Editors' Note: This is the ninth installment in a 12-part series.  Our guest columnist is Vince Grzegorek, writer/editor for Scene Magazine and author of '64 and Counting.

Yes, you, Indians fans. What? You thought you were absolved of the egregious sins on the field just because you don't play for the team, own the team, pick the players or in any way support anything called a Dellucci or a Michaels? Sorry, you're in line to get clipped just like everyone else. I'm pretty sure after the LGT firing spree is over, the only person left is going to be the dude that sets off the fireworks on Friday nights. He's going to be a lonely man.

I know what you're thinking. But, Vince, this is happening TO us. We are the victims here. Lame excuse. Don't get all defensive on me here. You can't claim active fandom and then get all passive when things fall apart.

In 2008, Forbes, in one of their ever-so-scientific rankings, listed Indians fans as one of the ten least loyal in baseball. Turns out when our wife gets fat, we start looking up old girlfriends and checking out the secretary at work. (For the record, when that happens in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago or Boston, they buy their wives some plastic surgery.) Well, you know that saying, "No one hits my littler brother but me?" For anyone who could care less what Forbes thinks, I'm here to lay down some righteous analysis as to just what degree, exactly, Indians fans suck enough to get canned. I'm big brother and little brother in this case.

Are we good fans? Can Cleveland support a major league franchise? Is there any way we could trade that nun who always shows up for a Satanist with a direct line to Mephistopheles? Read on, youngins.

The Myth of 455

Indians fans like to defensively point to the 455 game sellout streak as some sort of badge of fan honor. Look, we are good baseball fans. We show up when the team's worth seeing. No offense, Cleveland, but all that the sellout streak confirms is that 1990's Cleveland was filled with just as many yuppies with disposable income as any other city. The ancillary to that fact is simple: bandwaggoning. Supply, demand and success meant that the Jake was a place to see and be seen. It was the simple possession of tickets, especially for corporate types, not knowledge of the team, that carried social cachet.

Don't get me wrong, the atmosphere at the stadium, the mood around the team, the palpable excitement among citizens and fans was electric and would never have been the same without The Streak. No disputing that. It's historical fact -- a document of a time in Cleveland with the perfect storm of a competitive team, no Browns, a crappy basketball team, a new stadium and a revitalized downtown entertainment district. It is not, however, a testament to the quality or quantity of the fanbase for any period of time longer than from the first sellout to the last. Let's face it, boredom and a short-term surplus of discretionary entertainment income isn't really a feather you really want in your cap.

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