Cleveland fans. WTAM received a large number of letters from fans who were blind or otherwise handicapped. These people could not say enough kind words in thanking both the Indians and the radio station. One letter in particular really pulled on the heartstrings. It came from a veteran of World War I who had lost his sight in battle. He told the WTAM station manager that he had faithfully attended games at League Park for sixteen years, but after the war and his blindness there was no point in going to the ballpark. Now he could follow the Indians as before.
There would be one more remarkable team effort before the total collapse. On July 29 the Yankees were in town. Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, and the others were a major draw in whatever city they played in, and the fans came in great numbers. By game time, the total attendance swelled to over 25,000, the biggest crowd of the season. The ushers brought out the ropes and let fans on the field, primarily in left and center. The Indians’ hitters went crazy, scoring an incredible eighteen runs in the first three innings. Yankee pitcher George Pipgrass was removed in the opening inning without retiring a batter. The entire Cleveland lineup, except for pitcher Joe Shaute, had a least two hits apiece. Luke Sewell and Johnny Hodapp both had five hits, while Carl Lind had a day to remember, collecting four hits and driving in five runs. Hodapp dazzled the crowd by banging out two hits in the second inning, then two more in the sixth. The Indians bashed twenty-seven hits, twenty-four of them singles. The final score was 24–6, one of the most lopsided games in Major League history to date. And it came at the expense of the powerful Yankees!
Regardless of it turning out to be another disappointing season, Alva Bradley had not lost any of his enthusiasm. He told the newspapers that Roger Peckinpaugh would return for a second season, saying, “We want Peck to feel free to do whatever seems to him to be necessary to produce a winner or at least an improved team next year.” Bradley went on to say that in September a number of minor-league prospects would join the club and get an audition with the team. The names mentioned were Jonah Goldman, playing at Decatur, Johnny Burnett, a flashy shortstop from the Terre Haute club, and his teammate, pitcher Wes Ferrell. Peck planned to take a long look at the up-and-comers to see if any of them might help the team in 1929. Bradley was showing the fans and sportswriters that he had a firm grasp of the situation. He gave his manager an early vote of confidence, which let the players know there would be no shakeups in the front office, at least for another year. Bradley preached stability, the best course of action for his franchise.
Chapter 3
THE VOTE IS YES
The conclusion of the 1928 season and the winter months ahead were critical for Bradley and Evans. The stadium bond issue was coming up in the November election, while Evans had a blank checkbook to find some extra talented ballplayers. The outfield was a prime concern as well as the need for pitching and infield help. The men in charge, including Roger Peckinpaugh, shared their ideas to improve the club. They took a hard look at the current roster to cull the weak ones from the herd.
First to come under scrutiny were the long-term veterans. Joe Sewell had lost a step in the field, but his bat was as lethal as ever. He batted .323 with 190 hits, including forty doubles. In 588 plate appearances, the shortstop fanned only nine times. His ability to get the bat on the ball was simply way off the charts. Brother Luke caught 122 games while batting a respectable .270. He shamed the Sewell family, though, by fanning a grand total of twenty-seven times. Left fielder Charlie Jamieson managed to hit .307, which kept him in the starting lineup for the ninth consecutive year.
On September 17 the Indians placed George Burns on waivers. Initially, Burns was on board with the decision. He was thirty-five years old and had been in the Major Leagues for fifteen years. Burns wanted to manage in the minor leagues and play some first base as well. He hoped none of the ball clubs would put in a claim, allowing him to find a place where he could manage. As a ten-year veteran, Burns was entitled to become a free agent if nobody claimed him on waivers. In spite of this, the New York Yankees unexpectedly claimed Burns, ruining his plans for the immediate future. Why they would need a backup to a young Lou Gehrig is hard to understand. Burns was quite angry with the decision, venting his frustration to the Cleveland papers. He told reporters, “I wouldn’t say the Cleveland club handed me a raw deal. I suppose it is good business for the club to get $7,500, but it is a hard blow to me and smashed my plans for grabbing a good berth with a minor league club.” Despite all the years of good service in the American League, Burns had no recourse but to report to New York. He played in just four games and was not eligible to receive any World Series money. Of course, the Yankees won another crown, beating St. Louis four games to none.
One of the strangest actions taken by the Indians occurred during the season on September 9. Manager Peckinpaugh announced that pitcher George Uhle was suspended for the remainder of the year. The explanation given was that Uhle was out of condition and not in shape to play baseball. There had to be more to the situation, as Uhle had already appeared in thirty-one games, starting in twenty-eight of them. How could a ballplayer not be in condition after playing for five months? There was no question that Uhle was having a poor season, with twelve wins and seventeen losses, but a suspension? A few months later the mystery was revealed. At the winter meetings, Billy Evans sent Uhle to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for shortstop Jackie Tavener and pitcher Ken Holloway. Evans revealed that the suspension was due to Uhle being a bad influence on several of the young players. For that reason, the former ace of the Indians pitching staff was banished from the club. Ironically, Uhle would return to Cleveland in 1936 and, at the age of thirty-eight, make a few token appearances for then-manager and old friend Steve O’Neill.
While the Cleveland front office tinkered with the roster, the city prepared to launch the campaign for the new stadium. On Friday, October 19, an executive committee was announced to lead the important battle. The chairman was Charles Otis, one of the most well-connected men in Cleveland and possibly the entire United States. Charles was born on July 9, 1868, to one of the wealthiest families in northeast Ohio. Otis’s grandfather William came to Cleveland in the 1830s and immediately started a shipping enterprise linking Cleveland to New York City via the Erie Canal. He became one of the original men to invest in the fledging railroad business and later was a pioneer in the iron industry. Charles’s father was a well-known local businessman who founded Otis Steel in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In the 1870s the elder Otis served one term as mayor of Cleveland.
Young Charles enjoyed a life of exceptional privilege, attending the best schools and frolicking in Europe with his closest pals. In the 1880s his brother owned a cattle ranch in Colorado where Charles rode horses and carried a six-gun in his belt. After attending Yale, Otis started his own steel business in Cleveland. He used his status as a member of the elite to solicit all the business he could handle. When he grew tired of the steel industry he hired more executives and left the business to others while he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1899 he founded the Otis & Hough Company, one of the initial brokerage houses in Cleveland. As might be expected, he had well-off clients with rolls of cash to invest. Soon after, he formed the Cleveland Stock Exchange, where he was elected its first president. Six years later it was time to explore new opportunities. In 1905 he bought the Cleveland News. Charles had great fun writing editorials and trying to boost the paper’s circulation. He is credited with hiring a young Grantland Rice for his sports department. Rice went on to become one of the most respected sportswriters in all of America.
Charles Otis could boast of friendships with John D. Rockefeller, comedian Will Rogers, and his distant cousin Amelia Earhart. He knew many United States presidents, from fishing trips with Grover Cleveland to card games with Warren G. Harding. He debated with Teddy Roosevelt on whether the Cleveland News would support TR’s Bull Moose Party. When America entered World War I, Charles was appointed to the War Industries Board, where he worked closely with future president Herbert Hoover. Regardless of being active in Washington, he found the spare time to sell a huge amount of war bonds in Cleveland.
In late 1919, when Prohibition was about to come into effect, Charles and close
