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| Photo via AFP |
I’ve been rooting for the Indians since I can remember, and
since 2001’s 91-win season the Indians were never really expected to be good. That’s born out in the results; the Indians
went over .500 four times since 2001 and just twice from 2002-2012. During that
time fans could certainly hope for the best, but there often wasn’t much
empirical evidence to think of the Indians as any sort of favorite to make the
playoffs. Lofty expectations were certainly out of the question.
In 2011 I started following and supporting Chelsea Football
Club of the English Premier League. This fandom was born entirely out of my preference to use
Chelsea’s squad in the FIFA 12 video game. It’s developed into
something more concrete now. I have a real interest in watching soccer and I go
out of my way to catch as many Chelsea games as possible, just like I do for
all the Cleveland sports teams. I genuinely felt disappointed after Chelsea was
knocked out of the Champions league by PSG (who were playing with ten men) a
couple weeks ago.
But supporting Chelsea and supporting the Cleveland Indians
are entirely different experiences. Chelsea is one of European football’s great
financial superpowers. Owned by Russian Oligarch and silly sunglasses enthusiast Roman
Abramovich, Chelsea can afford to buy basically any player they desire. Financially
the Indians are the exact same, except the total opposite.
As such, my experience rooting for Chelsea is nothing like
my experience rooting for the Indians. Chelsea is expected to win the Premier
League every year. If they do not do so the manager’s job is almost immediately
in jeopardy. They are expected to win the Champions League every year.
Obviously they can’t; there are other teams that can match Chelsea’s spending might
and performance expectations, but if they don’t at least show significant
progress people are again asking whether or not the manager should be fired.
The best comparison in American sports is supporting a team like Ohio State
University Football. The Buckeyes are expected to win the Big Ten every year and
at least mount a serious challenge for the national title. Anything less is
unacceptable.
There are of course positives and negatives to supporting a
team like Chelsea. The expectations exist for a reason: Chelsea are really
good. Every year. They have so much money and so much talent purchased with
that money that they are almost assured to finish in the top four of the EPL
and earn a Champions League berth (basically the equivalent of earning a
playoff berth in American sports). They are almost assured to have enough
talent to make it out of the group stages and into the knockout round of the
Champions League. As a fan, these are the bare minimums of success the team
will achieve. It’s certainly nice to know that the team you support is
guaranteed a good deal of success before ever stepping out on the field (or
pitch as it were).
But that guarantee comes with a price, and that price is disappointment.
Chelsea is expected to beat most of the teams they play in the Premier League.
Outside of when they play the other top four or five teams in the league, their
victories feel more like reliefs than triumphs. If they finish anywhere other
than first in the EPL it’s a disappointment, which is strange considering they
last won it in 2009-10, before I started following European football. If they
don’t win the Champions League it’s pretty disappointing, and if they don’t
even get passed the Round of 16 like this year it’s a true stomach punch.
Even when Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur, a
club that’s a tier below Chelsea in the Premier League when it comes to
financial means and success on the pitch, to win the League Cup, it felt more like a relief because it was a game
they were supposed to win. Ultimately
the majority of the time watching Chelsea is spent hoping they don’t screw up.
The true feeling of triumph comes along very rarely.
People think the Indians going to be good, perhaps even the
favorite to win the Central depending on whom you ask. But as a
team living at the bottom of MLB’s payroll rankings they are far from
guaranteed to have success this year (I realize no team is guaranteed to have success year in and year
out, but the Indians less so than others). While a team like Chelsea
has next to no chance of falling flat on their faces in a given season, it is a
distinct possibility for the Indians every season. Expectations are usually set
with this doomsday scenario in mind.
The disaster potential is always in the back of my mind. I
get worried when the Indians become the “trendy sleeper” amongst national
baseball writers, as if the expectations of a handful of people somehow have a
tangible and profound effect on how the team will do. It’s almost preferable when
people think the Indians are going to be mediocre. That way I can maintain the
potential for being pleasantly surprised while simultaneously being prepared
for the worst. After all, Cleveland fans are the reigning champions of waiting
for next year, and I’m no exception.
But being a Cleveland Indians fan offers the potential
feeling of triumphing against long odds in a way rooting for Chelsea cannot. As
much as I enjoy rooting for Chelsea, their successes will never have the same
impact as a potential Cleveland Indians World Series title. Even after years
and years of managing expectations, 2015 feels like the right year to be
optimistic that the Cleveland Indians will provide that feeling of triumph Chelsea
simply cannot.
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