THE CLEVELAND INDIANS’ ONGOING AGONIES…
They were the Grand Rapids Rustlers. Then the Cleveland Lake Shores, Cleveland Bluebirds, Cleveland Broncos and the Cleveland Naps.
Since 1915 they have been the Cleveland Indians or the Tribe and the Wahoos to those diehards — ’Landers and others — in the know.
Following the departure of Woonsocket (RI) native and Hall-of-Famer Nap Lajoie at the close of the 1914 season, team owner Charles Somers appealed to those learned scholars — the baseball writers — to choose a new name to replace “Naps.”
The name “Indians” was selected; the moniker had been a nickname for the Cleveland Spiders, a Major League entry which operated between 1887–1899 in Cleveland when Native American Louis Sockalexis played for the team.
Fast forward to 2018.
No more cartoon logo; the club name and Chief Wahoo emblem have long been under fire for perpetuating Native American stereotypes.
(The Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Blackhawks major professional franchises among others have been similarly targeted and criticized. The University of North Dakota “Fighting Sioux” now proudly answer to the “Fighting Hawks” and have for several years.).
On January 29, 2018 MLB announced that beginning in the 2019 season the Chief Wahoo ‘coat of arms’ will no longer be featured as part of the Cleveland uniform on caps, jerseys and other licensed product as it has officially — and finally, thank God to some — been deemed inappropriate for on-field presentation.
Score one for “political correctness” and another for the restoration of First Amendment rights alleged to have been violated by late-nineties NA protesters.
Changes including the retirement of Native American names and mascots have been instituted across the landscape since the 1970s.
Supporters of the status quo maintain that their intention is and has always been to honor Native Americans by championing their many positive traits such as fighting spirit, aggressiveness, bravery, stoicism, dedication and pride.
Opponents cry foul and cite the savagery stereotype and ethnic bias associated with this sort of Native American imagery.
The Indians organization and fan base can strike this controversy from a laundry list of ills.
And it’s a good thing because atop that list sits a World Series championship drought of seventy years and counting, the longest active major league dry spell pre-dating the expansion era.
The three longest championship droughts in MLB history were ended within the last fifteen years by the Red Sox in 2004 (86 years); the White Sox in 2005 (88 years); and the Cubs in 2016 (108 years).
The Cubbies’ World Series opponent in 2016? The Indians, who were defeated in seven games after building a 3–1 advantage.
(The Cubs became just the sixth team ever to rebound from a 1–3 deficit and win a best-of-seven World Series joining the ’25 Pirates; the ’58 Yankees; the ’68 Tigers; the ’79 Pirates; and the ’85 Kansas City Royals).
The two teams entered their dream matchup sporting the dubious distinction of longest World Series title droughts, a combined 176 years.
Game 7, an 8–7 Cub victory in extra innings marked the fifth time that a seventh game had exceeded nine innings and the first since 1997, when ironically the Indians were again the American League representative.
It was also the first Series contest to endure a rain delay as the tenth inning was about to begin.
And Cleveland manager Terry Francona, who had skippered the Red Sox to WS championships in 2004 and 2007, was summarily denied the opportunity to become the third man at the helm and first non-Yankee manager to win his first three trips to the Fall Classic (Casey Stengel and Joe Torre).
In 2016 the Tribe was making its sixth appearance in the Series.
In their first two sallies they emerged as champions.
In 1920 Cleveland defeated the Brooklyn Robins in a best-of-nine series, 5 games to 2.
They dedicated that season’s inaugural championship to the memory of their former shortstop Ray Chapman who earlier in the campaign had been tragically killed when struck in the head by a pitch from the Yankees’ Carl Mays.
Chapman remains the only MLB player in history to have died from an injury incurred during a game and his death prompted the implementation of a rule requiring umpires to replace the baseball when it became dirty.
Although the tragedy also led in part to the banning of the spitball following 1920, the mandatory use of batting helmets was not adopted until more than thirty-five years later (NL-1956; AL-1958).
In 1948, after spoiling a chance for an all-Boston World Series by winning a one-game playoff against the Red Sox for the AL flag, the Wahoos defeated the Boston Braves — plenty of fodder for NA sympathizers in this matchup — 4 games to 2.
