Daily News Gems is my personal blog in which I comment, every now and again, on topics of particular interest to me, namely, newspaper history, baseball, American politics, and a selection of other burning issues of the day. -- Bill Lucey
One of the downsides of becoming attached to certain players on a professional team is knowing they are operating on borrowed time. They eventually go their own way and leave for new opportunities and greener pastures.
Such is the case with Cleveland Indians utility outfielder, Brandon Guyer, who was a member of the Cleveland Indians from 2016-2018, which included his appearance in the 2016 World Series, when the Cleveland Indians came up short against the Chicago Cubs in seven games. Guyer became the first player to ever enter as a substitute in a deciding Game 7 of World Series and collect two hits.
Along with his nine home runs and 32 RBI’s in 101 games with the Indians in 2016, Guyer distinguished himself in leading MLB with 31 hit by pitches. He batted .336 for the year.
After departing Cleveland after the 2018 season, he signed minor league deals with the Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants respectively, but fell victim to the injury bug. He was released by the Giants in March; and on July 6, 2020, the West Chester Pennsylvania native officially announced his retirement.
What is he doing now?
The seven-year veteran of Major League Baseball has written an e-book, The Fully Equipped Athlete in which he chronicles how an athlete can best prepare for a career in baseball, by not only helping them develop their physical skills, but also their nutritional and mental side, all three of these skill sets, Guyer argues, are essential if a baseball player hopes to reach his full potential. Many of the tools that Guyer writes about are the same fundamental tools he developed to break into the major leagues in 2011 with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The easy-going utility player was kind enough to answer some questions I had for him about his time in Cleveland, his family life, and what he’s doing now since retirement.
Q. Prior to your retirement, you played in the major leagues for seven seasons. What were some of the contributing factors that led to your retirement at age 34?
A. “There were a couple factors that led to my retirement. First, I wanted to be around family more. Second, I told myself if I didn't make a big-league team that that would be it. Lastly, I already knew what I wanted to do in the next chapter of my life with Fully Equipped Athlete. All of those reasons made it that much easier.”
Q. You played with the Cleveland Indians from 2016-2018. What are your favorite memories of Cleveland, Ohio as a vibrant city; and what special memories do you have of the team itself, including some individual players you were fortunate enough to play with?
A. “I could not have asked to play for a better organization or city than Cleveland. The fans were amazing and I will never forget the energy they had each and every game. It made it so much easier to play in front of fans that were so passionate just as they were. I was fortunate to play with so many great players there, so it's hard to pick just a couple. I'll just say that I am so grateful to have been part of teams that made it to the playoffs three years in a row.”
Q. Now that you’re no longer under his clutches, what was your former manager, Terry Francona, like to play for? I notice he never embarrasses or calls out a member of the team. He seems to always have your back when reporters are in the room. But what about behind closed doors? Does he light a fire under your keister if a player screwed up or didn’t play up to his potential? Was he approachable as a manager if you had something to get off your chest?
A. “Terry Francona was amazing to play for! You couldn't ask for a better manager to play for. He kept everything loose and let us go out there and have fun. He demanded we play the game hard and the right way, and if we did that all was good. If someone made a mistake, he would never embarrass them or call them out even behind closed doors. He was exactly the same guy you see on TV or in interviews.”
Photo Credit: Fully Equipped Athlete
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Q. Now that you’re retired from Major League Baseball, you’ve begun a new chapter in your life with a new website and athletic program, the Fully Equipped Athlete . What is the objective of this new program and what do you hope to accomplish? Why did you start it?
A. "The mission of Fully Equipped Athlete is to equip athletes with the tools necessary to be great both on and off the field. There is not enough emphasis on the mental side, nutrition side, lifestyle side, etc. for athletes and I want to help them develop those skills so that they can unlock their full potential. Those tools are what helped me make the most of my talent, and I know it will do the same for each and every athlete we work with.”
Q.) I once heard manager Terry Francona during a pregame interview, tell Tom Hamilton that the “mental” preparation for a game is just as important as the “physical” preparation. Do you agree with that? And what exactly did Tito mean by that?
A.) “Yes, he is totally correct. The mental side is putting time in to learn about the opposing team and the pitcher you're going to face. Also, visualizing success and putting yourself in situations that you think may happen in the game so when you get there it will feel like you've already been there before.”
Q.) During your professional baseball career, you and your lovely wife, Lindsay, have raised three adorable children: Riley, Camden, and a new member of the Guyer team, Cooper. How difficult is it for a professional baseball player to raise a family while bouncing from city-to-city over a six-month period? Do you feel more connected to your family now that you don’t have to do so much traveling?
A.) “It is definitely a balance act to have kids and play baseball. For sure, it is harder for my wife as she has to be on her own with the kids when I am out of town. Without a doubt I feel more connected now and so thankful to be around them more and be more involved in their life.
Q. Where is home for you and Lindsay now?
A. “Home is in Rockville, Maryland.”
Q.) How difficult will it be for players to play a 60-day season in front of an empty stadium due to COVID-19? Will the competitiveness still be there?
A.” I think it will for sure be difficult at first, but eventually they will all get used to it. They are the best players in the world for a reason and when it's time to compete they will be able to flip the switch, with fans or not.”
Q.) Prior to the Coronavirus mess, the big talk in MLB circles was the cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros during last year’s postseason, including suspicions Jose Altuve was wired. A number of Astro players, while admitting guilt, pointed out that they weren’t the only ones guilty of stealing signs. As far as you know, were there other players and other teams gaming the system to gain a competitive advantage?
A. “I am honestly not aware of other players or teams taking part in cheating. I know that no team I have been on has done it, but I cannot speak for all of the others. “
Brandon Guyer with his wife, Lindsay, and children, Riley and Camden, when he was with the Cleveland Indians.
Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch (right) during happier times.
Photo Credit: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
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The dust hasn’t settled yet over the sign-stealing scandal impacting Major League Baseball.
More sign stealing machinations, this time by the Red Sox might be disclosed by MLB in the coming weeks. The Houston Astros, to be sure, are still smarting from the punishment handed down by Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Astros skipper A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow, after being suspended for a year, were swiftly fired by Astros owner Jim Crane and sent on their way.
Alex Cora, bench coach for the Astros in 2017 and implicated in the sign-stealing investigation was also cut loose as manager of the Boston Red Sox.
Newly appointed Mets manager Carlos Beltran, a member of the 2017 Astros team and identified as one of the players who pushed for decoding signals was sent to the Tower as well by Mets COO Fred Wilpon.
The sign-stealing scandal clearly was a player directed initiative; the managers, namely, A.J. Hinch was let go because he didn’t put a stop to it.
The Astros players who went unpunished by the MLB hardly leave this nefarious affair unscathed. They’re going to have to prepare themselves for an uncomfortable season of loud boos from fans, and embarrassment when facing their peers. Buzzer or no buzzer, Jose Altuve is more than likely to get drilled by a few pitchers for the suspicious manner in which he refused to take off his jersey after a dramatic walk-off home run in the ALCS against New York Yankees closer, Alrodis Chapman. Many believe the Astros second baseman was wired with a buzzer. Those charges were never proven.
If fans were left to their own devices, I’m sure they would love their stadiums to blast Hank Williams monster hit, “Your Cheatin Heart’’ anytime Houston swings into town.
When the findings of Manfred’s investigation blew up on the Internet, Twitter feeds, and smart phones from coast-to-coast, the reaction was a state of utter shock. Shock quickly turned into anger. Anger by the fans that Astros stole a world championship, beating the Dodgers in seven games during the 2017 World Series by cheating.
I was certainly enraged that this could happen. Channeling my inner-Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks in “A League of their Own”), “There’s No Spying in Baseball!”
The city of Los Angeles who came up on the short end of the stick during the 2017 World Series was so upset of the injustice that the L.A. City Council unanimously passed a resolution to ask Major League Baseball to strip the Astros and Red Sox of the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles and award them to the Dodgers.
As the days passed by and the more I thought about this, however, the more I wondered how different this was from other sign-stealing discoveries.?
For decades, people held deep dark suspicions that New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson was tipped off on what offering was coming from Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Ralph Branca, before clobbering one deep into the night that clinched the NL pennant for the Giants, a dramatic walk-off home run known as the “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
In 2001, those suspicions turned into reality, thanks to Wall Street Journal reporter, Joshua Prager, who published an article which confirmed that Giants coach Herman Franks used a telescope to pilfer signs from the Giants’ clubhouse behind the center field fence from Dodgers catcher Rube Walker.
The Giants sign-stealing scheme was enhanced, greatly, through an electrician they hired, Abe Chadwick, who installed a bell and buzzer system in the clubhouse and wired it to the phones in the bullpen and dugout. Pressing the buzzer once or twice would signal either a fastball or off-speed pitch. This story was chronicled by Chadwick’s niece, Ina Chadwick, with a headline that read: “My Family Fixed the 1951 Pennant." According to this testimonial, “when Bobby Thomson stepped up to the plate to face Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca-it was Abe’s signal that told Herman Franks-who then signaled to a plant in the bullpen, who signaled to Thomson-when Branca’s fastball was coming.”
And the sign-stealing engineered by the Giants and Leo Durocher as its ringleader wasn’t isolated to the deciding playoff game against the Dodgers. According to published reports, the Giants hired Chadwick, the electrician, on July 19th of the season. They soon were good to go with the buzzers in right field. The Dodgers held a commanding 13.5 lead over the Giants on August 11. Miraculously, the Giants orchestrated a monstrous comeback to force a three-game playoff against their cross-town rivals.
How influential was the electrician is this heroic comeback is anyone’s guess?
So, in 2001, why wasn’t there any outrage over the revelations of Joshua Prager’s WSJ article? Why weren’t there calls for the Giants to be stripped of the 1951 pennant?
We are well into the 21st Century and Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World is still being lionized. The bat from the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" is in the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp. Sports Illustrated ranked it as the second greatest moment of the 20th century.
When Prager’s article was published, I never recalled any apologies to Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca who endured years and years of public scorn and humiliation for coughing up Thomson’s historic home run.
Branca died in 2016, five years after Prager’s article was published. As he once said at an old-timer’s game, “A guy commits murder and gets pardoned after 20 years. I didn’t get pardoned.”
The Dodger right-hander, for the most part, kept quiet about his real feelings of Prager’s convincing indictment of Thomson being tipped off. Weeks before Thomson’s death in 2010, however, Branca told the New York Times, “When you took signs all year, and when you had a chance to hit a bloop or hit a home run, would you ignore that sign?” He [Thomson] knew it was coming, Absolutely,’’ Branca said.
In this timely book, Dickson chronicles the sign-stealing concocted by Cleveland Indians ace, Bob Feller during the 1948 season in which “Rapid Robert’’ would pick up signs from opposing catchers using a telescope that Feller used as a gunnery officer on the USS Alabama during World War II. “The telescope,” according to Dickson, “was mounted on a tripod, placed in the Cleveland scoreboard and operated alternately by Feller or [Bob] Lemon, who remembered that he could see the dirt under the catcher’s fingernails. They would call out the next pitch to a groundskeeper-brothers Marshall and Harold Brossard or their father, Emil, who would then use another opening in the scorecard to relay the signs to Tribe hitters, by a variety of changing signals, from a space otherwise used to post number four out-of-towners.”
“Hey, it’s all fair in love and war,” Feller was quoted as saying, “when you’re trying to win a pennant.”
Many claim Feller’s spy ring didn’t carry over into the 1948 World Series against the Boston Braves, which the Indians won in six games. Braves pitcher Johnny Sain wasn’t so sure, so convinced was he that Indians outfielder Larry Doby was tipped off on a pitch in Game four of the WS, in which he hit for a home run. When questioned, Doby vehemently denied he was tipped off.
“Stolen signs win a lot of ball games,” said Dodgers VP Fresco Thompson in 1952.
Regarded as one of the hardest throwing pitchers of his era, we’ve come to know a great deal about Feller--he was the first major leaguer to enlist in the armed forces after Japan dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor. We also know he led the American League in strikeouts seven times, was a 20-game winner six times; and is the only pitcher to throw an Opening Day no-hitter (April 16, 1940).
But what is rarely (if ever) mentioned in his biography, is that he pilfered signs with his telescope during the 1948 season, at least enough times to secure an AL Pennant.
Where is the outrage?
Dickson additionally writes that Ty Cobb entered baseball in 1905, when the “spyglass era was in full swing.”
