Indian Summers: Cleveland Baseball Memories

Get the by the public square that was a 60 second round trip we took a street car out of the ballpark. That was 10 cents each way I guess twenty five cents to get in a couple of hotdogs and a score card. That was it. But I remember we were so excited on that street car. I kind of there were some people watching us. We were about 10 kids from Bree I guess a teacher was with us and we were saying Bengalee baseball Major League Baseball we were and everybody in the street cars sort of looked at us and they smiled. They could tell I was kids going to their first big league game from streetcar rides to old league park to my lonely shivering nights at Cleveland Municipal Stadium from the thrill of capturing the biggest prize in all of baseball to the despair of over 30 years of mostly losing seasons and then finally the exhilaration of the

winning life and a beautiful brand new ballpark. This is the constant that has bound generations of Clevelanders together over the past 100 years. Indian Summers Cleveland baseball memories baseball has a history that no other sport has. You can talk about the Indians playing in 1920 and the issues that existed at that time that success at that time. You can talk about them playing in the late 30s 40s. I bet you can talk about them and the wonderful success in the late 40s and big disappointing middle 50s.

You talk to somebody and they're interested in baseball and you connect immediately and they've had their experience. You've had your experience for Cleveland. The parade of memories all began in the spring of 1981 when a team called the Blum's became a charter member of the American League of professional baseball. For the record on April 24th 1981 the first ever American League game. The Cleveland Blues lost to the Chicago White Stockings eight to two. The Blues replaced the hapless spiders which had been drummed out of the National League after losing 134 games in 1899. Still a major league record the spiders finished 84 games out of first place and drew a paltry six thousand fans for the season. After one year the blues became the Broncos and then a year later the Knapp's in honor of second baseman Napoleon Lajoie a brilliant

hitter who joined the team in 1993 and that's the way it remained until Lajoie a future Hall of Famer who doubled as manager was treated in 1940. The name Knapp's had to go and the local press held a contest to select a new name. There are all kinds of different names suggested and suddenly started talking about that year was the year of the Boston Braves and Mariko Boston Braves and the Boston Braves are the only team in baseball history to be in last place at midseason All-Star break and then go on to win the pennant. A classic words from first story and people were very taken with the Braves and they said Braves Red Indians will try the Indians. And so really that's what it became. The Indians are sort of like well try for a year and see how it goes. And it's been that way ever since. After finishing second in 1918 and 1919 future Hall of Famer Trish speakers and player manager led the Indians to the American League pennant in

1920 and their first ever world championship beating the Brooklyn Dodgers It was a season of tragedy and triumph. On August 16th at the Polo Grounds in New York Ray Chapman was beamed by Carl Mays and died. The only player ever to be fatally injured in a major league game. The player who replaced the ill fated Chapman was Joe sual a raw rookie hastily called up from the minors. Pitcher Jim Bagby 131 games still a club record in the fifth game of the World Series. Bill whams Ganns made an unassisted triple play and Elmer Smith hit the first grand slam home run in series history. The Indians won the nine game series five games to two another series hero was pitcher Stanley Cup the LESKIE who won three of the five games and posted a point 0 6 7 3 when the final game

ended. Trist speaker made a dash from center field toward the grandstand where his mother was sitting and vaulted over the rail into her arms. The scene was so unusual for a moment the crowd went quiet but started up again with renewed vigor. Those growing up in the thirties and forties were treated to a host of memories that have withstood the test of time especially at old league park. At 66 the Lexington originally built in 1891 with 9000 seats and called National League park the facility was expanded to 27000 in 1910 from 1916 to 1927. It was called Dunfield after owner Jim Dunn but then reverted back to the park. Park is unforgettable. I now live in Boston and league park is sort of a reverse Fenway Park had the high right field wall but very close to home

plate with a screen on top. Then out into the bleachers it was double act and I'll never forget my first game. I played against the Washington Senators and those were days when the Indians gave kids school tickets. You had to pay a 25 cent service charge that was called but the rest was for the very first game I ever saw. My grandfather my father my grandfather played what they called semi pro ball. They had regular jobs but they also played ball for money on the weekends. And my grandfather took me to the league park. I was four years old but I remember it like yesterday. Sometimes we would even walk and I lived out on Glenville Avenue is a pretty long walk and we would still do it and then we would take the street car there we didn't have tickets. If then behind the right field wall. Think I have a.. And if you catch a fly ball that goes over the fence you could take that ball in and take a turnstile and get in the game for nothing

compared to Jacobs Field. It was kind of a fourth world country. It was already old in the 30s. It was bare bones. It was seats. There were very few amenities. We went in warm weather to watch baseball and you went by speed. In those days men wore tight shirts and tie. They played golf in shirts and ties. And one time I watched Babe Ruth you know take batting practice there and I was just fascinated because he just you know just with a little flick of his wrists he could hit that ball up in the area and over that right field fence and do it one time right after the other with no apparent effort. One person who became quickly acquainted with league park was Mehl harder. He won 223 games for the Indians in a pitching career that spanned from 1928 to 1947 and that's all. So

