Lost Septembers: Tribe Near-Miss Seasons of 1921 and 1926

Between 1920 and 1940, the Cleveland Indians came close to winning the American League pennant only twice — 1921 and 1926. Pre-season favorites to repeat as champions, the 1921 Tribe squad was burdened with uniforms inscribed with World Champions across the front. Although they started well, the Indians could not catch the New York Yankees, who were led by Babe Ruth’s amazing hitting. Five years later, after back-to-back sixth place finishes in 1924 and 1925, the Tribe surprised their American League competitors by surging to within two games of the lead as late as September 23 before losing out to the Yankees by three games.

Why did the heavily favored Indians, who didn’t have to face the banned Black Sox, fail to repeat as champions in 1921? Why were the 1926 Indians able to give the Yankees a close race to the flag after finishing in the second division the previous two seasons?

Although the 1921 Indians improved their team batting average five points to .308 and runs scored from 857 to 925, their pitching ERA went from 3.41 to 3.90 while their errors increased by 19 and their team fielding average dropped from .971 to .967.

Thirty-one-game winner Jim Bagby won 17 fewer games in 1921 while 1920 20-game winner Ray Caldwell was only 6 and 6 the next season. Speaker finally suspended “Slim” on September 5 for failure to stay in shape. Stan Coveleski was the ace of the staff with 23 victories, George Uhle chipped in 16 and Duster Mails came through with 14 wins. Veteran Allan Sothoron, obtained from the Red Sox, was a pleasant surprise with a 12-4, 3.23 ERA year.

Speaker led the regulars with a .362 batting average and a league-leading 52 doubles. Third baseman Larry Gardner repeated his success of 1920 by hitting at a .319 clip and driving in 115 runs. Every regular hit .285 or better and substitutes Smoky Joe Wood’s .366, Les Nunamaker’s .359 and George Burns’ .361 batting averages were most impressive.

The key factors that kept the Tribe from repeating in 1921 were injuries to Speaker and catcher Steve O’Neill and an awesome new York attack led by Babe Ruth’s mind-boggling 59 home runs, 171 runs batted in and a slugging percentage of .846. Bob Meusel added 24 home runs and 135 runs batted in as the Yankees hit 134 home runs to 42 for the Indians.

In spite of playing the last 23 games of the season on the road, the Indians were in first place as late as September 16 when George Uhle’s four-hitter beat Washington 2-0. Injuries hurt, too: the Tribe lost their ace Coveleski for two turns with strained ligaments in his side and Speaker’s injured knee on September 11 kept him our of the regular lineup for the rest of the season. Performances like Elmer Smith’s seven consecutive extra-base hits in a doubleheader against the Browns on September 5 kept the gritty Tribe in the race. For the next ten days the Yankees and Indians were tied or the Indians were within one game of first place. Then back-to-back losses to the Yankees on September 25 and 26 gave New York the lead for the rest of the season. How right was the Cleveland Press bard Wampus when he wrote on September 27:

“Here ye this fact / My song is not truthless / How soft hearted those Yanks would be / If they were but Ruthless.”

During the four games with the Yankees in which the Indians lost three, Ruth hit .727 with eight hits in 11 at-bats for 18 bases, including two home runs. He was walked five times and scored seven runs. Westbrook Pegler concluded: “How come anyone thinks Babe Ruth didn’t break the hearts of Cleveland?”

Five years later the Indians seemed to be going nowhere as the 1926 Spring Training camps were about to open. Their gloom was heightened when the players were in a train wreck on their way to Lakeland, Florida. Fortunately the car the Indian players were riding in stayed on the tracks and no player suffered more than a few bruises. George Uhle, the only pitcher left from the 1921 team, slept through the accident. After two straight subpar seasons, Uhle had paid an offseason visit to famed Youngstown Doctor “Bonesetter” Reese who fixed his arm for one more great year. Hurling 318 innings, the Bull completed 32 out of 36 games, winning 27 and losing 11 and had a true Cy Young year with a 2.83 earned run average. His magnificent pitching largely contributed to a drop of the 1925 team ERA of 4.49 to 3.40 in 1926.

Emil “Dutch” Levsen, after two mediocre seasons, came through with a 16-13 season topped by doubleheader four-hit complete game victories over the Red Sox on August 28. Veterans Joe Shaute and Sherry Smith won 14 and 11 games respectively while huge southpaw Garland Buckeye had the fifth lowest ERA in the league with 3.09.

At 33, George Burns had a career year at first base with a .358 batting average, 114 runs batted in and record setting 61 doubles. As a reporter noted, Burns hit a “daily double” on his way to being chosen as the Most Valuable Player in the American League for 1926.

While Cleveland hit .289 for the season, opposing managers pointed to better defense for the 18-game improvement over the previous year’s sixth-place finish at 70-84. Eddie Collins thought Freddie Spurgeon’s brilliant play at second base — leading the league in assists and double plays — was the key, while Connie Mack pointed to Luke Sewell’s catching for the success of the 1926 Indians. The three holdovers from the 1920 World Champions, Tris Speaker, Joe Sewell and Charley Jamieson, had commendable years. Speaker rapped 52 doubles and combined with Sewell to drive in 171 runs while Jamieson scored 89 runs.

Early on, the Tribe was far behind in the race. On July 10 they were 42-40, in fifth place, ten games out. Eighteen days later they were 55 and 44 and in second place, but still ten games behind in the lost column to the Yankees. No longer was Wampus’ 1921 evaluation of the Yankees true, “Eight guys and Ruth go out each day/And so the Yankee team they play/ The eight line up, but tell the truth/ The Yankee team is all Babe Ruth.”

Young Lou Gehrig had arrived and in his second full season hit .313 and drove in 105 runs. Trailing the Yankees by ten games on August 24, the Tribe began to win and the Yanks started to level off. By winning nine straight games between August 25 and 31 (including consecutive doubleheader wins over the Red Sox), the Tribe trailed the Yankees at the beginning of September by 5-1/2 games. Winning seven and losing five in the rust two weeks of September, the Indians were still 5-1/2 games behind but had a chance to take the lead as a six-game series with the Yankees began at Dunn Field on September 15.

Sadly, the Yanks drove their nemesis George Uhle from the box to win 6-4, but the Indians won a doubleheader the next day as Levsen and Buckeye both twirled two-hitters. Buckeye’s whitewash game was unusual with ten walks, including four straight to Ruth. Shaute and Uhle won the next two games (the Bull’s sixth victory of the year over the Yankees) and the Yankees led by only 2-1/2 games. To start the concluding game, Speaker chose righthander Levsen, who was far from his best. Several Indians had suggested to Spoke that he pitch a southpaw, either Buckeye or Jake Miller. With a white-shirted overflow crowd standing in front of the right field wall, Gehrig hit three doubles and, along with Ruth, a home run in an 8-3 victory. The 29,736 fans, the second largest crowd in Dunn Field history, saw the Tribe hopes fade.

Yankee doubleheader wins over the Browns on September 25 clinched the pennant for New York. Tris Speaker predicted “the World Series will be played on this ball diamond next year.” Little did Spoke and the Tribe fans know that there would be no more near misses and close races for the flag until 1940.