a total of seventeen hits, manhandling former teammate Oral Hildebrand for eleven tallies before he left the game. After a brief rest, the Indians recorded twenty-one hits in game two, including home runs by Moose Solters and Roy Weatherly. Even though they were far behind the Yankees in the pennant chase, Cleveland had a potent crew of hitters who could explode at any time. Averill, Trosky, Bruce Campbell, Lyn Lary, and Solters were capable of destroying American League pitchers, yet they were prone to episodes of poor play, exasperating the front office.
On July 18 the high-flying Yankees were in Cleveland for a Sunday game at Municipal Stadium. Once again, Alva Bradley proved he was a shrewd operator, betting the matchup of Bob Feller versus Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig would draw a monstrous crowd. When the game began, there were 59,884 raring-to-go fans eager to see what a healthy Feller could do.
The 1937 season had thus far yielded a 10 percent increase in attendance over the previous year. Few people were willing to say the Great Depression had already peaked, but Major League owners were starting to note a positive trend. Bradley had the best of both worlds, scheduling his potential big dates at the mammoth Cleveland Municipal Stadium while drawing fair-to-middling numbers weekdays at League Park.
The New York Yankees were quite a drawing card at home or on the road. At any city they visited, an exceptional number of people would come out to watch the best team in either league. Cleveland fans had been packing League Park to see the Yankees for years. Babe Ruth had launched colossal home runs over the high right-field wall, and later Lou Gehrig joined Ruth in an awesome show of power not seen before. Ruth was gone, but Gehrig was still around, and Joe DiMaggio had created new interest in the Yankees with his superior all-around play. At age twenty-two, Joe D. had already begun to demonstrate his claim to be the next Yankee superstar.
On this day, eighteen-year-old Bob Feller took the mound to challenge the pennant-bound club from New York. Despite his young age, he already had impressive credentials in his brief career, including shattering the American League single-game strikeout record. The Cleveland sportswriters went all out in their game stories. Ed McAuley stated, “The dimple-chinned Bob Feller from the furrows of a farm in Iowa against the swarthy Joe DiMaggio from the humble home of a fisherman on the coast of San Francisco. Make or break hero or goat, the two outstanding youngsters of modern times.”
The atmosphere at the stadium was reminiscent of an opening day. A U.S. Army squadron went through a number of drills, followed by a Scottish fife-and-drum corps marching smartly about the field. A group of fans from Buffalo presented gifts to two former minor-league Bisons, Yankee manager Joe McCarthy and Cleveland’s Frankie Pytlak. A similar group arrived from Pittsburgh to honor their favorite son, Moose Solters. The Fellers made the long-distance trek from Iowa, their first opportunity of the year to see Bob on the mound. With all the pregame ceremonies, the game started nearly twenty minutes late.
Feller and Yankee starter Red Ruffing were impressive from the onset. Neither team scored until the visitor half of the third inning, when shortstop Frank Crosetti led off with a walk and moved to second on an infield ground out. Up to the plate came “Joltin’” Joe DiMaggio. Crosetti edged off second base, and on the pitch raced for third. DiMaggio sent a scorching ground ball at third baseman Sammy Hale. “Bad News” knocked the ball down, but before he could pick it up Crosetti came sliding hard into the third-base bag. His foot kicked the ball into foul territory, out of Hale’s reach and far enough for Crosetti to scramble to his feet and score the game’s first run.
The Indians tied the game in the seventh inning on singles by Trosky, Hale, and Pytlak. In the ninth the score remained 1–1. Feller had thrown well over a hundred pitches, yet still had plenty of steam on his fastballs. Leading off the ninth was Red Ruffing, already a two-time strikeout victim. A good-hitting pitcher, Ruffing caught up with a fastball and lined a base hit. Crosetti dropped a sacrifice bunt near the mound. Feller picked up the ball and threw wild to first, leaving runners on first and second with nobody out. He then walked third baseman Red Rolfe on four straight pitches.
As if somebody had written a clever script, Joe DiMaggio slowly walked to home plate. Bases loaded, nobody out, and the score tied. There were the two rising young stars at a do-or-die moment. The huge crowd roared when Feller eyed the plate, then threw two sizzling fastballs by Joe D. The next pitch was an off-speed curveball that got too much of the plate. Di Maggio swung and hammered the ball way back in left field. Moose Solters raced to the wall but watched helplessly as the drive landed well into the seats for a grand slam home run! Di Maggio had won the battle in spectacular style. Steve O’Neill trotted to the mound to ask his pitcher if he wanted out. Feller refused to leave the rubber, intent on finishing the game. The final score stayed at Yankees 5, Indians 1.
Feller’s last delivery to retire the side gave him an out-of-this-world pitch count of 171. He recorded seven strikeouts, eight walks (yes, that’s right), and one hit batter. Feller held the powerful Yankees in check for eight full innings, something that most pitchers in the American League could not do. Although his record for the season slipped to a surprising 0–4, Feller had served notice that the best was yet to come.
At the beginning of August the Indians were still a few games under .500. Steve O’Neill tried to tighten things up by banning poker games and posting an earlier curfew. The restrictions did not turn the club around, though one player in particular began to heat up. After resting for three weeks, Johnny Allen, fully recovered from his dangerous surgery, received the okay to pitch again. On August 14 he went seven innings in a 4–3 win over Chicago. The win boosted his record to five wins and no losses.
Five days later Allen won again, easily beating St. Louis 9–1. Six wins without a defeat was a nice record, but Allen was setting in motion a remarkable winning streak. No doubt making up for lost time, Allen refused be beaten, lifting his record to 8–0 at the end of the month. He began September by defeating the hopeless Browns, 15–3. Bruce Campbell and Moose Solters each drove in three runs to help Allen to win number nine without a blemish.
The streak rolled on through the month, with Allen topping the Red Sox, Senators, Tigers, and White Sox. His outstanding pitching woke up the ball club, lifting them above .500 and into the first division. On September 21, Allen beat the Senators in a complete-game victory, 6–3. Hal Trosky slammed a bases-loaded home run to seal the win. With two weeks left in the season, Allen was now a lofty 13–0.
The Indians were playing their best ball of the season. Bob Feller had hit his stride, while Mel Harder collected a number of wins. They had no chance to catch the Yankees, but the team proved they could play at a more than competitive level.
On September 26 Cleveland took a doubleheader from Detroit. Allen won his fourteenth without a loss, while Feller struck out ten in a trouble-free second-game victory. On the last day of the month, the two aces pitched the Indians to another doubleheader victory, this time over the White Sox. Allen faltered a bit, giving up an uncharacteristic four runs. Earlier in the season the team would have folded, but three RBIs each from Trosky and Solters led to a 6–4 win. Johnny Allen now had an unbelievable record of 15–0. He would likely get one more start in October against Detroit.
Feller had a terrific outing himself, holding Chicago to one run over nine innings. He had the fastball hopping, striking out eleven batters in the 4–1 victory. Fans all over Cleveland shook their heads and took a deep sigh at what might have been. Cleveland now had the two finest pitchers in the American League. It is not inconceivable to project that barring the injuries, Feller and Allen might have won quite a few more games between them. That conjecture puts the team squarely in the pennant race, just behind the Yankees. The outlook was bright for the 1938 season.
Allen had one more chance to get his sixteenth straight victory and tie the American League single season record held by greats “Smoky” Joe Wood, Walter Johnson, and the still-pitching Lefty Grove. Although the season was closing up for Detroit and Cleveland, 22,000 interested Tiger fans paid to see the game. Allen was paired up against
