The Essential Cleveland Baseball Library

Cleveland has a rich baseball heritage with professional roots dating back to 1869. The Indians are one of just four of the original American League teams of 1901 to represent the same city ever since. And yet, only two widely circulated books devoted exclusively to the history of baseball in Cleveland exist.

The essential Cleveland baseball library begins with The Cleveland Indians by Franklin Lewis (Putnam, 1949). One of the Putnam team history series the book goes back to the beginnings of baseball in Cleveland, covering the Spiders of the American Association and the National League. Lewis, a long-time sports editor of the Cleveland Press, chronicles Cleveland’s American League history right up through the amazing 1948 World Championship season.

In Day By Day in Cleveland Indians History (Leisure Press, 1983), my goal was to pick up where Lewis left off as well as concentrate on he great games and great seasons in Tribe history. One of several day-by-day books published in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Cleveland book offers highlights from each day of the calendar year plus reviews of post season games, trades, records and nicknames.

Cleveland baseball fans owe a debt of thanks to John Phillips. Through his Capital Publishing Company, Phillips has produced work after work on various aspects of Cleveland baseball.

Chronologically, begin with The Spiders – Who Was Who. Phillips provides brief sketches of all players who wore the Spiders’ uniform during the years 1889 to 1899 from Pete Allen to Chief Zimmer. Phillips devotes a full volume to the most infamous club in Spiders history, the 1899 team that compiled a won-loss record of 20-134.

Who Was Who in Cleveland Baseball in 1901-10 by John Phillips is another compilation of biographical sketches from Cleveland’s first American League decade. Hall of Famers Addie Joss, Nap Lajoie, Elmer Flick and Cy Young receive special emphasis.

SABR can take credit for publishing the first biography of Cleveland’s first modern (since 1901) superstar in the Spring 1988 issue of The National Pastime. Napoleon Lajoie: Modern Baseball’s First Superstar by J.M. Murphy recounts Nap’s entire career including such Cleveland highlights as his eight-for-eight performance to “win” the 1910 batting title, the 1908 pennant race, and his 3,000th hit in 1914. Phillips details Lajoie’s first season in Cleveland with his book on the 1902 Cleveland Blues, When Lajoie Came to Town.

Long before the Rocky Colavito-Harvey Kuenn trade, Cleveland made an equally outrageous move by trading “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, still the all-time batting average leader in club history. As supplemental reading, Say It Ain’t So, Joe (Little, Brown, 1979) is both a fine biography of Jackson and a look into his years with Cleveland from 1910 to 1915.

The Indians, as Cleveland’s AL team has been known since 1915, reached and won their first World Series in 1920, one of the most remarkable and important seasons in major league history. One of the best recent works of baseball history chronicles that season by following the careers of pitcher Carl Mays of the New York Yankees and shortstop Ray Chapman of the Indians. Mike Sowell tells the story of the only fatal beaning in major league history in The Pitch That Killed (Macmillan 1989), winner of the Casey Award as best baseball book of the year. Phillips uses the day-by-day style to recount that remarkable season in The 1920 Indians.

The Indians had fine seasons in 1921 and 1926. Only the Yankees had more AL wins in the 1930s than Cleveland. But, the biggest event in Cleveland baseball between the 1920 World Series and 1940 was the arrival of Bob Feller in 1936. Feller’s first autobiography, Strikeout Story (A.S. Barnes, 1947), acceptably covers Rapid Robert’s life and Cleveland career until 1946. His new biography, Now Pitching, Bob Feller (Birch Lane Press, 1990), re-hashes the old material, but also provides a look at the years from 1948 to 1956.

Feller was the first Tribe player to have his uniform number retired, Lou Boudreau was the second. Player-Manager (Little, Brown, 1949) is the autobiography of Cleveland’s shortstop throughout the 1940s, manager from 1942 to 1950, and AL Most Valuable Player in 1948. Published after the 1948 season, Boudreau’s book discusses his entire career, but emphasizes Cleveland’s World Championship season of 1948.

Boudreau was the on-field architect of Cleveland’s second World Series winner, but club owner Bill Veeck was the acknowledged genius whose tireless promoting and shrewd moves produced the most exciting baseball season ever on the north coast. Veeck tells his side of the 1948 story, including how he nearly traded Boudreau before the season, in his biography Veeck As In Wreck (Putnam, 1962).

