DailyNewsGems

Have the New York Yankees Retired Too Many Numbers?

Plaques of numbers retired by the New York Yankees in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

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As of 2023, the New York Yankees have won 27 championships; so, it’s probably not much of a surprise that they’ve also retired 22 player numbers, the most in baseball. The only team that is close to retiring that many numbers are the St Louis Cardinals, with 14.

The last Yankee to have his number retired was Paul O’Neill in 2022, who patrolled the outfield for the Bronx Bombers for nine seasons, compiling a lifetime batting average of .288, 281 home runs, and 1,269 runs batted in.

In fact, the Yankees have retired so many numbers that they are now running short of jersey numbers to issue to its current roster. Derek Jeter’s no. 2, which was retired in 2017, was the last single digit number to be retired.

To make up for the scarcity of numbers, the Yankees have petitioned Major League Baseball to ask whether their coaching staff can suit up without numbers. MLB is reportedly reviewing the request.

With 22 numbers retired by the Yankees, many question whether all of these players really deserve such a distinction.

Imagine, Steve Garvey, with a lifetime batting average of .301, an MVP winner in 1974, who won four Gold Gloves, over 16 seasons, has yet to have his # 6 retired by the Dodgers.

Ditto for Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich, a three time All-Star, who won three complete games in the 1968 World Series, including a critical win over the St Louis Cardinals future hall of famer, Bob Gibson. At the time of his retirement in 1979, Lolich held the Major League Baseball record for career strikeouts by a left-handed pitcher, even surpassing Warren Spahn. Yet, his number 29 has never been retired by the Tigers.

No wonder some joke that “it’s easier to get into the Hall of Fame than to have your number retired.”

When asked whether all 22 Yankee players numbers deserved to be retired, Washington Post columnist, political commentator, and lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, George F. Will, responded that he “would delete #1 – Billy Martin, who was neither a great player or manager.”

Dan Shaughnessy, sports columnist and associate editor for the Boston Globe, thought that retiring the number of “[Paul] O'Neill (# 21) was ridiculous.” “I guess,” Shaughnessy explained, “because he's on television with them now. So many more worthy than him.”

Others question the retiring of Reggie Jackson’s number 44 in 1993. Conceding he was most definitely Mr. October in the playoffs, Jackson averaged a ho hum .279 batting average with 29 home runs and 92 RBIs in his five years in pinstripes, which really dwarfs what he produced for the Oakland A’s, compiling 1,151 hits, 254 home runs and 733 RBI in nine seasons. Though he caused mountains of dissension in New York when it was called the “Bronx Zoo” and infamously clashed with manager Billy Martin, owner George Steinbrenner liked him, which is most likely the reason why his number was retired in the Bronx.

Interestingly, the A’s didn’t retire Jackson’s #9 until 2004.

Still others wonder whether former Yankee first baseman and team captain, Don Mattingly (no. 23) really deserved to have his number retired. In 14 seasons with the Yankees, Mattingly only won one MVP and only appeared in one round of the postseason, in 1995, his final season in pinstripes, in a wild card round against the Seattle Mariners.

It may be surprising to some that the retiring of jersey numbers wasn’t that common until the 1970s, when on June 4, 1972, the L.A. Dodgers retired three numbers simultaneously: Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, and Roy Campanella.

Interestingly, for 31 years, from 1939 through 1970, only 19 MLB numbers were retired.  There are now more than 200 retired numbers in Major League Baseball, which now includes executives, broadcasters, and “fans” (as in the case of the Cleveland Indians/Guardians).

Uniform numbers were first introduced by the New York Yankees in 1929. Not until 1932 did all MLB teams adopt numbers. And when the Yankees began wearing them, it was used to designate the number of the hitter in the batting order. In 1929, for example, Earl Combs, the Yankees leadoff hitter, wore no. 1. Third sacker, Mark Koeing, wearing no. 2, was second in the lineup followed by Ruth, Gehrig, and Bob Meusel, who wore jersey numbers 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

Lou Gehrig had his number 4 retired on July 4, 1939 at Yankee Stadium, soon after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), later referred to as the Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Photo Credit: BETTMANN ARCHIVE

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Lou Gehrig was the first Yankee to have his #4 retired by the Yankees on July 4, 1939 during his moving “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The “Iron Horse” compiled some monster numbers for the Yankees: a .340 batting average with 493 home runs, two AL MVP Awards and the 1934 Triple Crown. Gehrig additionally played in 2,130 consecutive games; never missing a game from June 1, 1923, until he voluntarily retired during a game on May 2, 1939. A record that remained until Baltimore Orioles’ shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. broke it on September 6, 1995.

Babe Ruth had his number retired by the Yankees in 1948 and Joe DiMaggio in 1952.

One historic note: the first number officially retired by a team in professional sports was that of hockey player, Ace Bailey, whose number 6 was retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1934.

The benchmarks for retiring numbers, it seems, have relaxed over the years. It used to be common practice that a player’s number wasn’t retired until other players had worn them. At least nine Yankee players, for example, wore no. 3 after Ruth left the team.

Other standards adopted by teams was that a player had to distinguish himself with other teams or until he’s been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown before their number would be retired.

Eight players have had their numbers retired by more than one team, six by two teams, while Nolan Ryan had his retired by three teams. Nolan Ryan, along with Carlton Fisk have two different numbers retired. No. 20 is the jersey number which has been retired the most by 11 players, including Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, and Don Sutton.

Some players have been ignored entirely because their careers came before the adoption of numbers.

Andrew Zimbalist, an American economist and author of 24 books, including “Baseball and Billions” and “May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy” thinks the Yankees retire too many numbers, to the point of diluting the honor. “One example that should not have been retired is Paul O'Neill (no. 21),” Zimbalist said.

To put the excess of retired New York Yankees numbers in proper perspective, I checked in with retired New York Times’ sports columnist George Vecsey, who explained to me that teams like the Dodgers have a more demanding policy than the Yankees. “They held off retiring Brooklyn deities like Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges until after they were voted into the Hall of Fame.” “I would have voted those two into the Hall much earlier,” Vecsey said, “but appreciate the strict standards.”

