In his 92 years, Feller saw it all
December, 15, 2010 Dec 1511:30PM ETEmail Print Comments8 By Rob Neyer
I'm sorry to hear about Bob Feller's passing, if not surprised. Most of us have been around long enough what it means when a 92-year-old man is transferred to hospice care. At that point, one can only hope for a peaceful end and perhaps a few more good moments with loved ones.
Bob Feller actually lasted a bit longer than some thought. Almost a week ago, the Northern Ohio Journal actually reported Feller's death, and columnist Jim Ingraham wrote a lovely tribute. That was yanked from the Journal's website a few hours later, but I think this passage is a fine introduction:
Bob Feller won his first 100 games before the age of 23. He died Wednesday at the age of 92.At either end of his life he mocked convention. He made his major league debut -- this is beyond outrageous -- at 17. In his first major league start he set a major league record for strikeouts in a game, and then after that season went back to high school for his senior year. Think about that.
He lived to be 92. How many 92-year-olds do you know?
The year he was born, Alexander Graham Bell was still alive. So were Wyatt Earp and Orville Wright.
When Feller debuted in Van Meter, Iowa, Christy Mathewson was still alive. So were Honus Wagner, Napoleon Lajoie, and Cy Young.
Ty Cobb? Not only was he still alive, he was STILL PLAYING!
As a 17-year-old rookie with the Indians in 1936, Feller needed a place to live. Cy Slapnicka, the scout who signed him, found a room for him in a boarding house in Cleveland. One of Feller’s fellow-boarders in the house had fought in the war -- the Civil War.
As amazing all of those things are, the one thing that always sticks in my head is this: Bob Feller pitched against Lou Gehrig. All the other big stars in the American League in the late 1930s, too. Joe DiMaggio. Jimmie Foxx. Hank Greenberg. Ted Williams.
Of course they're all gone, now. Nearly all of them, anyhow. Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr was actually born a few months before Feller, and debuted in the majors roughly a year after Feller. Hall of Famer Monte Irvin was born just a few months after Feller, though thanks to baseball's segregation he wouldn't reach the (previously all-white) major leagues until he was 30.
Even with Feller's passing, they're still around. It just gets a little harder to find them, all the time.
Almost to the end, though, it was rarely hard to find Bob Feller. Just a few years ago, I saw him give a rousing talk at the SABR Convention in Cleveland. Last summer he was still regularly showing up at the ballpark, one of the few men on earth who had seen Babe Ruth hit, and pitched to Lou Gehrig. And he was still crusty, unimpressed by young players who haven't won a lot of games or enlisted in the Navy during a war or been elected to the Hall of Fame.
Too crusty, maybe, by just a little. Upon seeing Stephen Strasburg in the flesh, Feller said, "Call me when he wins his first 100."
Granted, I've probably said something similar a few times. But when Bob Feller said it, people actually paid attention. He wasn't nasty (well, not often). He was opinionated, and the older he got the more willing he was to express his opinions.
Of course, he won his first 100 games before he turned 23, and did enlist to fight in a war, and was elected to the Hall of Fame. If anyone ever earned the right to the occasional bout of crustiness, it was probably Rapid Robert Feller
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/6557/in-his-92-years-feller-saw-it-all
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, December 11, 2010
I-View with Bob Feller
While Hall of Famer Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller is receiving hospice care, we wanted to reflect on an outstanding interview he did with The Plain Dealer's Dennis Manoloff in the spring.
Days before Feller took off for spring training, he took the time to share with Manoloff. Just a few of the questions and answers:
PD: When you hear the term 'living legend' used to describe you, what does it mean?
BF: I owe baseball everything I am today. Whatever I may or may not be, I owe to baseball. I think of a young kid who had great parents, teachers, coaches and a scout, Cy Slapnicka, who signed me and took me in almost as his son. Living legend? It's a term I respect and appreciate because I started out as a kid with no idea what might happen in the game. Thanks to Cy having a lot of confidence in me, I was able to pitch for Cleveland.
PD: Which of the nicknames most attached to you do you prefer: The Heater from Van Meter, Bullet Bob or Rapid Robert?
BF: I don't like any of them that much, to be honest. To me, Bullet Bob is Bullet Bob Turley (1958 Cy Young winner). Rapid Robert is the most popular, but I don't care for it. Anne, my wife, doesn't like it, either. I prefer to be called Bob. If they call me Rapid Robert, well, so be it.
PD: In official baseball records and on your statue outside Progressive Field, you are listed as Robert William Andrew Feller. What is behind the two middle names?
BF: My father's name was William. My grandfather -- his father -- was Andrew. Andrew's widow, when I was born in 1918, wanted me to have her husband's name. She asked right in our home in Iowa. So my parents said, "Yes, we're going to name him Robert William Andrew Feller." They didn't. She never knew it when she went to her grave. My legal name at the county recorder's office in Dallas County, Iowa, is Robert William Feller. Robert William Andrew Feller is not my name, legally.
PD: But you don't mind the two middle names?
BF: I don't mind at all.
Days before Feller took off for spring training, he took the time to share with Manoloff. Just a few of the questions and answers:
PD: When you hear the term 'living legend' used to describe you, what does it mean?
BF: I owe baseball everything I am today. Whatever I may or may not be, I owe to baseball. I think of a young kid who had great parents, teachers, coaches and a scout, Cy Slapnicka, who signed me and took me in almost as his son. Living legend? It's a term I respect and appreciate because I started out as a kid with no idea what might happen in the game. Thanks to Cy having a lot of confidence in me, I was able to pitch for Cleveland.
PD: Which of the nicknames most attached to you do you prefer: The Heater from Van Meter, Bullet Bob or Rapid Robert?
BF: I don't like any of them that much, to be honest. To me, Bullet Bob is Bullet Bob Turley (1958 Cy Young winner). Rapid Robert is the most popular, but I don't care for it. Anne, my wife, doesn't like it, either. I prefer to be called Bob. If they call me Rapid Robert, well, so be it.
PD: In official baseball records and on your statue outside Progressive Field, you are listed as Robert William Andrew Feller. What is behind the two middle names?
BF: My father's name was William. My grandfather -- his father -- was Andrew. Andrew's widow, when I was born in 1918, wanted me to have her husband's name. She asked right in our home in Iowa. So my parents said, "Yes, we're going to name him Robert William Andrew Feller." They didn't. She never knew it when she went to her grave. My legal name at the county recorder's office in Dallas County, Iowa, is Robert William Feller. Robert William Andrew Feller is not my name, legally.
PD: But you don't mind the two middle names?
BF: I don't mind at all.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Ron Santo
Chicago -- Ron Santo, one of the greatest players in Chicago Cubs history and a longtime WGN radio announcer whose devotion to the perennial losers was made obvious night after night by his excited shouts or dejected laments, has died. He was 70.
"Ronnie will forever be the heart and soul of Cubs fans," Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement Friday. He praised Santo for "his passion, his loyalty, high great personal courage and his tremendous sense of humor."
Santo died in an Arizona hospital from complications of bladder cancer, according to WGN Radio. Santo was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 18 and later lost both legs to the disease.
A nine-time all-star in his 15-year career, Santo was widely regarded as one of the best players never to gain induction into the Hall of Fame. The quiet sadness with which he met the news year after year that he hadn't been inducted helped cement his relationship with the fans.
But nothing brought fans closer to Santo -- or caused critics to roll their eyes more -- than his work in the radio booth, where he made it clear that nobody rooted harder for the Cubs and nobody took it harder when they lost. Santo's groans of "Oh, nooo!" and "It's bad" when something bad happened to the Cubs, sometimes just minutes after he shouting, "YES! YES!" or "ALL RIGHT!" became part of team lore as the "Cubbies" came up short year after year.
