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

8 страница из 96

While Bob Feller returned to high school in Van Meter, anxiety spread throughout the Cleveland front office. Alva Bradley heard reports of the Yankees and Red Sox gearing up for a bidding war should the Judge rule against the Indians. Surely the possibility of losing the greatest pitching prospect since Walter Johnson or Lefty Grove had to cause some restless nights for the Indians owner. But Bradley remained confident, at least in public, that he had nothing to worry about.

Eventually the newspapers reported that a decision would be revealed at the December 1936 winter meetings. Sure enough, on the tenth the ruling came down. The Indians were found guilty but were allowed to keep Feller. Judge Landis fined Cleveland $7,500 for their actions, payable to the Des Moines club. The Judge released a 2,500-word statement blasting the conduct of the Indians and all of baseball in general. “It turns out that in reality Fargo-Moorhead had nothing whatsoever to do with signing Feller which was done by the Cleveland club, its agent Slapnicka using for that purpose a minor league contract because he could not sign him to a major league contract,” the Judge wrote. Landis then slammed the process of “recommending” and gave a step-by-step account of how the Indians had violated the baseball law. Fargo-Moorhead had received only $300 for selling Feller to New Orleans, and the Pelicans just $1,500 for moving Feller to Cleveland. The sales were noticeably below market value for a player of Feller’s perceived caliber. Though the Indians were the recipient of the Judge’s fury, it was Cy Slapnicka who was singled out. Going forward, the new Cleveland general manager would need to walk the line or face the consequences.