Vecsey additionally attributes the glut of retired numbers to George Steinbrenner, the first real Boss, long before Bruce Springsteen assumed the title. “Part of it is the ego,” Vecsey recalls, “that says he can do whatever he darn wants. But the longer he has been gone, the more I think about his sentimentality.”

If it were up to Vecsey, are there any player numbers he would not have retired?

“Definitely not Jorge Posada or Bernie Williams or Paul O'Neill, Andy Pettitte or Ron Guidry; Mattingly was hurt early.” Vecsey would also place big question marks over the retiring of Billy Martin, Roger Maris, and Phil Rizzuto’s numbers.

“If I were being strict”, Vecsey explained, “I'd have retired numbers: #3 (Ruth), #4 (Gehrig), #5, (DiMaggio) #6 (Joe Torre), #7 (Mickey Mantle), #8 (Yogi Berra & Bill Dickey), #16 (Whitey Ford), #37 (Casey Stengel), #42 (Mariano Rivera), and Jeter (# 2) -- sure—as the leader of the dynasty.”

Clearly, George Vescey is right on the money. Steinbrenner was proud of his Yankees, and admittedly, contributed to a number of its world championships. The Boss treated the Yankees like they were a Broadway show, he wasn’t interested in raw, untested talent, or solid position players--much like a Broadway show—he wanted the BIG stars who would bring fans to the Bronx, mega superstars like Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Wade Boggs, and Catfish Hunter, to name just a few. Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, in Steinbrenner’s eyes, was an extension of his Broadway show mentality—when fans came to Yankee Stadium, they would feast their eyes on the vast collection of plaques and retired Yankee numbers (whether deserved or not), drumming in the impression that the Yankees are arguably the greatest sports franchise in the world.

--Bill Lucey

April 14, 2023

[email protected]

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Additional Resources

List of New York Yankee Retired Numbers (MLB)

Baseball Reference: Retired Numbers in MLB

Keith Olbermann’s biting commentary (in 2017) over whether Derek Jeter was the greatest Yankee

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NOTE: To the Sports Editor:

Publication Date: Sept. 30, 2001, New York Times

“I am a longtime Yankees fan who remembers viewing his first Yankees game and first night game in 1954. The retired numbers - 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 16, 32, 37, etc., are sitting as symbols on a fence when they would be better utilized on the backs of active players.

The numbers can still hang on the wall as a tribute to past stars. They could also be used to the Yankees' advantage by giving them to their present players.”

RUSSELL A. ROMAGIA

Woodbridge, Va.

 

Early Prognosis: Baker Mayfield Likely Done for the Season

Cleveland Browns quarterback, Baker Mayfield, absorbs a punishing sack from Arizona Cardinals defensive end, J.J. Watt

Photo Credit:  Brownswire.USAToday.com

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Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield is as tough and resilient as they come. There’s simply no quit in this unconquerable Texas native who’s in his fourth year as the Browns field general.

Typically, any setback he faces, only means he roars back the following week like a Category 4 hurricane, usually silencing his critics in a blink of an eye. If you remember, Mayfield was met with boos and hollers last year when he overthrew some easy targets early in the season. His confidence was never shaken and bounced back with some star-studded performances, leaving his critics speechless.

That’s the charm of this blue-collar quarterback playing in a blue-collar town: both were made for each other, a marriage made in heaven. Mayfield won’t be confused with Tom Brady or Joe Montana, but his work ethic, raw talent, and unabashed confidence is well suited to this Rust Belt city.

Unfortunately, as tough as he is, multiple shoulder injuries he sustained in the first few weeks of the young season--left him sidelined in week seven against the Denver Broncos who visited the shores of Lake Erie on Thursday night.

Not only were the Browns without Baker Mayfield, hamstring injuries sidelined their two workhorses in the backfield: Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt.

Thanks to the serviceable job turned in by backup quarterback, Case Keenum, (now on his 8^th NFL team since 2012) and the spectacular running performance of D’Ernest Johnson (rushing for 146 yards and 1 TD), the Browns broke their two-game losing streak with a 17-14 win to put them at 4-3 for the season.

The Browns now face three formidable opponents in the coming weeks: they’ll be in Pittsburgh on October 31 followed by two home games against Cincinnati (November 7) and New England (November 14^th). Two of those three opponents, of course, are division rivals.

The question now becomes will Mayfield be healthy enough to battle through his injuries and return as the Browns starting quarterback?

That’s been a mighty big question mark all week.

Mayfield suffered a fully torn labrum (cartilage that is attached to the shoulder socket rim) in week two of the season. He mentioned to reporters, he was experiencing some “fraying in the shoulder.” If that wasn’t alarming enough, the Browns quarterback recently admitted to reporters that he fractured the humerus bone at the top of the non-throwing shoulder when the Browns played the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 5 of the season, compliments of a J.J. Watt strip sack.

So, now Baker Mayfield is dealing with multiple fractures. Early indications are is that he’s determined to play though the injuries and schedule surgery after the season is over. Head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters in his post-game press conference after the Denver game that he hasn’t made any decision on whether Mayfield will start on October 31 and will rely, heavily, on the advice of his medical team.

Curious about the severity of Mayfield’s injuries, I consulted with a few sports medicine specialists who deal with elbow and shoulder surgeries.

Not knowing all the minute specifics of Mayfield’s injuries, their prognosis, nonetheless, was not encouraging.

Josef K. Eichinger, an M.D. in sports medicine, shoulder and elbow surgery, and Professor of Orthopaedics at the Medical University of South Carolina, said that Mayfield should strongly consider surgery. “My money,” Eichinger told me, “would be on him being out for the remainder of the season.  The multiple dislocations are a real concern.  Cumulative dislocations can result in additional bone loss and can change the nature of surgery. “

Eichinger went on to explain that, typically, you can play through a torn labrum, but the fracture Mayfield suffered will require a minimum of 6-8 weeks (or longer to heal).