"The emotion for me is strictly the love I have for this team," Santo told The Associated Press in August 2009. "I want them to win so bad."
Santo played for the Cubs from 1960-73 and wrapped up his career with the White Sox in 1974. He joined the Cubs' radio team in 1990.
Santo battled myriad medical problems after he retired as a player, having undergone surgery on his eyes, heart and bladder after doctors discovered cancer. On his legs alone, he underwent surgery more than a dozen times before they were ultimately amputated below the knees -- the right one in 2001 and the left a year later.
Don Kessinger, who played shortstop with the Cubs from 1964-1975 and perhaps saw more of Santo's play at third base than anyone else, said what he remembers most is how hard his teammate played every single day.
Kessinger said Santo deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, and cannot understand why he was never elected.
"It's hard for me to believe he wasn't elected, and I'm surprised the veterans committee didn't see fit to put him in," said Kessinger. "It would have meant so much to Ron Santo to be elected into that awesome hall."
Born Ronald Edward Santo in Seattle on Feb. 25, 1940, Santo was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when he was 18. But he kept it from the team until he made his first All-Star game in 1963, and fans didn't know about his diabetes for years after that.
Even though the Cubs failed to make the World Series in his lifetime, Santo once said his association with the team probably prolonged his life.
"If I hadn't had this when my troubles started, I don't know if I would have survived," he said in September 2003. "I really mean that. It's therapy."
Santo was a fan favorite on a team that included Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins. Many taverns near Wrigley Field include photos of Santo, including one in which he famously clicked his heels as he ran off the field.
By all accounts, it was a tremendous career. In his 14 years with the Cubs and his final season across town with the White Sox, the third baseman hit .277 with, 2,254 hits, 342 home runs and 1,331 runs batted in. He also was named to the All-Star team nine times won the Gold Glove award five times.
He hit .300 or better four times, had the best on-base percentage in the league in 1964 and 1966 and led the league in walks four times.
But the team routinely finished at or near the bottom of the standings.
One of the few times the Cubs didn't was in 1969, when they finished second after leading the New York Mets by nine games as late as Aug. 16. That year, a photograph was taken of Santo that became synonymous with both the team's failure and the supposed curses that have long haunted the team: There, in the on-deck circle at Shea Stadium, is Santo, a bat on his shoulder as a black cat scurries past.
Santo's disappointment with being passed over for induction into the Hall of Fame was well known to viewers, who watched him receive the news on the phone in 2003 thanks to television cameras he allowed inside his house when he thought he would be getting in.
In 2003, he was honored by the Cubs, who retired his No. 10, hoisting it up the left-field foul pole, just below Banks' No. 14.
"This flag hanging down the left-field line means more to me than the Hall of Fame," Santo told the cheering crowd at Wrigley Field when his number was retired.
"This couldn't be any better," he said. "With the adversity that I have been through if it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't be standing here right now."
Santo had been active in fundraising for diabetes research, with his Walk-for-the-Cure raising millions of dollars
"Ronnie will forever be the heart and soul of Cubs fans," Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement Friday. He praised Santo for "his passion, his loyalty, high great personal courage and his tremendous sense of humor."
Santo died in an Arizona hospital from complications of bladder cancer, according to WGN Radio. Santo was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 18 and later lost both legs to the disease.
A nine-time all-star in his 15-year career, Santo was widely regarded as one of the best players never to gain induction into the Hall of Fame. The quiet sadness with which he met the news year after year that he hadn't been inducted helped cement his relationship with the fans.
But nothing brought fans closer to Santo -- or caused critics to roll their eyes more -- than his work in the radio booth, where he made it clear that nobody rooted harder for the Cubs and nobody took it harder when they lost. Santo's groans of "Oh, nooo!" and "It's bad" when something bad happened to the Cubs, sometimes just minutes after he shouting, "YES! YES!" or "ALL RIGHT!" became part of team lore as the "Cubbies" came up short year after year.
"The emotion for me is strictly the love I have for this team," Santo told The Associated Press in August 2009. "I want them to win so bad."
Santo played for the Cubs from 1960-73 and wrapped up his career with the White Sox in 1974. He joined the Cubs' radio team in 1990.
Santo battled myriad medical problems after he retired as a player, having undergone surgery on his eyes, heart and bladder after doctors discovered cancer. On his legs alone, he underwent surgery more than a dozen times before they were ultimately amputated below the knees -- the right one in 2001 and the left a year later.
Don Kessinger, who played shortstop with the Cubs from 1964-1975 and perhaps saw more of Santo's play at third base than anyone else, said what he remembers most is how hard his teammate played every single day.
Kessinger said Santo deserved to be in the Hall of Fame, and cannot understand why he was never elected.
"It's hard for me to believe he wasn't elected, and I'm surprised the veterans committee didn't see fit to put him in," said Kessinger. "It would have meant so much to Ron Santo to be elected into that awesome hall."
Born Ronald Edward Santo in Seattle on Feb. 25, 1940, Santo was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when he was 18. But he kept it from the team until he made his first All-Star game in 1963, and fans didn't know about his diabetes for years after that.
Even though the Cubs failed to make the World Series in his lifetime, Santo once said his association with the team probably prolonged his life.
"If I hadn't had this when my troubles started, I don't know if I would have survived," he said in September 2003. "I really mean that. It's therapy."
Santo was a fan favorite on a team that included Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins. Many taverns near Wrigley Field include photos of Santo, including one in which he famously clicked his heels as he ran off the field.
By all accounts, it was a tremendous career. In his 14 years with the Cubs and his final season across town with the White Sox, the third baseman hit .277 with, 2,254 hits, 342 home runs and 1,331 runs batted in. He also was named to the All-Star team nine times won the Gold Glove award five times.
He hit .300 or better four times, had the best on-base percentage in the league in 1964 and 1966 and led the league in walks four times.
But the team routinely finished at or near the bottom of the standings.
One of the few times the Cubs didn't was in 1969, when they finished second after leading the New York Mets by nine games as late as Aug. 16. That year, a photograph was taken of Santo that became synonymous with both the team's failure and the supposed curses that have long haunted the team: There, in the on-deck circle at Shea Stadium, is Santo, a bat on his shoulder as a black cat scurries past.
Santo's disappointment with being passed over for induction into the Hall of Fame was well known to viewers, who watched him receive the news on the phone in 2003 thanks to television cameras he allowed inside his house when he thought he would be getting in.
In 2003, he was honored by the Cubs, who retired his No. 10, hoisting it up the left-field foul pole, just below Banks' No. 14.
"This flag hanging down the left-field line means more to me than the Hall of Fame," Santo told the cheering crowd at Wrigley Field when his number was retired.
"This couldn't be any better," he said. "With the adversity that I have been through if it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't be standing here right now."
Santo had been active in fundraising for diabetes research, with his Walk-for-the-Cure raising millions of dollars
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Sparky Anderson - Tim Kurkijan
David Wells was throwing a simulated game at Tiger Stadium on a hot day in 1994, but it could have been any day in any year. Tigers manager Sparky Anderson sat in the dugout, legs crossed, smoking a pipe and watching Wells throw as he talked breathlessly to a writer. He was watching Wells with one eye; with the other, he looked at the writer, with complete attention to both. "He's throwing great,'' he said. "Great curveball. Oh, he's ready.''
