James C. Dunn and the Cleveland Indians

James C. Dunn’s 1916 purchase of the Cleveland Indians brought a much needed stability to the ailing franchise. His unbridled optimism had been part of the formula for his success in the railroad contracting business. Now it would serve him well in reshaping the Cleveland ballclub into a pennant-contending team.

Sunny Jim, as he was nicknamed by friends, was born in St. Anthony, Iowa, on September 11, 1866. He left school at age fourteen to serve as a messenger boy for the First National Bank in nearby Marshalltown. He apparently paid close attention to the banking and finance business, later accepting a position as bookkeeper for the Hawkeye Linseed Oil Company. Dunn spent five years there, sharpening his skills on the bottom line. He eventually left Hawkeye for a similar opportunity with the A. E. Shorthill Company, where a chance meeting brought him close to his future occupation in baseball. Dunn and his coworker Henry Anson, whose son Adrian was making a splash in professional baseball, became close friends. Undoubtedly what Dunn heard about the exploits of his friend’s son helped pique his interest in the game.

Soon Sunny Jim decided he was ready to leave A. E. Shorthill and venture out on his own. His finances were not enough to bankroll a new enterprise, but Henry Anson had a lot of confidence in his younger friend, enough to lend him the cash needed to start Dunn’s contracting business. Flush with the necessary operating money, Dunn tried entering the coal business but found it not to his liking. He switched his focus to railroad contracting, which became his vocation for many years in Chicago until his entrance into major-league baseball. He never forgot the kindness of Henry Anson, and he did what he could to return it.

In the first decade of the twentieth century, Dunn bid successfully for the rights to construct the Cleveland Belt Line Railroad, the brainchild of entrepreneur Ben Hopkins. It was planned to circumnavigate the city limits, allowing freight carriers to deliver steel and ore in a more efficient manner directly to the mills. Once again baseball intersected with the railroad contractor, as Ben Hopkins had many friends on the Cleveland Naps and was a regular visitor to League Park. Dunn later remarked that, during his stay in Cleveland, he witnessed Addie Joss’s perfect game in 1908 and found a distinct fascination with the crowd and its excitement. He took notice of the 10,000 spectators and the revenue dollars going to owners Charles Somers and J. F. Kilfoyl. Seven years later the opportunity of a lifetime came along, and Sunny Jim was too clever a businessman to let it pass him by.

How Dunn acquired the Cleveland Indians in the winter of 1916 is a story that has several different twists and turns. One of the popular versions lies in Franklin “Whitey” Lewis’s 1949 team history, The Cleveland Indians. Lewis had been sports editor of the Cleveland Press for ten years and had access to veteran sportswriters including Henry P. Edwards and Ed Bang. Lewis also had at his disposal an extensive archive of clippings and articles. His version of the transaction whereby Dunn acquired the team is colorful, complete with direct quotes from the principals.

Lewis takes the reader to a popular saloon in Chicago, where Ban Johnson and a group of businessmen are idly chatting about Charlie Somers’s financial predicament. Cleveland’s owner since the team’s inception in 1901, Somers had gone broke from poor attendance and bad real-estate investments. Suddenly Johnson turns to one of the men and declares him to be the new owner of the Indians. Dunn, purportedly that man, gulps audibly and stammers that he has $15,000 available. Others, including the bartender, chime in with various amounts, and the plan is hatched. Dunn, excited about the scheme, remarks that he knows nothing about the business of baseball, but he is assured by the iron-willed Johnson that he will get him the right men to run the ballclub.

This amusing story notwithstanding, it is unlikely that Jim Dunn, a shrewd businessman, would be rushed into such a deal. Dunn had amassed more than a million dollars in his contracting business. Whether or not he understood the business of baseball, he had the acumen to determine if a potential venture had the necessary upside for him to take a flyer on it. Whenever Dunn and Johnson actually met to discuss buying the Indians, surely Dunn had done his homework. The purchase price was in the neighborhood of $500,000. It is unlikely that Dunn agreed to buy the club and then ran about Chicago drumming up investors. If anything, Sunny Jim had analyzed the situation closely.                                           

Dunn moved quickly to strengthen his ballclub. Before February was out, he added infielder Ivan Howard and catcher Tom Daly, and he paid $5,000 for Washington first baseman Chick Gandil.1 The last purchase looked good on paper. He brought excellent fielding skills and power to the lineup. Character issues surrounding Gandil would come forward several years later and do tremendous harm to the integrity of the game; luckily for Dunn, Gandil was gone and playing in Chicago before he became embroiled in public scandal, the scheme to throw the 1919 World Series.