The Georgia Peach wrote an article for Life Magazine in 1952, titled: “Tricks That Won Me Ballgames.” In the article, he wrote, “Near me was an advertisement on the fence that read: THE DETROIT NEWS: BEST NEWSPAPER IN THE WEST,” Cobb wrote, “If you watched the B in the advertisement closely you would watch little slots opening and closing, If the slot was open in the top half of the B, our spotter had picked off the signal for the fastball. If the slot in the bottom of the B opened, we knew a curve was coming. I don’t know whether the ad sold any newspapers, but it was a great thing for Tiger batting averages.”
Another glaring example of duplicity came in the 19th century (1898) in a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies. Reds third base coach Tommy Corcoran while coaching at third, got his cleats tangled up in the ground. At first glance, Corcoran thought it was a vine only to discover it was a telegraph wire that ran to the Phillies clubhouse in center field, where a backup catcher sat with binoculars picking up signals and communicating them to the third-base coach, presumably, through vibrations from the wire.
Again, where was the outrage?
MLB always appears late to the dance.
They were late clamping down on steroids during the 1990s, which obviously gave players a competitive advantage. That was the culture then. If Jose Canseco was being injected with steroids and amphetamines, why shouldn’t Alex Rodriquez, to keep up with the Joneses?
When new advanced technology came in the 21st century with live feeds from the center field camera and cameras in the dugouts, some teams, certainly not all, started gaming the system and figured out ways to decode signs coming from these live feeds.
When this new technology was installed, MLB should have been proactive enough to know boys will be boys and taken measures to prevent the decoding. From all the reports in the last few days, there seemed to be a culture that developed that if this team is decoding, why not us.
Interestingly, discussing the new technology in baseball, A.J. Hinch told the Associated Press during the 2018 AL Championship Series, “there’s some unintended consequences that come with the advancement of technology. It’s a league wide conversation that needs to happen in time,”Hinch said. “It’s happening right now during a really important series, and I just think it’s bigger than us. It’s bigger than any team. It’s bigger than any series. It needs to be corralled because of the state of the concern over it.”
Cleveland Indians fans can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing their beloved Tribe under the leadership of Terry Francona didn’t succumb to sign stealing. But they may have come close.
Speaking to local networks, the Indians manager said “I can tell you there are a lot of nights when I go home where I know I need to have a conversation with a player -- especially like a veteran player -- where he may view it differently than I do. And I lose a lot of sleep over stuff like that because obviously I feel a lot of obligation to get it straightened out. But you don't just want to beat somebody over the head and lose them.”
Despite the embarrassment they must be feeling right now, Francona said he still has plenty of respect for the managers fired. “They’re good people,” he told reporters. “They’re really good baseball people. They’re paying a penalty for making a mistake. That doesn’t make them bad people. They made some errors in judgment. The penalty came down, they’ll serve it and then I think they’ll be back.”
And contrary to some commentaries, the sign-stealing scandal of 2017 and 2018 doesn’t rise to the level of the 1919 Black Sox scandal in which the Chicago White Sox intentionally threw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
Jacob Pomrenke, Director of editorial content for SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) and editor of “Scandal on the South Side: the 1919 White Sox”, told me, “the White Sox scandal was about taking bribes to lose games on purpose, which is an existential threat to the sport's integrity,” Pomrenke said. “This was about breaking the rules,” Pomrenke argues, “to gain a competitive edge — which has happened many, many times in sports and will undoubtedly happen again. The methods and details evolve, but as long as the rewards are high enough, some human beings will always feel compelled to use nefarious means to gain an edge.”
To MLB's credit, though they were late in putting a screeching halt to the sign-stealing--they sent a clear message of the hard consequences, and humiliation, that comes with trying to game the system.
I think players and most certainly the managers received Rob Manfred’s message loud and clear.
Though this scandal delivered a mighty black eye to baseball; the damage is certainly reparable as long as fans, players, and the media can move on and chalk these unfortunate episodes up to a hard lesson learned underscored by horribly bad judgement.
Speaking at a fan convention for the Chicago White Sox, newly acquired pitcher Dallas Keuchel said he felt what happened was “blown out of proportion,” but he was sorry.
“It’s just what the state of baseball was at that point and time,” the former Astros pitcher said. “Was it against the rules? Yes, it was, and I personally am sorry for what’s come about, the whole situation.”
Keuchel, however, said he isn’t buying the “Oh my gosh, this has never happened before,” mantra that other teams are accusing Houston and Boston of. “I’m not going into specific detail,” the former AL Cy Young Award winner said.
But lo and behold, after 22 years long years, the MLB All-Star game has returned to Progressive Field in a city stripped of its Chief Wahoo logo, replaced by the more diplomatic Block C
First pitch is set for July 9th at 7:30 p.m. EST.
The last time there was an MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland, Cleveland Indians catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. was the toast of the town and the game’s MVP, (the first Puerto Rican named MVP in an All-Star game), when he cracked a two-run home run in the bottom of the 7th to break a tie and propel the American League to a 3-1 win. The win broke a three-year losing streak for the AL. The crowd of 44,916 that night, was the largest in Jacobs Field history.
Interestingly, Alomar, 22 years later, is still in an Indians uniform as a first base coach. In 1997, when he was named to the All-Star team, the older brother of Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar, was having a monster year going into the break with a 30-game hitting streak and leading the AL with a .375 batting average.
Since 1997, the makeup of MLB players has grown more diverse. In 1997, for example, foreign born players (born outside of the 50 United States) made up 18.9 percent of MLB’s rosters. In 2019, that has leaped to 28.5 percent.
22 years was a long time ago, much has changed in Cleveland since 1997, the same year Michael R. White was mayor, fighting for a new NFL team (the Browns left Cleveland for Baltimore after the 1995 season); and Bill Clinton, the 42nd U.S. President, was in the White House riding a 55 percent approval rating at a time when few ever heard of a 24-year old female employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
So, assuming someone has been away from Cleveland for 22 years, what exactly has changed in downtown Cleveland since 1997?
Quite a lot, at least according to Curtis Danburg, Senior Director of Communications at the Cleveland Indians.
“In 1997, we [The Cleveland Indians at Jacobs Field] were in the midst of the sellout streak averaging over 42, 997 thousand per night compared with just under 19 thousand per game in 2019.” “The Cleveland Browns,” Danburg additionally pointed out, “weren’t around and the Cleveland Cavaliers were in a down cycle.
Business activity in Cleveland isn't as robust as it was 22 years ago. There are currently three Fortune 500 companies in Cleveland, down from seven in 1997, according to Fortune Magazine.
There were also more active duty Cleveland Police officers in 1997 than there is today. According to Cleveland Police records, there were 1795 officers in 1997. In 2019, there are 1593 officers, 202 less than in 1997.
Since 1997, Progressive Field has sliced about 7,000 seats from its facility (capacity is now roughly 35,225) as it went through a number of renovations, beginning in 2014, which included a two-story bar area that is partially enclosed and an expanded section for children (Kids Clubhouse). A pedestrian bridge and other structures beyond right field were also installed to allow people outside the park to get a glimpse of the field. And in 2016, the Indians unveiled a 59-by-221-foot scoreboard, (the largest in baseball), a season-ticket holder club behind home plate, a beer garden, new concession stands, and a revamped left-field district, among other additions.
In 1997, at the All-Star break, the Indians led the AL Central with a 44-36 record (.550 winning percentage) winning seven out of their last ten and three games ahead of the Chicago White Sox. In 2019, the Indians carry an almost identical record, 45-38 (.542 winning percentage) but in stark contrast to 22 years ago, they are eight-and-a-half games out of first place; though, with still plenty of baseball left, particularly against their division rival, the Minnesota Twins.
What the second half of the season holds for the Tribe in 2019 is anyone’s guess.
We all know what happened in 1997. The Tribe advanced to the World Series for the second time in three years only to have their hearts slashed in Miami Gardens when the Florida Marlins beat the heavily favored Tribe in seven games on a walk-off single slapped by Édgar Rentería in extra innings.
Other changes in Cleveland since 1997?
For starters, the population has shrunk.
The population of Cleveland in 1997 was 498,246; in 2019 it stands at 383,793, a drop of 114, 453 residents, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But with the addition of the Jack Cleveland Casino (which opened in 2012), along with an explosion of bars (219), breweries (13), clubs (57) and two music venues, including the House of Blues, downtown Cleveland has simply been buzzing with an appreciable increase in hotel rooms.
In 1997, according to the Newmark Knight Frank Valuation & Advisory's Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure Group, the last time there was an MLB All-Star game in Cleveland, there were nine hotels. Since 1997, there have been 16 hotels added. As of June 2019, there are a total of 25 hotels ready to be booked in downtown Cleveland, midtown, and University Circle.
Along with more hotels, obviously, comes more rooms. For the 1997 All-Star game there were 2,722 rooms available in Cleveland spanning 9 hotels. Since 1997, there were 3,325 rooms added over 16 hotels. As of today, there are 6,047 rooms available spanning 25 hotels.
Photo Credit: Rockhall.com
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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, downtown’s Cleveland’s signature museum, on the shore of Lake Erie, has gone through a significant transformation since 1997.
In 1997, the Rock Hall was only in its second year, the same year they unveiled their first major exhibit: “I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era, 1965 – 1969,” a stunning display which included artifacts from John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Sebastian, the Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, and a number of others.
Greg Harris, CEO of the Rock Hall, said that after the initial excitement at the Rock Hall, attendance dipped, albeit remained at steady levels for two decades.
In 2016, according to Harris, “we began a significant transformation to leverage visitor feedback, create new and immersive experiences, and welcome visitors to a space that is true to the power of rock & roll.”
The museum's transformation includes the spectacular Connor Theater, featuring arena-quality sound and larger-than-life screens, an All Access Café with a menu designed by Cleveland celebrity chefs, and a soon to be unveiled highly interactive exhibit, The Garage – a space where visitors can host jam sessions using real instruments and even design their own band merchandise.
Harris additionally points out that "our attendance levels have steadily increased along with these important changes, and now in 2019, our experience is better than ever.”
Another significant transformation in Cleveland since 1997 surrounds the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra and Severance Hall, a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve, about four miles east of Downtown Cleveland, at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Boulevard.
Severance Hall underwent a full renovation from 1997-2000, a massive renovation, in fact, which changed Severance Hall significantly, including restoring and relocating the 6,025 pipe E.M. Skinner organ, allowing it to be used again during concerts.
The renovation also involved removing the “Szell Shell” (a stage that created a shell in the Danish Modern style, aesthetically at odds with the building’s Art Deco style) and installing a stage shell that better matched the architecture style of the Concert Hall — with improved acoustics, along with restoring the murals in Reinberger Chamber Hall. A full-service restaurant was also added.
Since 1997, there’s has been a change of conductor.
Beginning in 2002, Franz Welser-Möst, an Austrian conductor, replaced Christoph von Dohnány as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra.
For those who question whether Cleveland can still support a major orchestra with the explosion of audio streaming platforms, such as iTunes and Spotify, you can take comfort in knowing that the financial health of the orchestra has improved markedly since 1997, despite running into challenges stemming from the financial crisis of the late 2000s.
According to Rebecca Calkin, media relations manager at The Cleveland Orchestra, in 1997, there were a small number of households, mostly subscribers, who attended. “Now, we have a much larger number of households visiting us each year,” Culkin says. “This is fueled by our work developing a younger audience (20 percent of our audience is under 25 years old — around 40,000 people).”
"At the close of the 2017-18 year," Calkin continued, "our deficit has been reduced, ticket sales and touring fees are at an all-time high, and our endowment continues to see solid gains and contributions."
Photo Credit: PlayhouseSquare.org
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For theater-goers, there's also been major expansions at Playhouse Square, the theater district in downtown Cleveland, the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York.
According to Cindi Szymanski, Assistant Director of Brand Marketing and Communications at Playhouse Square, in 1997, only three of their five historic theaters had been restored (they had a total of six performance spaces). In 2019, by comparison, all five historic theaters have been restored (with a total of 11 performance spaces).
In 1996, the year before the last MLB All-Star game in Cleveland, Playhouse Square welcomed more than a million guests; a number that is still maintained today.
Yet another transformation in Cleveland has been the curriculum of Cleveland State University, a public research university in downtown Cleveland, which was first established in 1964. Many might be stunned if they browsed through the curriculum in the liberal arts department of CSU to see how much it has changed since well into the 20th century.
So many of the standard courses traditionally taught in history, political science, and English departments, to name a few, have been dropped to address the growing demographics and multicultural interests of students, along with the many global challenges of the 21st century.
The drastic transformation of a liberal arts education at CSU has rankled a number of educators.