Amit Momaya, M.D. in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Heersink School of Medicine at the University of Alabama Birmingham, thinks players with greater tuberosity fractures can return as early as a few weeks.  “The danger,” Dr. Amit warns, “is that repeated dislocations can result in glenoid (socket) bone loss in terms of long-term damage, which can make surgery more involved. In addition, a repeat injury to a healing fracture may result in displacement, thus requiring surgery."

My guess is that Baker Mayfield will follow the sound advice of his medical team and opt for surgery immediately, meaning he’ll miss the rest of the season. With 10 bruising opponents still to come, I don’t see the sense of jeopardizing his long-term health so early into his promising career.

He’s still a young athlete, only 26, whose long-term contract still hangs in the balance. Why risk playing through the rest of the year with the chance he’ll never be the same again?

It’s a crying shame that Mayfield’s season is most likely over. He recently took to social media (as did his wife, Emily) to answer critics who made some vicious comments about his mediocre play in week four and five of the season.  It was during those weeks that Mayfield was suffering from a torn labrum (in his non-throwing arm) but never made it an excuse. He still faced toxic comments on Twitter after the Los Angeles Chargers loss in week five despite throwing for over 300 yards, two touchdown passes, and no interceptions.

What’s so ridiculous about all this back and forth about Mayfield and whether he’s a franchise quarterback is that we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if the Browns defense hadn’t played so poorly over the last few weeks.

Over the last three games, the Browns defense has surrendered 98 points. How’s a team supposed to be successful with those kinds of numbers, regardless of who’s the quarterback.  During the Browns lopsided loss (37-14) to the Arizona Cardinals in week six, the Cardinals offense scored on every possession in the first half. That’s just plain disgraceful, which raises serious questions whether this team is playoff bound with such a broken-down, disheveled defense.

Over the last few weeks, including the Denver win on Thursday, opposing quarterbacks just seem to be able to slice and dice their way through the Browns secondary without much effort, like a knife through butter. It’s simply painful to watch.

And yet, all the idle chatter among Cleveland fans is whether Baker Mayfield is a franchise quarterback.

The Kansas City Chiefs have dropped four out of their last six games. I don’t hear Chief fans calling for Pat Mahomes head--even though he’s thrown eight interceptions, five more than Baker Mayfield. Mahomes completion percentage (69.00), moreover, is just a tick above Mayfield’s (67.1).

The same goes for Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback.  Rodger’s completion percentage stands at 66.7, just below Mayfield’s. And while Mayfield might not have as many touchdown passes as his equals, few teams have the firepower in the backfield like the Browns have with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt who have a combined nine rushing touchdowns this year. In baseball lingo, these two freight trains represent the Ruth and Gehrig of the NFL. Not many teams have the luxury that Mayfield does in having such a strong backfield to punch the ball into the endzone.

While Browns fans are railing against Baker Mayfield, they should be reminded that this team absorbed 12 consecutive losing seasons before last year. The last time they had a winning season, prior to 2000, was in 2007. In addition, the Browns, last year, with Baker Mayfield as their quarterback, advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.  They upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, 48-37, in the NFL Wild Card game before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs (22-17) in the NFL Divisional round.

Browns fans should also remind themselves that before Baker came on the scene, there was a habitual defeatist attitude cascading through Northeast Ohio, so convinced that the Browns would never taste success. Mayfield changed the whole narrative in Cleveland. For the first time in quite some time, fans expect the Browns to win and win often. Mayfield is a no excuses type of guy, the first in the office in the morning, and the last to leave at night (as head coach Kevin Stefanski once explained), working his tail off to make Cleveland proud of the Browns again, much like it was during the glory days of Otto Graham and Jim Brown.

I’ll keep praying, that by some miracle, Baker Mayfield does return to lead the Browns this year. But if he doesn’t, the Browns can expect brighter days ahead if he’s signed to a long-term contract and made our franchise quarterback for many years to come.

Do we really have to count how many quarterbacks the Browns went through before Mayfield was drafted in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft?

If you insist on knowing, 28 different starting quarterbacks suited up for the Browns since 1999, the year they re-entered the NFL.

Given all that Mayfield has accomplished over the last few seasons in helping propel the Browns into a winning team, with a winning attitude, together with a tinge of swagger, I think he deserves a great deal more respect than what he’s been shown (by some belligerent so-called fans) over the last few weeks.

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]

October 24, 2021

 

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Baker Mayfield and his wife, Emily (Wilkinson) Mayfield took to social media to answer critics

 

Remembering 1948: Progress in Civil Rights and the World Champion Cleveland Indians

Larry Doby, left, with Satchel Paige, was the American League's first Black player.

Photo Credit: Sporting News, via Getty Images

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"Our Team: The Epic Story Of Four Men And The World Series That Changed Baseball," by Luke Epplin is more than a book about the 1948 World Series, the last time the Cleveland Indians won a World Series.

It’s actually a splendidly written, meticulously researched, and upbeat social history about the expansion of Black American baseball players into Major League Baseball.

Heaps of attention has historically been paid to Jackie Robinson in becoming the first African-American baseball player in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, while Larry Doby, a 23-year-old outfielder for the Newark Eagles, (the first American League African-American player to smash the color barrier 11 weeks later), often receives little attention or becomes a mere footnote by baseball historians.

Epplin, a New York City writer, centers this American social saga on four individuals: two Black, and two white, all of whom changed the face of baseball forever. Biographical sketches presented of Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, Bill Veeck, and Bob Feller become, knowingly or not, the unsung heroes of the integration of baseball.

Had it not been for Doby and Satchel Paige breaking the color line, many argue, the Indians might not have won the 1948 World Series.

Luckily for baseball, the integration of Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Satchel Paige, and others, wouldn’t have been possible without two color-blind owners: Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers and of course, Veeck of the Cleveland Indians, who bought the Indians in June, 1946.