Indians players were quite excited about the moves made by their new owner. “Why Washington ever let Chick Gandil go,” Ray Chapman remarked to the Plain Dealer, “is more than I can see, for I think he is the best first baseman” in the American League. Later that spring, Cleveland manager Lee Fohl echoed the sentiment: “It is a surprise what the addition of just one man will make to a ballclub but there is no denying the fact that the addition of Chick Gandil has made our team look much different than it did a year ago.” In just a short time, Fohl would be stunned by the addition of another player with a few more skills than Gandil ever had.

With the players on hand, Dunn busied himself for the start of the regular season. He had the team stock incorporated in Columbus, Ohio, changing the name of his enterprise to the Cleveland Baseball Company. New uniforms were designed, with the home whites to be fashioned with navy-blue stripes along with blue caps. Away uniforms would be gray with black caps.

In late February, the 1916 Indians assembled in New Orleans for spring training. In a bit of wonderful irony, the minor-league New Orleans Pelicans were owned by none other than Charles Somers. While cold-blooded bankers were selling off his holdings, Somers negotiated to retain his ownership in the Southern League club. The bankers’ committee caved in and allowed Somers the favor. Not only could Somers remain in baseball, but his Pelicans were also affiliated with Cleveland, leaving him a small connection to the franchise.

While fans speculated about the Indians’ chances in the upcoming season, Jim Dunn kept working to improve the ballclub. Through various sources Dunn discovered that the best center fielder in baseball might be available for the right price. In April, Dunn turned the baseball world upside down by shelling out the improbable sum of $55,000, among other considerations, to bring the great Tris Speaker to Cleveland. In one quick stroke, Sunny Jim had breathed new life into Cleveland’s baseball hopes. He restored the city’s confidence in the ownership and put a competitive team on the field.

An excited Dunn told Cleveland baseball fans: “I will not stand for a tailender. If I thought the Cleveland club was destined to remain a second-division team I would not buy it. Cleveland is a corking good town and I think it will do a comeback in baseball.” The addition of Speaker dramatically improved the ballclub and opened a pipeline to Boston, which eventually led to the acquisitions of Joe Wood and Larry Gardner. Both would prove to be valuable contributors in elevating the Indians to pennant-contender status.

In 1919 a frustrated Jim Dunn accepted the resignation of manager Lee Fohl after a dramatic grand slam by Babe Ruth on June 18 cost the Indians a game at League Park, a fateful episode in Indians history. The Indians were leading 7-4 in the top of the ninth. With two out and the bases loaded, Speaker, according to some accounts, signaled for the left-handed reliever Fritz Coumbe to pitch to Ruth. According to other accounts, Fohl, having stepped out of the dugout to get the signal for which of three relievers-two righties and one lefty-was ready, misunderstood and brought in Coumbe, who hadn’t sufficiently warmed up.

Dunn promoted Tris Speaker to the position of player-manager, a move the Cleveland faithful happily approved. Speaker proved to be an able manager, implementing a platoon system with his outfielders and handling the pitching staff, including Ray Caldwell, who had a serious drinking problem.

The 1920 season was the culmination of Jim Dunn’s hard work over five years, during which he had overseen several key additions to the Indians roster. He managed to acquire, after Speaker, Wood, and Gardner, first baseman “Doc” Johnston, outfielder Charlie Jamieson, and pitchers Ray Caldwell and Walter Mails. Elmer Smith was dealt to Washington in 1916 but brought back the following year. Despite the horrific death of Ray Chapman in August, the Indians were able to steady themselves and bring the pennant to Cleveland. The addition of shortstop Joe Sewell from the New Orleans Pelicans helped rally the club. A jubilant Jim Dunn sat in the owner’s box and happily watched his team win the World Series. In his contract for the next season, each player received a bonus, and, in tum, Sunny Jim received from his players the gift of a pair of diamond cufflinks.

The Jim Dunn era came to a sudden halt in June 1922. Dunn died of a recurring heart ailment at the young age of fifty-six. He left his stock in the Indians to his wife, who did not have the desire to operate a major-league franchise. Ernest S. Barnard effectively ran the club for the next five years, until Mrs. Dunn put it up for sale in 1927. All the momentum built by the late Mr. Dunn evaporated, and the Indians would not claim another pennant until 1948.

In his six years of ownership, Jim Dunn rescued a down-and-out franchise and turned it into one of the elite ballclubs of the American League. His legacy was that of promises delivered. He vowed to bring a championship to a city that had seen only a near miss or two since 1901. He won over the skeptics and actually brought Cleveland to the pinnacle of the baseball world.

 

Sources

Lewis, Franklin A. The Cleveland Indians. New York: Putnam, 1949.

Cleveland Leader, January 1916-June 1922.

Cleveland News, January 1916-June 1922.

Plain Dealer, January 1916-June 1922.

 

Notes

1 Sources differ as to the amount. The figure of $5,000 is attested by Deadball Era Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research, Deadball Stars of the American League, ed. David Jones (Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2006). It is $7,500 according to Retrosheet.org and BaseballReference.com.