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- March is the time for Hope, Part III
March is the time for Hope, Part III
Finishing up with the 10 most optimistic fan bases in baseball including some obvious ones, some less obvious ones ... and the New York Mets?
It’s our final day for baseball fan Optimism scores ... I think there are a few fun surprises in our Top 10. Royals fans, get ready!
Today we also unveil our brand new JoeBlogs Discord! This is something I’ve been wanting to do here for a long while, but (A) I don’t quite understand the whole Discord thing because I’m old, and (B) I don’t quite understand the whole Discord thing because I’m old.*
*(C) I often say the same things to the same people without meaning to because my memory is going because I’m old.
The point of Discord is conversation. It works like so: Below, our Editor, Kathleen, will give you an exclusive invite to our Discord. Click on that, accept the invitation, and you can hop into the conversation on the app or through your web browser on your phone or computer. Once you’re in, it looks like this:
I realize that type is super small, but basically, the main page here is our introduction channel where you can introduce yourself. After that, as you can see (maybe) on the left, there are all sorts of channels to discuss whatever you want to discuss … there’s even a special “Soul of Baseball” channel for us to share Buck stories. Kathleen will throw out regular questions and prompts and stuff to keep things lively. I’ll pop in, and I’ll try to get some special guests to join. We’ll do some live events. I’m sure, together, we can come up with ways to make this a true JoeBlogs experience.
For those of you who like commenting directly on the posts, we’ll, of course, still have comments, and we’re working really hard to make that a better experience. But I think for what we do here as a newsletter, where 95% of you read JoeBlogs in your email, the Discord will be a lot of fun.
Anyway, here’s Kathleen’s Discord invitation, free and exclusive to JoeBlogs subscribers, is at the the bottom of this post. We hope to see you there!
OK, we’re down (or up!) to the ten most optimistic fan bases in baseball. More than 6,000 of you filled out our baseball survey, a whole bunch representing each team (except the Marlins — I think we had fewer than two dozen Marlins fans who had the strength to think about the 2025 season), and you each gave an optimism score from 1 to 5, with 5 being “We’re might win the World Series!” and 1 being “Can we just fast forward to 2028?”
I turned those into Optimism scores ranging from 0 to 100.
And now we’re at the ten most hopeful. I think there are a couple of surprises here. You probably won’t be surprised at No. 1, though.
No. 10: Cleveland Guardians (Optimism score: 64.8)
It feels like the city of Cleveland and the Historic Cleveland Blues/Naps/Indians/Guardians Baseball Club have come to a place of understanding. The ballclub has been in Cleveland since the start of the American League, 1901, and over those 125 seasons, the marriage has been warm and chilly, friendly and strained, sweet and sour. There have been times when it was a torrid love affair and others when Cleveland and baseball seemed on the brink of divorce.
There was a time when the team sold out every single game, literally; they retired the number “455” to celebrate their consecutive sellout streak. There was also a time when the team had so few fans — at least those willing to admit it — that David Letterman made them a regular punchline in his Top Ten lists.
And now … there’s a peaceful, easy feeling.*
*It’s pretty well known among my friends that I truly and deeply dislike The Eagles. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that I once paid way too much money for Eagles tickets to impress a woman (any amount is too much, but I think this was the first triple digit dollar ticket I ever bought), and and I don’t think I ever saw her again after the concert. The concert itself was torturous.
And yet … I probably know the words to as many Eagles songs as pretty much any musical act not named Bruce or Taylor. This is also true of Billy Joel, who I also loathe with Eagles-like passion. And, for that matter, it’s probably true of Jon Bon Jovi too, and he’s the worst of the three. I know their words and their songs more than I know the words and songs of a whole bunch of bands that I actually love. What does this say about me? What does this say about society? I mean, seriously, Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Here’s what I mean: The Guardians are one of the cheapest teams in all of baseball. A year ago, the Guardians had the 23rd largest payroll in baseball — they were as close to the bottom as they were to teams in the middle like the Rockies and White Sox — and they somehow made it to the American League Championship Series. They drew more than two million people for the first time since their post-2016 pennant.
And … they promptly spent the offseason shedding payroll — a purge that included dumping one of the city’s favorite players, Andrés Giménez.
The Guardians will actually have a LOWER PAYROLL in 2025 than they did in 2024.
This would normally be an infuriating development for Cleveland baseball fans.
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