The progressive thinking Rickey reportedly said: “the greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of the game is the Black race.” “The Negro,” Ricky observed, “will make us winners for years to come.”

Bill Veeck, meanwhile, not only wasn’t afraid of welcoming Black players into the big leagues, he enthusiastically widened his net with the hiring of Black security guards, vendors, janitors, groundskeepers, ushers and musicians, along with offering a front office job to Olympic gold medalist, Harrison Dillard.

Despite the overabundance of promising talent in the Negro Leagues, it would take years before the rest of baseball would sign Black players, including the New York Yankees who didn’t sign a Black player until 1955, the Detroit Tigers not until 1958, and the Boston Red Sox were the last to the party, by not signing a Black player until 1959, more than ten years after the game was officially integrated.

Alabama born, Satchel Paige, 42-years-old, came on board in July, 1948 during the Indians stretch run of the pennant race. Epplin underscores how Satch during his first month with the Indians, only surrendered seven runs over 38 and a third innings, while generating rock star status. His first three starts in MLB, attracted more than 200,000 fans, inspiring sports columnist for the Cleveland News, Ed McAuley, to write that Paige was “the greatest drawing card in the history of baseball”

Overall, Paige pitched 21 games in the 1948 regular season, including seven starts with two complete game shutouts. His ERA that year was an impressive 2.48.

Larry Doby became the first Black player to belt a home run in a World Series in Game 4 of the Boston Braves and Indians Series. The Indians disposed of the Boston Braves in six games. Doby additionally led the Indians with a .318 batting average in the 1948 Series.

Not many people associate Iowa native Bob Feller with progressive thinking in race relations, especially in 1948. Rapid Robert, in fact, told reporters during his barnstorming tours that he didn’t think many Black players had the right stuff to make it in MLB, including Jackie Robinson.

Cleveland owner Bill Veeck witnesses the signing of ace pitcher Bob Feller to a contract for the 1948 season. Despite the high hopes for the staff ace, the right-hander won 19 games and led the AL for the seventh and last time, while the velocity on his blazing fastball began to wane. 

Photo Credit: The Rucker Archive

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But if not for Feller’s widely reported barnstorming tours in the offseason, many in America wouldn’t be aware of the explosive talent of many Black players.

During the barnstorming tours, Joe DiMaggio, the “Yankee Clipper,” would say that Paige was the “best and fastest pitcher he ever faced.” Of course, many mainstream newspapers never published DiMaggio’s comments for fear it would imply Black players were better than whites.

For three consecutive barnstorming tours, Satchel Paige and Bob Feller met head-to-head.

Because of Feller’s major contribution with showcasing marquee Black ball players of the era through different sections of the country, Negro League players invited him to their Negro Baseball League Reunion in Kentucky.

Most fascinating about Epplin’s book of the 1948 World Series is that many of the progressive elements of the 1948 Cleveland Indians was mirroring many events and individuals outside of the diamond during the same year.

In 1948, for example, Atlanta, Georgia hired its first Black police officers at a time when a quarter of the Atlanta police department were reportedly members of the Ku Klux Klan. But much like Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, Black Atlanta police officers in 1948 had to tolerate racial taunts and abuse, they couldn’t lose their temper, they couldn’t ride police squad cars, and they couldn’t arrest white suspects. They had to call for assistance.

Additionally, in 1948, Alice Coachman Davis won the high jump at the Olympics in London, England, becoming the first Black woman to win an Olympic Gold medal.

In 1948, Johnny Ritchey became the first African-American baseball player to play in the Pacific League as a member of the San Diego Padres.

Most importantly, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which directed the armed forces to provide “equality of treatment and opportunity for all personnel without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Epplin chronicles how Larry Doby had to endure the humiliation of segregation in the military while serving his country. Robert H. Meyer, Professor Emeritus at Moravian College, observed that “Black vets, having just fought against Hitler and vicious bigotry, returned to the country to find themselves treated with a similar bigotry.”

Victoria W. Wolcott, Professor of History at the University of Buffalo, tells me, “1948 was an important milestone in the civil rights movement. It was a period of what historians refer to as “racial liberalism” following World War II.” “Because of migration,” Wolcott said, “during the war years large numbers of African Americans migrated to northern cities, where they could vote. The NAACP also grew significantly during the 1940s and even had some successful voter registration drives in southern cities like Atlanta—as well as legal victories that lead up to Brown v. Board of Education.

In his State of the Union address in 1948, President Truman made a major push for civil rights. Such progressive thinking lost him support in different sections of the country, but as it turned out, it was the Black vote he received which decisively helped him win the 1948 presidential election over Republican governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey.

Gregg Ivers, Professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, depicts the 1940s as a “period underappreciated by the general public and even by educators, journalists, and others, who believe that the civil rights movement began with Brown and Rosa Parks.” “Nothing just happens,” Ivers stressed.

Ivers additionally pointed out that 1948 was the last year of the Negro Leagues, which opened up a fresh pool of Black players who were no longer bound to their teams and their domineering owners. Willie Mays played his last game in the Negro Leagues in 1948 as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons.

Progress with civil rights, however, ran into a major roadblock in the 1950s.

Jim Ralph, Professor of American History and Culture at Middlebury College, said so much of the progress with race relations in the mid and late 1940s, came to a screeching halt with the emergence of the Cold War and McCarthyism, which narrowed the activist tendencies of the country. “Left-leaning CIO unions,” Ralph observed, “which had often been pioneers in fighting against racist practices, were on the defensive.  A powerful voice for civil and workers’ rights like Paul Robeson found himself under attack for his sympathetic disposition toward the Soviet Union. “

As fascinating as Epplin’s book about the four central pillars in the integration of baseball is, the book, from this observer, is more a valentine to the City of Cleveland in 1948 during a time when industry was thriving, the city was prospering economically; a time when downtown Cleveland was bustling with restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, and when civic pride was at an all-time high. It was the last time the Cleveland Indians were world champs, the toast of the town.

