Читать книгу No Money, No Beer, No Pennants. The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Great Depression онлайн

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In mid-September the Yankees came to town to begin a six-game series at League Park. The Indians dropped the opener but then won four straight games to pull within two of the leaders. The final game drew an enthusiastic sellout crowd to League Park. The nearly 30,000 attending cheered like it was 1920. In spite of the home-field advantage, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig blasted home runs for an easy Yankee victory. The Indians still had a chance for the pennant but dropped three out of four games to Philadelphia to end their most improbable run.

The unexpected pennant chase lifted attendance by more than 200,000 fans. The huge spike upwards gave the team operating money and perhaps funds to throw around for the acquisition of key players in the off-season. Unfortunately, events were about to be revealed that would cast a shadow over all the accomplishments of the past season. The Indians were about to suffer a national embarrassment of epic proportions.

Tris Speaker had been a fixture in the Indians lineup for eleven years. As player-manager he had led the franchise to many successful seasons. For the 1926 season Tris had batted .304 with seven home runs and eighty-six RBIs. That was subpar for Spoke, but for most players a quite acceptable campaign. When Speaker announced his retirement in early December 1926, the Cleveland fans were rightfully shocked. He was no longer a young man but still quite capable of playing good baseball. Tris told his fans he was entering the steel business to work with his good friend, Dave Jones. The business was great and Tris had the opportunity to make a lot of money. In spite of the reason given, both fans and sportswriters were not quite buying the explanation. Their suspicions were confirmed when Commissioner Landis announced an investigation into an alleged game-fixing incident involving Speaker, Ty Cobb, Joe Wood, and former Detroit pitcher Hubert “Dutch” Leonard. The game in question was played in 1919 near the end of the regular season. The Tigers had a chance to finish in third place and Leonard claimed the four players met before the game and agreed to let the Tigers win. According to Leonard, the accused players bet money on the outcome as well. The fact that Leonard waited seven years to bring this to Judge Landis is strange indeed. He did have a letter from Joe Wood that on the surface was rather incriminating. It read in part, “The only bet West [the Tigers clubhouse man] could get up was $600 against $420. . . . We won the $420. I gave West $30, leaving $390, or $130 for each of us.” This evidence was fairly solid, but made no mention of Speaker at all.