Two of Veeck’s biggest moves involved the integration of the junior circuit. Larry Doby, forever overshadowed by Jackie Robinson, became the first Black player in AL history and spent a decade in Cleveland. Joseph Moore is Doby’s biographer in Pride Against Prejudice (Praeger, 1988). In 1948, Veeck brought Negro League legend Satchel Paige to the bigs. Paige tells his story in Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever (Doubleday, 1962) and Cleveland sportswriter Hal Lebovitz follows Satch’s amazing “rookie” season in Pitchin’ Man (self-published).

Another bold move by Veeck brought Hall of Fame slugger Hank Greenberg into the Tribe front office in 1948. Hank remained in Cleveland following Bill’s 1949 departure and ran the club until 1957. Hank Greenberg – The Story of My Life (with Ira Berkow, Times Books, 1989) recalls his controversial reign and efforts to move the team to Minnesota.

Cleveland’s 1949 season was a disappointment compared with the glory of 1948, but, argues author Bruce Dudley, more like the majority of Tribe seasons with great expectations that went unfulfilled. Distant Drums: The 1949 Cleveland Indians Revisited (self-published) features interviews with almost every member of that club and a look at how the defending champions fared a year later.

The years 1946 to 1956 were, arguably, the best in Tribe history. Cleveland Baseball Winners by John Phillips is a “Who’s Who” look at the members of the Indians during those years. The members of the 1954 club banded together to dethrone the Yankees with an AL record 111 victories. Unfortunately, Cleveland could not add a single win to those 111 in the 1954 World Series. Some Tribe fans might argue that the biggest turning point in modem club history was September 29, 1954. Arnold Hano’s A Day in the Bleachers (Crowell, 1955) is a baseball classic; an in-depth, personal, inning-by-inning account of the first game of the 1954 World Series.

For those that remember April 17, 1960 as the darkest day in Tribe annals, Don’t Knock the Rock (World, 1966) by Gordon Cobbledick recounts the life of Rocky Colavito, the biggest baseball star in Cleveland since Bob Feller.

A strong argument can be made that the Indians have never recovered from the Colavito trade. Most of the significant moments in Tribe history since have been of a transient nature and due to the individual brilliance of a single athlete. Gaylord Perry was such an athlete. Obtained in a trade from the Giants, Perry won the Cy Young Award for Cleveland in l972 and gained national headlines with his “does he or doesn’t he (throw a spitball)” act. His confessional, Me and the Spitter (Saturday Review Press, 1974), looks at Perry’s entire career through the 1973 season.

The Indians made integration headlines again by making Frank Robinson the first Black manager in modern major league history in 1974. Frank: The First Year (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) by Robinson and Dave Anderson is a diary of that season, ironically highlighted by a feud between Robinson and Perry. Local Cleveland sportswriter Russ Schneider also looked at that landmark season in Frank Robinson: The Making of a Manager (Coward, McCann, Geohegan, 1976).

The player that, no matter how briefly, excited Cleveland baseball fans like no player since Colavito was Joe Charboneau, profiled in Super Joe (Stein and Day, 1981). Joe was a one-year wonder. The most recent player to make a long-term impact on the Tribe was Andre Thornton. His book, Triumph Born of Tragedy (Harvest House, 1983) deals primarily with Thornton’s religious beliefs, but provides insight into the most popular Tribe star of the 1970s and 1980s.

Another enlightening look inside the Indians of the late 70s and early `80s comes from A Baseball Winter (Macmillan, 1986) by Terry Pluto and Jeffrey Neuman. Pluto and Neuman describe the 1984-85 off-season doings of several clubs, including the Indians. A vivid picture of a floundering franchise emerges.

An integral part of Cleveland baseball has been the two homes of the AL club. League Park (self-published) by Peter Jedick is a monograph on the home of the Tribe until 1946. Cleveland Municipal Stadium (Cleveland Landmarks Press, 1981) by Jim Toman and Dan Cook deals with the development, construction and overall use of the mammoth lakefront facility.

Many aspects of Cleveland baseball have yet to be discussed. The Cleveland Buckeyes were one of the most successful Negro League clubs during the 1940s. Star catcher Quincy Trouppe tells his story in 20 Years Too Soon (S & S Enterprises 1977). Still less literature is available on Cleveland’s sandlot and minor league teams.

The essential Cleveland baseball library is sure to expand. Tris Speaker, Sam McDowell, the 1908 and 1940 AL pennant races, and Cleveland baseball in the 1950s are just some subjects that deserve full-length treatment. Such books would not only add to Cleveland baseball literature but enhance the written record of baseball in general.