There was a two-week delay, during which the twenty-one-year-old refused to report until he got part of the purchase price for himself. Manager Tris Speaker was probably not too angry with the holdout, as Spoke had done the same thing in 1916 when Cleveland purchased him from the Red Sox. Hodapp did eventually arrive and showed some potential in the last two months of the season.
The outfield was solid on the corners, with Jamieson in left field and the reliable Homer Summa in right. Still, since 1926 center field had posed a substantial problem for the team. Tris Speaker, after his eleven outstanding seasons, had abruptly departed the franchise. The Indians had nobody waiting to pick up the slack. Billy Evans and his scouts would search the United States but it would take another year before they could find a long-term replacement for the magnificent Speaker.
The most difficult problem for Billy Evans was the pitching staff. After his great 1926 season, George Uhle had been plagued with arm trouble. In 1927 he only appeared in twenty-five games, winning just eight. Along with Uhle’s troubles, Joe Shaute had a record of nine wins and sixteen losses. Garland “Gob” Buckeye, a lefty, had a great name but his record was abysmal, a total of ten wins and seventeen losses. Buckeye had the distinction of weighing over 260 pounds while standing six feet tall. No, it was not all muscle. There was Emil “Dutch” Levsen, a three-game winner that season with seven losses.
Cleveland’s leading pitcher in 1927 was Willis Hudlin. Born in 1906, Hudlin was a high school sensation from the small town of Wagoner, Oklahoma, in the northeast part of the state. The small community was created as a railroad town in the late nineteenth century. At the time Willis was born, the local population stood at approximately four thousand. During his high school years, Hudlin was an All-State football and basketball player, track star, and the best baseball pitcher for miles around. His spectacular play brought college football recruiters from Texas, but Hudlin only wanted to play baseball. In the spring of 1926 he signed a contract to play for the Class A Waco Cubs in the Texas League. Hudlin departed for Waco without finishing high school. The Cubs manager was Del Pratt, a former St. Louis Brown and American League RBI champ in 1916. Pratt knew a ballplayer when he saw one, and Hudlin turned out to be the real deal. Willis pitched against some seasoned competition but showed he was their match or better. He had a blistering fastball which he threw both overhand and sidearm. The pitch had a pronounced sink to it that baffled the minor-league hitters.
Scouts rapidly descended on Waco to get a close look at the star pitcher. Despite the Cubs lounging in the cellar, Hudlin managed to win sixteen games. The New York Yankees emissary believed Hudlin had a major-league arm that was nearly ready for the big time. Pratt sensed the opportunity to make a big score and announced that the price for Hudlin would be $25,000 plus three players. The Yankees put down an option to buy, good until June 7. They were reluctant to part with three players but did not want to pass on the hot prospect. The Cincinnati Reds badgered Pratt to accept a $5,000 payment up front with the balance due sixty days later. They wanted time to determine if Willis could help their club.
During all the high-level bargaining, Cleveland scout Cy Slapnicka waited quietly for an opportunity to move in and steal the prize. He was everything you wanted in a scout: aggressive, resourceful, slightly devious, and willing to bend the rules. Along with these qualities, Slapnicka had a great eye for talent. One way or another he was going to bring Hudlin to Cleveland.
On the morning of June 7, Slapnicka walked into Del Pratt’s office and asked if the Yankees had picked up their option. Pratt answered no, but they had until 1:00 p.m. to do so. The Indians scout eyed the clock for another two hours, then visited Pratt again. Time was now up for the Yankees. Slapnicka reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a check for $25,000. He negotiated with Pratt on the additional three players for Waco and the deal was done. The value of the transaction including the three players was $40,000, a remarkable amount of money for a nineteen-year-old not quite finished with high school.
The Cleveland fans were quite eager to get a look at the best pitcher from the Texas League. On August 16, 1926, Willis Hudlin started the opening game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. The fans packed League Park to the tune of 25, 000 spectators, an overflow crowd. Willis made it through two innings but completely lost control in the third. He walked the first three batters, then gave up a base hit. Speaker pulled Hudlin from the game but the relief pitchers did not help, the Browns winning, 11–7.
On August 31, Hudlin made another appearance against St. Louis, this time in relief. With the game tied he pitched seven scoreless innings to record his first major-league win. The Indians stole the game in the bottom of the twelfth when Homer Summa scored on an error by the Browns shortstop. Cleveland fans were delighted in what they saw from the young pitcher.
The second-place Indians still had a chance to catch the Yankees, which meant Hudlin would ride the bench for the remainder of September. He trekked back to Wagoner to compete his high school education, but had a rough time paying attention in class and ultimately gave up all thought of finishing school. He would later tell reporters, “It is pretty tough work trying to study geometry when you are thinking of how to throw a curveball past Babe Ruth.” That winter he did a different type of studying. He built a wooden ballplayer and put canvas behind the dummy to stop the baseballs. Hudlin added a wooden strike zone from the knees to the chest, then practiced throwing strikes throughout the winter. If nothing else he would get an A for effort.
In the 1927 campaign Hudlin would win eighteen games, leading the Cleveland pitching staff. He might have won twenty, but a bad-hop grounder hit him right between the eyes, resulting in a concussion. For too many days he was light-headed and frequently bled from the nose. Regardless of the accident, Hudlin still had an exceptional season. He was one of the bright spots in a vastly disappointing year.
Team president Bradley and general manager Evans certainly wanted to improve their ball club for the 1928 season. This posed quite a challenge for the Indians as well as the other American League teams trying to unseat the World Champion Yankees. The New York club was an absolute powerhouse with no hint of slowing down. In 1927, Babe Ruth broke his own home run record with sixty, while Lou Gehrig trailed with a paltry forty-seven. Next in line was Tony Lazzeri with eighteen. The Ruth-Gehrig combination knocked in an amazing total of 339 runs. If that was not enough, Bob Meusel had 103 RBIs while Lazzeri finished with 102. The Yankees won 111 games against forty-four defeats. One has to go back to 1906 to find a club with a better record, that being the Chicago Cubs of 1906, led by first baseman/manager Frank Chance. If for some reason the big bats were silent, the Yankee pitching staff could easily take up the slack. Waite Hoyt led all American League pitchers with twenty-two wins, followed closely by Herb Pennock with nineteen.
Truly the Yankees were a dynasty, with few teams that could throw down with them. One was Philadelphia. After more than a decade of being hopelessly inept, Connie Mack had his Athletics competitive again. Young players, including pitcher Robert “Lefty” Grove and outfielder Al Simmons, were leading Philadelphia back to the upper division. A new third baseman named Jimmy Foxx was about to pay big dividends for Mr. Mack. The Washington Senators were a solid club and St. Louis usually played above .500. The Indians had to improve tremendously to jump over any of these ball clubs.
With a number of obstacles to overcome, the 1928 Indians prepared for spring training. The new ownership determined to move camp to New Orleans, a familiar location for Cleveland teams past. A few weeks before they left, City Manager William Hopkins addressed the city council. He advised them that a meeting had taken place on January 25 with Alva Bradley, Chuck Bradley, and team secretary Joseph Hostetler. A new stadium was on the table and Hopkins wanted to test how much the Indians might pay for an exclusive lease. He had in mind an enormous facility on the lakefront that could seat approximately eighty thousand fans. Osborne Engineering, the firm that had built League Park, gave Hopkins some tentative plans that included a price tag of two million dollars.
For the stadium to be built, a bond issue had to be submitted to Cleveland voters in the November general election. Hopkins estimated the bond interest
