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

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At one point a streetcar managed to reach a large group of fans. Within moments it was filled. Those who hadn’t managed to climb aboard stood defiantly in the street, holding back the traffic until they spied another streetcar. To add to the chaos, a woman driver in a large auto attempted to make a left turn in the middle of Euclid Avenue. She got about halfway across, then stopped suddenly, unable to drive any further. This daring move stopped traffic in both directions, causing the male drivers let go with obscenities. Women had made significant strides by the late 1920s, but equality was still many decades ahead. The fact that the woman sat calmly in her car and chewed gum really aggravated the guys on both sides of her. It would be more than a full hour before the streets began to clear. This was Opening Day at its finest.

The following day, Willis Hudlin kept the good feelings alive by defeating the hapless White Sox, 9–2. Johnny Hodapp and Carl Lind had three hits apiece. The new second baseman was off to a blazing start, knocking in three runs with a single, double, and triple. All this winning was something new, prompting Gordon Cobbledick of the Plain Dealer to write, “If you will glance at the table of American League standings this morning, you will observe that the first team on the list is Cleveland and that New York and Washington were tied for second place.” Cobbledick had taken the place of Henry Edwards, who moved to Chicago to work in the American League office. For the next forty years Gordon Cobbledick, a native Clevelander, would be regarded as one of the best sportswriters in the business. He may have been overly optimistic given that it was still only late April, but for a short time the Indians were playing like contenders.