Babe woos Tribe fans
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Retelling the 1920 Indians story
It had to be galling.
Tris Speaker was standing in center field at League Park and things weren’t going well.
Speaker’s first-place Indians were getting shellacked by the hated New York Yankees who were on their way to a 14–0 victory before a League Park. The team would say 29,266 had paid tickets. Freebies put the crowd over 30,000. An uncompleted portion of the left-field stands was opened and filled with fans, hardly the best seat in the house.
“A reserved seat on the lawn, though, had its compensations as during the batting practice of the Yankees a score of balls were batted into the populace,” a Plain Dealer writer told us in his notes column. That was left field. Ruth, of course, hit mostly to right field — and beyond. As in across Lexington Avenue. The PD noted : “It was not hit quite as far, though, as the one he made in the game.”
I recommend you visit the reconditioned League Park to see for yourself how far that ball went.
“I gave Ruth one fast ball,” said Elmer Myers after the game, “and you saw what he did with it. Never again.”
By the time the Sultan of Swat came up in the eighth innings, the Yankees were ahead 9–0 and Speaker’s ears had to be burning.
“It was a good-natured crowd and well behaved,” the PD wrote. “Clay Folger, director of League Park police declaring no throng ever gave him less trouble.
“When it saw that Cleveland had no chance of winning it transferred its allegiance to Babe Ruth and pulled for him to make a home run every time he went to bat, booing (Elmer) Myers when it thought the long pitcher was intending to walk the big fellow.”
Myers woke up that day thinking he might not pitch that day. He followed George Uhle to the mound after one out had been made. Uhle’s line for that day, three hits, five earned runs and only one out recorded. He left after the never-immortal Ping Bodie doubled in Wally Pipp and Babe Ruth.
Myers lasted long enough to give up 13 hits, six runs and no walks. He left in the eighth inning. But by the time he left, the crowd was hopping he would throw another fat one to the Babe.
So here was Speaker, already regarded as one of the best to ever play the game, seeing a guy who used to pitch take over his home field. The Indians manager and center fielder got three hits that day and reportedly was excellent in the field. But he went home a loser.
Final score: Yankees 14, Indians 0
Cleveland fans would see this again in the Twentieth Century and beyond. For years, the Boston Red Sox and their fans turned up in Cleveland for their version of an Animal House road trip. The Yankees played the Snidely Whiplash role often, probably peaking around the time Pete Franklin organized I Hate the Yankee Hankee Night and filled the old Stadium. Modern fans remember the Stub Hub disgrace of rich folks from Chicago Partying at Progressive during the 2016 World Series.
That 1920 Yankee beat-down was Sunday, June 13, the second game of a rare wrap-around series that had two more games, on Monday and Tuesday.
Things would be different on Monday. Speaker made sure of it.
Yes, the man known as Spoke, got two hits and was back in center field. Larry Gardner had three hits. But the real star this day was Stan Coveleskie.
The guy known as Covey to many fans shut out the powerful Yankees on five hits and four strikeouts. He also had two singles and three runs batted in.
He was following Spoke’s orders.
Ruth was walked three times, at least two times intentionally (who really knows?). The box score that survives did not say how many of the Yankees’ 10 left on base went to Ruth but let’s assume there were a few.
“The Cleveland fans also staged a comeback, 17,000 of them displaying their loyalty and confidence in the tribe by collaborating in forming the largest Monday crowd in the history of League Park, not counting holidays. The fans filled the grandstand and pavilions. It was a remarkable showing and emphatically demonstrated Cleveland can be proud of itself as a baseball town.
The Indians ended the day at 34–17, one game ahead of the Yankees, 34–19. Of course, the Yankees weren’t done and neither was Mr. Ruth.
Previous blog posts:
The Spitter Starts Sliding Out of Baseball
It Happens Every Spring — in Cleveland Anyway
Cleveland Fans Party — Tribe Style
Throwing it around in the old days
Bagby Flashes but Soon will Fade
Dave Scott was a newspaper writer and editor for 40 years. He is a lifelong baseball fan and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research for decades, although SABR records might indicate I skipped my dues on occasion! DavidAScott@gmail.com I owe a great debt to the Cleveland Public Library for its excellent resources.
I make no money from this blog. Please consider sharing it on your social media. New editions come every Wednesday or so. Let me know if you want an email notice when it is posted.
The following have helped me tremendously with editing, error correction and technical advice:
David Bodemer
Ken Krsolovic
Joe Shaw
Vince Guerrieri
Thanks to all of you!
Play it again!
A Strat-O-Matic recreation:
The Babe hit no homers in this one and Myers did not pitch. But Uhle still stunk up the joint and the Babe did get three hits.
The Yankees were up 8–3 when Uhle left with his 6.30 ERA in favor of Guy Morton, a true “Mop UP” pitcher if there ever was one.
Ruth had a triple among his three hits, which would have been fun to see.
I hope to have a Netplay game each week, so if you are a Strat-O-Matic player, let me know you would like to play. DavidAScott@gmail.com