Roger B. Manning, emeritus professor from the History Department at CSU, says that in his opinion, "it is not a change for the better. British history has disappeared entirely, and there are fewer courses in European history. " "Courses that I used to teach on history of technology, the Industrial Revolution and War and Western Society," Manning explained, “were not thought worth preserving.” “Throughout my career at Cleveland State, I argued for appointing someone in the history of science without success."
Professor Manning went on to argue that "these courses have been replaced with multiple courses on women's history, black history and queer history.” “While these courses might have a place in the offerings of a large department,” he explains, “and may be worthwhile subjects for research, they should not dominate the offerings of a small department.”
Frederick J Karem, Professor and Chair from the Department of English at CSU, takes a different tack when considering the evolution of a liberal arts education.
"From my standpoint, there's a lot that has remained consistent, but there have been exciting expansions--it's a great time to write and to study literature, at CSU and beyond. We still teach Chaucer, Shakespeare, and lots of classic English writers alongside a diversity of American writers, past and present," Karem says. "I taught one of the first seminars at CSU on Toni Morrison, our Lorain-raised Nobel laureate, and I'm sure they've been 100's more throughout the country since then. "
Karem went on to explain that “CSU has always had a multicultural emphasis because of our city's diversity. In the past two decades we've become more global in our focus, exploring literatures and authors that are in increasing contact in our interconnected world, the area of greatest expansion is what we study in the classroom. "
Karem additionally pointed out that besides hard copy books, they now study stories and narratives in many forms, including films, television shows, graphic novels, and digital media, all of which, according to Karem, "have complexity worth exploring."
In 1997, 22 years ago, it’s amazing how much of the future stared us right in the face; but we just didn’t fully comprehend that we were entering a new age, the digital age.
It was 1997, after all, in which Bill Gates, business magnate and principal founder of Microsoft Corporation, became the world’s richest businessman. The same year Yahoo! Introduced Yahoo Mail, while the domain Facebook.com came online on March 28, 1997, the domain Craigslist.com came online on September 24, 1997, and the domain Netflix.com came online on November 10, 1997.
All powerful forces in our lives in 2019.
In May, 1997, 40 million Americans and thousands in Northeast Ohio used the worldwide communications system, the Internet. A month later, in June, 1997, more than one million job openings were advertised on 5,000 Internet sites, estimated John Sumser, editor of Electronic Recruiting News, an on-line newsletter.
1997 was also the year comedian Ellen DeGeneres (starring on the hit ABC sitcom “Ellen”) courageously came out as a lesbian on the cover of Time Magazine (April 14), paving the way for other performers to pursue gay roles on TV without fear of retribution.
It was 22 years ago, too, when Bedford Heights Mayor Jimmy Dimora, a member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, gave serious thought to running for Cuyahoga County Commissioner. NOTE: In 2012, Dimora was convicted of 32 charges, including racketeering, bribery, conspiracy, and tax charges and sentenced to 28 years in federal prison in one of the largest criminal corruption cases in Ohio history.
Finally, in 1997, Tony Grossi of The Cleveland Plain Dealer splashed with page one news (April 21) that Bernie Kosar, 33, hometown hero, after playing 12 NFL seasons, 8 1/2 with the Browns, was retiring from football. His last tour of duty was with the Miami Dolphins. A decision he made so he could "devote his time to business interests and pursue his goal of owning the Cleveland Browns."
The Browns returned to Cleveland (and the NFL) in 1999; but Kosar’s dream of owning the team never came to fruition.
In 1997, nearly 45,000 baseball fans attended the All-Star Game, and another 95,000 participated in Fan Fest activities throughout the weekend, leaving behind an estimated $38 million with hotels, restaurants, taxicabs and shopping centers.
According to Destination Cleveland, the convention and visitor bureau for the Greater Cleveland area, the estimated economic impact for this year’s MLB All-Star week is $65 million and the estimated attendance is over 100,000 guests between Progressive Field and Fan Fest.
So, as visitor’s come streaming into Cleveland in the coming days for the 90th MLB All-Star Game, they’ll be setting their sights on a city with a more vibrant downtown life than was true 22 years ago, more hotels, a bustling casino, an enhanced theater district, more restaurants, breweries, and clubs, to satisfy young and old ready for a good time and watch some baseball in the rock 'n' roll capital of the world.
Vice president George H.W. Bush is accompanied by Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller before baseball's 1981 All-Star Game Aug. 9, 1981, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
***
If IBM swept away competitors when it introduced its first personal computer, the 5150 for $1,565 (equivalent to $4,313 in 2018), a ticket to a Bruce Springsteen concert was $12, the cost of a postage stamp was 20 cents, a McDonald's hamburger was 50 cents, the price of a movie ticket was $2.78, and "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes was the no. 1 song, then it must be 1981.
Cleveland, it seems, has the worst luck.
In 1981, not only were they without a World Series championship for 33 long years, but they were hosting an All-Star Game for the first time in nearly 20 years, the same year, of all years, of a players’ strike.
The strike lasted 50 days. It began on June 12th and ended on July 31, forcing the cancellation of 706 regular-season games, or 38 percent of the season.
According to the New York Times, the strike cost the players $28 million in salaries.
When the strike was finally settled there was a mighty big question mark over whether there would be an All-Star game at all.
After all, with a 50-day layoff, many players were embarrassingly out of shape.
Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, in concert with city officials, wanted the All-Star Game called off and rescheduled back in Cleveland in 1982.
There was even a lawsuit in the books to get the game postponed.
Cleveland lawyer Arthur F. Clark reportedly filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of his wife, Colleen, to have the game postponed until 1982. Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and League presidents Lee MacPhail and Chub Feeney were named as defendants. The suit was subsequently dismissed.
Despite the grumblings, the All-Star was scheduled for a Sunday evening, August 9. It was already postponed twice, once on July 14 and again on the first alternate date of July 30.
So upset that the mid-season classic was still being played, Plain Dealer Sports editor Hal Lebovitz was moved to write: "I'm ashamed of Major League Baseball for scheduling the All-Star here a week from tomorrow. What an utter farce,” Lebovitz wrote. “To charge top prices for what has to be a charade, a workout, a non-contest is sinful."
When the regular season came to a screeching halt on June 12, the Indians were in 6th place (second to last) with 26-24 record (.520 winning percentage) but only 5 games out of first place. The Toronto Blue Jays were dead last, 16-24 (.276 winning percentage) 19 games out of first place.
The fact that the competitively challenged Indians were still within striking distance of first place, brought some timely sarcasm out of Cleveland Press columnist Bob Sudyk, who wrote: "the Indians just five games out of first place in the month of August? And playing over 500?” “I hate to bring this up,” Sudyk continued, “but the 50-day baseball strike has made the Indians contenders in the heat of the pennant race. The couldn't have done it alone. Or perhaps they needed to be alone, well away from the diamond. There was no place to fold this time."
Like it or not, the All-Star game was in Cleveland for the 4th time in Major League Baseball History.
Cleveland Press columnist Doug Clarke tried to put a positive spin on the game. “Right place, wrong time,” Clarke wrote. “This is the game nobody really wants and yet, as it approaches, people are succumbing to the spectacle--a chance to see people like Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield, Steve Carlton, Fernando Valenzuela, George Brett, et al, in the flesh."
The Indians as the host city had only two representatives in the All-Star game: starting pitcher Len Barker and catcher Bo Diaz. Neither of them started the game. Indians manager Dave Garcia was selected as a coach.
But Barker pitched a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the season, May 15, only the 10th perfect game in MLB history.
When the regular season was halted, Barker was 5-3 with a historic perfect game under his belt. Many felt “Large Lenny” should have started the All-Star game in front of his home town crowd.
But American League skipper, Jim Frey of the Kansas City Royals, opted for Detroit Tigers ace, Jack Morris to start the game, who was sporting a 9-3 record with a 2.56 ERA.
Vice President of Public Relations for the Cleveland Indians, Bob DiBiassio, remembers vividly having an argument with his mentor, Bob Fishel, a native Clevelander who did PR work for the Indians, and later became vice president of the New York Yankees in the 1950s, a special assistant to American League President Lee MacPhail and eventually an executive vice president. According to DiBiassio, "we argued because they had decided the A.L.’s starting pitcher should be Jack Morris of the Tigers and not Lenny Barker who was having a great season to that point; pitched a perfect game on May 15 and was the “hometown hero.” The A.L. decided Morris was best choice. Still burns me,'' DiBiassio fumed.
Cleveland Indians beat writer for the Plain Dealer, Terry Pluto, made a strong case that Indians pitcher Bert Blyleven (7-4, 2.84 ERA) should have been added to the All-Star roster, who, after all, was tied for third in complete games and wins and second to teammate Len Barker in strikeouts.
To compound Cleveland’s problems of having to hurry to get the city in shape for the All-Star game, came a host of challenges, including an airline traffic controllers strike. Just four days before the All-Star game, President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work, causing some flights to be cancelled.
In addition, the city of Cleveland, including the grounds crew at Cleveland Municipal Stadium were preparing for a Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers preseason game on Saturday evening, just a day before the All-Star game. The stadium grounds crew, in fact, worked feverishly until 4:30 a.m. replacing outfield divots kicked up by Browns and Steelers players the night before. The grounds crew was then back at 9 a.m. to paint the football stripes with water soluble latex green paint.
A mighty tall order, indeed.
Former Plain Dealer sports reporter Tony Grossi, now with ESPN in Cleveland distinctly remembers that Plain Dealer sports columnist, “Danny Coughlin came up with the great idea of delivering beer to the grounds crew." "So," Grossi explained, " we lugged a couple cases down there at night and they were greatly enjoyed. I recall me and Dennis Lustig joining Danny that night. Possibly Joe Maxse and others."
If the Browns-Steelers game and the All-Star game weren’t enough, just a few hours before baseball was about to played on a national stage, Roberto Duran was returning to the boxing ring to face Mike Nino Gonzalez in a 10-round junior middleweight bought at the Public Auditorium with 7,000 expected to attend. The 30-year-old Panamanian won a unanimous decision over Gonzalez.
Mayor Voinovich remarked, "this will be one of the most memorable sports weekends in the city's history."
One major downside of squeezing in the All-Star game in a shortened season meant that the All-Star festivities had to take place in one day instead of the traditional three-day carnival.
But the city nonetheless put on its best face.
There were a number of parties in town, the most prominent being at Stouffers restaurant, where approximately 1,000 guests attended, including the Baseball Commissioner who sponsored the event, along with the Cleveland Indians.
The Sporting News reported that the night before the All-Star game, L.A. Dodger first baseman, Steve Garvey and his friends went out for dinner only to find two of their cars in their entourage were stolen when they exited the restaurant.
The night of the All-Star game was a typical muggy August night, about 80 degrees, but the sky was clear and 72,086 fans in attendance were ready for baseball again in Cleveland once Rocco Scotti, the opera-trained singer (and local favorite) brought the house down with his signature rendition of the national anthem.
Just eight days before the All-Star game, the first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) launched and aired its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.
Video may have killed the radio star; but it didn’t kill the TV stars. Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek provided the play-by-play for NBC-TV.
George H.W. Bush, the U.S. Vice President flew in to throw out the first pitch; he was accompanied by Bob Hope and Baseball Commission Bowie Kuhn, where they sat in a specially protected box to the right of home plate. Future Hall of Famer, Carl Yastrzemski, who didn't make the All-Star game, was invited to attend the game with the vice president. They both flew together on Air Force II.
Also in the house was Bob Feller, 62, and Warren Spahn, 60, honorary captains, who last met in the 1948 World Series when the Indians beat the Boston Braves in six games to win their first World Weries since 1920.
The 52nd annual MLB All-Star game didn’t bode well for the Junior Circuit.
Going into the All-Star game, the NL won nine straight, 17 out of the last 18 games, and 28 out of the last 34, leading the series 32 to 18 with one tie.
The last time the AL won an All-Star game was in 1971, the same year Reggie Jackson walloped a 500 foot drive off the light tower in the center field roof at Tiger Stadium.
So sure the AL was in for yet another mid-season classic loss that Tony Grossi of the Plain Dealer wrote that “the three safest bets in the history of sports: Ali over Wepner, Secretariat in the Belmont and the National League in the All-Star Game."
Two young pitchers were ready for battle.
For the NL, Fernando Valenzuela, the L.A. Dodgers rookie sensation, carried a 9-4 record with a 2.25 ERA, while The Detroit Tigers staff ace, Jack Morris, took to the hill for the AL with 9-3 record and a 2.56 ERA.
Baltimore Orioles outfielder Ken Singleton got things going for the AL in the second frame, belting a solo shot off of Tom Seaver (CIN) over the right field fence.