That was Sparky Anderson. He was a great judge of talent, and a great communicator with people, all at the same time, all the time, every day of his life.No manager in baseball history was more true to his nickname than George "Sparky'' Anderson. No manager ever loved the game more than Sparky. No manager did the job with the same relentless energy and enthusiasm as Sparky. No manager smiled as often as Sparky. No manager was more of a gentleman than Sparky. No manager was nicer than Sparky. Late in his career, Anderson asked the media to start calling him by his given name, George, saying no man in his 50s should be called Sparky. But, it never took. He was and always will be Sparky.
Part of his charm was his penchant for hyperbole. He once called Kirk Gibson, "the next Mickey Mantle,'' and said second baseman Chris Pittaro was a "future Hall of Famer'' even though everyone knew he wasn't. A writer once asked him about the great Reds teams that he managed, and Sparky ran his hand through his silver hair, put his two hands out and began counting fingers: "Bench, greatest catcher ever. Rose, most hits ever. Morgan, maybe the greatest second baseman ever. Perez, Hall of Famer. Concepcion, should be a Hall of Famer; Foster, unbelievable power; Geronimo, best defensive center fielder in the game,'' then proceeded to name every player on those teams, with a superlative attached to each.
"What do you think?'' he said. "Give me a team that could beat those teams.''
Anderson fractured the English language, but in an engaging, homespun sort of way. Of his Stengelesque mangling of words, which was comical and harmless, Anderson once said, "Why do you have to know English? It's like 'two.' There are three twos! There's tee-oh. There's tee-doublya-oh, and there's tee-double-oh. Three twos! Now, if I put any one of them down in a letter I wrote, you would know which one it is I am talking about. It's like 'there' and 'their.' What is the difference as long as you know there's a there there?''
When Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated went to do a story on Sparky, Anderson brought up the hilarious movie, "The Naked Gun," and in full uniform in his office, did his impersonation of Leslie Nielsen as the umpire, complete with the moonwalk and the yelling of Steeeeee-rike threeeee.
Anderson was a simple man who was, at times, embarrassed by the money and the lifestyle of a major leaguer, in part because he grew up in South Dakota in a house that didn't have an indoor toilet.
He once said, "I only had a high school education and, believe me, I had to cheat to get that.''
As the manager of the Tigers, he once said on game days, he would mostly stay in his hotel watching TV. "I loved 'Headline News,'" he said. "I could watch it all day. Sometimes, it was the same show, and I'd watch over and over.'' But his simple approach is what made him such a great manager. He didn't try to out-think the room, as some managers do. He knew, and said many times, that managers win only because of the players. At his Hall of Fame induction speech, he made that very clear.
And Anderson was a great manager. He won 2,194 games, sixth most ever. He won five pennants and three World Series. He and Tony La Russa are the only managers to win the World Series in each league. He is the all-time winningest manager for two franchises, the Reds and Tigers. He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2000, and nothing made him happier than going back to Cooperstown each year and shaking hands with the other Hall of Famers.
But, as a manager, he was tough when he needed to be. His other nickname was "Captain Hook" because of his willingness to go to his bullpen as often as he saw fit. Some of his pitchers weren't particularly happy about coming out of a game, but Anderson once said of removing a pitcher, "I'll tell you when you're tired.''
Anderson was 36 years old when he took over the Reds in 1970. That was a good team, a relatively young team, but the veterans tested their new manager immediately, and immediately Sparky made it clear: It didn't matter that he was a rookie manager, or only 36 years old, he was in charge, and the players would do as he said. Quickly, they did. The Reds won world championships in 1975 and 1976. Those teams are considered among the greatest teams in National League history.
In 1979, Anderson took over the Tigers. He was instrumental -- but took no credit -- for helping make Gibson, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and many others the players they became. In 1984, the Tigers started out 35-5, went wire-to-wire to take the division and won the World Series in five games over the Padres. Anderson wrote a diary of that special season, in which he typically lauded in the players in a book titled "Bless You Boys.''
No Sparky, bless you.
Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. His book "Is This a Great Game, or What?" was published by St. Martin's Press and became available in paperback in May 2008. Click here to order a copy.
That was Sparky Anderson. He was a great judge of talent, and a great communicator with people, all at the same time, all the time, every day of his life.No manager in baseball history was more true to his nickname than George "Sparky'' Anderson. No manager ever loved the game more than Sparky. No manager did the job with the same relentless energy and enthusiasm as Sparky. No manager smiled as often as Sparky. No manager was more of a gentleman than Sparky. No manager was nicer than Sparky. Late in his career, Anderson asked the media to start calling him by his given name, George, saying no man in his 50s should be called Sparky. But, it never took. He was and always will be Sparky.
Part of his charm was his penchant for hyperbole. He once called Kirk Gibson, "the next Mickey Mantle,'' and said second baseman Chris Pittaro was a "future Hall of Famer'' even though everyone knew he wasn't. A writer once asked him about the great Reds teams that he managed, and Sparky ran his hand through his silver hair, put his two hands out and began counting fingers: "Bench, greatest catcher ever. Rose, most hits ever. Morgan, maybe the greatest second baseman ever. Perez, Hall of Famer. Concepcion, should be a Hall of Famer; Foster, unbelievable power; Geronimo, best defensive center fielder in the game,'' then proceeded to name every player on those teams, with a superlative attached to each.
"What do you think?'' he said. "Give me a team that could beat those teams.''
Anderson fractured the English language, but in an engaging, homespun sort of way. Of his Stengelesque mangling of words, which was comical and harmless, Anderson once said, "Why do you have to know English? It's like 'two.' There are three twos! There's tee-oh. There's tee-doublya-oh, and there's tee-double-oh. Three twos! Now, if I put any one of them down in a letter I wrote, you would know which one it is I am talking about. It's like 'there' and 'their.' What is the difference as long as you know there's a there there?''
When Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated went to do a story on Sparky, Anderson brought up the hilarious movie, "The Naked Gun," and in full uniform in his office, did his impersonation of Leslie Nielsen as the umpire, complete with the moonwalk and the yelling of Steeeeee-rike threeeee.
Anderson was a simple man who was, at times, embarrassed by the money and the lifestyle of a major leaguer, in part because he grew up in South Dakota in a house that didn't have an indoor toilet.
He once said, "I only had a high school education and, believe me, I had to cheat to get that.''
As the manager of the Tigers, he once said on game days, he would mostly stay in his hotel watching TV. "I loved 'Headline News,'" he said. "I could watch it all day. Sometimes, it was the same show, and I'd watch over and over.'' But his simple approach is what made him such a great manager. He didn't try to out-think the room, as some managers do. He knew, and said many times, that managers win only because of the players. At his Hall of Fame induction speech, he made that very clear.
And Anderson was a great manager. He won 2,194 games, sixth most ever. He won five pennants and three World Series. He and Tony La Russa are the only managers to win the World Series in each league. He is the all-time winningest manager for two franchises, the Reds and Tigers. He was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2000, and nothing made him happier than going back to Cooperstown each year and shaking hands with the other Hall of Famers.
But, as a manager, he was tough when he needed to be. His other nickname was "Captain Hook" because of his willingness to go to his bullpen as often as he saw fit. Some of his pitchers weren't particularly happy about coming out of a game, but Anderson once said of removing a pitcher, "I'll tell you when you're tired.''
Anderson was 36 years old when he took over the Reds in 1970. That was a good team, a relatively young team, but the veterans tested their new manager immediately, and immediately Sparky made it clear: It didn't matter that he was a rookie manager, or only 36 years old, he was in charge, and the players would do as he said. Quickly, they did. The Reds won world championships in 1975 and 1976. Those teams are considered among the greatest teams in National League history.