keep the ball in the ballpark. 18 year old kid learning Frasse league park was the venue for many memorable games. One game really sticks out for Charles knew it was the famous 18 inning ballgame in 1932 against the Philadelphia Athletics Jimmy Fox hit three home runs into the wooden bleachers in left field and Johnny Burnett I think it was a second baseman for the Indians had nine hits which still stands as a major league record I believe. The A's who only brought three pitchers won 18 to 17 behind the 15 inning relief stint of Ed romal who later became a famous Major League umpire on July 31 1932. Another chapter opened in the continuing saga of Cleveland Indians baseball the team with young male harder on the mound played its first game at the new Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Lefty Grove

gave up four hits as the Philadelphia A's beat the Indians won the nothing even though harder pitched a superb game himself harder recalls the momentous occasion. I started I really think through all that I have found rather a big thrill for me. Have a big thrill. We are all tired after averaging less than 60000 fans a game. The Indians were back at league park for all but their Sunday and holiday games. The yawning size of the stadium and the cost of its operation were too much for owner Al Bradley to swap in the mid-1930s a young boy was honing his pitching skills on a baseball field built by his father on a 320 acre farm in Van Meter Iowa. While I played ball with my dad play catch my dad all the time when I was five years up.

I just didn't fall off the turnip truck when I got to this town. I play an awful lot of baseball all over the state of Iowa in 1936. Even before he was on the major league roster feller pitched in an exhibition game of league park against the St. Louis Cardinals. He struck out eight of the nine batters he faced and made the roster. Two days later before the 1936 season was over cellar tied dizzy Dean's single game strikeout record of 17 and posted 76 strikeouts in 62 innings. It was the start of a Hall of Fame career that included 266 wins and two thousand five hundred eighty one strikeouts. By 1940 Fellner was an established all star. He proved that in responding fashion against the Chicago White Sox by pitching what is still the only opening day no hitter. It was the start of a feverish run at the American League pennant which produced one of the most bizarre seasons in Indians history.

It fell one game short at the end of the season. Manager Oscar Vitt wasn't very popular with the players. He have a guy like Bob Feller pitching and he'd make comments. That's my star or that's my ace and he's not getting anybody out. Oscar started that crybaby thing. He was a manager and he told all the news media people were all a bunch of crybaby because they didn't agree with our strategy on behalf of most of the players. Mel harder and outfielder Jeff Heath went to see owner Alva Bradley and asked him to make a change in managers. Bradley said I can't fire him now but. Well after the end of the season in Cleveland and all across the league the cry baby tags stuck with the Indians. The fans ready. Oh they really were kind of we were all the way to Cleveland Detroit and the world

and the American way. But we got through it despite the distraction of the player revolt the pennant race with Detroit went down to the wire. The Indians needed to win all three season ending games against the Tigers they only won two and wound up in second place. It was devastating for long suffering Indians fans. I heard it on the radio and that was the pennant. I cried when I say it was a tragedy because I was saving my money I was peddling magazines and my mother said I could go to one world series game. I could cut classes I could skip school that day. Just months before America officially entered World War 2 the Indians made a little history themselves. On July 16th 1941 Joe DiMaggio extended his incredible hitting streak to 56 games. The very next day at Cleveland's stadium it ended.

Ken Keltner made two great stops at third. Five months later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That night Bob Feller had dinner with General Manager size slapping a guy in Chicago. Feller had something to say about Pearl Harbor and I joined the Navy which I did two of the morning the Indians lost feller for four years. But a souvenir he picked up on the USS Alabama eventually helped Cleveland do something it hadn't done since 1920. More about that later after the war on June 21st 1946 an ex-Marine with half a left leg. The result of a world war two injury turn Cleveland's baseball world upside down. Bill Veck a 32 year old master showman bought the team from Alva Bradley and immediately put the word fun into the game. There was a

complete rebirth of course Bill came at a time when things loosened up after World War Two people had a lot of pent up energy and some money and were looking for entertainment. Right off the bat VAK put the Indians back on the radio. After months and months of silence the price was very reasonable. The manager WGA are called me and the office said I want to take this check out to a fellow by the name of he's at Lee Park and we're kind of in a hurry and take a cab out but take the trolley back. So I delivered a one dollar check to Bill back in his office lovely park and a 46 lovely park they moved Stadium where you could come to a large crowd. And the crowds every day 40 50 thousand more he held ladies days and gave women nylons and orchids on Mother's Day. He had bands playing before

games and booked acrobats in showbiz acts too. And then there was Joe. Early night in which Veck honored an average fan among Early's gifts were a new car a washer and dryer VEC a shrewd businessman knew that a precious few extra minutes between doubleheader games could translate into more concession sales especially with swelling crowds. One of the first things that he did his max get a bottle of liquor or two and put it in a dressing room where the umpires were relaxing and see that they get a drink and a sandwich. Now give it five more minutes. Now you know our animation was supposed to be 20 minutes but we got maybe 25 or 30 minutes that way and that we believe that that proved he was more than just a promoter. He was an astute baseball man who made shrewd deals. One of his signature moves came on July 3rd 1947 signed Larry dobi a standout in the Negro National League the