The years after 1948 in Cleveland, would usher in crushing heartbreak and disappointment.

As Epplin points out, “the year after Veeck departed, attendance dipped to below two million. Six seasons later, the Indians drew fewer than a million fans, second worst in the American League.”

Satchel Paige, moreover, would never taste another World Series appearance again. Ol’ Satch  was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971 as the first electee of the Committee on Negro Baseball Leagues. He passed away on June 8, 1982.

Despite being the first African-American player in the American League, Larry Doby’s number wasn’t retired by the Indians until 1994, four years before he was elected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Many argue that Doby, for one reason or another, never lived up to his full potential.

Bob Feller would appear in only one All-Star game after 1948; 1951 would be the last year the Indians one-time staff ace would win more than twenty games (the same year he threw his third and final no-hitter) and would start in only 15 games in his final two seasons with the Tribe before retiring in 1956 with 266 wins, ranking him 28^th in history. Feller never won a World Series game.

Due to an impending divorce and wanting to set up his children with a trust fund, Veeck sold the Indians after the 1949 season. He would later emerge as owner of the St Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox.

John A. Kirk, Professor of History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, summed up the year 1948 best, when he told me: “1948 was certainly a year of hope, in terms of the direction of race relations, and of liberal and progressive movements more generally.”

--Bill Lucey

June 27, 2021

[email protected]

MLB Suffers Black Eye But Not Another Black Sox Scandal

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 19^th 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 21^st 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 20^th 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.

Cleveland Indians flame-thrower, Bob Feller

Photo Credit: AP

****

For those interested in reviewing a kaleidoscope of baseball’s sign-stealing conspiracies over the years, the go to book is author Paul Dickson’s “The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of Our National Pastime.”  The book was just recently revised.

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 19^th 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 21^st 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.

 

--Bill Lucey

[email protected]

January 26, 2020

MLB All-Star Game Preview: How Much Has Cleveland Changed Since 1997?

Skyline of Downtown Cleveland.

Photo Credit: Marriot.com

***

We thought it would never return.

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 9^th 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 42^nd 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

***

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

***

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 20^th 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 21^st 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 90^th 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.

—Bill Lucey

[email protected]

June 30, 2019

 

 

Baseball Returns in Cleveland for the 1981 All-Star Game

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.

 

–Bill Lucey

[email protected]

April 26, 2019

 

Is There No Room for Frankie and Hosey in Football Crazed Cleveland?

 

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.

"Baker Mayfield is just the gift Cleveland fans needed this season, especially in the wake of LeBron James’ departure,'' Mary Kay Cabot, Browns beat writer for Cleveland.com, wrote. 

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

***

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.

–Bill Lucey
December 27, 2018

[email protected]

1954: The MLB All-Star Game Returns to Cleveland

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 21^st 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 13^th 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 5^th

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

***

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 8^th, 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.

***

NOTE: A heartfelt thanks to my friends at Proquest who allowed me to access the archives of the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times.

 

–Bill Lucey

November 29, 2018

[email protected]

 

 

How Americans View the World Cup Spectacle

"Rule, Britannia!"

Is the cross-pollination of Brazil and Serbian fans permitted?

***

We are well into the 21st World Cup; and many, even as I write this, are reaching for the hand held mobile devices to see if Belgium held off England, as the two teams squared off in the Group G for the top spot.

A couple of days ago, soccer (or football) fans were stunned when learning that Germany, winner of the 2014 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA, World Cup), was eliminated after losing to South Korea, 2-0.  It was the earliest exit for a German team at the World Cup since 1938.

The World Cup is traditionally an electrifying time for millions from all corners of the globe, which sparks pent-up jingoism and national fervor; national holidays are typically held in many countries, kids skip school, and productivity at work plunges. It’s a highly celebrated time, when poor nations are on the same playing field with rich nations.

It’s the most watched sporting event in the world.

Oddly, even if the United States did qualify for World Cup competition this year, the excitement for soccer in America is well below that of other countries.

According to a Gallup Poll , only seven percent say soccer is their favorite sport to watch, well behind football at 37 percent, basketball (11 percent) and baseball ( 9 percent).

While living in South Florida a number of years ago, I asked an editorial writer if he was looking forward to the World Cup? He told me that he “found it difficult getting excited about a sport which features players kicking aimlessly at a ball with no chance of scoring.”

When I asked investigative journalist and author, Carl Bernstein, if he held a similar view as the editorial writer, he snarled: “Soccer is a great game.   Period.  And there is nothing aimless about those kicks. “

Pat Buchanan, political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist, told me that he only watches soccer “when I am in the barber’s chair.  They have it on both big screens.  Never been to a game.  Not my sport.”

Harold Evans, a British-born journalist, and former editor of The Sunday Times (1967-1981), expressed to me a more profound view of the World Cup. "Orwell disdained the nationalism incited by such team sports. “

“Personally, I love the World Cup,’’ Evans said. “I saw England defeat Germany in 1966, one of the most amazing finals. Soccer is a true team sport, pass to pass, goal to goal, save to save. And the athletic skills are matched by a range of histrionic characters. Who could not be thrilled, entertained and educated: where, out of nowhere, did these guys come from."

I never fail to be amazed how the World Cup brings out such national pride in people no matter where they’ve taken up residence.

When living in Fort Lauderdale (this probably would have been about 2006), I distinctly recall a group of construction workers on Las Olas Boulevard, all huddled around the radio, listening to a World Cup match Mexico was involved with.

And just last weekend, while ushering a Cleveland Indians game at Progressive Field in Cleveland, I noticed some fans flaunting World Cup jerseys of Serbia and Mexico.

Warren Hoge, former New York Times London bureau chief and foreign correspondent (now with the International Peace Institute), tells me, "I still haven’t gotten over the Brazilian dream team’s loss to Italy in the 1982 cup in Spain, when Paolo Rossi broke free for a full field counter attack goal that sank Brazil’s chances and sent me wandering the streets of Rio where I then lived in the kind of inconsolable despair that I can only compare to the night of the Trump victory."