In 1979, Anderson took over the Tigers. He was instrumental -- but took no credit -- for helping make Gibson, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and many others the players they became. In 1984, the Tigers started out 35-5, went wire-to-wire to take the division and won the World Series in five games over the Padres. Anderson wrote a diary of that special season, in which he typically lauded in the players in a book titled "Bless You Boys.''
No Sparky, bless you.
Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. His book "Is This a Great Game, or What?" was published by St. Martin's Press and became available in paperback in May 2008. Click here to order a copy.
Friday, October 15, 2010
A century doesn't erase questions surrounding Nap Lajoie's 8-for-8 day
One hundred years ago this Saturday, Cleveland Naps star second baseman Napoleon Lajoie authored one of the greatest single-day performances in a Major League Baseball regular season.
Or did he?
Did Lajoie legitimately go 8-for-8 in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park to run down Ty Cobb for a batting title and automobile? Or did the Browns effectively attempt to hand the keys to the car to him -- and start the engine -- with a "defense" that gave up a string of bunt singles?
And was the 8-for-8, regardless of circumstance, actually enough to trump Cobb?
The combination of two legends, high stakes and various shades of gray creates, at the very least, a conversation piece 100 years later.
Entering the 1910 season, Detroit car magnate Hugh Chalmers offered a "Chalmers 30" to who ever finished with the highest average in the game. Owning a car in those days was a big deal.
The Detroit Tigers' Cobb, three-time defending AL batting champion, was the natural favorite to win. Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner and Cleveland's Lajoie were among those expected to be in the mix as well.
Eventually, it became a race between Cobb and Lajoie, who were destined to be enshrined in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the late 1930s. By the final weekend, Cobb seemingly had the fourth straight title in his pocket, especially given his decision not to play the last two games. Cobb claimed that a recurring eye issue dogged him; his long line of haters wondered if he winked through the pain.
The lead of a sidebar in the Sunday, Oct. 9, edition of The Plain Dealer read: "Nap Lajoie's chances of owning the automobile presented to the leading batsman of the country are mightily slim -- in fact, they are practically obliterated unless the 'official' figures prove that 'unofficial' figures are radically incorrect. Cobb, according to The Plain Dealer's estimate, is batting close to .383, while Lajoie's present mark is slightly in excess of .378." (We know now that the lead was .383 to .376.)
The article went on to tweak Cobb for his plans to sit out the final two: "Cobb left the Detroit team Friday night, departing for Philadelphia where he will be a member of the All-Star team that will practice with the Athletics. The Georgian declared that he was not feeling very well. The fact that he was ahead in the auto race and feared that he might take a slump in the two games yet to be played may have had something to do with the sudden decision."
On Oct. 9, about 10,000 fans watched the awful Browns play the sub-.500 Naps in the doubleheader. Most were on hand to see if Lajoie -- aka "The Big French man" or "Larry" -- could mount a challenge to Cobb.
Lajoie tripled in his first at-bat of the opener, then, depending on one's definition of the term, bunted over and over. Lajoie went 4-for-4 in a loss and 4-for-4 with a sacrifice in a victory.
Lajoie kept dropping or pushing or dumping balls in front of Browns rookie infielder Red Corriden, who kept positioning himself ultra-deep, presumably on orders from his manager, Jack O'Connor.
A headline from the front page of The Plain Dealer's Oct. 10 edition stated, "Lajoie Wins Auto In Final Stretch," but acknowledged in a subhead that some thing had smelled at Sportsman's Park: "St. Louis Papers Say Browns Made It Easy for Nap Slugger."
After the writer of the "Special To The Plain Dealer" article described how excited fans were to see Lajoie pile up the hits, the case for the asterisk was summarized:
"But Larry's triumph is tinged with a charge of illegitimacy. St. Louis sporting writers assert that Lajoie was favored by opposing fielders. They say that the St. Louis pitchers pitched the ball where Larry could hit it to best advantage.
"They maintain that Corridon [sic], the Brown third baseman, did not field to the best of his ability when the Cleveland champion drove the ball into Corridon's territory. They insist that other fielders abetted him and aided Lajoie in his race for highest honors. Among others who wrote in similar strain, the baseball editor of the St. Louis Globe Democrat gave the fol lowing description of the St. Louis infield's work:
" 'Every time Lajoie stepped up to the plate, Corridon walked out to the very edge of the grass almost. The Browns' third sacker was virtually playing a short left field for Larry. This always resulted in the same old thing happening, that of Lajoie bunting down the third base line, Corridon rushing in to field the ball and then not throwing because a throw to first would have been useless.'"
The case for shenanigans was bolstered by various reports of pressure having been applied to the official scorer concerning Lajoie's second-game sacrifice. Whether the offender was St. Louis pitching coach Harry Howell or a Naps bat boy or someone else, the goal was to get the sacrifice changed to a hit, because Lajoie needed all the hits he could get. The scorer, possibly offered a bribe, refused to buckle. The play remained a sacrifice/error third base.
If the opposition had, in fact, laid down a Brown carpet for Lajoie, why had they done so? The answer apparently was as simple as ABC: Anybody But Cobb. The Browns were no different than other teams -- including, to a certain extent, the Tigers -- in their dislike for the irascible Cobb. If the down-to-earth Lajoie could be the foil, all the better.
The Plain Dealer's front page Oct. 10 listed how the Cleveland papers calculated the race. The Plain Dealer had Lajoie beating Cobb (.385 to .382), as did The Leader (382.4 to 381.7) and The Press (386.8 to 382.6). The News gave the nod to Cobb (384.15-384.09). Further indicative of the statistical uncertainty of the times was that each paper had a different hit total for Lajoie, ranging from 226 to 229.
A story on the cover of The Plain Dealer on Oct. 11 revealed that American League President Ban Johnson no longer would allow anymore individual contests/prizes as long as he was the league's boss. Johnson was furious about the allegations coming out of Sportsman's Park and promised to investigate.
Lajoie did not flinch. This, from the same story:
" 'It's too close for me to claim the victory and the auto,' said Lajoie at the Grand hotel in Cincinnati last evening. 'Take it from me, I am waiting until Ban Johnson and Robert McRoy tell me whether I have a better record than Cobb or Cobb has me beat. There is such a difference of opinion that I am not counting my eggs before they are hatched or taking a ride in that auto before Johnson and McRoy have poured in a little Cleveland gasoline.
" 'The talk about my not earning those eight hits in St. Louis, though, makes me tired. The first time up I smashed one to the outfield that went over Northen's head, yet some say he misjudged it. Then I hit one that Wallace was lucky to knock down. If that wasn't a hit, there never was one. Then we get down to those six bunts that I beat out. Suppose Corridon did play fairly well back. If he had played in for a bunt and I had swung hard on the ball, I suppose the youngster would have been roasted to a turn be cause he did not play deep."
McRoy was the American League secretary. Upon rechecking the season's stats, McRoy claimed that Cobb was not credited with a 2-for-3 performance from a late-September double header. Adding the 2-for-3 enabled Cobb to edge Lajoie. Johnson signed off on it.
Within a week of the season's conclusion, Johnson announced that Lajoie's 8-for-8 would stand even as O'Connor and Howell had been banished. Johnson also said that Lajoie should have gotten credit for a ninth hit in stead of the sacrifice. Still, according to Johnson and McRoy, Lajoie's perfect day was not enough to overtake Cobb. Johnson declared Cobb the winner of the title and the Chalmers 30. Cobb was credited with going 196-for-509 (.385069) to Lajoie's 227-for-591 (.384095).
