The trade deadline has come and passed, and everyone is evaluating the trades. However, nobody’s mentioned that the truly crappy teams (White Sox, Rockies, Marlins and A’s) don’t appear to have solved any of their long-term problems.

This isn’t a major problem for fans of the rest of the teams, however, success is fleeting and most fanbases have endured years of failure. Luckily for some fans, the upcoming NFL season will provide a respite. Yet, many passionate fans are facing the dilemma of how to properly express outrage at a team’s continued failure. I think some fans are able to excuse their teams because of circumstances.

I’ve got several friends and relatives who are diehard White Sox fans who are struggling to maintain their sanity amidst the current 17-game losing streak. This season is more than a couple of long losing streaks. The owner doesn’t care and isn’t spending money while they are spending their hard earned $$ on an inferior product. It’s easy for outsiders to instruct Sox fans as to how they should protest the team or the owner. Spending less money, time or energy on your team is easier said than done. For most fans, sports is an escape from the real world and all the stress, but when a team adds to that stress, people naturally choose other outlets.

When your team stinks it’s easier to boycott games in person or on television because most people hate seeing their lousy team lose. Far smarter people than I have studied the economic impact of fan boycotts on teams, but that doesn’t mean boycotting your team is meaningless.

Athletics fans have been waging this war against ownership for the past decade or so and it appears to have had zero impact. The owner doesn’t care how many Bay area residents leave the A’s as he expects everyone in Vegas to fall in love with them. Or more likely, he doesn’t care a whit about them either.

Marlins fans are a different breed altogether. They’ve won two WS titles since 1997, but I don’t know how angry they are with their demise. The two most credible front office people, Kin Ng and Derek Jeter left the franchise without producing a winner. Do the Marlins fans want or need the team to ever achieve success or can they stand by their two titles?

For some goofy reason nobody wants to discuss how miserable the Rockies are and that there doesn’t appear to be any silver lining in their immediate future. Because of ML rules, they send a player or two to the ASG, but only because they have to. It’s more than just finding pitchers who can succeed in Denver.

I don’t know any Rockies fans and those that I’ve sat near never expressed the loser angst of the aforementioned teams. I’m sure there are fans that wear the paper bags over their heads, but I’ve never seen them on Sportscenter, not that that would matter in long or short run, but it might relieve a little tension.

Some owners clearly don’t want to grow the game or their fanbase. They’d rather honk off their current fans and not do a dang thing to attract newer, younger fans. Eventually, they’ll ask for money to build a new ballpark because they mistakenly believe that’s the only reason for poor attendance. Not every major city is complicit in a team’s failure, but there are enough politicians (corrupt enough) to abet owners in scamming citizens.

It’s almost comical that the commissioner is calling for expansion when there are a handful of poorly run organizations that could be eliminated. Forget the fact that there aren’t currently enough ML ready players to staff 30 teams.

Even though my team has grossly underperformed this season, I’ve been able to attend enough games (mostly minor league) to keep me entertained. I’m the rare bird who enjoys a game without having a rooting interest although I usually find a reason to pick a side pretty quickly.

At the end of the day, I’d still rather be sitting in a ballpark.