Len Barker took over for Morris in the third, drawing a thunderous round of applause from the home town crowd.
But before firing his first pitch, the Indians staff ace had a secret admirer who was dying to meet him. Morgana Roberts (The notorious Kissing Bandit) ran onto the field and planted a kiss on the Indians pitcher.
Unruffled, Barker set down six straight hitters, leaving to a standing ovation.
The AL held on to a 1-0 lead until the top of the 5th, when Gary Carter bashed Ken Forsch’s (CAL) first offering over the fence in left to tie the score at one.
The NL tacked on another run in the 6th when Dave Parker (PIT) drove a towering ball over the fence in right center off of Mike Norris (OAK), to put the NL on top, 2-1.
In the bottom of the 6th, there was a glimmer of hope that the AL might turn the tide, when they exploded for three runs and five hits to put the AL up, 4-2. After Singleton slapped a single to center, Dwight Evans (BOS) followed with another single to right, moving Singleton to second. Carlton Fisk (CHW) then loaded the bases after slashing a sharp single to right. Fred Lynn (CAL) batted for Bucky Dent (NYY) and beat out an infield single, scoring Singleton. Former Cleveland Indians star and hometown favorite, Buddy Bell (TEX) hit a sac fly to left, scoring Evans.
The AL’s final run in the frame came when Ted Simmons (MIL) batted for Willie Randolph (NYY) and singled to right, scoring Fisk and putting the AL up, 4-2.
Gary Carter’s bat never cooled off in the 7th when he smacked yet another first pitch offering, this time from Ron Davis (NYY) clearing the center field fence, to slice the AL lead to 4-3.
Mike Schmidt's 2-run homer in the 8th puts NL on top for good to secure the Senior Circuit's 10th straight All-Star game win. Photo Credit: MLB
***
In the top of the 8th, the Cleveland crowd watched as Mike Easler (PIT), age 30, a native Clevelander and Benedictine High School graduate drew a walk from Rollie Fingers (MIL). Easler was taken in the 14th round of the amateur draft by the Houston Astros in 1969. His bonus was $500. The Pirates brought him to the majors in 1979 as a pinch hitter. In 1981, the Benedictine alum was hitting .317 with 6 home runs and 28 RBI's.
Back to the 8th.
With Easler planted on first, Mike Schmidt (PHI) must have come to the plate with his Roy Hobbs “Wonderboy” bat. The Dayton, Ohio native blasted a towering drive deep into the night in center field, putting the NL on top, 5-4 for good, and in doing so-sliced another dagger straight through the hearts of the AL.
The normally reliable Rollie Fingers who came into the All-Star Game with more saves than any other reliever in baseball, absorbed the crushing 5-4 loss.
Vida Blue (SF) was the winning pitcher, becoming the first to win All-Star games both in the National and American Leagues.
NL had sealed their 10th straight mid-season classic win or 18 of the last 19.
Gary Carter's two home runs (both on first pitches) earned him the Commissioner's Trophy as the game's MVP.
The game was far from perfect, the players were still a little rusty and working out the kinks. As The Washington Post’s Jane Leavy wrote: “Errors were charitably called hits and some plays belied the term, midseason classic.”
Undoubtedly, the 1981 MLB All-Star game wasn’t the most memorable (except, that is, for the kissing bandit), but it had just enough theatrics, long balls, and stars galore in a city hungry for baseball to make it enjoyable for fans thankful baseball was back in business.
As baseball prepared to continue the regular season (beginning August 10), there was plenty to look forward to. “Charlie Hustle,” Pete Rose was in pursuit of cracking Stan Musial's 3,660-hit record, which he tied just before the work stoppage. Ferguson Jenkins was 54 strikeouts from 3,000, Gaylord Perry needed just six wins for 300 and the Toronto Blue Jays were in hot pursuit of breaking their 11-game losing streak.
As for Cleveland, it would have to wait 16 years before another MLB All-Star game would roll into town with a President in the White House dubbed: “Slick Willie” and the “Comeback Kid,’’ appropriately enough, since the Indians in 1997 were most definitely, a comeback team in a comeback city.
The 1963 All-Star game in Cleveland was noted for its unusually low attendance of 44, 160 with plenty of empty seats which this picture clearly shows.
Photo Credit: Major League Baseball
***
The experiment failed.
No one was happier than a majority of fans (including scores of players) to see Major League Baseball return to a single-game format, beginning with the 1963 MLB All-Star game in Cleveland on July 9.
From 1959 through 1962, MLB launched an experiment, holding two All-Star games a year. In order to get the players' consent to return to the single game format, the owners agreed to put 95 per cent of the net receipts of $250,384.59 and the TV-radio receipts into the players pension fund. Previously, players received only 60 per cent.
The 1963 midseason classic marked the 34th playing of All-Star game. In 1963, Cleveland was still very much a vibrant city, though its population had been in decline since the 1950s. The population in Cleveland peaked in 1950 with 914,808 inhabitants, the seventh largest city in the nation with a 15 percent foreign population. In 1963, Cleveland’s population was roughly 876,050 (according to the 1960 census), the 8th largest city in the nation with an 11 percent foreign population.
Prior to the All-Star game, there were a couple of hot issues brewing within the baseball community by the time everyone arrived in Cleveland. It had been widely reported that Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley wanted to relocate his team to Oakland. Though Finley never submitted a formal request, he was notified by the American League that such a bold move wouldn’t be permitted. At the same time, there were reports that a group from Atlanta, Ga., were in Cleveland at the time of the All-Star game in hopes of luring the Indians to Atlanta. Atlanta was scheduled to have a new stadium built by 1965. Since the Indians weren’t drawing well over the last two seasons, the Atlanta group felt confident that the Indians were ripe for the picking.
Cleveland Indians president and general manager, Gabe Paul, however, quickly put the kibosh on the wild rumors that his ballclub was headed to the Peach State.
Shortly before the All-Star game, Paul issued a concise and pithy statement: "We're doing fine here and have no intention of moving."
Finley would have to wait until 1968 before relocating the Athletics to the Bay area. And two weeks after the All-Star game, it was leaked that the Atlanta group was in talks with Milwaukee to relocate the Braves to Atlanta. The Braves officially abandoned Milwaukee after the 1965 season.
The body of Mervin Gold, a missing financial manipulator, twice convicted on fraud charges, was found in the trunk of his own car on Chagrin River Road in Solon, Ohio.
Photo Credit: Cleveland Public Library
***
Another explosive issue engulfing Cleveland before the first pitch of the All-Star game had nothing to do with baseball, but centered on a gruesome murder of a local financer.
On the morning of the All-Star game, July 9, 1963, readers woke to a grisly story splashed across the front page of The Plain Dealer by police reporter, Ed Kissell, reporting the murder of Mervin Gold, 32, a missing financial manipulator who was found stuffed in the trunk of his car in a secluded section of Solon, Ohio. A noose was tightened around Gold’s neck and strangled to death; his body wrapped in blankets with four.38 caliber bullets discharged into his body. His body was then dumped in the trunk of his car and driven to Chagrin River Road in Solon.
According to Gold’s wife, her husband was on his way to visit Alex (Shondor) Birns, a longtime Cleveland rackets figure. Birns was immediately arrested and questioned about the murder. The rackets kingpin provided an alibi, and was released.
A year after the murder, investigators publicly acknowledged that they were never able to piece together who murdered Gold as the killers’ trails increasingly grew cold. The case remained unsolved.
Nationally, 1963, was a year in which civil rights was put to the test.
A George Gallup Poll published at the time of the All-Star game showed that President John F. Kennedy's controversial proposal to ban discrimination in businesses that serve the public won only a narrow margin of support from the American public. 49 percent of the nation's voters, according to the Gallup poll, wanted Congress to pass a law giving all persons-black as well as white-the right to be served in hotels, restaurants, theaters, stores, and other public accommodations. A large proportion of the public-42 percent were opposed to such action on the part of Congress. Nine percent were undecided. Eight of ten white southerners, in the same poll, opposed passing a law guaranteeing blacks equal access to public places.
Other events taking place in 1963, prior to the All-Star game, included: John F. Kennedy barn burning "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin (June 26); four charming mopheads from Liverpool, England: John, Paul, George and Ringo recording their debut album "Please Please Me" in a single day at the Abbey Road Studios in London (February 11); and long-running soap opera General Hospital making its debut on ABC Television (April 1). The four-digit zip code was also introduced on July 1st of the year.
The National League went into the midseason classic as 7-5-favorites to win the game.
With the game in Cleveland, Indians fans really didn’t have a horse in the race to cheer for. Jim "Mudcat" Grant (5-8 with a 3.92 ERA) was the only representative in the 1963 All-Star Game for the Indians. He never saw any action.
At the time of the All-Star break, the Indians were in sixth place in the A.L., 7 1/2 games out of first place with a 44-40 record (.524 winning percentage). The Yankees led the league with a 50-31 record (.617 winning percentage), 5 games ahead of the Chicago White Sox. The Washington Senators were dead last with a 30-56 record, 22 ½ games out of first place (.349 winning percentage).
Though Mudcat Grant was the Indians sole representative, the A.L. staring pitcher was Ken McBride of the Los Angeles Angels, a Cleveland native, and a product of West High School in Cleveland (Franklin Boulevard and West 69th) who once pitched a high school championship game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
On the Senior Circuit, Jim O’Toole, the Cincinnati Reds southpaw got the nod to start the game for the N.L.
The manager for the A.L. was Ralph Houk of the Yankees, for the N.L., Alvin Dark of the San Francisco Giants.
Los Angeles Dodger announcer Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola handled the play by play for NBC, while Bob Neal and George Bryson were the radio announcers.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Locher threw out the first pitch (impressing many with the zip he put on the ball) on a refreshingly cool and bright afternoon with temperatures in the 70s. Mike Douglas, the KYW (later WKYC) television entertainer and host in Cleveland, belted out the national anthem.
For those star gazing: Milton Eisenhower, president of John Hopkins University (and brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower), Ohio Governor James Rhodes and former Cleveland Browns head coach, Paul Brown, were all in the house. As were Bob Feller, Jimmy Foxx, Bill McKechnie, Stan Coveleski, and Bedford, Ohio native, Elmer Flick.
Before players took the field, Casey Stengel, "The Ol' Perfessor” managing the dysfunctional New York Mets, shared a few pearls of wisdom of what this game really means, as reported by Bob Sudyk of the Cleveland Press: "Whoever wins this here thing today," Stengel said, "will prove he's the best there is no matter who tells you different, otherwise there's no point in fooling around with it and they might as well give it all to charity."
The game started promptly at 1 p.m.
To the surprise of many, the 34th All-Star game was largely a dud.
Between the two teams, there were 17 hits, 16 of which were singles. Interestingly, among the land of giants, the smallest guy on the field, the Los Angeles Angels 5-foot-5 Albie Pearson, had the only extra base hit, the loudest hit of the day, a double in the third inning.
After a scoreless first inning, Willie Mays led off the second with a five-pitch walk. The Giants center fielder scampered to second when catcher Ed Bailey (SF Giants) swung and missed on a 3-1 hit and run pitch. Bailey eventually walked. Dick Groat (St. Louis Cardinals, SS) playing in his first All-Star game for the Cardinals, cracked a single to second to score Mays for the first run of the game.
The A.L. came back to score in the bottom of the frame, when pitcher Ken McBride stepped to the plate with two on and two out, and sliced a ball just to the left of third baseman Ken Boyer (St Louis Cardinals); the ball deflecting off his mitt and sailing into left field, allowing Leon Wagner (LA Angels) to cross the plate, tying the game at 1.
In the third with Hank Aaron (Milwaukee Braves, RF) on second, Willie Mays, in a season long slump with the San Francisco Giants, produced a clutch two out hit (slashing a hit to center) to score Aaron. Mays then stole second, his second steal of the game and scored on Ed Bailey’s ground single to center to put the N.L. up 3-1.
Again, in the bottom of the third, the A.L. was equal to the task. Albie Pearson (LA Angels, CF) cracked Larry Jackson’s (Chicago Cubs, P) offering to the left-center field gap. Willie Mays skillful backhanding of the smash, limited Pearson to a double. Pearson scored when Frank Malzone (Boston Red Sox, 3B) managed a bloop single just over short. A ground out by Leon Wagner moved Malzone to second. Earl Battey (Minnesota Twins, C) brought the stadium crowd to life by smashing a hard single up the middle to tie the score at 3.
With the game knotted at 3, little did anyone in the stadium know that the run production for the A.L. dried up for the rest of the game.