Johnson declaring Cobb was entitled to the "Chalmers trophy" did not stop the president from asking Chalmers to provide Lajoie with an automobile, as well. Chalmers agreed; Lajoie, after initially balking, accepted the gift.
Debate continues to this day over who should be listed as the 1910 AL batting champion.
In the late 1970s, researchers Pete Palmer and Leonard Gettelson discovered that Cobb's 2-for-3 had been recorded and, therefore, was mistakenly duplicated. In April 1981, The Sporting News publicized the error but Commissioner Bowie Kuhn declined to alter the history books. In the eyes of baseball, Cobb would remain the 1910 AL batting champion -- part of nine consecutive titles from 1907 to 1915 -- and own 4,191 career hits.
Or did he?
Did Lajoie legitimately go 8-for-8 in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park to run down Ty Cobb for a batting title and automobile? Or did the Browns effectively attempt to hand the keys to the car to him -- and start the engine -- with a "defense" that gave up a string of bunt singles?
And was the 8-for-8, regardless of circumstance, actually enough to trump Cobb?
The combination of two legends, high stakes and various shades of gray creates, at the very least, a conversation piece 100 years later.
Entering the 1910 season, Detroit car magnate Hugh Chalmers offered a "Chalmers 30" to who ever finished with the highest average in the game. Owning a car in those days was a big deal.
The Detroit Tigers' Cobb, three-time defending AL batting champion, was the natural favorite to win. Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner and Cleveland's Lajoie were among those expected to be in the mix as well.
Eventually, it became a race between Cobb and Lajoie, who were destined to be enshrined in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the late 1930s. By the final weekend, Cobb seemingly had the fourth straight title in his pocket, especially given his decision not to play the last two games. Cobb claimed that a recurring eye issue dogged him; his long line of haters wondered if he winked through the pain.
The lead of a sidebar in the Sunday, Oct. 9, edition of The Plain Dealer read: "Nap Lajoie's chances of owning the automobile presented to the leading batsman of the country are mightily slim -- in fact, they are practically obliterated unless the 'official' figures prove that 'unofficial' figures are radically incorrect. Cobb, according to The Plain Dealer's estimate, is batting close to .383, while Lajoie's present mark is slightly in excess of .378." (We know now that the lead was .383 to .376.)
The article went on to tweak Cobb for his plans to sit out the final two: "Cobb left the Detroit team Friday night, departing for Philadelphia where he will be a member of the All-Star team that will practice with the Athletics. The Georgian declared that he was not feeling very well. The fact that he was ahead in the auto race and feared that he might take a slump in the two games yet to be played may have had something to do with the sudden decision."
On Oct. 9, about 10,000 fans watched the awful Browns play the sub-.500 Naps in the doubleheader. Most were on hand to see if Lajoie -- aka "The Big French man" or "Larry" -- could mount a challenge to Cobb.
Lajoie tripled in his first at-bat of the opener, then, depending on one's definition of the term, bunted over and over. Lajoie went 4-for-4 in a loss and 4-for-4 with a sacrifice in a victory.
Lajoie kept dropping or pushing or dumping balls in front of Browns rookie infielder Red Corriden, who kept positioning himself ultra-deep, presumably on orders from his manager, Jack O'Connor.
A headline from the front page of The Plain Dealer's Oct. 10 edition stated, "Lajoie Wins Auto In Final Stretch," but acknowledged in a subhead that some thing had smelled at Sportsman's Park: "St. Louis Papers Say Browns Made It Easy for Nap Slugger."
After the writer of the "Special To The Plain Dealer" article described how excited fans were to see Lajoie pile up the hits, the case for the asterisk was summarized:
"But Larry's triumph is tinged with a charge of illegitimacy. St. Louis sporting writers assert that Lajoie was favored by opposing fielders. They say that the St. Louis pitchers pitched the ball where Larry could hit it to best advantage.
"They maintain that Corridon [sic], the Brown third baseman, did not field to the best of his ability when the Cleveland champion drove the ball into Corridon's territory. They insist that other fielders abetted him and aided Lajoie in his race for highest honors. Among others who wrote in similar strain, the baseball editor of the St. Louis Globe Democrat gave the fol lowing description of the St. Louis infield's work:
" 'Every time Lajoie stepped up to the plate, Corridon walked out to the very edge of the grass almost. The Browns' third sacker was virtually playing a short left field for Larry. This always resulted in the same old thing happening, that of Lajoie bunting down the third base line, Corridon rushing in to field the ball and then not throwing because a throw to first would have been useless.'"
The case for shenanigans was bolstered by various reports of pressure having been applied to the official scorer concerning Lajoie's second-game sacrifice. Whether the offender was St. Louis pitching coach Harry Howell or a Naps bat boy or someone else, the goal was to get the sacrifice changed to a hit, because Lajoie needed all the hits he could get. The scorer, possibly offered a bribe, refused to buckle. The play remained a sacrifice/error third base.
If the opposition had, in fact, laid down a Brown carpet for Lajoie, why had they done so? The answer apparently was as simple as ABC: Anybody But Cobb. The Browns were no different than other teams -- including, to a certain extent, the Tigers -- in their dislike for the irascible Cobb. If the down-to-earth Lajoie could be the foil, all the better.
The Plain Dealer's front page Oct. 10 listed how the Cleveland papers calculated the race. The Plain Dealer had Lajoie beating Cobb (.385 to .382), as did The Leader (382.4 to 381.7) and The Press (386.8 to 382.6). The News gave the nod to Cobb (384.15-384.09). Further indicative of the statistical uncertainty of the times was that each paper had a different hit total for Lajoie, ranging from 226 to 229.
A story on the cover of The Plain Dealer on Oct. 11 revealed that American League President Ban Johnson no longer would allow anymore individual contests/prizes as long as he was the league's boss. Johnson was furious about the allegations coming out of Sportsman's Park and promised to investigate.
Lajoie did not flinch. This, from the same story:
" 'It's too close for me to claim the victory and the auto,' said Lajoie at the Grand hotel in Cincinnati last evening. 'Take it from me, I am waiting until Ban Johnson and Robert McRoy tell me whether I have a better record than Cobb or Cobb has me beat. There is such a difference of opinion that I am not counting my eggs before they are hatched or taking a ride in that auto before Johnson and McRoy have poured in a little Cleveland gasoline.
" 'The talk about my not earning those eight hits in St. Louis, though, makes me tired. The first time up I smashed one to the outfield that went over Northen's head, yet some say he misjudged it. Then I hit one that Wallace was lucky to knock down. If that wasn't a hit, there never was one. Then we get down to those six bunts that I beat out. Suppose Corridon did play fairly well back. If he had played in for a bunt and I had swung hard on the ball, I suppose the youngster would have been roasted to a turn be cause he did not play deep."
McRoy was the American League secretary. Upon rechecking the season's stats, McRoy claimed that Cobb was not credited with a 2-for-3 performance from a late-September double header. Adding the 2-for-3 enabled Cobb to edge Lajoie. Johnson signed off on it.
Within a week of the season's conclusion, Johnson announced that Lajoie's 8-for-8 would stand even as O'Connor and Howell had been banished. Johnson also said that Lajoie should have gotten credit for a ninth hit in stead of the sacrifice. Still, according to Johnson and McRoy, Lajoie's perfect day was not enough to overtake Cobb. Johnson declared Cobb the winner of the title and the Chalmers 30. Cobb was credited with going 196-for-509 (.385069) to Lajoie's 227-for-591 (.384095).