major league contract shattered the race barrier in the American dream for more than 10 seasons. Dobies bad helped Cleveland become one of the most successful teams of that era. Vick also got second baseman Joe Gordon and a promising left handed knuckleballer named Jean Bearden in deals with the New York Yankees before the 48 season. He was going to fire Lou Boudreau. The manager definitely going to fire him. He thought Boudreau was a good player but a hunch manager he didn't like is managing at all. He tried to trade in the St. Louis Rams anyone ever and a shortstop. The fans were in an uproar. I came up with the Boudreau ballot Cheaney trade Lou Boudreau or should he keep him and you'd be amazed at the number of people that fit in this ballot. Post-ops had his trucks with these ballot and it was over 90 95 percent of people knew he was a favorite. The Browns got a better deal

with a Boston Red Sox and are told that they weren't wouldn't make that deal. Now Buell could make the deal but he took advantage of knowing how the fans felt he got a knife in ucan and he said to the fans you win. I want to keep Lou the final piece came on July 7 1948 when Zach brought Satchel Paige to town for a trial. Paige was an aging star pitcher in the Negro League. BOUDREAU didn't want Satchel Paige. He thought it was another one of x stunts. So and Boudreau would always be a catcher. When I was at University of Illinois Boudreau was going to go out there and catch him paged through five or six pitches. BOUDREAU turned back and said sign them. It was a great pennant race with 14. Third year there were the Yankees the Red Sox the Philadelphia Athletics Connie Mack's team and the Indians. And that felt was throughout the season. The Indians wound up in a tie with the Red Sox forcing a one game playoff in Fenway Park. What a day it was. BOUDREAU started June

beard the rookie who won 20 games and led the American League with a two point thirty three and the town was mesmerized. Virtually every ear tuned to the radio broadcast those days everybody was listening to the games. Teachers had the radio on in the school in the classrooms. I was at Quicken high high school at the time playing football and practice was supposed to be going on. Instead the coaches kept everybody in the locker room we all listened to the end of the ballgame and then went out and practice. BOUDREAU hit two home runs. Third baseman Ken Kempler hit another and the Indians were in the world series for the first time since 1920. The Indians put the frosting on the cake by defeating the Boston Braves in six games in the same class more than two hundred thousand screaming fans. Hey they're returning heroes. The

place went crazy when they won the World Series and there was a parade from downtown public square to 117 over Severance Hall. And the streets were packed with people and people were coming out the office buildings and I'd never seen you can also pack except after World War 2 when they went to war. A lot of players had career years but there was another factor in the rush to the pennant. Remember the souvenir Bob Feller brought back from the war. It was a naval gunnery telescope. I use it on my gun on the battleship Alabama as far enemy aircraft. The starting pitcher who wasn't pitching that day would be in the scoreboard with his telescope and he would train it on the catcher's signals. And as soon as he saw the catcher's signal he would tell one of the Boston brothers marshal or Harold who are the groundskeepers. And then they would hang their arm out the window and wave it or a sock or something and the batters would see that and then.

So I mean that that gave him a distinct advantage. It helped win when the pennant that year. And that helped to win the World Series or not but the telescope was come in very handy in fact that telescope right now in my museum in Iowa. There was a huge technological innovation on the horizon technology that would change the game forever. For both the players and the fans more on that in a moment. First take a moment to call in your pledge to WBEZ PBS. Your generous donation will help WBEZ PBS make more quality local programs like Indian summers in Cleveland baseball memories. What

does a hot dog taste any better at a ballpark during a baseball game. It doesn't taste the same in a football game. It doesn't taste the same at a basketball game. Baseball and hot dogs baseball and food. There is a marriage there and they've been together for as long as anyone can remember for many years. Max Axelrod was in charge of satisfying fan appetites at league park and of the stadium and he talks about the limited choices the fans had in those days and what they cost. Well let's compare the prices we show to Coca-Cola for 10 cents a hotdog for 15 candy bars. Candy floss for 10

cents. I scream for ten cents. Pain is pain is for 10 cents a bag and pains that out so that in later years we showed a shot of pain in a bag which became quite an item. I went for a lot of hot dogs to Babe Ruth. He wasn't playing that day. He was sitting behind the Yankee dugout and he called me over and bought a couple hot dogs and he did the third time. I guessed that I thought about a dozen hot dogs. We had great hot dogs. Hot dogs are known everywhere. And as I remember it first time I met Connie Mack. I had the privilege of getting a package of 50 lbs. I have got hot dogs Cracker Jacks and three flavored ice cream was what I remember it would come in a little box vanilla strawberry chocolate and Stripes. That was within my allowance as a newspaper boy. Not everyone could afford even the very modest prices. My grandfather took me in the mid-sixties and he dropped me and a