Stan Musial (St Louis Cardinals), playing in his 24th All-Star Game, drew the loudest ovation, pinch hitting in the fifth. He flied out to Al Kaline (Detroit Tigers) in right.
The top of the 5th was noted for a critical error by the New York Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson who was put in to replace Nellie Fox (Chicago White Sox). With Tommy Davis (LA Dodgers, LF) on first and one out, Bill White (St. Louis Cardinals, 1B) squibbed a grounder off the end of his bat toward third. Frank Malzone (Boston Red Sox, 3B) rifled the ball to second for a force out, but Richardson was late covering the bag, mishandling the ball, for an error, allowing Tommy Davis to advance to third. Mays (yes, him again) followed with a slow grounder to first. Rookie Joe Pepitone (New York Yankees, 1B) appeared to have a play at the plate, but hesitated and ended up racing to first for the put out, allowing Davis to sprint home for an unearned run, putting the N.L. on top, 4-3.
The N.L tacked on another run in the 8th. Ron Santo (Chicago Cubs, 3B) blooped a single to short right to score White who was on second base, to put the N.L. up, 5-3.
Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale took the mound for the 8th and shut down the A.L. for the next two innings, turning in a solid pitching performance, which was punctuated with Richardson hitting into a game ending double play in the 9th. Drysdale got the save. The winning pitcher was Larry Jackson. Jim Bunning (Detroit Tigers) took the loss.
Though happy with the win, Alvin Dark, the skipper of the N.L. expressed disappointment he wasn’t able to pitch Sandy Koufax, Warren Spahn, and Juan Marichal because all had worked Sunday prior to the All-Star game. Dark pushed for a rule change that would prevent any pitcher selected for the game from pitching on the Sunday before the midseason classic.
The N.L. made history by fielding a starting infield made up entirely of St Louis Cardinal players, featuring first baseman Bill White, second baseman Julian Javier, shortstop Dick Groat and third baseman Ken Boyer.
Willie Mays was named the MVP of the All-Star Game. The "Say Hey Kid" managed only one hit, but drove in two runs, and stole two bases, making it 5 stolen bases in his All-Star appearances. Prior to the All-Star game, Mays had only stolen three bases all year. The Giants center fielder also flashed some leather in the 8th, running into the center field wired fence while chasing down Pepitone's long fly ball.
Bob Broeg, Sports Editor for the St Louis Dispatch singled out Mays in his column. "The National League might not have the greater power and the better pitching, after all, but they're faster than American Leaguers and must be wiser, too. They're smart enough to have selected a .271 [Willie Mays] hitter to play center field for them in the All-Star game."
What was most ironic about the klunker of an All-Star game was that at the Chamber of Commerce All-Star luncheon held at the Hotel Sheraton Cleveland ballroom a day before the All-Star game, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick said "there has never been a dull All-Star game."
The baseball czar came to regret those words.
Arthur Daley, columnist for the New York Times, questioned such a statement after viewing the game. According to Daley, "It was so prosaic and routine that not even the stars could sparkle with their usual glitter. The Nationals beat the Americans, 5-3, although outhit, 11-6. Few of the hits were rip-snorters. Most were bloopers or grounders with seeing-eye ability to squirt through infield holes. A double by the littlest star, Albie Pearson, was the only extra base hit."
Similar sentiments were echoed by Plain Dealer columnist Gordon Cobbledick, who wrote: "For those that were unable to attend, there was the consoling thought that they missed nothing memorable."
Other than the unusually low attendance (44,160) for an All-Star game, what many found peculiar was how the crowd at Cleveland Municipal Stadium wouldn’t embrace the Yankee players when they stepped to the plate, not even for an All-Star game. There was nothing but a loud chorus of boos that rippled through the stadium when a Yankee was at the plate.
Of course, the Cleveland crowd had reason to boo the Yankees since they had such a bad track record when facing them in the regular season. At the time of the All-Star break in 1963, the Indians had won only 289 and lost 425 for a .406 mark against the Yankees, stretching back to 1930.
The Yankees less than stellar performance in the All-Star game was welcome fodder for a number of Indians fans and sports reporters. Yankee rookie first baseman Joe Pepitone went 0-for-4 at the plate (with two strikeouts) and neglected to throw home when fielding a ball at first allowing the N.L. to break a 3-3 tie in the 5th. And the usually dependable Yankee second baseman, Bobby Richardson, committed a costly error in the same inning. He also hit into two double plays. Oddly, Richardson hit into only three double plays all year heading into the All-Star game.
Charles Johnson, sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star, wrote: "The New York Yankees are the world champions of baseball through most regular seasons, but their representatives were the "goats" of the American League's 5-3 defeat by the Nationals in the All-Star game in Cleveland Tuesday...funny thing, but the Yankees forte has always been to capitalize on the oppositions misplays in tight contests. In this showdown, their misplays gave the Nationals their 16th win, only one less than the A.L."
Clearly, though, the most stinging indictment about the 34th All-Star game sprang from the notebook of Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich, who wrote: “The sick city in major league baseball is Cleveland, and this was known before Tuesday's All-Star game turned up 26,000 empty seats in the big lakeside stadium that used to beckon baseball's biggest mobs. The Indians may be on the move, to another clime. The malaise in Cleveland can be diagnosed as apathy."
"In Cleveland there is much to be apathetic about,” Povich continued. “The Indians have a cheerless sixth place ball team that lacks one exciting evening. The fan interest has dipped sharply enough to ring all the alarms in the front office. It has not been gradual, but steep. Twenty-two years ago, before the population explosion, the team was drawing more fans than in these last two seasons."
Others, too, began to question why the All-Star game was held in Cleveland.
According to one item from the Minneapolis Star: "Baseball moguls realize now that they made a mistake in giving Cleveland the game this year. The attendance of 44,160 was way below estimates (60 percent of capacity) made last winter when this city got the call over Minnesota. One of the better suggestions on these games for the immediate future is to stage them in areas which have new clubs like Met Stadium [Shea Stadium], and Houston before going to the old-time franchise holders. In two previous games as host, Cleveland turned out each time."
Instead of placing all the blame on Cleveland for the poor turnout, Dick Cullum, sports columnist for the Minneapolis Star, offered an alternative viewpoint. Cullum argues that baseball may have tarnished the novelty of the All-Star game when they had two games played each year.
"May it not be, however, that the greed of players and club owners has taken the charm from the game?” Cullum observed.” "They cheapened it by presenting two All-Star games a year for four years. This gave the All-Star idea a commercial aspect which clings to it even after the error has been corrected. The appeal existing in sports events is a fragile and often indefinable thing."
Cheapened it or not, Cleveland Press columnist Frank Gibbons welcomed the cross-pollination of the two leagues and hoped it would become more frequent during the regular season in the near future. “The All-Star game made me feel, again,” Gibbons wrote, “that one of the things major league baseball can do to promote itself is for the brass hats to get together and agree on an inter-league schedule.”
Sharp questions whether Cleveland was a fading baseball town flourished ever since 1963 All-Star game.
Cleveland, in fact, would have to wait nearly 20 years before they’d see another MLB All-Star game again.
NOTE: A big heartfelt thanks to the folks at Proquest for allowing me to access the historic archives of the St. Louis Dispatch and the Minneapolis Star.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) lunges forward for a first down at First Energy Stadium on Sunday in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Photo Credit: UPI
***
Baker is indeed the man.
No doubt about it. The Oklahoma quarterback and the Cleveland Browns no. 1 pick has propelled his team to a 7-7-1 record, improving to 5-2-1 at home, and marking the first time the Browns have been .500 or better at this point of a season since 2007.
With 24 touchdown passes this season, the Austin, Texas native has moved within two of the rookie records held by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson.
Ever since the rookie quarterback assumed center stage in week 3 of the season in a Thursday night nationally televised game against the New York Jets, replacing an injured Tyrod Taylor and heroically bringing the Browns back from a two-touchdown deficit, Baker has been the talk of the town. The Browns beat the Jets, 21-17, officially ending their losing streak at 19 games or 635 days.
Mayfield started the next game (week 4) and has never looked back. Since 1999, he’s become the 30th starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns final home game at First Energy Stadium pretty much sealed Mayfield’s stature in Cleveland as the new icon; giving the Browns fresh hope that their 16-season playoff drought may soon come to an end (beginning next season) with Baker as their Knight and shining armor and formidable field general.
In the Brown 28-16 win over the Bengals last Sunday in front of a sold out First Energy crowd on a cold December afternoon, Mayfield went 27 of 37 for 284 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a rating of 121.9.
Soon after the Browns win over the Bengals, their first sweep of the Bengals since 2002 and first sweep of any AFC North opponent since 2007, fans have taken to Twitter, posting that Baker is now the new undisputed sports hero in Cleveland, replacing LeBron James, who departed to La La Land at the end of the 2017 season.
Here are some tweets that were splashed across Twitter on Sunday
@ColeBuckus Baker Mayfield is the new LeBron
Eric Spicer @eric_spicer2 Baker Mayfield is already bigger in Cleveland than LeBron ever was. It shows how much more important the Browns are than every other Cleveland sport.
Michael Smith @Smittyupsman Time to put Baker and the #Browns banner up on the side of the building in Cleveland, this is a Football town!!! LeBron who???
Complete nonsense! roars this blogger from the peanut gallery.
Hailing Baker the new King of Cleveland wasn’t limited to Twitter.
As amazing as Baker Mayfield has been, have Cleveland sports fans really forgotten about the left field of the Cleveland Indians infield as far as star power and heroics goes, two remarkable athletes, who have been every bit as dramatic as Mayfield’s heroics? But somehow the spectacular accomplishments and frequent web gems of Francisco Lindor and José Ramírez gets overlooked, time and again, in this football crazed town.
Do we really have to review the feats and triumphs of Frankie Lindor and Hosey over the last few seasons to demonstrate just how incredible they have been?
Shouldn't Cleveland fans be tweeting until they run out of characters that Lindor and Ramirez were largely the reason the Indians advanced (in 2016) to their first World Series since 1997. The dynamic duo have become, moreover, the first two players in Indians franchise history to collect at least 35 home runs, 35 doubles, 90 RBI ‘s and 25 stolen bases.
Lindor and Ramírez have become the first switch-hitting teammates in MLB history to both reach 30 HR’s; they’re also recognized for becoming the first switch-hitting teammates in MLB history with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases.
As a stadium usher, I’ve attended a number of Indians’ games at Progressive Field since 2011. I never recall a more dramatic home run then when Lindor cracked a grand slam against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS in 2017. The Indians stormed back from behind to win, 9-8, in 13 innings. Unfortunately, the Indians lost the remaining three games of the Series and were ousted from post-season play.
Still, Frankie’s majestic blast made Progressive Field rumble on one memorable late afternoon; it was arguably one of the most dramatic, ear-splitting, home runs I ever witnessed at Progressive Field.
That blast alone in the 2017 ALDS should have placed Frankie right next to the King, LeBron.
But once again, Cleveland fans determined LeBron was the only real game in town.
Lindor continued his spectacular gallantry in the 2018 campaign; putting together six multi-homer games, tying him with Manny Machado for second most in the Majors behind Khris Davis (7).
The Indians advanced to the ALDS in 2018, but were quickly devoured by the Houston Astros in three games. Still, despite the Indians quick exit from the post-season, Lindor provided some offensive thunder, batting .364 with two home runs.
Somehow, José Ramirez hasn't risen to the rock star status as his Puerto Rican teammate, Francisco Lindor, but he's as equally as lethal at the plate with equally superior defensive skills at third base, a mighty hot corner.
And fans across the country have taken notice.
Ramirez was voted to the starting lineup of the All-Star game in consecutive years, something that hasn't been accomplished in Cleveland since Al Rosen in 1953 and 1954.
Hosey, moreover, set a club record with 29 first-half homers, tying him with Lance Berkman and Mickey Mantle for the most in MLB history by a switch-hitter.
It's not many teams who can boast players like Ramírez and Lindor who both belted 10 home runs in one month in becoming the first Indians to accomplish such a feat since Jim Thome and Karim García in 2002.
José Ramírez (on left) and Francisco Lindor, the dynamic duo of the Tribe's infield.
Photo Credit: SI.com
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And consider this stat from ESPN: “José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor are the first teammates to each get 80 extra-base hits in consecutive seasons since Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig did so for the Yankees in 1936-37.”
How’s that for star power?
Amazingly, all this seems to have fallen deep beneath the surface among the sports fans in Cleveland.
If Frankie and Hosey were playing in New York, Boston, or L.A., I can’t imagine them being overlooked in any of those respective cities the way they are overlooked in Cleveland.