Johnson declaring Cobb was entitled to the "Chalmers trophy" did not stop the president from asking Chalmers to provide Lajoie with an automobile, as well. Chalmers agreed; Lajoie, after initially balking, accepted the gift.
Debate continues to this day over who should be listed as the 1910 AL batting champion.
In the late 1970s, researchers Pete Palmer and Leonard Gettelson discovered that Cobb's 2-for-3 had been recorded and, therefore, was mistakenly duplicated. In April 1981, The Sporting News publicized the error but Commissioner Bowie Kuhn declined to alter the history books. In the eyes of baseball, Cobb would remain the 1910 AL batting champion -- part of nine consecutive titles from 1907 to 1915 -- and own 4,191 career hits.
Indians' great Al Rosen on anti-Semitism: 'I had broad shoulders': When They Played The Game
Indians' great Al Rosen on anti-Semitism: 'I had broad shoulders': When They Played The Game
Published: Monday, October 11, 2010, 10:00 PM Updated: Monday, October 11, 2010, 10:17 PM
Editor's note: This is one of an ongoing series of stories catching up with some of Cleveland's best-known sports figures.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- About a month into Jackie Robinson's rookie season in 1947, Major League Baseball's first black player beat out a bunt as the throw pulled the hulking first baseman off the bag.
111
Share 13 Comments They collided, dusted themselves off and played on.
Had the fielder been someone other than Hank Greenberg, there may have been a dust-up, not a dust-off. But that day, the 6-4 Greenberg encouraged Robinson to not let the bigots beat him down. Baseball's first Jewish superstar certainly understood what it was like to play under a cloud of hate.
The integration of baseball -- and Cleveland's role in it -- is a familiar slice of history. Two months after Robinson's historic debut, the Indians' Larry Doby became the American League's first black player. In 1975, the Indians' Frank Robinson turned in his lineup card as baseball's first black manager.
The average fan is less aware of the struggles of Jewish ballplayers, although that, too, carries a thick Cleveland vein. Greenberg later became the Indians' general manager under owner Bill Veeck.
And Al Rosen, a Jewish kid from Florida who idolized Greenberg and came within an eyelash of an American League Triple Crown, was one of the Indians' all-time greats.
Their history is told in "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story," a documentary featured this month during the fourth annual Cleveland Jewish Film Festival.
The audience will learn about players who changed their last names to appear "less Jewish" to escape the insults. How Greenberg, Rosen and others fielded taunts from fans and the opposing dugout. And how New York Giants manager John McGraw sought Jewish players to boost attendance -- and it worked.
"It's not a story about baseball," said producer/director Peter Miller, an '84 Oberlin College grad who grew up a Red Sox fan in Boston. "It's a story about how a people found their way into the mainstream. And there's nothing more mainstream than baseball."
It was through baseball that Rosen assimilated as well.
Rosen recalled that his family didn't have enough money to send him to college. He eventually did earn a degree from the University of Miami, but it was on the sandlots of Miami where he countered the stereotype that Jews weren't good athletes.
"Sports were always my addiction," he said. "I fell in love with the game."
By the time he was through in 1956 at age 32 after 10 seasons, Rosen had driven in at least 100 runs five years in a row and was an American League All-Star four straight times.
His breakout year was 1953, when he stroked 43 homers, drove in 145 runs and missed winning the batting title -- and a Triple Crown -- by one percentage point. He was the league's unanimous MVP.
The following season, Indians manager Al Lopez asked Rosen to move from third to first base for a few weeks until he could trade for another first baseman. Rosen agreed, but broke his right index finger, an injury that ultimately ended his career.
While with the Indians, Rosen lived in Shaker Heights, first on Van Aken Boulevard and later near Canterbury Golf Club, and learned the investment business with the firm formerly known as Bache & Co.
Rosen, now 86, is married and has three sons (all Cleveland-born), a stepdaughter and stepson, and enjoys playing golf and bridge. In a recent phone interview from his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., he reflected on his time in Cleveland, being Jewish in the big leagues and on his relationship with the late George Steinbrenner.
On being a Jewish ballplayer:
"I can only tell you this, there was anti-Semitism throughout my playing days, and it came from the stands, it came from the managers, the coaches and players. But as time went on, and particularly after the birth of Israel as a nation, I think that a new aura took over and people had more respect for Jewish athletes or Jews generally, because it showed once again that Jews were not to be taken lightly and that they could fight as well as be bookkeepers and accountants and that sort of thing. The kind of taunting and things like that that I heard personally from the benches softened a great deal after 1946."
On whom he turned to for support:
"I have broad shoulders. I took it upon myself. There were times I had to assert myself and other times I just let it roll, but I've always managed to handle it and I thought I handled it well throughout my career."
On how he was treated in Cleveland:
"Cleveland was great for me. I loved every minute of it. During my baseball career I was received warmly and with only laudatory manners. It was just great ... I was just very happy there. My family was happy. We still have relatives there, and my boys still keep in touch with some of their old friends."
On the '54 World Series, in which the Indians were swept by the New York Giants after setting a regular-season win record:
"The Giants had an awfully good ball club. We knew that because we played them in spring training every year. The catch by [Willie] Mays, and Dusty Rhodes getting hot at the right time, that sort of thing, who knows how things may have turned around if Mays hadn't made that catch? It may have been different. But as it was, it was a very disappointing ending to a great year."
On almost buying the Indians with Steinbrenner ... and how the Yankees fell into Steinbrenner's lap:
"We thought we had an agreement with [Indians owner] Vern Stouffer. We were all set to make the announcement from George's office on the 14th floor of the East Ohio Building. The lobby was filled with writers. ... And we thought we had a deal when Vernon called at 5 o'clock Cleveland time and said there'd be no deal. So George had an appetite for baseball now and said to Gabe Paul, who was the [Indians'] president and general manager and myself, 'If you ever hear of a club for sale, let me know.'"
Rosen was flying back to Cleveland from New York with Paul on a Friday after working on Wall Street for a few days, when Paul turned to him.
"Coming home we talked about it. Gabe said there was a club for sale, and I asked him who and he whispered in my ear: 'The Yankees.' I almost fell off my chair, but the Yankees at that time weren't doing well. ... George Steinbrenner, true to the spirit of George, walked in, put together a group and bought the club."
On what he hopes the audience takes away from the documentary:
"Pride, and some additional knowledge. A lot of people are going to see this movie and not recognize the exploits of people like Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax. It's going to be something new for them, and they're going to take it with great pride, because both of those men were so exemplary in everything they did."
Published: Monday, October 11, 2010, 10:00 PM Updated: Monday, October 11, 2010, 10:17 PM
Editor's note: This is one of an ongoing series of stories catching up with some of Cleveland's best-known sports figures.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- About a month into Jackie Robinson's rookie season in 1947, Major League Baseball's first black player beat out a bunt as the throw pulled the hulking first baseman off the bag.
111
Share 13 Comments They collided, dusted themselves off and played on.
Had the fielder been someone other than Hank Greenberg, there may have been a dust-up, not a dust-off. But that day, the 6-4 Greenberg encouraged Robinson to not let the bigots beat him down. Baseball's first Jewish superstar certainly understood what it was like to play under a cloud of hate.
The integration of baseball -- and Cleveland's role in it -- is a familiar slice of history. Two months after Robinson's historic debut, the Indians' Larry Doby became the American League's first black player. In 1975, the Indians' Frank Robinson turned in his lineup card as baseball's first black manager.