friend off at the game and he went to park his car and he got lost and he handed us the tickets. So we went into Cleveland stadium without him. Didn't have any money. So what I did was I went up to the Burman's of mustard and put the Burman's mustard on the ticket and ate the mustard off the ticket because I didn't have any money food. We didn't buy any food because we couldn't afford it and they had hotdogs and peanuts and step but we were just glad to go to the game. We went home we were starving. A far cry. Those early days are from today at Jacobs Field. If you're a season ticket holder you can get access to the posh terrace club where you can enjoy fine dining and imbibe your favorite beverages terrorist lovers. You have a dining area at the stadium and food is good and you go right downstairs to your seats. And then after eating the good food there you cannot be at a baseball game without having a hotdog and a pretzel. If you're seated in a suite you're catered to with menus that range from sumptuous beef

to dessert trays that defied description for everyone at the ballpark. The choices are unending. Chicken hamburgers deli sandwiches salads pizza hot dogs French fries ice cream gourmet coffee and beer still hot dog remains keen on an average sellout night at Jacobs Field. Fans will consume about one hot dog pound person with all of the other selections. That means some folks are consuming more than one. What goes on the hotdog before it goes in your mouth has been as much of a tradition as going to the game. Pat birdmen mezzos talks about Bertrand's ballpark mustard and its long heritage my father began with the mustard and league park in about 1930. And the funny thing is he that's the only thing I know about it is that there was three bottles for a dollar three gallon jars for a dollar. And then they would take

the glass jars back and wash them put more in. I could do that then. Bertalan meson has a slathering of mustard stories opening games were very frequent on Friday and Catholics couldn't eat hotdogs so they would get hotdogs by the hotdog with mustard buns with mustard. Or they would go over to the condiments and put the offender under and pour it on their finger and like so. There are so many stories of course people used to borrow mustard from the stadium. We had one fellow write us a letter about the time he borrowed a whole gallon of mustard in the stadium and hid it under his coat and he was walking down and the security guard was after him so he started to run and he dropped the gallon of mustard and some fans have found it difficult to adapt to all of the food offerings said Jacobs Field. Well I'm a big Nacho fan too so I've

incorporated the nacho thing along with the hot. So those are my two favorite baseball food things. Nachos and hot dogs. It wasn't until the mid 30s that beer was sold at the games and then only at the stadium that pose somewhat of a problem during cleanup Max Axelrod said he would call in laborers from the local Wayfarer's Lodge but they never finished that task because there were always a little bit left in the Bible and they began drinking and they got drunk. We had a calling crew and they were and we paid him two or three hours which is a lot of money for them at that time before the mid-50s. There were two ways you got the news about baseball in the newspapers and in radio broadcasts many of them by masters like Jack Greaney and Pinky Hunter two of the original Indians broadcasters Graney was a member of the 1920 championship team. He had no radio experience but he became the first athlete in the radio

booth. That tradition that we take for granted today. Western Union developed a system and they would send literally information on every page to every press box all across the country. It was called paragraph 1. And so an announcer could get pitch by pitch descriptions from a telegrapher saying exactly what went on. And it was essentially to save money. But it became an art form all of its own. They would be in a studio with a Western Union wire telling him what happened and then they would describe it if it was a road game. And often they would go to picnics like geog or like park or Brookside or someplace like that they'd set up a stand and people loved to watch them recreate the game and they'd have a loudspeaker and they and the people knew they were at the game and just to see those two guys I knew over the radio they would recreate the game and at first I didn't know what they were doing and my father explained it to me. The worst word the announcers ever saw on the ticker was rain that

really taxed their imagination. Beginning in the late 1940s and early 50s a magic box called Television changed all of that. Literally nothing was left to the imagination as black and white images of game action flashed across screens in living rooms around the country. It immediately broadened the audience for baseball and ultimately changed the economics for not only baseball but all of entertainment as well. The advertising agency which my father was one of the partners had the Carling Black Label Bierko Carlings great deal with that label Black Label. They had just acquired the rights to the Cleveland movies telecasts and that was their idea to green 77 games on the road right in 1954. See nothing at home.

But there had been some television of the Indians in Cleveland but very little on the road for several seasons. Young David stash was one of the producers of those games. Well it was fun. It was sort of like today learning how to use the Internet. The equipment was very rudimentary very temperamental. There wasn't a lot of it and arranging the network was difficult. There was no daytime network television in those days without the sophisticated 35 millimeter and digital cameras of today photographing a game was also a challenge. Well when I first started out we used the big Bertha cameras photo slang in the upper level using 5 7 sheet film the film is very slow as far as the essay is concerned. So you had to shoot slow

shutter speed to compensate for that when you got one shot. That was all I had to reload and wind up on the ground we use that for Speed Graphic. We had to be right next to where the action was going to take place like third base first base or home plate. There is the big birth it was the only one to get an action at the second base on the outfield. This is what it looked like from the big bird that this was a picture of me shooting at home plate with the old speed graphic. And I was very close to the action and this was the same picture that I shot on the ground. I often say when we used the speed graphics on the big Bertha kind of camera we could shoot 36 pictures now a roll of film and the time it took us to go one shot back then producing games on television and photographing the games and players it was difficult but it was nothing