"I love international soccer" Hoge further explained, "and follow it closely, starting with the jogo bonito of Brazil 40 years ago, continuing through the years I lived in London and regularly went to Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea to tomorrow at 2 pm when I will be glued to my television set with Brazilian colleagues watching the Selecao Brasileiro take on Serbia. I think the World Cup is the greatest spectacle there is."

One thing I quickly learned about the World Cup spectacle: as easily as it lifts people’s spirits to the heavens, it can just as easily plunge their spirits to the depths of despair.

Shakespeare scholar, James Shapiro, from Columbia University, for example, responded to my email from a small island in Greece, where there's no cars, but stacks of restaurants with large screen TVs, all showing the World Cup.  "It matters in the rest of the world," Shapiro wrote, "hugely, in ways that it never will in the US.  I’m too crushed by Iceland’s loss—they had so many chances--to say anything more."

Another thing I learned is that a great many soccer fans may not have a favorite horse in the race, but love the game for its sheer excitement, many likening it to Super Bowl Sunday.

"I love the World Cup," New York Times sportswriter, George Vecsey, who covered eight of them, says. "I love the many stages - outsiders, new faces, upsets, and sometimes a superior champ, say, like Germany last time. Lots to see. Shame for people who miss it. Then again, I avoid NFL. Chacun à son goût.”

Still others like Associated Press baseball writer, Ron Blum, thinks some games are great, "but way too many are dull, with 10 and 11 men behind the ball. And Cleveland Indians beat writer for Cleveland.com  Paul Hoynes, is attracted to the entertainment facet of the games. "I like listening to the English announcers. I like the words they use and the dialects," Hoynes said.

So, there you have it, a wide mix of opinions on why the World Cup has become so near and dear to their hearts with matches “dripping with drama,” while others would rather, much rather, rearrange their sock drawer than watch soccer.

 

—Bill Lucey

[email protected]

June 28, 2018

Angelina Jolie Tackles the Jim Thorpe Story

Angelina Jolie, Jim Thorpe, Martin Sensmeier

Photo Credits: Neil Mockford/FilmMagic; Photofest; Barry King/Getty Images

 

"The danger in writing about Jim Thorpe is that the chronicler finds himself losing all restraint in an unavoidable tangle of superlatives. Yet there is almost no other way to describe the man and still do justice to him."

• Arthur Daley, The New York Times, March 31, 1953

***

In an age that regularly gives us the astonishing pyrotechnics of LeBron James, Tom Brady and matinee idol Aaron Judge, comes a new biopic about Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest athlete ever in the world. The film, according to Variety, will be co-produced by actress, director and humanitarian activist Angelina Jolie. 

At the close of the 1912 Olympic Games, Sweden's King Gustav V reportedly told Jim Thorpe: “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”

The film will be titled: “Bright Path: The Jim Thorpe Story.”

Thorpe's mother gave him the Indian Tribe name of Wa-Tho-Huck, meaning "bright path." Official records, however, list him as James Francis Thorpe.

It’s been nearly 70 years since “Jim Thorpe: All-American” was portrayed on the silver screen by Burt Lancaster, with a predominantly white cast.

In a sharp break from other productions of American Indians, “Bright Path” will be told from a Native American perspective. Thorpe will be played by Martin Sensmeier, a Native American actor who grew up learning and participating in the traditions of his tribes in southeast Alaska.

Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter,“I’m honored to be working on this project.  I have had the privilege of spending time with Bill Thorpe [one of Thorpe's surviving sons] and will be listening to and guided by the Tribes and the Thorpe family in the making of this film.”

Beverly Singer, associate professor of Native American studies at the University of New Mexico, expressed optimism about the upcoming movie. “I know screenwriter Sterlin Harjo, who should not only write the story but direct it. He's that good of a Native American writer and director,” Singer said. “He would change the way films about Native Americans are made and told in Hollywood.”

The spectacular feats of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, a Sac and Fox Indian, has been well documented. He propelled to instant fame during the 1912 Olympics, becoming the only Olympian to win gold medals in the pentathlon (fencing, shooting, swimming, riding and cross-country running) and the decathlon (100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run). The young, gifted athlete additionally became the first Native American to win gold medals for his home country.

The medals were stripped from him the following year (1913) by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for violating his amateur status once it was discovered he had been paid ($2 a game, $35 a week) to play semipro baseball in North Carolina in 1909 and 1910 (Rocky Mount and Fayetteville in the Eastern League), a common practice among collegiate athletes at the time, only Thorpe used his own name instead of a fictious one.

For more than 70 years, the Olympic champion and his family relentlessly petitioned to get the medals back and to have Thorpe reinstated by the IOC, which included a written plea on behalf of the family by President Gerald Ford in 1975.

All attempts failed.

Finally, in January 1983, the IOC presented duplicate medals to Jim Thorpe's surviving family members and restored his name to Olympic glory.

Medals or not, in February 1913, Thorpe signed a three-year contract with the New York (baseball) Giants for a hefty sum of $6,000 a year (including a $500 signing bonus), the most paid to a rookie at the time. Thorpe’s signing was initiated more to attract fans to the games than for his questionable baseball skills. During his career on the diamond, he batted .252 with three teams: New York, the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves. During his last year in the major leagues in 1919, he batted .327.  The most damaging shortcoming that hung over Thorpe's baseball career was that he couldn't hit curveballs, a rumor, many think, wrongly perpetuated by Giants manager John McGraw.

Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist James E. Doyle once asked Thorpe about his weakness for hitting curveballs. “That's a great big lie! Someday I'd like to catch up with the guy who first started that rumor and tell him off right. Whoever he is. Why, I could hit a curve with some of the best of them — that's the truth and no bragging at all — and I only wish there were records around to prove it.”

