Cleveland Fans Party — Tribe Style
Retelling the 1920 Indians Story
Cleveland knows how to party in April. It goes back more than 100 seasons.
The Plain Dealer knew what was coming on April 11, 1920.
“When spring showers have settled the dust and the long belated rays of the sun are beating down a cordial welcome on the bleachers, and the birds are twit-twitting on the right field fence or playing tag on the grand stand screens, then if ever comes the thawing of joints and a new lease of happiness to thousands of fans.”
I’m pretty sure Terry Pluto and his contemporaries at the PD never tapped out “twit-twitting” on their laptops.
Despite the purple prose, Indians Owner Jim Dunn was ready.
“No, we are not planning many frills,” he told reporters. “Of course, we will have bands and music, the usual hoisting of the colors and probably make some ceremony of pitching the first ball, but we think that baseball is what the fans want and not a lot of frills.”
That’s what they got. Those “long belated rays” didn’t show up, but the Tribe did get a warm welcome, especially from social clubs and ethnic fraternities.
“Seated square in the center of the grand stand will be the happy throwing of Harry L. Davis Rooters’ Club, at the head of which will be Mayor Davis, himself a king in Cleveland baseball frame,” the Plain Dealer reported. “A thousand seats are reserved for this body of super-enthusiasts of the national pastime. Their entry will be attended with appropriate ceremony.”
The musical entertainment did not disappoint:
“The O.N.G band headed the Harry L. Davis Rooters Club to League Park yesterday for the opening game and had a special box near first base. Costello’s band accompanied the Druid Club. Both bands kept busy playing “Cleveland Will Shine Tonight” “Wearing of the Green,” etc. But none attempted “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains.””
Paying proper respect had its costs.
“Everybody stood bareheaded at attention as the bands played “The Star Spangled Banner” while the marines raised the flag. Ooey, it was cold.”
So cold the fans did what Cleveland fans do. They improvised.
“Twas the first ball game on record where fans started bonfires to keep themselves warm,” the reporter filing game notes said. “Those in the crowd outside the ropes around the field gathered together, flying newspapers, peanut shells and score cards and started fires.”
They even notice baseball was to be played.
When Clevelanders saw Akron’s George Sisler stride into the ballpark wearing a St. Louis Browns uniform, they knew he was coming off a tremendous 1919 season.
Sisler had reason to be satisfied with hitting .352 with 56 extra-base hits. Knocking in 83 runs and stealing 28 bases wasn’t so shabby. But Sisler would be even better in 1920.
It’s tempting to call it a homecoming for Sisler, but Cleveland was a more distant place from his Summit County home in 1920 than it is now in terms of time. The trip could take hours. Sisler was born in Manchester and graduated from Akron High school. Manchester was more of a crossroad than a village or formal town. The only traces of it today are mainly Manchester Road that heads south out of Akron and Manchester High School, which didn’t exist in Sisler’s day. He had to go to Akron to further his education.
After that, he played for the University of Michigan under another Ohioan, Branch Rickey, who was put into the Hall of Fame for his work as an executive, especially as the man who signed Jackie Robinson.
Another Ohioan on the Browns roster also would start that day for St. Louis. Allen Sothoron was from Bradford, Ohio, a tiny community in Adams County on the Ohio River. The town still brags about their major leaguer to this day.
Sothoron was a 20-game winner in 1919 with a 2.20 earned-run average. If there had been an all-star game back then, he might have been on it. However, his career was more erratic and that day in 1920 he was definitely on the downhill path.
But Sisler left no doubt about his star power. Even in the Deadball Era, he was known as a slugger and would go on to join 1939 class of the Hall of Fame. When they opened the building in Cooperstown, Sisler was right up there with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson for the photo of all-time greats.
His performance in 1920 was a big reason why.
Sisler played all 154 games and had 631 at bats. That led to one of the most remarkable achievements in baseball history.
257 hits
He hit .407. Other players hit for higher averages, but in an era when the base hit was the gold standard, he set a hit record that lasted the rest of the 20th Century — 84 years.