compared to the fierce battle that raged between the citys three newspapers. The Indians were hot news and the reporters and columnists gave no ground. Frank gibbers was my rival. He was a baseball writer at the press. When we were in spring training I would not go to sleep until Frank Givens went to sleep. I would sit in the lobby of the hotel and wait till every player came in and went to Frank went to bed. I want to get the last story and I got several that way. Templi Coontz and how Lebovitz say everything was different then. I think one of the reasons it was different was back then we had pressed the Cleveland Plain Dealer and three wire services and other than that not many people covered the. We got to know the players and I got recognized as you're able to have access to the players going into the dressing room with a camera was no problem. We went on trains mostly and we got to know them very well thing in

the club car talking with them got to know their families. I did talk to them a lot in the clubhouse and on the trains. They would invite me in their hotel rooms when they had a party and so on. It was very warm congenial way to cover a team not an out. Now it's adversarial. One of the major sources for baseball news in the 1950s was Hank Greenberg a holdover from the VEC regime which ended in 1949. Greenberg was named General Manager in 1950 by the purchasing group and ultimately held an ownership position like VEC Greenberg didn't think much of Boudreau as a manager after a fourth place finish in 1950. Boudreau was gone replaced by soft spoken Al Lopez a former catcher one of the moves that Boudreau made in his final season was to install a handsome tough Floridian named Al

Rosen as his third baseman. ROSEN replaced the veteran and fan favorite Ken Keltner that turned out to be a big plus for Lopez because Rosen became one of the all time Indians greats. Additionally Lopez was greeted with a tremendous pitching staff when he arrived. Perhaps one of the best of all time. It included Mike Garcia and future Hall of Famers Bob Feller Bob Lemon and early when even with sluggers like Rozum Dolby and a slick hitting second baseman named Bobby evila the team didn't have enough firepower. The Indians finished second to the New York Yankees in 1951 52 and 53 fewer Cleveland players ever had a better year than Rosen did in 1953. He led the league with 43 homers and 145 RBI but his 3:36 batting average was one point below Mickey Vernons

3:37 denying him the Triple Crown. The race for the batting title went down to the final game of the season. Vernon went too far forward and rose three for five. ROSEN recalls his last at bat in which he fouled off several balls and finally hit a hopper the third and in desperation left toward the first base. I just came down about six inches short of a bag. It looked like I was safe. And of course our friendship emptied and everybody came out but I knew I was out and I told Hanks or I was out I told Lopez I couldn't have I couldn't have accepted being call safe on that play and know that I had won something is covered It is a triple crown are the batting championship. I just wouldn't ever live with it. Rosen was the first player ever to be unanimously named the American League's Most Valuable Player after his spectacular 1953 season

in 1954. Rosen was shifted to first base and suffered a broken finger. It never properly healed and adversely affected his grip on the bat which forced him into early retirement. In 1956 the 1954 Indians won a record 111 games in a 154 game season as they walked away with the American League pennant by eight games. The consensus of jubilant fans Cleveland was a shoo in for its second World Championship in seven years. The Giants swept the series in four straight. The fans were devastated that the whitewash. You know you have to imagine. Seventy eight thousand people filing out of that stadium in almost complete silence. We had been swept in a world series. Perhaps the clincher was the incredible catch made by Willie Mays on a blast by Vick words of game

one of the Polo Grounds Rozum was on first and took off at the crack of the bat. There was no doubt in my mind he was trying to catch it the only way he wasn't going to catch it. As if he dropped it because he knew he was going to get there. It was probably the cat that broke our back because we were gone and Fronde is accomplished in 1954 by winning 111 games in the shorter season was incredible. And there was a general consensus of the people that we were going to crush the Giants in the world series. As it turned out we were the ones that got swept and the town has had a hangover from that event ever since the Indians finished second to the Yankees in 1955 and again in 1956 the fifth time in six years Lopez departed on his own later telling author Russ Schneider that he could tell the fans were tired of it and he decided maybe they needed a change in

1957. Disaster struck the Indians on May 7th pitcher Herb score the anchor of the tribes pitching staff of the future was struck in the right eye and severely injured by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees. Gil McDougle score who had a 23 and 9 record in 1956 with 263 strikeouts eventually returned to the lineup but was never the same. He went on to have a 35 year career as an Indian's broadcaster as it turned out. General Manager Greenberg was not a favorite of the town's two sports columnists. Whitey Lewis of the press and Gordon cobbled Dick of the plain dealer were constantly criticizing him. Greenberg realized that he could never satisfy the writers no matter what he did. Along with major shareholders Greenberg made overtures to move the team to

Minneapolis. Another factor in the proposed move was fan attendance. After ten years of drawing more than a million fans a year the Indians slipped below that mark in 1956 and 57 how Lebovitz says the move to Minneapolis was virtually a done deal and the other directors have not known about this. I got wind of it and I wrote a front page story saying that Hank was going to move the team to Minneapolis in a hastily called meeting the shareholders overrode Greenberg's faction. The move was vetoed. Greenberg was furious but eventually left and sold his stock. He never came back to Cleveland. He never said a kind word about Cleveland. From that on the clock was ticking on what had been the golden age of Cleveland baseball but there was one more last hurrah in 1959.

