Jim Ingraham: Guardians won't spend the money needed to contend for a World Series title

Dame Fortune is a cockeyed wench, as someone said before, and yet the old dame plays her part in every winning score. Take all the credit you deserve, heads up in winning pride. But don't forget that Lady Luck was riding at your side. The great Grantland Rice wrote those words eons ago, but they could have applied to this year's dramatic, zany, breathtaking World Series, which was, at various intervals, both the best and the worst Fall Classic any of us will likely see again. The Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games. I will pause here so you and your family members can give the Dodgers' triumph the old, sarcastic "Whoop-tee frigging do!" empty salute. In case you were wondering, we are now 77 consecutive years away from the last time Cleveland's American League baseball team won the World Series. For those of you who were running errands the last few decades, here is a little fun fact: Over Cleveland's current streak of 77 years of not winning the World Series, in 14 of those Cleveland inconceivably finished in first place and still did not win the World Series. I believe it was former Cleveland manager John McNamara who said, "What's up with that?" Isn't that the truth? Seriously, how can a team go 77 years without winning the World Series at least once? Is that even possible? According to my own admittedly shaky grasp of math, it is absolutely possible. Heck, I am old enough to remember the days when the Yankees would win the World Series without even knowing it. That's never been a problem for the Guardians. Ironically, the Guardians this year had another one of their patented funky seasons in which they finished in first place in their division but still didn't reach the World Series, much less win it. Meanwhile, infielder Andres Gimenez, pitcher Shane Bieber, outfielder Myles Straw and infielder Ernie Clement not only appeared in games with Toronto, but each of them made considerable contributions to the Blue Jays' cause. There was a time, of course, when all four of those players were consistent contributors to the Guardians, but it wasn't for long, because Guardians management decided that it was time to reduce the team's payroll. That led to the exits of Gimenez, Bieber, Clement and Straw. Not coincidentally, all four wound up north of the border, and all four were steady contributors with the Blue Jays in Toronto's quest to reach and almost win the World Series. How did those four former Guardians wind up in Toronto? Mostly because that's the way Cleveland does business when players begin to make the kind of money for which the Guardians typically have no appetite. Hence, all four of The Cleveland Four appeared in the World Series as ex-Guardians. All of them played well — Gimenez at shortstop, Bieber as a reliever, Straw in left field and Clement at third base. It could have been a Cinderella story, but in the end the Dodgers and their bottomless payroll were able to win their second straight title. The Guardians? Yeah, well, it's back to the drawing board in Cleveland, where ownership refuses to spend the kind of money that other teams spend in order to acquire the kind of players capable of contributing to a World Series roster. It was your classic "been there, done that" approach from a franchise for which money is a major object, whether it's today, tomorrow or three months from now. The Guardians' ongoing refusal to write the kind of checks for the kind of players capable of helping turn a good team into a World Series champion reared its ugly head again. For the Blue Jays, like most of baseball's big spenders, it was business as usual. You get what you pay for, and what the Guardians chose not to pay for the Blue Jays did. In this case, the Blue Jays got Gimenez for $10.5 million, Bieber for $10 million, Straw for $6.4 million and the price tag for Clement, who was by far the biggest bargain of the bunch, was a steal at a mere $1.9 million. The rich got richer, while the Guardians — again — didn't seem to want to compete. Just for the sake of comparison, here are, according to Spotrac, the salary cash totals at the top of the MLB pyramid: Mets No.1 at $394 million, Dodgers No. 2 at $391 million, Yankees No. 3 at $323 million, Phillies No. 4 at $306 million and the Blue Jays No. 5 at $290 million. Cleveland is No. 25 at $118 million. So it continues to be business as usual for the Guardians, who are still sometimes their own worst enemy. Contact Jim Ingraham at sports@medina-gazette.com.