A Champion Sports Town and an Unsung Hero

Two of Cleveland’s three American League pennants were won in the seven-year span between 1948 and 1954. While Casey Stengel’s Yankee dynasty was copping all the pennants in the intervening years, Cleveland was arguably Baseball City, USA during this period of post-war prosperity and optimism when television was still in its infancy and large numbers of people came out to the ballpark.

The Yankees, after all, shared the Gotham entertainment market with two other major league clubs plus a multitude of other diversions in a world city. The Indians commanded the undivided attention of the northern half of Ohio, western Pennsylvania and New York state, West Virginia, and parts of Ontario. Combine this with the fact that they regularly filled the largest stadium in professional baseball, and you begin to get the picture of a city in which baseball is king. In fact, the now familiar Chief Wahoo logo was often pictured with a crown jauntily cocked on his head next to his single feather.

All those fans weren’t just flocking to The Stadium (they regularly broke their own single game, series, and season attendance records) just because they were tired of Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, and Dumont Pro Wrestling on TV. The Tribe was what was happening.

During those seven seasons, under Hall-of-Famers Lou Boudreau and Al Lopez the Indians won two league championships, were thrice runners up, and placed third and fourth. Even the latter (a 92-62 season in 1950) was done with a record which would have won a divisional title in the 1970s or `80s. Sportswriters didn’t use the word “superstar” in those days, but if they had, many of the players they would have so labeled wore Cleveland uniforms.

The two managers, as already mentioned, have plaques at Cooperstown. Boudreau is in there as much for his playing accomplishments as managing. The man was a standout (and perennial All-Star) at shortstop, a lifetime295 hitter. He won the AL batting crown in the mid-’40’sand finished runner-up to Ted Williams with a .355 average (!) in that golden year of 1948.

Hall-of-Famers Bob Lemon, Early Wynn, and Bob Feller were regular pitchers on those teams while another enshrinee named Satchel Paige made a contribution to the 1948 World’s Championship. Having Lemon, Wynn, and Feller on the same staff for that span of time would be the equivalent of having Roger Clemens, Orel Hershiser, and Mike Scott on the same team today. Throw in Mike Garcia, and it would be like having Saberhagen too!

In 1954 when the Tribe won a league record 111 games (out of 154) eclipsing the mark of the legendary 1927 Yankees, every single AL individual performance category was won by an Indian:

• Wins: Bob Lemon 23, Early Wynn 23
• ERA: Mike Garcia, 2.64 (the Tribe’s 2.78 team ERA was the lowest by any team in history up to then)
• Shutouts: Mike Garcia, 5
• Batting Avg.: Bobby Avila, .341
• Home Runs: Larry Doby, 32
• RBIs: Larry Doby, 126

So it wasn’t just pitching, either. Nor was it just guys presently in the Hall of Fame. Guys like Doby, Avila, Rosen, Keltner, and Hegan (remember, we’re talking 1948 through 1954 here) are never going to make the Hall of Fame, but were universally recognized as All-Stars in their day. This period, arguably the Golden Age of major league baseball, is surely the Golden Age of the Cleveland franchise.

Remarkably, only Doby and Hegan held starting lineup positions with both pennant winners, while only Lemon and Feller were on the pitching staffs of both. Al Rosen, who’d had a brief cup of coffee with the `48 champs became a bona fide superstar third-sacker by 1954. Moving in the opposite direction was Dale Mitchell. While he saw action for the Indians in both the 48 and `54 Fall Classics, he was the regular left fielder in the former and basically a pinch-hitting specialist in the latter. Yet in many ways, he embodies the solid, but less-remembered competence of those Cleveland teams.

Dale Mitchell spent 11 seasons in the major leagues with a lifetime batting average of .312. He was the Indians’ regular left fielder from 1947 through 1953. Hanging on as a pinch-hitter and spot player, he stayed with he Tribe until halfway through the 1956 season when he was purchased by the Brooklyn Dodgers to add bench strength to their pennant drive. And that he did, getting into the 1956 Series with the Bums for his third Fall Classic.

Ironically, baseball seems to remember Dale more for a single pinch-hitting appearance in the 1956 World Series than for his stellar career (and two World Series) with the Indians. He became part of World Series history as he watched a third strike from Yankee hurler Don Larsen end the only perfect game that has ever been pitched in post-season play.

It is even more ironic when one considers that Mitchell was always known as a very difficult strikeout with an extremely accurate batting eye. He struck out only a total of 119 times in his 11-year major league career. Fellow Oklahoman Mickey Mantle logged that many Ks in a single season more often than not. To put this in perspective, over his lifetime 3984 at bats, Mitchell’s 119 strikeouts give him a ratio of 1 strikeout per 33 times at bat. Mantle fanned once every 4.7 times at bat.

Remembering that it was a called third strike, there has always been a nagging unstated doubt as to whether the “taking” of that pitch was based on sentiment rather than judgment. There are those who viewed it as a sportingly passive contribution by an old pro to the masterpiece of his younger opponent. Those who subscribe to this theory hold that the Dodgers would have profited little (game-wise) from a base hit in this situation, while Larsen’s accomplishment dwarfed even the Yankees’ winning of the game and ultimately the Series.

There is no doubt however, that Mitchell’s hitting, fielding, and base running skills helped the Cleveland Indians to win two of the three AL pennants in the clubs history. It is for that reason that he is being remembered here. He was a consistent hitter, batting over .300 in all but four of his eleven major league seasons. His lifetime mark of .312 puts him in front of several of his better known contemporaries including Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider, and Ralph Kiner.

Though he smashed one in the 1948 World Series, he had only 41 homers lifetime and was not known as a home run hitter. In fact, as a fleet-footed leadoff batter, his job was to get on base. This meant more emphasis on getting a safe hit of any kind than on the more dramatic four-bagger. It also meant he couldn’t afford to gamble the K against the “HR” like a Babe Ruth or a Reggie Jackson. His batting eye and difficulty to strike out have already been noted.

While neither home run blaster nor whiff wizard (see Jackson reference above), Dale was certainly not a “Punch and Judy” hitter. A large proportion of his hits (he exceeded 200 hits a season more than once) were for extra bases. His hitting ability, combined with speed and a good baseball brain got him many doubles and triples. His league leading 23 triples in l949 were the most since Hall-of-Famer Sam Crawford’s 26 in 1914! Mitchell thus not only got on base, he often got into scoring position as a leadoff man.

A natural athlete, Mitchell was a state high school sprint champion in Oklahoma. He twice led all AL outfielders in fielding average, and was among the leaders in other seasons. With Dale patrolling the green space alongside Larry Doby, very little got by them. This may have been an overlooked contributory factor as to why the Cleveland pitching staff of the day was so successful in producing no-hitters and one-hitters.

Plaques at Cooperstown will insure the immortality of Feller, Lemon, Wynn, Boudreau, Lopez, and Paige. But organizations like SABR and publications like this one will insure that posterity remembers the contributions of the Ken Keltners, Gene Beardens, Larry Dobys, Jim Hegans, Bobby Avilas, Al Rosens, and Dale Mitchells.