It was on the watch of Frank trayner Lane who replaced Hank Greenberg as general manager. The Indians were nip and tuck with the White Sox for the entire 59 season fading in the final week and finishing in second five games back one of the mainstays of that team was 25 year old Rocky Calvados who had already hit 129 home runs for the drive including four consecutive times at bat. Lane stunned Cleveland fans by trading Kolo Vito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Keane. The American League batting champion and he did it the day before the opener. The very next day. Traded popular Herb score to the White Sox in 1958 and 59. Lane made 64 trades involving 140 players. I was there the day after Frank Laine traded

hometown hero Rocky Carlevaro. The crowd was crazy. It was opening day. Nobody could believe it. I saw people burn pictures of Frank lang. I saw Frank lane dressed up as a dummy. They hung him in effigy. People shouted Bring back the rock. You know Franklin just loved the trade and he just he didn't care particularly about how he treated Frank. Greatest character I've thought of believe that there was a different third way he knew how to build a ball club. But he had an illness he couldn't stop trading. Kala Vito came back to Cleveland in 1965. He stayed a little more than two years and was traded again. Photographer Ron Coontz was in the indians clubhouse the day Khala Vito was traded to the White Sox in 1967. I was in a dressing room and it was announced that Raqi was going to be treated well John Fitzgerald who

was sportscaster from Channel 8 was asking his son how he felt about his dad being traded. Well the son started to cry and I got a picture of Rocky when he was just pointing his finger at me not wanting the picture to be made. And the picture never ran but the fans thought the trade was bad. Things got much worse for the team and the town. More on that in a moment. But first take a moment to call in your pledge to WBEZ PBS. Your generous donation will help WBEZ PBS make more quality local programs like Indian summer Cleveland baseball memories. Sportswriter Terry Pluto who was for at the time Rocky Calabi-Yau was

traded to Detroit eventually wrote a book called The Curse of Rocky Kala vidoe in which he chronicled how that trade signaled a 30 year Indian slum. I was in my 20s and got kind of pretentious about I spoke for that generation was born a year after the last time the team won the World Series. But there is a whole group of us who grew up and went from say 1955 to 1995. Not only with the team that was lousy but the last time and even contended for a pet was in 1959. Long before the Jacobs brothers and their millions resurrected the Indians the tribe had a chance to snap out of its ownership funk. In 1972 George Steinbrenner a native of the Cleveland area and former third baseman Al Rosen made an offer to then owner Vernon Stover to buy the club for eight point five million dollars. After a preliminary acceptance Stover's sold the team to

Nick Melendez. We thought we had a deal. We thought that does matter of fact we had. We were pretty sure we had the deal. Steinbrenner bought the Yankees the next year for a little more than what he offered for the Indians. Had left the folks in Cleveland wondering what would have happened if Steinbrenner had been successful in purchasing the tribe. There is no doubt in al Rosens mind you know George Steinbrenner is a winner in my opinion I mean he he he really has an intense desire to be number one. Again we're talking about massive egos people who succeed have egos. George I I think I really believe that Craven would have had a winner. Finances were always a problem in the late 70s and the fate of baseball in Cleveland always seemed to be in the balance. Sometimes making a payroll was nip and tuck as owners. AARONSON and Ted bandeau found out an Ironmen Aaronson went with Ted Bida

to negotiate a loan for the Indians and before he went to meet the president of the bank he asked for Ted badas keys and Ted but this one. Why do you want my keys. He says. I'll tell you later. Ted Viney give me the keys and they went into the president's office and the president declined the loan and they Ted and Ahriman Aaronson said Well we appreciate your time and effort and consideration and the threw the keys in a desk and he and Ted Barrett start walking out the door in the president of the bank. Why leave me these keys. Is whether the keys or the stadium. The team is yours. Do whatever you want with it. And if I come out in the press and start chasing That's it. Wait a minute what are you doing. What does it take. You've got the law. There were seven ownership groups from 1956 until 1986 when Richard and David Jacobs bought the team. Most of the groups were operating

on a shoestring. They had 19 different managers from 1957 until 1991 when Mike Hargrove took over. It was tough on the media which had to cover losing season after losing season but it was tougher on the fans and of course the players. Andre Thornton was one of the most durable stars of that era. What I did find is that you know a walk in our stadium and the play in Cleveland Stadium on a cold April night and there's a thousand people in the stands brother you have to do a lot of talking to yourself to get excited about playing baseball veteran sportscaster Joe Tate worked 16 seasons covering the Indians on radio and television are they got out of the 16 seasons I was around them. They had three years where they had a plus 500 record and two of those occasions that was won over and the best was three over 500. So we

saw a lot of losses over the years but it was big league baseball and for a relatively young guy I was having a ball. I enjoyed it a lot. I've told people in the past I have on occasion worked in the steel mill worked at a plastics factory loaded trucks worked on a farm and each time I tended to get down a little bit I would remember those days and it would give me a whole new lease on life because quite honestly broadcasting professional sports is not exactly hard work. Well you had to have a kind of Zen attitude towards the game and just you just kind of went to hang out experience the game. My wife and sons and I would go to doubleheader in the bleachers on Sunday. I regard it as a sunbath for $4 league park stadium. Jacobs Field or an out of town venue. They've all contributed to the river of memories experienced by Cleveland Indians fan.

