from ESPN.com
October 1997
Cleveland's legacy of loss
By Mark Bloch
ABCNEWS.com
Animated Graphic by Mark Bloch
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April 24,1901
The Indians, known then as the
Cleveland Blues, played in the first American
League game ever (three others
scheduled that day were rained out). They lost
8-2 to the White Sox, perhaps
a bit of foreshadowing for Cleveland's 82 losses
that year, and for future seasons
as well.
1903
Cleveland shortstop Johnny Gochnaur
set a team record for errors with 98. The
record still stands.
1914
The Indians lose 102 games, a
Cleveland record that stood until 1991. Local
amateur baseball games were drawing
80,000 fans, but the Indians pulled in only
186,000 fans all season
to their home in League Park.
1915
A poll favored the name Indians
in honor of Lou Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian
who played for Cleveland from
1897-99, batting .338 his rookie year.
Unfortunately, the first Native
American in the majors played only seven
error-filled games his last season
before being kicked out of baseball for
drunkenness. He died the year
of the poll, but the team logo Chief Wahoo lives
on, despite decades of protests
by Native Americans.
1920
The Indians win the best-of-nine
World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-2.
But their first world title is
not without cost. The Indians were stunned in an
August game against the Yankees
when shortstop Ray Chapman, who was
hitting .303 and liked to crouch
tight over the plate with his face almost in the
strike zone, caught a fastball
in the head and died of a fractured skull the next
day.
1926
Dutch Levson defeats the Yankees
twice on the same day, 5-1 and 6-1. He is
the last major leaguer to ever
throw two complete game wins in one day.
Amazingly, he didn't strike out
a batter all day.
July 31,1932
Designed in vain to lure the Olympics,
Cleveland Municipal Stadium opens
before a record Indians crowd
of 78,000. The monolithic stadium became
famous as the Mistake on the Lake
for the frigid winds that blew in off Lake Erie.
By the time the Indians moved
to a new stadium 63 years later, not one player
had ever hit a ball into the center-field
bleachers.
July 31,1932
When legendary pitcher Walter
Johnson came on board to briefly manage
Cleveland, conflict followed.
In May 1935, a bout of paranoia got so bad that
Johnson fired two players, alienating
fans who booed the future Hall of Famer.
Later, extra police were assigned
to watch games, and beverages were sold only
in paper cups for fear that Johnson
would be pelted with glass bottles. He
couldn't endure the campaign against
him and was eventually let go.
1938
Pitcher Johnny Alien, a problematic
drinker known for taunting opposing players,
trashing a Boston hotel lobby
and trying to punch out a teammate whose error
ended Alien's 15-game winning
streak in 1937. In June 1938, he refused an
umpire's order to trim a dangling
piece of his sleeve and stormed off the mound.
When he was fined $250, he decided
to retire. The team's owner displayed the
offending jersey in a Cleveland
department store window. The shirt ended up in
Cooperstown.
1940
Bob Feller, signed in 1936 at
age 17, threw a no-hitter on Opening Day.
However, the Indians lost the
pennant to Detroit by one game. Ironically, a loss
by Feller (27-11, 2.62 ERA) to
the Tigers in a rare relief appearance kept the
pennant out of reach. Manager
Ossie Vitt criticized Feller, causing players to
demand Vitt be fired. When the
incident became public, the team acquired the
nickname The Crybabies. Rival
Detroit fans threw baby bottles, nipples and jars
of baby food on the field to mock
them.
1947
Bill Veeck, the club's most theatrical
owner, brought in Larry Doby as the first
black player in the American League.
Bob Hope came aboard at the same time
as a shareholder, as did midget
racing and an orchestra between innings. Veeck
also was responsible for signing
Satchel Paige, whose true age was a mystery
but who had pitched in the Negro
Leagues as early as 1928. Paige was the first
African-American to pitch in the
A.L. and in 1948 the first to pitch in a World
Series.
1948
The Indians drew a major-league
record 2,620,627 fans in a nail-biting season
that culminated in a successful
playoff game against the Red Sox for their first
pennant in 28 years. Despite a
team batting average below .200 in the World
Series, the Indians prevailed,
beating the Boston Braves in six games.
1952
The Indians sport an awesome pitching
rotation of Bob Lemon, Bob Feller, Mike
Garcia and Early Wynn. All but
Garcia would wind up in the Hall of Fame. Wynn
once said he'd hit his own mother
with a pitch, but "only if she were digging in."
Larry Doby led the league with
32 homers and Al Rosen with 105 RBIs, but when
it was all over, the Yankees won
the pennant by two games,
1954
A high-powered offense leads the
Indians to the pennant with a record 111
victories. But Cleveland loses
the World Series in four straight games to the New
York Giants. Willie Mays made
his famous over-the-shoulder catch of a 460-foot
Vie Wertz blast to quash a Cleveland
rally in the eighth inning of Game 1.
1957
Herb Score, the 1955 Rookie of
the Year and most promising Cleveland pitcher
to come along in years, was ruined
when a Gil McDougald line drive hit the
left-hander in the eye. He returned
to pitch, but never at his previous level.
1960
All hope for the franchise seemed
wrapped up in one handsome and popular
right-fielder from the Bronx named
Rocky Colavito. That hope ended when
Colavito was unexpectedly traded
to Detroit, where he pounded 35 home runs
with a .474 slugging average.
Earlier another budding young player named
Roger Maris had been traded to
Kansas City. Fans spoke later of "The Curse of
Rocky Colavito."
1969
Luis Tiant, a right-hander who
in 1968 won 21 games and posted a 1.60 ERA,
personified the Tribe of the '60s
by leading the league in losses the following
season. The franchise finished
dead last in '69 and again in '71, something
they'd done only once in the previous
68 years.
July 4,1974
Perhaps the lowest moment in the
franchise's checkered history came the night
of this holiday promotion against
the Texas Rangers. "Beer Night" offered an
unlimited supply of 10 cent beer
to the frustrated Cleveland audience. The night
- and the game - ended in a ninth-inning
riot by drunken fans who stormed the
field, resulting in a rare forfeit.
1975
Frank Robinson became baseball's
first black manager, and as a
player/manager he homered in his
first at-bat. The team reached .500 under
Robinson's leadership in 1976,
but by June 19, 1977, even he couldn't survive
the Cleveland downward spiral.
In the next 14 years the Indians would go
through eight managers and lose
100 games three times.
1986
The team is sold to Richard and
David Jacobs, real estate developers, putting an
end to rumors that the team was
headed to Tampa Bay.
1993
Poised to turn the corner in its
last season in Municipal Stadium, the team went
to Spring Training ready to become
a contender. But tragedy struck again when
a boating accident near the end
of camp killed relievers Steve Olin and Tim
Crews and injured the recently
signed Bobby Ojeda. The team didn't regroup
from the tragedy until the second
half of the season.
1995
In a season shortened by the players'
strike, the Tribe's 100-44 record is
baseball's best. The Indians reach
the World Series for the first time since 1954,
only to lose to the Braves in
six games. Though disappointed that the mighty
bats are stymied by Atlanta's
pitchers, Cleveland fans are grateful just to have
gotten this far.
1997
In a postseason in which they
teetered on the edge of elimination, the Indians
reach the bottom of the ninth
inning of Game 7 with a chance to erase years of
frustration. But the 5-year-old
Florida Marlins tie the game, then win it in the 11th.
For the umpteenth time, Cleveland
fans experience that sinking feeling.
Mark Bloch of ABCNEWS.com has been an Indians fan for all of his
41
years. He's still waiting to see a World Series banner raised.