Yes, Baker is amazing, LeBron was phenomenal, but PLEASE, let's not forget about Frankie Lindor and José Ramirez, two All-Stars and potential Hall of Famers who somehow are not considered iconic figures who tower over the city like Baker currently does and Lebron once did.
They are every inch the Kings Lebron was and Baker purports to be.
If ever the Greater Cleveland area needed a break to take their mind off their troubles, July, 1954, couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
The 21st annual All-Star Game took place at Cleveland Municipal Stadium off the shore of Lake Erie on July, 13, 1954. The last time Cleveland hosted an All-Star Game was in 1935.
What exactly was ailing the city? Let us count the ways.
The Indians final series before the All-Star break was held at Comiskey Park, where the Chicago White Sox swept the Tribe in four games. It was a miserable series for the Indians. They left 31 men on base with Al Rosen (last year’s AL MVP) stranding nine without picking up a single RBI. The Tribe star center-fielder, Larry Doby, also was without an RBI. What made matters worse, the New York Yankees ended the first half of the season sweeping the Washington Senators, winning nine in a row and 12 of their last 14 to slice the Indians once comfortable lead down to a half a game in the American League.
The deafening alarm bells were ringing in full force. Cleveland fans were fretting over yet another late season collapse.
Shirley Povich, columnist for the Washington Post, wrote on the morning of the All-Star Game, "The Indians, their hitting attacked defused by good White Sox pitching, have reason to be apprehensive. This was the year in which they weren't supposed to go into their customary fold-up routine, but you don't blow four straight to the White Sox at a time when the Yankees are charging in high gear, as the Yankees are doing....neither the Indians nor the White Sox have the depth to contest with the Yanks."
Al Wolf from the L.A. Times, echoed Povich’s sentiments: "Even the most ardent Cleveland rooters must be wondering if it's going to be the same old story. Three years in a row, the Indians have had to settle for second place. Something always seems to happen."
Outside of baseball, the All-Star Game was a welcome diversion to Clevelanders who were being flooded with press coverage, reporting a grisly murder case that gripped the city and quickly became a sensational national story.
Just nine days before the All-Star Game, in the early morning hours of July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard, a 31-year-old housewife and mother (four months pregnant) was beaten to death in her bed (at their lakeside home of Bay Village) with an unknown instrument. Her body was splattered with blood, pools of blood were found throughout the home. The blood-soaked victim was the wife of Dr. Sam Sheppard, a 30-year-old osteopath, who claimed he was sleeping on the family’s downstairs couch when his wife was savagely murdered.
It wasn’t until July 30, that the Cleveland Press screamed with the front-page headline: "Why Isn’t Sam Sheppard in Jail?” that Sheppard was arrested and charged with murder in the first degree. On December 21, the doctor was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently overturned his conviction in June, 1966.
Clevelanders, in fact, were accustomed to crime and colorful crime figures, such as Alex (Shonder) Birns, a mobster and racketeer from Cleveland, who was once labeled as the city's "Public enemy No. 1" by the local newspapers. Just a day before the All-Star game, Birns went on trial for income tax evasion. He was convicted and served three years in the federal penitentiary.
More bad news came during All-Star week when it was reported that Hall of Famer Tris Speaker, 66, suffered a heart attack. The local hospital (Lakeside Hospital) said he was in good condition. Speaker, the “Grey Eagle,” was the player manager for the 1920 World Champion Cleveland Indians.
By July 13, 1954, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, there were 32 cases of polio reported in Greater Cleveland, an increase from 23 cases reported at the same time last year.
So, Cleveland was ripe, to be sure, for the all-stars to roll into town and put on a show that would help them forget the doom and gloom weighing them down.
Many thought that holding the All-Star game in Cleveland was “altogether fitting and proper” considering the city’s deep roots to the national pastime.
As the Sporting News so eloquently wrote, "Rich is the history to which the 1954 All-Star game added another chapter. Charley Somers...Sunny Jim Dunn...Alva Bradley...Ernest S. Barnard...Billy Evans...Cy Slapnicka...Roger Peckinpaugh--all of them played major roles in making and keeping Cleveland a hotbed of baseball interest. The All-Star game will go to every city in both majors before it returns to Cleveland. But nowhere will it be more welcome, nowhere will visitors to the great mid-summer show feel more at home."
The manager for the American League was Casey Stengel; for the National League, it was rookie manager Walter Alston of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Cleveland Press reported that the betting along “Short Vincent” (a popular hub of activity in downtown Cleveland, between East 6th and East 9th streets) had the NL as 7-5 favorites to win the midseason classic. The Press also reported a moderate amount of ticket scalping in the lobbies of a number of downtown hotels.
Contrary to popular opinion, Jimmy Piersall, the Boston Red Sox center fielder, who was picked for the 1954 All-Star game and covered the 21st All-Star classic for the Boston Globe, wrote a column, predicting an AL victory. "I feel sure we'll beat those National Leaguers tomorrow," Piersall wrote, “but I think it's going to be a close game. I'd say about 5-4 for our side."
Despite the AL holding a commanding 12-8 All Star game advantage, there was good reason for the NL to be heavily favored.
The senior circuit was simply billowing with currents of power. Dodger center fielder Duke Snider was scorching the league in the first half of the season, batting .367 with 20 home runs and 70 runs batted in. Stan Musial (appearing in his 11th All Star game) was hitting .331 with 82 RBI's and 26 home runs. The Cincinnati Reds burly first baseman, Ted Kluszewski, was batting .312 with 22 home runs and 66 RBI's. And Willie Mays entered the All-Star game with a robust 31 home runs. Baseball statisticians, in fact, were buzzing whether the "Say Hey Kid" might very well surpass Babe Ruth's single season home run record of 60 set in 1927. Mays was 11 games ahead of the Babe’s pace in 1927.
Additionally, the NL hitters combined for 230 home runs compared with 152 for the AL.
Despite a mediocre 7-6 record, Casey Stengel opted to use his own 25-year-old southpaw Whitey Ford to start the game. The Yankee manager thought he would be the best man for the job to face Duke Snider, Stan Musial, and Ted Kluszewski of the NL, all left-handed hitters.
Walter Alston, named Robin Roberts (11-8) of the Philadelphia Phillies as his starter for the NL, making it the fourth time in five years, the fireballing right-hander started for the senior circuit in an All-Star game.
The first pitch was set for 1:30 pm.
The television announcers were Mel Allen and Gene Kelly for NBC. Jimmy Dudley and Al Helfer handled the radio play by play for WHK and WERE in Cleveland. The Chicago Tribune reported that a "Cleveland's summer orchestra entertained early arrivals with hit songs from recent Broadway musicals."
July 13th was a hot day with a blazing sun beating down on the field; a soft breeze drifted through the stadium, making the game barely comfortable for the 68,751 fans who poured through the turnstiles. It was the second largest crowd in All-Star game history.
And Indians fans were thrilled to discover Stan Coveleski, celebrating his 66th birthday, was in the house. Coveleski won three games for the Indians in the 1920 World Series.
The first two frames of the game were quiet. It wasn’t until the bottom of the third inning when the American League exploded for four runs. With runners on second and third, the Cleveland Indians third baseman Al Rosen (penciled in at first base) who was mired in a slump with an injured index finger, cracked a home-run to left-center, the ball carrying 380 feet and putting the AL up 3-0. The very next batter, Ray Boone, a former Indian no less, smacked a solo home run to practically the same spot of Rosen’s mighty clout. This marked the first time in All-Star history back to back homers took place in the same inning.
In the 4th, the senior circuit was equal to the task. Sandy Consuegra, the Cuban-born right-handed pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, took the baton from Whitey Ford and proceeded to give up five consecutive hits (after retiring Alvin Dark of the Giants). Ray Jablonski, the Cardinals third baseman, slapped a hard single to center, scoring Duke Snider and Stan Musial. With runners on second and third, Jackie Robinson stepped inside the box and crashed a double off the right center field fence, scoring Kluszewski and Jablonski with the tying runs. Consuegra was lifted for Bob Lemon. With Robinson stationed on second, Don Mueller (Giants), pinch hitting for Roberts, drove a long double into the alley in right center, scoring Robinson to put the NL up 5-4.
The American League came roaring back to tie the score in the bottom of the 4th. After Chicago White Sox shortstop Chico Carrasquel lined a single to left, Minnie Minoso sliced a ball to left center field for a long single with Carrasquel scampering to third. Willie Mays (who just replaced Snider in center, with Snider moving to right) skillfully handled Minoso's hard smash to prevent extra bases. Cleveland Indians infielder Bobby Avila lifted a fly ball to medium left, deep enough to score Carasquel for a sac fly, and tying the score at 5.
The hitting assault continued in the 5th
With Snider on base, Ted Kluszewski crushed a towering drive over the right field fence, for a two-run home run, putting the Nationals back on top, 7-5.
Cleveland's Al Rosen is greeted at home plate by the Yankees' Yogi Berra after Rosen hit his second home run for the AL in the 1954 All-Star Game. Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
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In the bottom of the 5th, Al Rosen, who prior to the game practically begged Casey Stengel to bench him because he didn't think he would help the AL, walloped his second home run of the game, a two-run shot (traveling 400 feet) with Yogi Berra on base. Rosen’s majestic blast gave him five runs batted in, tying an All-Star record set by Ted Williams in 1946.
The game was tied at 7 after 5 innings.
The AL tacked on another run in the 6th (with Warren Spahn on the mound) when Avila singled home Ted Williams who was planted on third, giving the junior circuit an 8-7 advantage.
In the top of the 8th, with Mays on base, Cincinnati outfielder Gus Bell put the National League up again, 9-7, when he smashed a home run over the fence in right center. Dean Stone, the rookie southpaw (Washington Senators) replaced Bob Keegan to become the AL's sixth pitcher of the game.
Arguably, the most controversial play of the game was triggered when second sacker Red Schoendienst of the Cardinals attempted to steal home plate but was gunned down on close play at the plate to end the inning. Third base coach Leo Durocher stormed up to home plate umpire Bill Stewart and administered a severe verbal lashing as only the demonstrative Giants manager can, arguing vehemently that Stone never came to a complete stop before rifling the ball to home plate. Stone, according to the fuming Durocher, should have been called for a balk. After the game, Lippy Leo was still furious, telling reporters "Ed Rommel, the third base coach umpire saw it [the balk] and told me so, said Leo, "but he was helpless to do anything about it because Stewart refused to ask him for an opinion. I simply can't understand how this game of baseball is played today”, Durocher roared.
In the bottom of the 8th, down a run, the AL managed to put the score in double digits with a three-run outpouring. Another Cleveland Indian, Larry Doby, pinch hitting for Stone, tied the game with a solo home run over the left center fence. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, the tobacco chomping Nellie Fox (White Sox) managed to send a bloop single just out of the reach of Giants shortstop Alvin Dark on the edge of the outfield grass, scoring Berra and Mickey Mantle, and putting the AL up 11-9 heading to the 9th.
Before the Chicago Cubs Randy Jackson popped up to Berra to end the game, there were some nervous moments and high drama in the final frame when Stan Musial came to the plate with Snider on first base. The NL’s clean-up hitter laced two long drives that just went foul in the right-field stands, just missing tying the game.
The AL held on with an 11-9 victory for their first win in the All-Star game since 1949 when the junior circuit beat the NL, 11-7 with manager Lou Boudreau.
Dean Stone was credited with the win despite throwing only three pitches. Prior to the 1954 All-Star Game, Casey Stengel, the “Ol' Perfessor” had lost four consecutive All-Star games.
Many questioned NL skipper Walter Alston's decision to leave pitcher Jimmy Wilson with a 6-0 record on the bench with no action. The Milwaukee Braves right-hander was the only one of 8 pitchers never to throw a pitch.
Seven records were broken in the 54' All-Star game, including 17 hits by the AL, 31 hits for both the NL and AL; while the AL’s 4 home runs tied the record set by the NL in 1951.
The gross receipts for the game totaled $292, 678 or $259,204 after taxes, a record for an All-Star Game (another $110,000 from television and radio), with sixty percent of the proceeds going toward the players pension fund.
The post-game mingling among reporters at the Hollenden Hotel was appreciably dampened, when it was learned that sportswriter Grantland Rice , considered the dean of the nation's syndicated sports columnists (whose columns were carried in more than 100 newspapers) died after suffering a stroke while working in his downtown office. Granny was 73.
A striking irony of the 1954 All-Star Game centered on how Casey Stengel may have helped his chief American League rival, the Cleveland Indians, as both teams prepared for their second half of the season quest to clinch the pennant.