Lawyer Nikki Schwartz saw his first game against the stadium. He has some vivid memories. After the game my dad took me out to where the the outside exit of the Indians dressing room as the team came out in their suits and filed on to the bus and I got to see the players close up and I remember my hero was Lou Boudreau. And when I saw him in person close up I had the experience the kind of feelings that teenage girls used to get with Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or what have you. I almost swooned it was such an emotional experience. I got to believe I was probably six or seven years old when I got to see the Indians for the first time and I still remember the first game they played the Minnesota Twins they lost three to two I cried after the game because they lost. But the thing that stuck with me then and that I will never forget. And this is 40 almost 40 years later

is walking up the ramp of the old stadium when you walk from the concourse and you had a walk up and then all of a sudden seeing this green massive baseball field. And even though you went out and played baseball at a park or even though you watched the games on black and white TV the largest to a little boy. And the color left such an impression that I've never forgotten it. We went to the games as a group. You want to go to Indians game Saturday yeah let's scrape up enough money to go and beat the money. I think it cost like 50 cents for the bleachers in Indy and we were able to afford that. We scraped up pop of the do it though because there was a bit today two cents deposit on bottles so we would collect bottles and get the money for that at the store. My second date with my wife who grew up in Baltimore was a trip from Ohio State where we met to Cleveland to see Oriol Indian doubleheader.

And we walked into the stadium and I said would you would you like a program and she said Can I have two. And I said well why would you want to. She said well to keep score for both games it's a double header. I never met a girl who knew how to keep score before and that was the start of the romance. I was mesmerized because I'd never seen a major league game before in person. And so I automatically went right to the stadium last summer when I came here I came here in June of 68 and I began to go to the games. Soon after I came here and I found out where the Indian players were hanging out and I go to where they hung out and got to meet a lot of them on the spur of the moment we went to the game and went to the game. My boyfriend and as I was entering a whole stadium. All these lights came on. All these people grabbed me and started yelling that I was the one millionth female fan through the gate at the Cleveland Stadium for the Indians. They whisked me off onto the field. I took my dad's car and brought it into Cleveland. My dad didn't know I

took the car into Cleveland until he could watch the 11 o'clock news and saw me on the news. I got grounded more than three decades of frustration produced some really great memories including Gaylord Perry's 24 win season in 1972 when he won the coveted Cy Young Award. But there are few memories greater than those provided by Frank Robinson in his first game as player manager in 1975. Doubly significant because Robinson was making his debut as the first black manager in major league history. Robinson the designated hitter and batting second picked on a pitch by the Yankees doc Medicare and sent it sailing out of the stadium. It was an electric moment. Now on opening day Gaylord Perry was a pitcher for the Indians and Frank Robinson hit a two run home run to win that game.

As I play I manager for the Indians Robinson's blast came in his very first at bat. Ron Koonce remembers a story about Frank Robinson involving a black cat named Harvey who was hanging around the clubhouse during a period when the Indians had a modest winning streak and at that point that happy great chat to get Harvey and Frank Robinson together. So before the game I went up to Frank and I said Can I get a picture of you and Harvey together. He said Jerry face it let's do it after the game. Well the NE's did win and went into the dressing room in Frank's office. All the reporters around there and I said I'd like to get a picture of you and Harvey you see you know where he is get up. We brought the black cat and sat in front of Frank. Frank looked at me at the cat and he said get that like any blanked thing out here. Very upset. And I said I want to get a picture of you and Harvey I thought you meant Harvey Haddix who was a pitching coach. Another memorable night came on May

15th 1981 when Len Barker pitched a rare perfect game beating the Toronto Blue Jays three to nine. There was a lady sitting behind us that probably was well into her 70s and she was scoring the game and about the seventh inning when we're standing up for the stretch you know she would look back at her and we said this is what we think it's going I'm going island. But we didn't say what it was of course and she said yes what you think is what you think and that's that's what's happening. So we sat back down and every pitch after that was electrifying it was quite an experience. I believe there were like 70 900 people. I of course talked to 20000 people that saw that game but we were actually there. There was also that oh so not memorable 10 cent beer night in 1974. That probably was all of the years that I've been in Cleveland and

elsewhere doing sports that was the low point where they had the 10:07 beer and I pulled the trucks out there beyond the outfield fences and it was a crowd populated by a guy who wanted Barry didn't care about baseball. And the ninth inning several of the drunks ran out onto the field and grabbed the hand of Rangers right fielder Jeff Burrows as he reached back to retrieve his cap Burrows disappeared from view. Our the Texas Rangers enmasse with bats to defend their right field or when they get out there. All of a sudden I'm sure that Billy Martin had the same feeling that the General Custer had at the Little Big Horn. All of a sudden they are surrounded by a whole host of drunken idiots. And with that Kenny as Ramadi led the Indians out of the first base dugout to go out and rescue the Texas Rangers who by now are totally surrounded.