It wasn’t surpassed until Ichiro Suzuki amassed 262 hits in 161 games. Go to the hit leaders page at Baseball Reference and you see Sisler’s 100-year-old black and white photo in an old-style uniform right next to Suzuki’s.
Sothoron was not destined for the Hall of Fame and his performance at the Indians’ opener was a hint he was fading.
They got to him for four runs in the second inning. Elmer Smith got the key hit, a double, that scored two runs.
In all, the Tribe pounded Sothoron’s pitches, which included legal spitballs, for five runs, 13 hits and three walks. He also hit Jack Graney with a pitch. The right-hander went eight innings.
He finished 1920 with an 8–15 record and 4.70 ERA.
Sothoron played for three teams the next season, including the Indians and ended his major-league career in 1922, pitching only 25 innings for the Indians.
So the Indians went home winners that day.
The public got one more treat that reminds us of some things remain unchanged in Cleveland.
“The Philadelphia Athletics got applause yesterday they knew nothing about,” the Plain Dealer reported. “It came from 20,000 Cleveland fans when the score showed the Athletics led the Yankees, 3 to 1 at the end of the eighth.”
The Indians won 5–0. Here’s the box score.
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. This blog will be updated every week in a Game of the Week format. If you want a reminder for each posting, send me an email.
The following have me helped tremendously with editing, error correction and technical advice:
David Bodemer
Ken Krsolovic
Joe Shaw
Vince Guerrieri
Thanks to all of you!
The links above lead to Baseball Reference. SABR also has excellent articles, so follow these links. In many cases, these articles also helped the preparation for this article.
Note: Stan Coveleskie dropped the E at the end of his name after his playing days were over. Many sources, including the 1920 PD spelled Sothoron’s first name AllAn.
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Previous blog posts:
The Spitter Starts Sliding Out of Baseball
It Happens Every Spring — in Cleveland Anyway
Doing it again!
I’ve been a Strat-O-Matic player for almost 60 years and the chance to replay the 1920 season as part of this blog was too tempting to pass up. I will select a game each week to write about based on the quality of the game, the chance to note significant players and other newsworthy factors. Then I will replay the same game with the same lineup used in 1920. My opponents will be various Strat friends from around the country. Please volunteer so we can netplay.
Today’s opponent was Jason Miller of the Historic Retro-Franchise League. This “draft” league is using the 1974 players with rules that retain many of the foundational players for each team. Mike Schmidt is on the Phillies, etc.
Jason, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was far more active in this game than I was for the Indians. He pinch hit twice and used three pitchers. Each of those pitchers were pounded but the game was close until the 7th inning.
“I went against 1920s norms by pulling my starter after 5 innings — but he wasn’t performing well and I was trying to pad out a slim lead,” he wrote after the game. “The move backfired as the bullpen then gave up something like 8 unanswered runs. I think it was worth the effort, though, as no guarantee that my starter wouldn’t have similarly imploded.”
A key moment came in the seventh inning when Stan Coveleskie came up with runners on base. The score was 7–5. Modern strategy would call for a pitch hit, but I let Coveleskie remain, knowing he was the best pitcher I had and was capable of finishing the game. The Indians went on to score three runs that inning and never lost the lead. Below is the box score.
[1]BOXSCORE: 1920 St. Louis Browns At 1920 Cleveland Indians 4/14/1920
[1] Browns AB R H RBI AVG Tribesmen AB R H RBI AVG
J.Austin 3B 4 1 1 1 .250 J.Graney LF 1 3 0 0 .000
J.Gedeon 2B 4 1 1 0 .250 R.Chapman SS 4 3 2 1 .500
J.Tobin LF 4 0 1 0 .250 T.Speaker CF 3 1 1 1 .333
G.Sisler 1B 3 2 2 2 .667 E.Smith RF 3 0 0 0 .000
K.Williams CF 4 2 0 0 .000 B-S.Wood PH,RF 1 1 1 31.000
B.Jacobson RF 4 0 2 2 .500 L.Gardner 3B 3 1 1 1 .333
H.Severeid C 3 0 1 1 .333 B.Wambsganss 2B 5 1 1 2 .200
W.Gerber SS 4 1 0 0 .000 D.Johnston 1B 5 2 2 0 .400
A.Sothoron P 0 0 0 0 — — S.O’Neill C 5 0 3 1 .600
A-E.Smith PH 1 0 0 0 .000 S.Coveleski P 5 0 1 1 .200
B.Bayne P 0 0 0 0 — —
C-J.Billings PH 1 0 0 0 .000
C.Weilman P 0 0 0 0 — —
— — — — — — — — — -
[1] Totals 32 7 8 6 Totals 35 12 12 10
A-Pinch Hit For Sothoron In 6th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Smith In 7th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Bayne In 8th Inning
Browns………. 3 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0–7 8 2
Tribesmen……. 2 1 0 0 2 0 3 4–12 12 4
[1]Browns (0–1) IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
A.Sothoron 5 5 5 5 4 1 0 9.00 A1 C6
B.Bayne LOSS(0–1) BS(1st) 2 3 3 2 2 0 1 9.00
C.Weilman 1 4 4 4 2 1 0 36.00
[1]Totals 8 12 12 11 8 2 1
[1]Indians (1–0) IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
S.Coveleski WIN(1–0) 9 8 7 3 1 1 0 3.00
[1]Totals 9 8 7 3 1 1 0
ATTENDANCE- 8,949 DATE- Wednesday, April 14th 1920 TIME- Day WEATHER- Average
UMPIRES- Brick Owens, Ollie Chill, ,
T- 1:49
LEFT ON BASE- Browns: 5 Tribesmen: 9
DOUBLE PLAYS- Browns: 0 Tribesmen: 0
ERRORS- K.Williams, W.Gerber, J.Graney, R.Chapman-2, B.Wambsganss
DOUBLES- J.Tobin(1st), H.Severeid(1st), R.Chapman(1st), B.Wambsganss(1st),
S.O’Neill-2(2nd)
TRIPLES- G.Sisler(1st), S.Coveleski
HOME RUNS- S.Wood(1st)
RBIs- J.Austin(1st), G.Sisler-2(2nd), B.Jacobson-2(2nd), H.Severeid(1st),
R.Chapman(1st), T.Speaker(1st), S.Wood-3(3rd), L.Gardner(1st),
B.Wambsganss-2(2nd), S.O’Neill(1st), S.Coveleski
STOLEN BASES- J.Graney-2(2nd)
CAUGHT STEALING- G.Sisler
SACRIFICE HITS- J.Gedeon, J.Tobin, A.Sothoron-2
SACRIFICE FLIES- J.Austin, H.Severeid, T.Speaker, S.Wood
WALKS- G.Sisler, J.Graney-4, R.Chapman, T.Speaker, L.Gardner-2
STRIKE OUTS- J.Austin, B.Wambsganss, S.Coveleski
WILD PITCHES- A.Sothoron-2
2-out RBI- G.Sisler, B.Jacobson, L.Gardner, S.O’Neill, B.Wambsganss-2
RLISP 2-out- B.Wambsganss, R.Chapman-2, B.Jacobson, J.Austin, W.Gerber,
S.Coveleski-2
TEAM RISP- Browns: 4 for 13 Tribesmen: 5 for 16
Stan Coveleski allowed Tris Speaker to rest his bullpen, tossing a complete
game as the Cleveland Tribesmen outscored the St. Louis Browns 12 to 7.
St. Louis was unable to claim the lead after Cleveland went ahead in the
bottom of the 7th inning as they scored 3 runs on 2 base hits. The key
at-bat was by Smoky Joe Wood who made the crowd happy when he cracked a
two-run shot. Cleveland had a total of 12 hits for the game.
Coveleski(1–0) allowed 7 runs on the game. Bill Bayne(0–1) absorbed the loss
in relief. Cleveland knocked him around a bit, as he gave up 3 runs in 2
innings.