In a New York Times column published two days after the All-Star Game (July 15, 1954) with the headline: "A Pyrrhic Victory?" written by Arthur Daley; the Times prized columnist wondered if Casey Stengel may have inadvertently breathed new life into the Tribe.
Daley writes, "He [Stengel] used the ailing Al Rosen and that invalid cured his troubles with two homers (he hadn't one in seven weeks) and five runs batted in; the slumping Bobby Avila broke forth with three hits and two runs batted in; Larry Doby belted a game-tying pinch home run." "As a moral builder," Daley continued, "for the wilting Indians, the All-Star game was perfect...so it will be with the renewed vigor and spirit that the Tribe resumes its regular operations today."
Despite their uncharacteristic swoon just prior to the All-Star break, the Indians ended the season strong, finishing an impressive 111-43 (.721 winning percentage), which included an 11-game winning streak (September 8-20) 8 games ahead of their chief rival, the Yankees, to advance to their first World Series in six years and claim their third American League championship in franchise history.
The Tribe, of course, were unceremoniously swept by the New York Giants in the World Series.
One of the advantages of hosting an All-Star game is being surrounded by a swarm of reporters with a mission to fill their notebooks. Indians GM Hank Greenberg took full advantage of the abundance of journalists in town to press his case for interleague play. The former Tiger slugger was convinced interleague play wouldn’t diminish, one iota, the uniqueness and novelty of the All-Star game. Greenberg told Hal Lebovitz of the Sporting News, “In a schedule providing for inter-league play, the curiosity would remain and the competitive angle would be even stronger because the games actually would count in the standings."
A Footnote:
Though the All-Star game in Cleveland witnessed an abundance of future Hall of Famers, July, 1954, was the month and year another future Hall of Famer was born, only it would take a few years for many to realize it.
It was in July, 1954, that a 19-year-old truck driver from Memphis Tennessee, Elvis Presley, entered the Memphis’ Sun Studio to record “That’s All Right” (Mama), an up-tempo blues song written by Arthur Crudup. The young, financially strapped musician fused the rhythm and blues song with a shade of country music. It quickly became Presley's first smash hit, sending him on the fast road to international fame and fortune.
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NOTE: A heartfelt thanks to my friends at Proquest who allowed me to access the archives of the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times.
The year 1935 was known for a number of alarming events.
Most prominent being Adolf Hitler announcing German re-armament in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles; it was the year of the first modern “race riot,” which took place in Harlem, where three died, with hundreds more wounded. It was also the year the FBI tracked down the Barker Gang, including its ring leader, Ma Barker, an American mother of several criminals who was gunned down (along with her son, Fred) in the small town of Ocklawaha, Florida at a rented house on Lake Weir.
In 1935, many Americans were still feeling the wallops of the Great Depression. Unemployment hovered around 17 percent, down from 25 percent, with many only able to find part-time work. Others, dropped out of the workforce completely.
But baseball, once again, made Americans forget about their troubles, at least for one sunny day in July. The third annual Major League Baseball All-Star game was held in Cleveland, Ohio on July 8, 1935.
The game wouldn’t be played, though, without a surge of protest from the fans and sports writers, who didn’t like how rosters would be selected.
This mid-season classic would deviate from the previous two; in that this would be the first All-Star game in which the fans would be shut out from selecting who would make the All-Star squad. In 1933 and 1934, selection of the All-Star teams was up to the fans, who could vote for the All-Stars through newspaper ads featuring official ballots. Beginning in 1935 (and lasting through 1946) each league’s eight managers selected the participants while the All-Star team managers chose the starters.
Despite taking a dim view of the rule change, Clevelanders were thrilled to have the All-Star game in their home town, a city that didn’t have much to cheer about since the Cleveland Indians beat the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) in seven games (five games to two) in the 1920 World Series.
Before the All-Star break, Cleveland was stuck in 4th place, seven games behind the New York Yankees.
John Lardner, a sports writer and the son of Ring Lardner, writing in the Plain Dealer just prior to the All-Star game, wrote, " In the general excitement, the city of Cleveland is trying hard to forget its own troubles (otherwise known as the Cleveland Baseball Club). It has been declared a civic offense to mention the Indians at all during the next couple of days. You can mention Joe Vosmick and Mel Harder if you want to, because they belong to the All-Star squad, but everything else, including the standing of the club and result of the last series with Detroit, is verboten."
Looking through the Cleveland newspapers at the time, the city was bustling with activity to forget about the Indians lackluster season.
Vaudeville and radio star Bob Hope, who grew up in Cleveland, was performing at the Palace Theater, while popular newspaper columnist and humorist, Will Rogers, was lampooning the political climate in Washington at Keith’s 105th Theater, a venue near University Circle (on the east side of Cleveland). Rogers died tragically the following month in a plane crash in Alaska along with the plane’s pilot, famed American aviator, Wiley Post.
If you wanted to catch a movie the night before the All-Star game, you could plop yourself down to take in Shirley Temple in "Our Little Girl" or "Reckless," a 1935 American musical film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, William Powell and Franchot Tone at a number of movie houses around town.
A day before the All-Star game, Babe Ruth, the “Sultan of Swat,” stormed into town like a hurricane. Ruth ended his professional playing career a month earlier (June 2) with the Boston Braves after 22 seasons, ten World Series and 715 home runs.
The former home run king reportedly took the morning train from New York into Cleveland. When he arrived, he played 27 holes of golf at a Country Club. He shot an 82.
The lobby of an unnamed Cleveland hotel was reportedly flooded with stars, including Eddie Collins, GM of the Boston Red Sox, Tris Speaker, Branch Rickey, vice president of the St Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox president, Tom. L. Yawkey, Thomas S. Shibe, president of the Philadelphia Athletics and Roger Hornsby who helped Mickey Cochrane manage the AL all-stars.
The temperature on game day was described as perfect for a baseball game with just a few non-threatening cloudy skies lurking over Cleveland Municipal Stadium on the shores of Lake Erie. Game time was scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon with gates opening sharply at 10:00 a.m.
Just prior to the game, Babe Ruth, whose heroics had long since faded from a bygone generation, still remained a big attraction with the crowd. The Plain Dealer reported that a gaggle of photographers hovered over the Babe with cameras whirring with lightning speed as he took his seat along the first base line.
"For more than 10 minutes," Plain Dealer reporter Alan Silverman observed, "the photographers photographed, while Babe smoked a heavy black cigar, brushed dust off his brown sports coat, straightened his flannel trousers and talked to smartly-dressed, Mrs. Ruth."
Once known for wolfing down hot dogs in a blink of an eye, the Babe turned down the 15 cent hot dogs’ vendors were selling.
When players realized the Bambino was in the house, they immediately darted over to the first base line to shake his hand. The Babe’s presence, in fact, overshadowed the presence of Ohio Gov. Martin L. Davey, and Cleveland Mayor, Harry L. Davis. Film star, Joe E. Brown, who appeared in the motion picture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935), reportedly stood on the field near Ruth's box for several minutes before anyone noticed him. Even the baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, turned few heads; that is, until it was time for him to throw out the first pitch.
Game announcers were reportedly Jack Graney for CBS radio; and Tom Manning announcing for NBC radio.
The stadium was packed with 69,812 in attendance, though less than the 80,000 they originally expected. The gross receipts from the game totaled, $93, 692.80, with a government tax of $12,000. Billy Evans, business manager for the Cleveland Indians said that roughly $60,000 from the $93, 692.80 taken in for the game would be directed to the poor and needy throughout the city.
Frankie Frisch (St. Louis Cardinals) manager for the National League selected his own ace, Bill Walker of the Cardinals to the start the game. Player/manager Mickey Cochrane, skipper for the Detroit Tigers, went with Lefty Gomez (New York Yankees) to take the hill for the Junior Circuit.
The 1935 All-Star game was over before it ever really began when the AL delivered an early round KO.
In the bottom of the first frame with Lou Gehrig stationed on first, third sacker Jimmie Foxx (Philadelphia Athletics) with a 3-2 count, drove a curve ball from the NL southpaw deep into the left-field stands, putting the AL on top, 2-0. The AL tagged on another run in the second inning when catcher Rollie Hemsley (St. Louis Browns) tripled off the wall, later scoring on Joe Cronin’s (Boston Red Sox) sac fly.
The NL's only run came in the 4th inning, when the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Arky Vaughan slashed a double to right. New York Giants Bill Terry first baseman Bill Terry slapped a hard single to center field, scoring Vaughan for the NL's first and only run of the game.
With two quick outs in the bottom of the 5th, Cleveland Indians left-fielder Joe Vosmik slapped a single to left field. Tigers second baseman Charlie Gehringer then bounced a single past Chicago Cubs second baseman Billy Herman, moving Vosmik to third. Gehrig walked to load the bases. Foxx stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, ready to inflict some heavy damage. The Athletics power hitter laced a ball back through the pitcher's box; New York Giants pitcher Hal Schumacher couldn't handle the hard smash, only managing to deflect it, allowing a run to score with the bases still loaded. Philadelphia Athletics left-fielder Bob Johnson struck out swinging to end the inning.
Jimmie Foxx, “The Beast,” was responsible for three of the AL’s four runs in their 4-1 win over the NL. The convincing win gave the AL their third consecutive win since the mid-season classic was first launched in 1933.
Unusual by today’s standards, AL skipper, Mickey Cochrane, only used two pitchers. Lefty Gomez pitched through six innings. He then passed the baton to Cleveland Indians ace, Mel Harder, who only gave up one hit (a double by Jimmie Walker) in three innings of work. Gomez and Harder combined for a four hitter.
Despite Lou Gehrig going hitless, he registered the loudest out of the game.
In the bottom of the 7th, the "Iron Horse “drove a ball to deep center field in front of the bleachers at the 450 ft mark. Jo-Jo Moore (New York Giants) who entered the game as a reserve outfielder, managed to chase the ball down in a dead sprint. Many thought if the game had been played at the Indians other home, League Park (66th and Lexington), Gehrig’s long drive would have most certainly cleared the fence.
Though the 1935 All-Star game didn’t have as much fireworks as many had anticipated, the real fireworks were actually ignited in the days after the game by newspaper columnists.
One of the loudest grumblings about the game was the lack of players Mickey Cochrane used for the game. The Tigers skipper used only 13 of the 20 players on the roster. He never used Rick Ferrell, Boston Red Sox catcher or Buddy Myer (Washington Senators) at second base. Cochrane elected to keep his own second baseman, Charlie Gehringer, for the entire game.
Many columnists protested that fans deserved the chance to see a vast majority of all-stars on the field even for an inning or two.
Cochrane's motives were also called into question when he decided not to use his own pitcher, Schoolboy Rowe, in the game. Many believed the Detroit manager wanted to keep Rowe's arm fresh for an important upcoming east coast trip once the season resumed.
Frankie Frisch, by comparison, used 18 of the 20 players on his roster. Even when he found his team behind, the NL manager inserted reserves, if only to let fans see some of their favorites. Dizzy Dean (St. Louis Cardinals), for example, even though pitching six innings the following day was inserted late in the game.
Other than having Mel Harder relieving Lefty Gomez, the only changes Cochrane made was in the last inning when he removed left-fielder Bob Johnson and replaced him with Ben Chapman of the Yankees. And Doc Cramer (Philadelphia Athletics) replaced Al Simmons (Chicago White Sox) in the outfield.
By leaving the decision of selecting the roster to the managers, columnists roared, it meant fans were deprived of seeing the likes of Hank Greenberg (Tigers), Ted Lyons (White Sox), Cy Blanton, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, Travis Jackson, shortstop for the New York Giants, and Pie Traynor, third sacker for the Pittsburgh Pirates, among others.
According to a number of columnists, managers were thinking strictly of the best players who would perform “best under stress”, not giving much thought to fan favorites.
A nagging issue with the All-Star game was that a number of managers didn’t like the mid-season game at all. They felt It interrupted with the general flow of the season and placed an extra traveling burden on a number of teams.
Stuart Bell, Cleveland Press columnist, slammed the managers for not embracing the All-Star game with more gusto.
“The game [All-Star game] is one of the few constructive moves baseball has made in many years. Managers and players ought to be sold on it.” “And fan appeal,” Bell wrote, “should come ahead of any desire to win out league pride.”
In the weeks following the 1935 All-Star game, there was a chorus of protests from team owners, arguing that the All-Star game should be abandoned altogether. The owners were reportedly dissatisfied with the share of the gate receipts they were receiving.
The owners decided to hold off deciding the fate of the All-Star game until their annual December meetings.
