalesce in the same year. It's possible… 2007 showed that.
But such clubs will always be climbing uphill, always be at a disadvantage no matter how smart they are. Such is the doomed life of Indians fans as we relive the 1970s.
As a last gasp, I tried the Plain Dealer, which can nearly always be counted upon to provide an antagonistic view of sport franchises. Right?
Sorry, no dice. The day that a sportswriter for that organization calls out a team owner appears to be long over. Perhaps this is because of all the business deals between the newspaper and local teams.
Even perpetual grumpmeister Bill Livingston wimps out, mentioning Dolan only once in a column that claims to pin the blame "at the top". WRONG. Livingston doesn't hit the top of the organization chart, but rather points a weathered fingernail two levels down, at GM Mark Shapiro.
I got an IM last night that a couple of WKNR sportstalkers were hitting the franchise a bit, but then received a call from Paul Dolan on the air and promptly curled up into the fetal position. Listening to the station for a bit this afternoon indicates that the post-Dolan spin is still whirring away.
The question remains: Who will tell fans the truth?
There is a lot of recent news that will impact Browns and other sports fans on the internet, very little of it good. 