Thorpe ventured into professional football in 1915 with the Canton Bulldogs in the Ohio League for an eye-popping sum of $250 a game, leading Canton to a number of championships over its chief competitor, the Massillon Tigers.

Following Canton, Thorpe played football for the Oorang Indians, Cleveland Indians, Rock Island Independents and a number of other teams before retiring at age 41 with the Chicago Cardinals in 1929.

Knowing “Bright Path: The Jim Thorpe Story” is being told from a Native American viewpoint will undoubtedly spark loud cheers from the Indian community.

Native Americans, after all, have traditionally been brutally represented in the cinema.

In her book, “Native American Son, The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe,” author Kate Buford documents how from the very beginnings of talking pictures, Indians were demonized, depicted crudely as screaming savages, pillaging encampments, raping and scalping human prey. Buford wrote that “producers and casting directors gave little thought to authenticity in the race to turn out a product to meet the renewed demand for Westerns.”

In addition to Indians being described as riotous savages, Buford highlighted the communication skills of Indians in many Western films, which often included “grunts, a made-up Indian language and pidgin English.”

Shannon Keller O’Loughlin, executive director of the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA), a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission it is to improve the well-being of American Indians and Alaska Natives, certainly welcomes the new Jim Thorpe biopic being presented from a Native American point of view. “Anytime that Native Americans are shown in film, and played by Native Americans,” O'Loughlin said, “representing the human condition outside of stereotypes such as the stoic, or drunk, or mascot, or hippie, or … then we are growing up as a society.”

“All peoples,” O'Loughlin added, "should be able to control their images, their stories and lifeways. AAIA’s wish for this film is that it does not take any shortcuts, and present all parts of Mr. Thorpe’s life, not just his athletic success.”

Aside from the extent to which Indians were savagely portrayed in motion pictures, Jeffrey P. Beck, professor of English at Penn State (Harrisburg), and author of “The American Indian Integration of Baseball," recalled the unabashed racial taunts Native American athletes, including Jim Thorpe, had to absorb in the early part of the 20^th century, especially professional Native American baseball players.

“Cat-calling, race-baiting, bullying and forms of out-and-out racism,” Beck said, “were commonplace. Indian athletes were expected to assimilate (and sports were supposed to be a tool for that assimilation) and to endure a fair amount of abuse on the playing field.”

Beck said that practically all Indian players were given the moniker “chief.” And most were regularly subjected to racist taunts by fans, which included Indian war cries; others yelled, “Back to the Reservation,” while still others belted out, “Dog soup! Dog soup!” a reference to some Indian reservations with a history of eating dogs.

“Another stereotype,” Beck continued, “that all Indian players had to confront was that of ‘the bad Indian,’ meaning a drunken Indian.” When Thorpe was with the Giants, the hot-tempered McGraw told him, “A young fellow like you shouldn't ever drink. Besides no Indian knows how to drink.” The way he said Indian really irked Thorpe, Beck explained.  Fearless, Thorpe shot right back at his manager, questioning the Irish and their shameless reputation for the bottle. McGraw immediately snapped at Thorpe, “Don't get smart with me!”

Thorpe's friend and teammate, John Tortes “Chief” Meyers, was sometimes called “nigger,” especially from the bleachers, because of his dark skin, Beck said.

In addition to the blatant racism Thorpe faced in his lifetime, Beck hopes the film will show that despite his extraordinary athletic skill, prior to signing with the Giants, the Sac and Fox Indian played very little baseball at that high level.

John Tortes “Chief” Meyers and Jim Thorpe of the New York Giants

 

“I hope the film will tell that part of that story,”  Beck said, “noting that in Thorpe’s friend John Meyers' words, ‘He was the greenest recruit you could imagine,’ when he started with the Giants. I think the Thorpe incident with Meyers, in which he wakes him up late at night to grieve about the loss of his Olympic medals, is an important part of the story, and it came in a context in which Thorpe bonded with Meyers as Indians playing under difficult circumstances in a tough media market.”

Angelina Jolie's “Bright Path” and the telling of the Native American experience couldn't have come at a more fitting time.

In January, the Cleveland Indians announced they would discontinue using the Chief Wahoo logo at the end of the 2018 season. Many considered the logo (a cartoonish caricature of a Native American smiling ear-to-ear) to be racist and at odds with the socially progressive era of the 21st century.

Asked what Jim Thorpe would have thought about the Chief Wahoo controversy, Jeffrey P. Beck, said, “I think Thorpe would have recognized in the Chief Wahoo logo the same kind of racism that his generation faced on the baseball field. 

“He also would have likely known,” Beck explained, “that the 1915 Cleveland team voted to change its name to Indians in part because of the success of Louis Sockalexis, the first Indian star in the major leagues who played briefly with Cleveland in 1897-98. Thorpe, I think, would be glad that the Wahoo caricature is gone, but still want Sockalexis to be remembered.”

According to a study by Stephanie Fryberg, American Indian psychologist at the University of Washington, “American Indian mascots are harmful not only because they are often negative, but because they remind American Indians of the limited ways in which others see them. This in turn restricts the number of ways American Indians can see themselves.” 

Another slice of the upcoming film many hope will not be overlooked is Thorpe’s schooling at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

Specifically, Michael E. Roberts, president and CEO of First Nations Development Institute, wishes the film underscores the ruthlessness and racism of the founder of the Carlisle Indian School, General Richard Pratt, whose most famous quote on assimilation was “Kill the Indian: Save the Man,” which opened up a process in which Indian children were unconscionably taken from their homes to assimilate them into American society. 

“This very act,” Roberts charged, “is the epitome of one of the acts of genocide: Genocide by forcibly transferring children. There are few fond memories of the boarding school process among those who survived it. The physical, emotional and sexual abuse of Indian children at boarding schools is well chronicled.  Thorpe himself ran away from Haskell Institute in Kansas several times.”

In addition to being uprooted from their homes, American Indians had other obstacles to overcome, especially at the federal level.

