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

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When the details of the sale were released it came as a surprise that Alva and Chuck Bradley only controlled 18 percent of the total stock. There was ample money in the Bradley fortune to purchase a considerably larger share of the club. For reasons not mentioned, the brothers chose to keep their investment a conservative one. Alva was the driving force behind the sale, yet he would be only a minority shareholder. Percy Morgan bought 20 percent of the stock while John Sherwin acquired 30. Other Clevelanders, including attorney Joseph Hostetler and former secretary of war Newton Baker, bought up the remaining shares in varied amounts. When officers were named, Alva Bradley became president and treasurer of the Cleveland baseball club. Percy Morgan would be the vice president. The new owners all agreed that Bradley was the decision maker and spokesperson for the group. The job of rebuilding the Cleveland Indians rested on his shoulders.

The Cleveland papers began to speculate on what the first moves of the Bradley regime would be. Within days, the Cleveland club began to hunt for a general manager, a relatively new position in baseball. This person would be responsible for acquiring and developing talent, player trades, and salary negotiations. The new hire had to be a baseball man, fully knowledgeable about the intricacies of the game. It seemed plausible that the new general manager would be an ex-ballplayer or manager. Surely, a reasonably intelligent man who had played the game most of his life had the qualifications. Or a manager, skilled at analyzing talent and keeping his players in line, might be ideal for the job. Yet, Alva Bradley went a different route for his choice. On November 29, he named umpire Billy Evans as the new general manager.