The Cleveland Naps in Crestline, 1914

The Cleveland franchise of the American League enjoyed a certain measure of success during the early years of its existence. The team, then called the Naps after star second baseman Napoleon Lajoie, finished in the first division in seven of its first thirteen seasons and lost the 1908 pennant to Detroit by mere percentage points. The 1913 club, with good hitting and solid pitching, finished in third place, and Cleveland fans expected the Naps to mount a pennant challenge during the following season.

Unfortunately, the 1914 campaign proved disastrous. Shortstop Ray Chapman suffered a broken leg during spring training, putting him on the sidelines until mid-June. The club also lost two starting pitchers, George Kahler and Cy Falkenberg, who signed with the rival Federal League. Thus weakened, Cleveland dropped its first eight games and settled into last place, languishing there (except for a two-day stay in seventh position) for the remainder of the season. Cleanup hitter Joe “Shoeless Joe” Jackson missed three weeks with a leg contusion, forty-year-old Napoleon Lajoie batted only .258, and pitcher Guy Morton lost his first thirteen games before posting a win. The 1914 Naps ended up in the American League cellar for the first time in team history and finished last in the league in attendance as well.

The season came to a merciful end on October 4 in an 11-6 loss at Detroit, but some of the Naps were not finished playing. Four independent teams in north-central Ohio, representing the towns of Crestline, Mansfield, Bucyrus, and Shelby, had arranged to play a postseason tournament in Crestline after the close of the major-league season. The four clubs were permitted to augment their rosters with professional players, and while three of the teams hired minor leaguers, the Crestline club went one better. It signed six members of the Cleveland Naps, allowing Crestline to put a nearly complete major league team on the field.

Lajoie and Chapman were absent, but Shoeless Joe Jackson made the trip to Crestline. Jackson, who battled injuries all season, had hit .338 to tie for third, with Tris Speaker, in the American League batting race. His totals of hits and runs scored were the lowest of his career to that point, but he was still considered one of the most dangerous batters in the game. Jackson was joined by five fellow Naps: outfielder Elmer Smith, first baseman Doc Johnston, outfielder and first baseman Jay Kirke, and pitchers Bill Steen and Willie Mitchell. Crestline also signed a former major leaguer, catcher Red Munson, from Cleveland’s top farm team. Munson had seen action with the Phillies in 1905.

Neither Bucyrus nor Mansfield employed any active major-league players, while Shelby hired two former big leaguers in outfielder Al Schweitzer (Browns) and pitcher Tommy Atkins (Athletics). They also signed Cleveland rookie Sad Sam Jones, who pitched in one game for the Naps that season, and outfielder Hank Schreiber, who made one appearance for the White Sox. Shelby tried to get Detroit’s Ty Cobb in uniform, but the Crestline tourney proceeded without the eight-time (and eventually twelve-time) American League batting champ.

The rosters were set, and Crestline’s lineup, anchored by Jackson, Johnston, and Smith, looked so formidable that most onlookers conceded the title to them. The Plain Dealer remarked that “all baseball attendance records for this section are likely to be broken” when Crestline took the field with Jackson and the other Cleveland stars, while the local gamblers could not convince anyone to wager on the games, even at 5-to-1 odds. The Crestline management was so confident that it opted to start the second-line Cleveland pitcher, Bill Steen, in the first contest against Mansfield, saving the veteran ace Willie Mitchell for the title game later in the day.

The Crestline tournament took place on Tuesday, October 6, in front of a large crowd that expected to see the Naps steamroll their way to the championship. The first game pitted Crestline against Mansfield, a club that had assembled players from minor-league cities such as Newark and Waterbury. Mansfield shortstop Johnny Daley had played briefly for the Browns in 1912, while third baseman Tim Flood had seen action with St. Louis and Brooklyn in 1899 and 1902-3; the rest were career minor leaguers.

The game started well for Crestline. The leadoff batter, a shortstop named Silverman, singled, as did Doc Johnston of the Naps. However, Silverman was thrown out on a relay to third base, and Johnston was picked off first soon after. Elmer Smith followed with another single, and Jackson’s double brought Smith home as Crestline took a 1-0 lead. The Mansfield pitcher, a right-hander named Maul from Racine, a town in the Wisconsin-Illinois League, then settled down and retired Jay Kirke to end the inning.

Mansfield tied the score in the third on an outfield error and a single, while Maul kept Crestline off the scoreboard. Jackson did his part with three hits in three trips to the plate, but the other Naps could not solve the Mansfield pitcher. Maul walked no one, and only Jackson and Kirke, who singled in the fourth, managed to reach base against him after the first inning. Jackson took second base with none out in the seventh on a single and an infield error, but he was stranded when Maul retired the next three batters. The weather was cold and rainy, and the tournament directors decided to limit each game to seven innings. This allowed Mansfield to win the game in the seventh when its catcher, Redman, singled and stole second, then scored on a single by Schlegel, an outfielder from Youngstown. Crestline and its contingent of Cleveland Naps had lost to Mansfield by a score of 2-1, making only seven hits against a minor-league pitcher. “No wonder the Naps finished last!” hooted the fans as the embarrassed Clevelanders left the field. In the second game of the day, Shelby defeated Bucyrus 5-3 as Sad Sam Jones pitched a five-hitter, striking out seven.

Joe Jackson did not play in the consolation game, in which Willie Mitchell struck out eleven men and defeated Bucyrus 3-0 in an error-filled, five-inning contest. Shelby won the title as Tommy Atkins, who played right field in the first game, took the mound and shut out Mansfield on three hits. The action then moved to Shelby as the four teams played another one-day tourney two days later. Joe Jackson did not play for Crestline, but Ty Cobb agreed to appear for Shelby for a fee of $150 per game. Cobb was on his way from Detroit to Boston to cover the World Series for a newspaper syndicate, and he found it profitable to stop off in north-central Ohio for a quick payday. He earned his money, belting five hits in six trips to the plate and leading Shelby to another title. Fred Blanding of the Naps pitched two complete games for Shelby, defeating Maul and Mansfield 3-1 and besting Bucyrus 7-6.

The Cleveland ballclub endured a last-place finish in the American League in 1914, and a humiliating loss to a group of minor leaguers in the Crestline tournament added an unpleasant postscript to the campaign. It also marked the end of the Naps. Three months later, team owner Charles Somers chose a new nickname for the club. Somers decided to call his team the Indians, and the Cleveland Naps passed into history.

 

SOURCES

Alexander, Charles. Ty Cobb. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984, p. 120.

Plain Dealer, October 6-9, 1914.