One small footnote about the 1935 All-Star game. Through 2018, pitcher Lefty Gomez holds the record for most wins in an All-Star game: 3 (1933, 1935, 1937).
And the six innings pitched by Gomez during the 1935 All-Star game still stands as a major league record for an All-Star game.
Pete Hamill and Jack Newfield once wrote that the three most evil men of the 20th century were, “Hitler, Stalin, and Walter O’Malley.”
O’Malley, of course, was the brute of an owner, who moved Brooklyn’s beloved Dodgers to L.A. after the 1957 season.
Now, we may have to update the three most evil men of the 21st century to be: bin Laden, Hussein, and Rob Manfred.
Most of us will never forget January 29, 2018.
It was the day that Chief Wahoo died.
It was the day, the baseball commissioner issued a stinging press release announcing the Cleveland Indians would discontinue using Chief Wahoo logo on their uniforms, beginning in 2019.
According to the press release, Mr. Manfred is committed to nurturing a culture of diversity and inclusion, and, apparently, the Indians Chief Wahoo, a cartoon caricature of an American Indian, smiling ear-to-ear, is deemed too offensive to continue wearing.
I applaud the commissioner’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, we all do, but I would also suggest that he first get his own house in order before he starts picking on an innocuous logo in order to solve the country’s social ills.
Dr . Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the 2017 Major League Baseball Racial and Gender Report Card , says when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, his vision was to see diverse players on the field, reflecting diverse coaches and those in the front office. Lapchick's report shows “Major League Baseball still has a long way to go to achieve those goals.”
While MLB, according to the report, did receive an A- for hiring people of color; it dropped precipitously to a C- for gender hiring practices. 20 female employees hold executive positions in central baseball.
In terms of gender, senior team administration received a D+ while professional administration received a C-. "The team front offices need to have more open hiring practices so they will look more like the residents of their community and of America,” Lapchick stated in his summary report.
Interestingly, gender equality doesn’t appear to be high on Manfred’s list of diversity and inclusion priorities.
Back to Chief Wahoo.
For some of us, like former Plain Dealer reporter and state editor Bob Daniels, when he thinks of Chief Wahoo, he thinks of “the long baseball tradition and a lifetime of summer fun in northeast Ohio.” “I do not think,” Daniels emphasized, “of illiterate, alcoholic barbarians infested with lifestyle and personal-hygiene-related illnesses, who never developed written language beyond pictographs.”
Daniels also takes issue with the "Diversity" card Manfred is flashing.
"The commissioner's office uses common PC [Politically Correct] words like "inclusive" and "diversity," while simultaneously and hypocritically reducing inclusiveness and diversity by isolating native American representations from baseball's lucrative national presence," Daniels says.
Others, roundly applaud the Indians decision to abandon the Chief.
New York Times bestselling author of "God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours” ," and former Plain Dealer columnist, Regina Brett, says that she's "thrilled the team will retire Chief Wahoo. It's 2018. Any caricature of a Native American with bright red skin and a giant hook nose is offensive."
Similarly, Dave Hyde, an Ohio native, and an award-winning sports columnist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, chimed in to say, that he never really thought anything was wrong with Chief Wahoo as a kid growing up in Columbus, and occasionally, coming to the stadium, and listening to the rumbling sounds of John Adams pounding away on his drums.
“When you do think about it,” Hyde reasoned, "how can an awful caricature of a Native American be any team mascot? The only strange part of this is it took until 2018 to stop with Chief Wahoo? “
It’s a shame that Chief Wahoo has become so demonized over the last few decades, because that was never the intention.
Walter Goldbach, the artist, who originally designed the logo in 1946 at age 17 (who incidentally died in December, age 88), never dreamed Chief Wahoo would be so ridiculed and held up as symbol of racism and considered so demeaning to Native Americans. Goldbach once said, “it was the last thing on my mind [to] offend someone.”
Rob Manfred, obviously has little appreciation for how much Chief Wahoo has meant to Cleveland Indians fans for so long (over 70 years); it’s been such a source of pride, a rallying cry in good times and bad, that connects generations, creates memories, and celebrates families.
The Chief has never represented racism, fascism, or repression, like so many other flags and relics of the past.
Chief Wahoo, moreover, has been a universal symbol that spans the globe.
I recently talked to someone at TribeFest who just came back from Italy. He was walking down the street, he told me, wearing a Chief Wahoo cap. Someone immediately yelled to him in broken English, “Cleveland Indians…Go Tribe!”
Having the Chief stripped from their lives is especially painful to someone like Rich Passan, former Plain Dealer columnist, sports copy editor, and local sports radio talk show host, who was raised on Chief Wahoo for much of his younger days as an Indians fan. “Chief Wahoo to me,” Passan says, “is the Cleveland Indians. For all those years, no one complained.”
Passan, like so many other die-hard Tribe fans, has a lot to vent about.
“I am appalled and sad at the same time,” Passan explained. “Appalled because baseball has enough troubles without inserting itself into something other than the sport itself. And sad because a symbol that has been a part of my life is disappearing for no good reason.”
While the Chief has undoubtedly triggered controversy and is a source of rage to Native American groups, not all Native Americans take such offense to the logo.
According to Dan Coughlin, a longtime sports anchor/reporter for WJW Fox 8 in Cleveland, author, and former sports writer for the Plain Dealer, “most people of Native American heritage had no problem with the Chief. I understand that the Cherokees in Oklahoma are actually proud to be associated with him.”
Coughlin additionally argues that the American Indians have a lot to complain about. “Treaties were broken, the U. S. government swindled them. Shamefully, many have been relegated to reservations. It's a long list. Chief Wahoo isn't on it. “
While the Cleveland Indians will abandon the Chief Wahoo after this season, they still will maintain merchandising rights and continue to sell apparel with the Chief at team shops.
Which means, ironically, Chief Wahoo logos will dot Progressive Field in great abundance, like the stadium has never seen before.
A small consolation, indeed, to rabid Indians fans.
Will there be another logo, or will the Indians be restricted to using the unimaginative block “C ” on the uniforms?
After all, what’s a team without a logo?
According to Curtis Danburg, Senior Director of Communications with the Cleveland Indians, they will explore options for a new logo, but no timetable has been set.
In the meantime, while those few, those happy few, are downright giddy that Chief Wahoo has been thrown overboard, others, mostly the Indians most loyal fans, will have to endure the sharp, piercing pain, that their very soul has been torn from their bodies, with blood dripping from their hearts.
Cleveland Indians' ushers outside of Progressive Field. From Left to Right: Bill Voit, Peter Miksa, Lou Valazquez, Mike Routa, Rigoberto (``Rigo'') Reveron and Pablo Senquiz.
Haven't we seen this movie before?
Photo Credit: Yahoo Sports
***
In with a bang, out with a whimper.
That pretty much sums up the Cleveland Indians postseason for 2017.
As I was ushering Game 5 of the ALDS between the Indians and New York Yankees at Progressive Field; and as the curtain came crashing down on our historic season, one that saw the Indians winning 22 consecutive games (an American League record), including 102 wins (best in the A.L., second best in franchise history), most of us just looked around to ask, “what just happened.”?
One of the girlfriends of an Indians’ player walked by me with a river of tears rolling down her cheeks, and said, “this was supposed be our year!”
Another relative of an Indians player (who doesn’t speak a word of English) embraced me in a bear hug to say goodbye for the year; his eyes bulging with tears, as if we just lost a family member.
It was nothing less than a funeral procession watching the Yankees celebrate on our home turf, knowing less than a week ago, we were up two games to none over the Bronx Bombers and looking forward to ALCS.
But somehow the bottom fell out of our smooth sailing ship.
Who was to blame?
It depends on who you ask. Some say the Tribe’s staff ace, Corey Kluber, wasn’t disclosing an injury and just wasn’t the same pitcher we witnessed time and again during the regular season.
Another popular gripe that wafted through the air along with the cool breeze, was, “what was Tito [Indians’ manager Terry Francona] thinking starting Trevor Bauer on three days’ rest (Game 1’s sensation) in Game 4 instead of the well-rested flame thrower Danny Salazar or Mike Clevinger?”.
Still others claim lingering injuries to Michael Brantley, Lonnie Chisenhall, Jason Kipnis, Brandon Guyer (season ending surgery), Bradley Zimmer (done for the year), and Edwin Encarnación (sprained ankle in Game 2 of the ALDS), left us with a less than robust hitting machine to counter the Yankees’ rotation.
The injuries, taken together with Jose Ramirez (.100) and Francisco Lindor (.111), managing only two hits apiece in the ALDS, quickly turned our highly anticipated celebration into a nightmare, a nightmare that many of us still have not shaken off.
No truer words were spoken when Joe Walcott (aka "The Barbados Demon"), the welterweight champion of the world from 1901-1904, coined the phrase, "the bigger they are the harder they fall."
With expectations sky high entering the playoffs and with the wind at our backs, most Indians’ fans must have felt like we were tossed off the Terminal Tower (the 52-story, 771-foot, landmark skyscraper located on Public Square in downtown Cleveland) and dropped on our heads.
The worst feeling, at least for me, was going to bed that calamitous night with the feeling of a sharp dagger slashed through the center of my heart.
Nearly a week after sustaining such a crushing first round knockout, I’m just now able to hold down solid food.
So, as I was plunged into the depths of despair, I wondered why sports fans put themselves through such punishment year after bloody year; and why our emotions are dictated by something as trivial as baseball?
For the answer to these questions, I had to seek out some authority.
Dr. Thomas George , who studies the psychology of sports in the school of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, tells me part of the disappointment that Indians fans are feeling centers on “civic pride,” a concept that stretches back to the 19th century.
"The original league structure of professional baseball in the 1870's," George told me, ''set things up so that each team had specific territorial rights.” "Since there was only one team in the area, that team was a representative of the city and its inhabitants. So, the team became an extension of the people of the city."
The second idea along those same lines, George went on to tell me is, self-identity. "Supporting the local sport team has developed into a component of fans' self-identity."
Dr. George cited studies of fan behavior during the 1970's by Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist, who coined a couple of sports related terms. Cialdini argued that fans would BIRG (bask in reflected glory) after their team won (such as “Yes! We Won,!” “We're Number One!”), but CORF (cast off reflected failure) when their team lost (such as “They’re an Embarrassment!” “They Stunk up the Joint!”).
Other researchers observed that fans BIRF (bask in reflected failure), that is, "real fans'' continue to support the team even when things are not going well, much like the Brooklyn Dodgers losing 10 World Series' (before breaking through in 1955) or the Cleveland Browns having never advanced to the Super Bowl. It’s a badge of honor, in other words, to remain loyal to the team, no matter how many disappointments they suffer, while unleashing total disdain for those who disparage their teams crushing defeats.
Dr. George additionally believes fans support of their team contributes to the success of the team. They fervently believe they are as invested in winning as much as the players themselves, including management.
Dr. George observed that, "the extremely high expectations of winning a World Series after a couple of near wins in recent years just increased the anticipation of greatness. The thrill of winning it all can really set people up for a big fall."
“Finally," George says, "fans may have been feeling "superior" to other fans because of Cleveland's amazing success, and the shocking loss has knocked them off their pedestal. I think this is particularly relevant given the way that Cleveland is often (unfairly) portrayed in the media."
Dr. George contends, like so many other keen observers of MLB, that this was the year that the Indians would FINALLY shed their 69-year World Series championship drought, the longest drought in Major League Baseball. When those lofty expectations weren’t realized, despair and depression, became the order of the day in Northeast, Ohio.
So, how do we move on?
Time heals all pain, Dr. George says.
"Fans are likely very emotional about the loss right now, so rational thought may not be of much use just yet.’’
Dr. George would especially encourage fans to take Dr. Seuss's advice: “Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”
The sports psychologist’s parting words to me were that "it was easy being an Indian's fan all season, but now it is not so easy. Again, focusing on the joy, excitement and pride the team provided all season will help heal those wounds. It won't go away today or tomorrow, but it will slowly fade over time. The great thing about sports is that there are regular opportunities to regain what was lost. As the old saying goes: There's always next year."
So ends our therapy session for the season.
I hope you found it helpful.
As our breezy fall turns into a harsh winter in the coming weeks ahead, we can take comfort in knowing we’ll mostly likely have the same core of players back next season, with possibly a few new pickups, who will be healthier and raring to go when we take the field at Safeco Field in Seattle on March 29, 2018.
Still, when thinking about baseball in Cleveland and whether we'll ever get to the Promised Land, I can't help but think about these poignant words from American novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald:
"He had come a long way to this
blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. "
