Last October, just after the end of the baseball season, I received an e-mail from my Cleveland cousin. Mort has been an Indians fan probably since Louis Sockalexis was a boy. He has lived and died through prolonged periods of losing and briefer bursts of winning.

In despair following another dreadful season, Mort wrote, “How about a column about how major leagues should make Dolan sell the Indians. He took a contending team and really ran them to the ground. Attendance this year was the worst in Major leagues. He fielded a minor league team and charged major league prices. Jacobs sold out the park, Dolan is lucky if 12,000 show up.”

I have not heard from Mort this season. He is probably in shock at the way the Indians have started the season, or he doesn’t want to say anything lest he jinx them.

At the start of play Thursday the Indians had the best record in the American League – 20-9, the same as Philadelphia’s – and they were the first team in the majors to win 20.

In his e-mail, Mort referred to the current owner of the Indians, Lawrence Dolan, and his predecessor, Richard Jacobs. Under Jacobs’ ownership (1986-2000), the Indians and their fans enjoyed a renaissance, celebrating five successive division titles and falling two outs short of winning the 1997 World Series.

Under Dolan, the Indians have resumed their role of perennial loser, and the faithful fans have reverted to their protest position of staying home.

During the Jacobs renaissance the Indians’ new downtown park, Jacobs Field, drew 455 consecutive sellouts, the equivalent of selling every seat in the place for more than five and a half seasons.

Mort said in his e-mail the Indians under Dolan are lucky if 12,000 show up at the now-named Progressive Field (Progressive Insurance bought naming rights three years ago). The Indians have played 15 games there this season to a total attendance of 214,132, lowest attendance for the Indians’ first 15 home games since 1992.

Mort mentioned 12,000 at a game? The Indians have reached that level for only five of the 15 games. Seven of the games didn’t draw 10,000. This kind of attendance for a team that drew more than 3 million a season for six successive seasons.

Mark Shapiro, in his first year as the Indians’ president after nine years as general manager, wasn’t looking to make excuses for the decline in attendance, but he said, “Don’t examine anything from the mid 90’s. It’s a different city. It’s a smaller and less affluent city. The expectations shouldn’t be for that.”

Shapiro, son of the noted agent/lawyer Ron Shapiro, could be viewed as a victim of bad timing. John Hart, the general manager who restored the Indians to a competitive position, announced his retirement after the 2001 season, seeing that life under Dolan would be very different, much more economically restricted, than it had been under Jacobs.

It was left to Shapiro, then, to reduce the team’s payroll and trade players who would be too expensive for Dolan’s taste to sign and keep from free agency.

In his second year as general manager, Shapiro pared the payroll from $80 million, ninth highest in the majors, to $48.6 million, 25th. The next season, 2004, Shapiro sliced even more money from the payroll, reducing it to $34 million, fourth lowest in the majors.

Although the Indians won the American League Central title in 2007 and went to the seventh game of the league series against Boston, Shapiro received no reprieve from the economic gutting ahead.

In July 2008 he traded CC Sabathia to Milwaukee and a year later traded Cliff Lee to Philadelphia and Victor Martinez to Boston. Some fans have still not forgiven the Indians for those trades.

The Martinez trade, however, has contributed significantly to the Indians’ surprising start this season. Justin Masterson (left) was one of three players the Indians received for Martinez and although he had a 7-20 record for the Indians in a season and a third, he has started this season with a 5-0 record and 2.25 earned run average in six starts.

Recalling the trade, Shapiro said, “I think they weren’t sure if he was a starter or a reliever. His delivery is unusual. He can strike people out and keep the ball on the ground. He’s an exceptional guy.”

Pitching nearly as well as Masterson in the early weeks was Josh Tomlin, a rookie right-hander, who was a 19th-round draft selection in 2006. Tomlin won four and lost none of his first five starts with a 2.45 e.r.a. before incurring a 3-1 loss to Oakland Wednesday night.

As the club president, Shapiro leaves personnel matters to the new general manager, Chris Antonetti.

“I still feel invested in the player side,” Shapiro said. “I still have some role there. But I’m concentrating a lot on the business level. The baseball people still report to me. I’m not that far away from it.”

Does he meddle in baseball operations? “I have too much respect for that role and too much respect for Chris,” he said. “I have an appreciation of what that job is.”

If the Indians should continue to play well and contend for the division title who would deserve credit for the shocking development?

“I don’t care, and Chris wouldn’t care,” Shapiro said.

Actually, the credit would probably have to go to Orlando Cabrera, the shortstop the Indians signed as a free agent two weeks before spring training and who has been hitting around .300.

“It’s unusual that’s he moves around so much,” Shapiro said. “He’s an exceptional guy.”

The Indians are the eighth team the 36-year-old Colombian has played for in the last eight seasons. In that time he has been traded three times (by Montreal, Anaheim and Oakland) and signed four times as a free agent (by Anaheim, Oakland, Cincinnati and Cleveland).

The intriguing part of all of that movement is that Cabrera has played post-season games for five different teams: Red Sox, Angels (twice), White Sox, Twins, Reds.

The Indians would like to add their name to his list. My cousin and his fellow fans would love the idea, too.

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Here is a look at the Indians over the past 16 years, divided into two eight-year periods. The Indians of the first eight years were owned by Richard Jacobs or were the result of his ownership. Lawrence Dolan, the current owner, owned the team for the entire second eight-year period. [Attendance is in millions; payroll is standing among all 30 teams]: