Sandlot hero to the rescue
Retelling the 1920 Indians story
When the Indians boarded their train in Chicago on July 6, they had to be a tired, discontent group of ballplayers. And they were in second place.
“The Indians left at 11 tonight for Cleveland,” the Plain Dealer wrote. “They will lay off in the home town tomorrow and leave in the evening for Washington to inaugurate their second eastern swing.”
The Tribe had lost three in a row to the White Sox and were in the middle of sweaty march through American League cities. They wouldn’t play at home until July 25 but at least they could sleep in their beds for a couple hours. Then it would be time to ride another train to Washington for another doubleheader on July 8.
The Indians played a doubleheader on June 29 and another on July 5. The four-day, six-game series in Washington would have twin-bills on Thursday the 8th and Saturday the 10th.
This was in July.
In Washington.
Before refrigeration or air conditioning was common.
There was no beer because of prohibition.
The folks back in Cleveland were getting antsy, even the normally sycophantic PD.
“This series was a heavy blow to Speaker’s crew, for his three ablest right handers, Caldwell, Coveleskie and Bagby, were taken over the jumps,” the morning paper reported. “The season’s statistics now read ten victories for the Injuns and eight for the Sox.”
In some ways, they were made to look foolish.
An unnamed correspondent in Chicago reported “Gardner protested when Umpire Evans called him out on strikes in the ninth inning. Larry argued he had not swung at the third ball., Speaker came out to make a speech as Wamby was batting and Evans, disregarding the Injun pilot, told Faber to pitch. One strike flashed over the plate while Wamby was listening to Spoke orate.”
Speaker, often considered a man of inviolate wisdom by local writers, drew a little heat after a White Sox pounding:
“The big question voiced by the populace while all this ruction was transpiring was: ‘Why doesn’t Speaker take him out?’ Spoke had four flingers toiling in the bull pen throughout the slaughter of his mighty spitballer (Coveleskie), but for some mysterious reason declined to summon a relief specialist.”
The Indians spent that partial, hopefully relaxing day in Cleveland as a second-place club. The Hated Yankees held the top rung.
But there was a player on that train to Washington who would help the Indians reverse their fortunes and his origin story included the sandlots of Cleveland.
George Uhle was born in Cleveland in 1898 and was discovered by scouts when he was playing for semi-pro teams including Standard Parts. “We were as good as any Double-A or Triple-A club in the minors,” he bragged.
For more about Uhle’s story, check out Joseph Wancho’s SABR bio, which includes a great anecdote about his fierce confidence when facing Babe Ruth.
The only reason Uhle pitched at all in the second game of that Washington doubleheader was because Dick Niehous clearly demonstrated to Speaker that he was not having a good day: Five hits, a walk and four runs in two innings.
It was already 3–0 in the fourth when Uhle came in. A Sacrifice fly put another run on Niehous’s record. Uhle would allow two runs of his own, but he finished the game and got the win. It wasn’t sparkly, but it was enough.
“Uhle came in and saved the day, not so much because of any great effort but because Washington pitching went off color shortly after Niehaus was relieved,” the dispatch back to Cleveland reported.
Tris Speaker led the way, going 5-for-5 with three RBI.
Al Schact, who would later become baseball’s famous clown, was getting no respect.
“Schacht was on mound duty when the Indians took their fifth turn. They saved their warming up for him until the sixth, when they got his range and lashed three runs across. They kept up their drive in the next for two more and topped off the big day with a run in the ninth. Uhle also was reached for a run in the last chapter, but once his mates got in front the Nationals never had a chance to take his measure.”
All of this raised spirits back in Ohio, so of course, the politicians took advantage. Both presidential candidates, Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox, were from Ohio. Each candidate had newspaper backgrounds, so they knew how to latch on to happy news trends.
It’s likely most baseball fans found goings on in Detroit more significant than front page presidential news.
“The Indians started their second invasion of the east today as befits a probable pennant winner,” the PD reported. “They slugged their way to a double victory over the Nationals and it pushed them once more to the van in the American League scramble. The Yanks lost to the Tigers while the tribe was taking a double fall out of the fourth place Nationals, 4 to 2 and 9 to 6.”
There had to be some cold beer somewhere in Washington to help them celebrate. They just had to know the right people.
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.
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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
It seemed unlikely that we could come close to recreating the July 8 Game, especially since we were going with Game 1 instead. But, sure enough, Gary Morton got bombed early in the Strat-O-Matic version and in came Uhle.
The Cleveland Kid pitched one scoreless inning, the sixth. Manager Jason Miller could not resist the temptation to pinch hit. In came Dr. Joe Evans who managed a sacrifice fly that put the Indians again 6–4.
Elmer Myers came in for the seventh inning and immediately gave up two runs to tie the score and put himself in position to win
The Indians scored single runs in the eighth and ninth for an 8–6 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
Washington rallied setting up a classic opportunity for some Strat Ball. That’s slang for a situation when a clever manager, Jason, could use his knowledge of the game to make a winning move a major-league manager would never attempt.
After two walks, a double play and two singles, the Senators had a run in and runners on first and second. The Senators brought in Red Shannon, a .255 pinch hitter but, notably, a .301 hitter in clutch situations. Knowing Shannon was a far greater threat than the next hitter, Frank Ellerbe, Jason called for an intentional walk.
Ellerbe grounded out.
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