The average fan is less aware of the struggles of Jewish ballplayers, although that, too, carries a thick Cleveland vein. Greenberg later became the Indians' general manager under owner Bill Veeck.
And Al Rosen, a Jewish kid from Florida who idolized Greenberg and came within an eyelash of an American League Triple Crown, was one of the Indians' all-time greats.
Their history is told in "Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story," a documentary featured this month during the fourth annual Cleveland Jewish Film Festival.
The audience will learn about players who changed their last names to appear "less Jewish" to escape the insults. How Greenberg, Rosen and others fielded taunts from fans and the opposing dugout. And how New York Giants manager John McGraw sought Jewish players to boost attendance -- and it worked.
"It's not a story about baseball," said producer/director Peter Miller, an '84 Oberlin College grad who grew up a Red Sox fan in Boston. "It's a story about how a people found their way into the mainstream. And there's nothing more mainstream than baseball."
It was through baseball that Rosen assimilated as well.
Rosen recalled that his family didn't have enough money to send him to college. He eventually did earn a degree from the University of Miami, but it was on the sandlots of Miami where he countered the stereotype that Jews weren't good athletes.
"Sports were always my addiction," he said. "I fell in love with the game."
By the time he was through in 1956 at age 32 after 10 seasons, Rosen had driven in at least 100 runs five years in a row and was an American League All-Star four straight times.
His breakout year was 1953, when he stroked 43 homers, drove in 145 runs and missed winning the batting title -- and a Triple Crown -- by one percentage point. He was the league's unanimous MVP.
The following season, Indians manager Al Lopez asked Rosen to move from third to first base for a few weeks until he could trade for another first baseman. Rosen agreed, but broke his right index finger, an injury that ultimately ended his career.
While with the Indians, Rosen lived in Shaker Heights, first on Van Aken Boulevard and later near Canterbury Golf Club, and learned the investment business with the firm formerly known as Bache & Co.
Rosen, now 86, is married and has three sons (all Cleveland-born), a stepdaughter and stepson, and enjoys playing golf and bridge. In a recent phone interview from his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., he reflected on his time in Cleveland, being Jewish in the big leagues and on his relationship with the late George Steinbrenner.
On being a Jewish ballplayer:
"I can only tell you this, there was anti-Semitism throughout my playing days, and it came from the stands, it came from the managers, the coaches and players. But as time went on, and particularly after the birth of Israel as a nation, I think that a new aura took over and people had more respect for Jewish athletes or Jews generally, because it showed once again that Jews were not to be taken lightly and that they could fight as well as be bookkeepers and accountants and that sort of thing. The kind of taunting and things like that that I heard personally from the benches softened a great deal after 1946."
On whom he turned to for support:
"I have broad shoulders. I took it upon myself. There were times I had to assert myself and other times I just let it roll, but I've always managed to handle it and I thought I handled it well throughout my career."
On how he was treated in Cleveland:
"Cleveland was great for me. I loved every minute of it. During my baseball career I was received warmly and with only laudatory manners. It was just great ... I was just very happy there. My family was happy. We still have relatives there, and my boys still keep in touch with some of their old friends."
On the '54 World Series, in which the Indians were swept by the New York Giants after setting a regular-season win record:
"The Giants had an awfully good ball club. We knew that because we played them in spring training every year. The catch by [Willie] Mays, and Dusty Rhodes getting hot at the right time, that sort of thing, who knows how things may have turned around if Mays hadn't made that catch? It may have been different. But as it was, it was a very disappointing ending to a great year."
On almost buying the Indians with Steinbrenner ... and how the Yankees fell into Steinbrenner's lap:
"We thought we had an agreement with [Indians owner] Vern Stouffer. We were all set to make the announcement from George's office on the 14th floor of the East Ohio Building. The lobby was filled with writers. ... And we thought we had a deal when Vernon called at 5 o'clock Cleveland time and said there'd be no deal. So George had an appetite for baseball now and said to Gabe Paul, who was the [Indians'] president and general manager and myself, 'If you ever hear of a club for sale, let me know.'"
Rosen was flying back to Cleveland from New York with Paul on a Friday after working on Wall Street for a few days, when Paul turned to him.
"Coming home we talked about it. Gabe said there was a club for sale, and I asked him who and he whispered in my ear: 'The Yankees.' I almost fell off my chair, but the Yankees at that time weren't doing well. ... George Steinbrenner, true to the spirit of George, walked in, put together a group and bought the club."
On what he hopes the audience takes away from the documentary:
"Pride, and some additional knowledge. A lot of people are going to see this movie and not recognize the exploits of people like Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax. It's going to be something new for them, and they're going to take it with great pride, because both of those men were so exemplary in everything they did."
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In ranking the Indians' 40-man roster, I combined what the players did in the 2010 season and what they're expected to do next year.
I studied their stats and their positions in the Indians' pecking order. To try and gauge each players value, I went to baseball- reference.com and checked out the WAR (wins above replacement) statistical study on the Tribe. The stat, developed by Sean Smith of Baseballprojections.com, measures the number of wins a player adds to his team above what a replacement player would add.
OK, I threw a few darts as well. It's not like I watched Ezequiel Carrera for 162 games this year.
Grady Sizemore, Carlos Santana, Anthony Reyes and Hector Ambriz are not technically on the roster because they're on the 60-day disabled list, but they were rated as well. The roster must be adjusted and cut to 40 players by Nov. 19 in preparation for the Rule 5 draft.
1. OF Shin-Soo Choo: Top player on the roster, but he needs lots of help.
2. RHP Chris Perez: Went 2-0 with 16 saves in 17 chances and a 0.63 ERA after the All-Star break.
3. RHP Fausto Carmona: Showed he's capable of being a No.1 starter.
4. CF Grady Sizemore: Indians still consider him an elite player. For their sake, he better be.
5. C Carlos Santana: Manny Acta says Santana was born to hit in the middle of the lineup.
6. DH Travis Hafner: Hit .329 (51-for-155) after the break, but Tribe needs a 500 at-bat season from Pronk.
7. SS Asdrubal Cabrera: Production down because of broken left forearm. Hit .342 (27-for-79) with runners in scoring position.
8. RHP Rafael Perez: Looks like a set-up man again in winning six games.
9. RHP Carlos Carrasco: September is a fooler, but six of his seven starts were rated quality starts.
10. RHP Justin Masterson: He should open 2011 in the rotation.
11. Shelley Duncan: Not sure what this says about Indians talent, but Duncan did everything asked of him this season.
12. RHP Mitch Talbot: Good first half, poor second half. Needs good health and a full season in 2011.
13. SS/2B Jason Donald: Of all the Tribe's young position players who came to the big leagues last season, with the exception of Carlos Santana, he was the most consistent hitter.
14. OF Michael Brantley: He's getting better, but a .296 on base percentage is a concern.
15. OF Trevor Crowe: He plays at 100 mph. If he hit .280 to .290, he'd play a lot more.
16. C Lou Marson: Great arm, bad bat. He can't possibly be that bad a hitter.
17. 2B/3B Jayson Nix: Out of the ashes of 11 errors at the hot corner, did the Indians find a third baseman or a utility infielder?
18. RHP Jeanmar Gomez: He'll help the Indians rotation at some point next year.
19. LHP Tony Sipp: Opposition hit only .218 against Sipp even though he gave up 12 homers, 30 runs and 39 walks.
20. RHP Joe Smith: Tough on righties (.160), weak on lefties (.342). It may cost him.
21. RHP Jensen Lewis: Pitched for his job in September (0.84 ERA, 1 run, 11 strikeouts, 3 walks). Did he do enough?
22. 1B Matt LaPorta: Manny Acta gave him a mulligan for 2010. What do you give him?
