The Browns and Cavs Could Learn a Lesson from the Tribe

On October 8, 2012, the Cleveland Indians introduced Terry Francona as the 42^nd manager in franchise history. Since then Francona has led the Indians to three straight winning seasons, including a playoff appearance in his first year on the job, a 4-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL Wildcard game. While the Indians have enjoyed moderate success, things haven’t exactly been the same throughout the rest of the City of Cleveland.

Since Francona was hired, he has witnessed three different coaches of the Cleveland Browns fail at the helm of the team and be fired, and just witnessed a fourth, Hue Jackson, claim the job. In that same time frame, a similar situation has played out with the Indians’ neighbor, the Cavaliers. In 2012, the Cavs were led by head coach Byron Scott. Since then the team has employed three other head coaches, most recently Tyronn Lue, following the team’s firing of David Blatt this past week.

With all this going on around the city, the Indians are often overlooked for reasons such as lack of spending and the on-going failure to secure a right-handed power bat. The winning records that the team has put on the field has failed to capture the city due to the lack of playoff victories or superstars. As unfortunate as it sounds, the Browns have a hold on the city of Cleveland despite perpetual losing, dysfunction, and embarrassment due to the love of football the city has.

The sad reality of the situation is that the Indians are the only franchise in Cleveland with even a remote sense of stability and continuity, even though they’re in the middle of the three teams as far as results on the field go at the moment.

The Tribe just saw former team president Mark Shapiro leave the organization after spending more than 20 years as part of the Indians. Shapiro’s tenure brought mixed results, especially after he was elevated to GM in 2001 and eventually team president following the 2010 Tribe campaign. It is this type of situation that makes the Indians a much more stable organization than either of their Cleveland counterparts. Current President of Baseball Operations, Chris Antonetti, who replaced Shapiro upon his elevation to team president, has been with the organization since 1999.

Sure, the Indians could learn from the Cavs as far as spending money goes, there is little argument against that as the Cavs currently have the second highest payroll in NBA history. The Browns and Cavs could certainly learn a lot from the way the Indians run their organization, as each have gone through multiple front offices and coaching staffs in very little time while the Indians stay committed to one group of people.

While none of these methods has gotten to any of the organizations to a championship ring, in most cases throughout sports continuity is the best bet. A great example of this would be the San Antonio Spurs, the New England Patriots, and the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m not here to say that those organizations have not been blessed with incredible talent, but they have also been extremely consistent with the way things are run in their organization.

The Browns and Cavs shouldn’t try to copy everything from the Indians, because they certainly have their flaws, but the fellow Cleveland sports organizations could sure learn a lot from the way things are run at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.