“During Mr. Thorpe’s era,” Shannon Keller O’Loughlin explained, “Indian Tribes were being terminated, and Indian people were being removed from their homelands and relocated to the cities where they were promised jobs — but jobs never came.  Federal attempts to assimilate Tribes and eradicate the ‘Indian problem’ was the paramount federal policy of the 1950s.”

In 1953, the year of Jim Thorpe's death, Congress terminated federal recognition and assistance to more than 100 tribes. Public Law 280 imposed state criminal and civil jurisdiction on many tribes in California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin. The law imposed financial hardship on many tribes, resulting in the loss of millions of acres of valuable natural resource land through tax forfeiture sales. Federal policy emphasized the physical relocation of Indians from reservations to urban areas.

It wasn't until the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 was passed that American Indian children were able to be placed with extended family members, other tribal members or other Native American families for foster-care or adoption purposes. The law additionally protects the tribes' interest in retaining custody of their children.

The final complicated piece to the Jim Thorpe saga, which many hope will be retold in the upcoming movie, centers on the tug-of-war with family members over his final resting place. 

Jim Thorpe’s third wife, Patricia, wanted her husband buried near his home in Prague, Okla. But when the state declined to erect a monument in his honor, she accepted a financial offer from the town of Mauch Chunk, Pa., to move his remains there where a monument would be built over his grave. The town subsequently renamed itself Jim Thorpe in 1954.

According to published reports, Patricia Thorpe stormed in with the police and a hearse and took his body away in the middle of the funeral ceremony, whisking it away to Pennsylvania to be buried.

Thorpe's sons having been fighting for decades to have their father buried back in Oklahoma, on his native soil. In keeping with tribal culture when someone is not buried in the land of their family, “the soul wanders.”

Despite all his Olympic glories and magnificent displays of athleticism on the baseball and football fields, Thorpe didn’t lead an easy life. His twin brother (Charlie) died when he was 9; his mother (Charlotte View) died of blood poisoning before he was a teenager. And his father (Hiran), known for his volcanic temper, often beat his young son. Another tragedy was the death of his son from polio at age 3 following his marriage to Iva Miller (1913).

After his professional career, while fighting for greater emancipation for American Indians, including self-determination, he faced mounting financial hardship, and lapsed into heavy drinking, the reason, many say, was over two failed marriages.

Just two years before his death, it was reported he was a charity case in a Philadelphia hospital, where he had undergone surgery for removal of lip cancer.

In 1950, an Associated Press poll voted Thorpe the outstanding male athlete of the first half of the 20th century, far ahead of Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Ty Cobb, Bobby Jones and Joe Louis. Of the 393 votes, 252 named Thorpe first; 45 named him second; and 29 third.

Despite his shortcomings, he’ll forever be immortalized as the greatest athlete the world has ever seen.

As novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.”

— Bill Lucey

[email protected]

May 23, 2018

***

Native American Facts and Figures

• The Navajo Nation would be the 42nd-largest state in the Union. The Navajo Nation is larger than each of the following states: Maryland, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island.

• 19 Tribal Nations are larger than the state of Rhode Island.

• 12 Tribal Nations have a land base larger than the state of Delaware.

• 229 Tribes are in Alaska.

• There were 334 federal- and state-recognized American Indian reservations in 2010.

• 567 tribal nations are located across 35 states and within geographic borders of the United States; each tribal nation exercises its own sovereignty. Each of the 567 tribal governments is legally defined as a federally tribal recognized nation.

• In 2010, 5.2 million people (or 1.7 percent of the U.S. population) were identified as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) alone or in combination with other races, while 0.9 percent identified as AI/AN alone.

• While the overall U.S. population grew about 9.7 percent between 2000 and 2010, the percent of the U.S. population identifying as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) alone or in combination with other races, grew 27 percent since the 2000 census.

• The median income of AIs/ANs households is $35,062. This compares with $50,046 for the nation as a whole.

• Native peoples and governments have inherent rights and political relationships with the U.S. government that does not derive from race or ethnicity. Tribal members are citizens of three sovereigns: their tribe, the United States and the state in which they reside. They are also individuals in an international context with the rights afforded to any other individual.

• Native people in Maine did not receive the right to vote in national elections until 1954 or in state elections until 1967. Native people in Colorado faced literacy test requirements and were some of the last to be enfranchised in 1970.

• 66 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives are eligible and registered to vote.

• 22,248 AIs/ANs were serving in the military as of March 2012.

• On the reservations, 39 percent of Native people are in poverty — the highest poverty rate in America.

• According to the BIA Labor Force Report, Indian joblessness is about 49 percent with unemployment at 19 percent for Native people on the reservations.

• As of 2012, small and moderate gaming operations made up 56 percent of Indian gaming. In total, nearly 240 tribes across 28 states operated 420 gaming establishments representing a $27 billion industry. Many Indian tribes are using gaming revenues to fund economic development activities on reservations and more effective provision of tribal government services, including health services, early education programs and language and cultural preservation activities.

• The Indian Self-Determination Education and Assistance Act of 1975 allowed Tribes to contract with the federal government, so Tribes could run their own health, education and other programs.

• The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed in 1988 — though a compromise of inherent Tribal sovereignty to regulate Class III gaming, requiring a compact with States, and the fact that the IGRA has created the most complex regulatory scheme for gaming, the Act’s purpose is to support Tribal gaming to develop self-determination and strong Tribal governments. All revenue for Tribal gaming is legislated to support only Tribal programs.  (Whereas corporate gaming supports a corporation’s interests and not the public.)

• The NMAI Act (1989) and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990) support the protection of graves, and repatriation of ancestors, burial items, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony on federal or tribal lands, and in control of federal agencies or museums. AAIA was involved in developing this legislation and continues to be a part of its effective implementation today.

— Researched and compiled by Bill Lucey

May 23, 2018

Source: National Congress of American Indians; Association of American Indian Affairs (AAIA)