23. RHP Josh Tomlin: Started 12 games, won half of them. Good chance to make opening day rotation.
24. OF Nick Weglarz: He has the power the Indians crave, but thumb surgery stopped him at Class AAA Columbus last year.
25. RHP Justin Germano: Manny Acta likes relievers that can go two or three innings. Germano does that well.
26. LHP Aaron Laffey: Not sure if Laffey is out as a starter or not. If he's out, he's a left-handed Germano.
27. RHP Frank Herrmann: He throws the ball over the plate, a good thing for a guy who throws between 95 mph to 97 mph.
28. RHP Hector Ambriz: Rule 5 right-hander who was hurt all year. He'll be down for at least a year following Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
29. 1B/3B Andy Marte: Good guy, but if he's still here in 2011, it means the Indians have gone backward instead of forward.
30. C Luke Carlin: Did well in a short look.
31. INF Drew Sutton: Ditto for Sutton.
32. C Chris Gimenez: Improved as a catcher, but with Carlos Santana and Lou Marson in front of him, he has nowhere to go but down.
33. RHP Vinnie Pestano: If he proves he can get lefties and righties out, he could steal a spot in the pen.
34. INF Luis Valbuena: He got lost in spring training and never found his way home.
35. OF Jordan Brown: Finally got his big-league shot, but he still needs a change of scenery.
36. LHP David Huff: Went from 11 wins in 2009 to 11 losses in 2010, but don't count him out.
37. RHP Jess Todd: There are a lot of bullpen arms in front of him.
38. OF Ezequiel Carrera: Acquired from Seattle for Russell Branyan. He was a phone call away when Michael Brantley twisted his ankle in late September.
39. LHP Kelvin De La Cruz: Put in a healthy year at Class A and AA after missing most of the 2009 season with elbow problems.
40.1B Wes Hodges: Hard to figure out what Indians think of Hodges after they designated him and then re-signed him.
41. OF Chad Huffman: Claimed on waivers from the Yankees on Sept. 17.
42. SS Carlos Rivero: Homers went from seven to six, errors from 14 to 28 in second year at Class AA Akron.
43. RHP Anthony Reyes: Still trying to make it back from Tommy John surgery.
44. RHP Hector Rondon: He's recovering from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
I studied their stats and their positions in the Indians' pecking order. To try and gauge each players value, I went to baseball- reference.com and checked out the WAR (wins above replacement) statistical study on the Tribe. The stat, developed by Sean Smith of Baseballprojections.com, measures the number of wins a player adds to his team above what a replacement player would add.
OK, I threw a few darts as well. It's not like I watched Ezequiel Carrera for 162 games this year.
Grady Sizemore, Carlos Santana, Anthony Reyes and Hector Ambriz are not technically on the roster because they're on the 60-day disabled list, but they were rated as well. The roster must be adjusted and cut to 40 players by Nov. 19 in preparation for the Rule 5 draft.
1. OF Shin-Soo Choo: Top player on the roster, but he needs lots of help.
2. RHP Chris Perez: Went 2-0 with 16 saves in 17 chances and a 0.63 ERA after the All-Star break.
3. RHP Fausto Carmona: Showed he's capable of being a No.1 starter.
4. CF Grady Sizemore: Indians still consider him an elite player. For their sake, he better be.
5. C Carlos Santana: Manny Acta says Santana was born to hit in the middle of the lineup.
6. DH Travis Hafner: Hit .329 (51-for-155) after the break, but Tribe needs a 500 at-bat season from Pronk.
7. SS Asdrubal Cabrera: Production down because of broken left forearm. Hit .342 (27-for-79) with runners in scoring position.
8. RHP Rafael Perez: Looks like a set-up man again in winning six games.
9. RHP Carlos Carrasco: September is a fooler, but six of his seven starts were rated quality starts.
10. RHP Justin Masterson: He should open 2011 in the rotation.
11. Shelley Duncan: Not sure what this says about Indians talent, but Duncan did everything asked of him this season.
12. RHP Mitch Talbot: Good first half, poor second half. Needs good health and a full season in 2011.
13. SS/2B Jason Donald: Of all the Tribe's young position players who came to the big leagues last season, with the exception of Carlos Santana, he was the most consistent hitter.
14. OF Michael Brantley: He's getting better, but a .296 on base percentage is a concern.
15. OF Trevor Crowe: He plays at 100 mph. If he hit .280 to .290, he'd play a lot more.
16. C Lou Marson: Great arm, bad bat. He can't possibly be that bad a hitter.
17. 2B/3B Jayson Nix: Out of the ashes of 11 errors at the hot corner, did the Indians find a third baseman or a utility infielder?
18. RHP Jeanmar Gomez: He'll help the Indians rotation at some point next year.
19. LHP Tony Sipp: Opposition hit only .218 against Sipp even though he gave up 12 homers, 30 runs and 39 walks.
20. RHP Joe Smith: Tough on righties (.160), weak on lefties (.342). It may cost him.
21. RHP Jensen Lewis: Pitched for his job in September (0.84 ERA, 1 run, 11 strikeouts, 3 walks). Did he do enough?
22. 1B Matt LaPorta: Manny Acta gave him a mulligan for 2010. What do you give him?
23. RHP Josh Tomlin: Started 12 games, won half of them. Good chance to make opening day rotation.
24. OF Nick Weglarz: He has the power the Indians crave, but thumb surgery stopped him at Class AAA Columbus last year.
25. RHP Justin Germano: Manny Acta likes relievers that can go two or three innings. Germano does that well.
26. LHP Aaron Laffey: Not sure if Laffey is out as a starter or not. If he's out, he's a left-handed Germano.
27. RHP Frank Herrmann: He throws the ball over the plate, a good thing for a guy who throws between 95 mph to 97 mph.
28. RHP Hector Ambriz: Rule 5 right-hander who was hurt all year. He'll be down for at least a year following Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
29. 1B/3B Andy Marte: Good guy, but if he's still here in 2011, it means the Indians have gone backward instead of forward.
30. C Luke Carlin: Did well in a short look.
31. INF Drew Sutton: Ditto for Sutton.
32. C Chris Gimenez: Improved as a catcher, but with Carlos Santana and Lou Marson in front of him, he has nowhere to go but down.
33. RHP Vinnie Pestano: If he proves he can get lefties and righties out, he could steal a spot in the pen.
34. INF Luis Valbuena: He got lost in spring training and never found his way home.
35. OF Jordan Brown: Finally got his big-league shot, but he still needs a change of scenery.
36. LHP David Huff: Went from 11 wins in 2009 to 11 losses in 2010, but don't count him out.
37. RHP Jess Todd: There are a lot of bullpen arms in front of him.
38. OF Ezequiel Carrera: Acquired from Seattle for Russell Branyan. He was a phone call away when Michael Brantley twisted his ankle in late September.
39. LHP Kelvin De La Cruz: Put in a healthy year at Class A and AA after missing most of the 2009 season with elbow problems.
40.1B Wes Hodges: Hard to figure out what Indians think of Hodges after they designated him and then re-signed him.
41. OF Chad Huffman: Claimed on waivers from the Yankees on Sept. 17.
42. SS Carlos Rivero: Homers went from seven to six, errors from 14 to 28 in second year at Class AA Akron.
43. RHP Anthony Reyes: Still trying to make it back from Tommy John surgery.
44. RHP Hector Rondon: He's recovering from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.
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