And you ended up with the two teams back to back fighting their way back into the Indians dug out on the first base side and up into the clubhouse with the hooligans and hot pursuit. Umpire Nestor Shylocks eventually ordered the Indians to forfeit the game. It took eight years from the time the Jacobs brothers bought the Indians for Cleveland baseball to return to respectability with Jacobs money and the promise of a new baseball only park. The fear of losing baseball disappeared and Cleveland's position as a major league town was solidified. The fans said goodbye to the gray lady on the lake and were ready for the Renaissance. On a glorious spring day in 1994. It all came together a competitive ball club build through trades and homegrown talent and a brand new baseball park at Gateway called Jacobs Field a gift from the

taxpayers of that. When they were talking about building a new ballpark I really was not in favor of the idea. I am nostalgic. I like to keep the old stuff. But when I first walked into Jacobs Field. I was just awestruck. The first time at Jacobs Field. I was in shock. I truly almost passed out while walking in there for Indians game and just the facility by state of the art technology and everything that they had there. It was actually it was too nice. I did not handle it. I go into Indians game at Jacobs Field and and actually being afraid to throw the peanut shells on the ground because the place was so beautiful that you felt guilty had to. Opening day tickets at Jacobs Field My son and I went to the game together limousine pulled up and offered us a thousand dollars apiece. For those two tickets. And we looked at one another. My son would kill for a thousand dollars. Not that I couldn't do that to. But we just looked at one another to look at the guy in the limo

and said Now we're going that again. So we went to the game. I have a picture. Of that ticket and he and I at the game. With the president President Clinton in the background. It was. It was an awesome. Experience. When I walked in Jacobs Field as opposed to other places that I watch baseball games there was a there was a real energy. The crowd was electric. It just seemed like a completely different atmosphere that was unlike most baseball stadiums I'd ever been in in terms of. The level of excitement. To Cleveland Indians fans will ever forget. September 8th 1995. At 11 2 p.m.. Baltimore's Jeff Heusen lost in a foul ball to third baseman. Jim told me for the final. Three to two Indians victory. Cleveland had a twenty two and a half game lead in the Central Division with 21 games remaining.

The win put the Indians in the play offs for the first time in 41 years. The fans went. Wild. Hair was marching out the horns were blowing. People were screaming chanting you know slapping the chairs up and down. People were just hugging each other jumping up and down. You just didn't know what to do. There was just so much excitement there was so many handshakes and hugs going on all through that place and you could see it even with the players on the field running around and they come out you know saluting the fans being in that dugout during the bottom of the ninth to watch Mike Rowe and the players Orel Hershiser and all the guys Sandy and Carlos and all the guys really just see how happy and enthused they were to accomplish that. And then to walk up those steps and look around to the way that crowd people were crying in the stands. Season after season of sellouts five straight playoff Bruins. Two

American League pennants. And two trips to the World Series. The memories are fresh especially to Bob Dibiase who has seen the worst. And the best. The age old saga a. Rags to Riches. There are about four or five of us here at the Cleveland Indians that have been around over 20 plus years and I can guarantee you that there's nobody else in this building that understands a true appreciation for what we have accomplished. One hundred years of American League memories and more to come. The future is surely as uncertain today as it was on that spring day in 1981 when the Indians. They were the blues then suited up against the White Sox in the first ever American League game. But one thing.

Is Sure. The Indians have an owner who is dedicated to perpetuating what Cleveland fans have learned to expect. Since the Renaissance began. Jacobs Field. A fan owner dedicated to keeping the team. Had. An owner who reluctantly admits he bought the team as much with his hand as with his room. I find myself wanting to resist saying when I bought it from the heart because I know the value of a dollar. And there were a lot of dollars involved. So I'm going to I'm not going to accept that it's hardly If the heart weren't involved and never would have done it. But we think we bought it in such a way that it also makes economic sense. That's yet to be seen. It won't be visible. Winning the World Series will be wonderful but it's not going to change economics. Today's baseball economics you know Biotene like it might buy a business with the

idea if you're going to make money on your yearly operations you're making a mistake. We very much don't want to lose money and we'll do our best doctor accordingly. But we bought this for the long run. I didn't buy it. My family bought it. My son now is is. Very much involved in day to day operations of the game. I expect him to succeed me. Can't run the affairs entirely from the grave but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see my grandson on it. I'd like that. Hey.

Hey hey. OK. OK. OK. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me