(Each team had won the World Series in their only prior appearances — the Braves in 1914 and the Indians in 1920 — making this edition of the Fall Classic the first and to date only WS in which both participating teams had played but not yet lost a previous Series sortie. The only way this rather obscure feat could be duplicated would be if the Miami Marlins or Arizona Diamondbacks competed against either the Toronto Blue Jays or the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a future gala).
After 1948, the Indians reached the World Series three more times losing to the New York Giants in 1954; the Atlanta Braves in 1995; and the Florida Marlins in 1997.
With ten American League Central Division titles and six AL pennants dotting the club’s rich history, the Indians have been competitive to say the least. But to grab the brass ring has represented a painful struggle for the organization and its fan base.
As was the case with the Red Sox for what seemed like an eternity with the well-documented Curse of the Bambino assuming the scapegoat horns somehow “responsible” for the team’s 86-year championship dearth, the Tribe is similarly beleaguered by The Curse of Rocky Colavito.
Its origin is traced back to the unpopular trade orchestrated by GM Frank “Trader” Lane who managed to deal every player he inherited within two years on the job in Cleveland. This was the man who once dealt Red Schoendienst and Harvey Haddix. Roger Maris. Norm Cash.
Manager Joe Gordon for Manager Jimmy Dykes straight-up in the ’60 mid-season.
Espousing the philosophy that the only moves he regretted were those he didn’t make, in 1960 he pulled the trigger on a blockbuster trade which would define his Cleveland tenure.
On April 17 just before Opening Day he dealt slugging right fielder and fan favorite Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. The transaction was unique because Colavito had been the 1959 AL home run co-champion (42, tied with Harmon Killebrew) and Kuenn won the AL batting title (.353).
Following the trade Colavito belted more than thirty homers 4 times and made 3 All-Star teams while Kuenn played but one season with the Tribe (.308 BA) before moving on to San Francisco in a trade for the aging Johnny Antonelli and Willie Kirkland.
With the Giants, Cubs and Phillies (1961–1966) Kuenn hit over .300 only once despite posting a .303 career BA over fifteen seasons.
Then-Akron Beacon Journal columnist Terry Pluto documented the decades of woe which followed — from 1960–1993 the Indians managed 1 third-place finish (1968); 6 fourth-place finishes (1960, 1974-’76, 1990, 1992); and spent the rest of the time in the cellar or knocking on the bulkhead door — in his book entitled, “The Curse of Rocky Colavito.”
As for the Rock, he insisted that he never placed a curse on the franchise and that the trade was motivated by a salary dispute.
Individual feats of greatness popped up here and there in Tribe lore.
To wit:
Addie Joss recorded a 1.16 ERA for the Tribe in 1908. Joe Jackson hit .408 in 1911. He had 26 triples in 1912. Jim Bagby, Sr. won 31 games in 1920. George Burns hit 64 doubles in 1926. Earl Averill scored 140 runs in 1930. Bob Feller struck out 348 batters and pitched 36 complete games in 1946. Albert Belle had a .714 Slugging % in 1994. Jose Mesa had 46 saves in 1995. Kenny Lofton swiped 75 bags in 1996. Manny Ramirez knocked in 165 runs in 1999. Jim Thome hit 52 HRs in 2002.
And from an organizational standpoint there was this:
From June 12, 1995 to April 4, 2001 Cleveland sold out 455 consecutive home games; and
In 2017 they won 22 straight games, an American League record, trailing only the 1916 New York Giants in MLB annals who won 26 in a row.
In the ’54 World Series the Indians who had won an American League-record 111 of 154 regular season games registering a .721 winning percentage — best in AL history and fifth-best ever — were heavily favored against the New York Giants.
In the Series best remembered for “The Catch” — Willie Mays off the bat of Vic Wertz — the Giants swept the Tribe 4–0. It was their first championship since 1933.
They moved to San Francisco in 1958 and didn’t win again until 2010.
Fifty-six years is not seventy. And the pain and anguish of 56 years of waiting was further assuaged for Giants fans with World Series titles again in 2012 and 2014.
Seventy years and counting is nothing if not pure agony.
But rest assured, the Cleveland Indians will win it all again.
It’s just that nobody knows when.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in November 2018.]
