Читать книгу Bad Boys, Bad Times. The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Prewar Years, 1937–1941 онлайн

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On July 18 the high-flying Yankees were in Cleveland for a Sunday game at Municipal Stadium. Once again, Alva Bradley proved he was a shrewd operator, betting the matchup of Bob Feller versus Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig would draw a monstrous crowd. When the game began, there were 59,884 raring-to-go fans eager to see what a healthy Feller could do.

The 1937 season had thus far yielded a 10 percent increase in attendance over the previous year. Few people were willing to say the Great Depression had already peaked, but Major League owners were starting to note a positive trend. Bradley had the best of both worlds, scheduling his potential big dates at the mammoth Cleveland Municipal Stadium while drawing fair-to-middling numbers weekdays at League Park.

The New York Yankees were quite a drawing card at home or on the road. At any city they visited, an exceptional number of people would come out to watch the best team in either league. Cleveland fans had been packing League Park to see the Yankees for years. Babe Ruth had launched colossal home runs over the high right-field wall, and later Lou Gehrig joined Ruth in an awesome show of power not seen before. Ruth was gone, but Gehrig was still around, and Joe DiMaggio had created new interest in the Yankees with his superior all-around play. At age twenty-two, Joe D. had already begun to demonstrate his claim to be the next Yankee superstar.