It’s difficult to find a comparison in Cleveland history to what Frank Lane did to the Indians in the late 1950’s. Yes, Art Modell’s move of the Browns to Baltimore and the Robinson brother’s decimation of the 1899 Spiders were devastating, but in both cases, the franchises ceased to exist and were reborn later on.
In 1961, the Indians had to deal with the fact that Lane had traded away nearly all the talent on a Hall of Fame roster including the veterans, like Early Wynn, and the young stars, like Rocky Colavito. He even traded away a superstar that never played a game in Cleveland in Norm Cash. There was a monumental task ahead of not only rebuilding the Indians from the bottom up, but rebuilding the fan base after many unpopular moves. That job fell to Gabe Paul, the Indians general manager from 1961 through 1973 and, while he wouldn’t improve the Indians to pre-Lane levels, he would make great strides and become the longest tenured GM since Ernest Bernard from 1903 through 1927.
Paul earned the chance to fix the situation thanks to his front office experience in Cincinnati, which came thanks to his relationship with Warren Giles. Paul began his career in baseball as a bat boy, as inauspicious as that sounds, with the Rochester Tribe, then was recognized as a talent by Giles and ultimately followed him when his mentor became the GM of the Reds. When Giles went on to become president of the National League, Paul took over baseball’s oldest franchise. He remained their for a decade, from 1951 through 1960, before jumping to Houston to helm the expansion Colt 45’s, but he didn’t stay long before coming to Cleveland to fix Lane’s mess.
Over the years, he essentially went about this in two directions. In order to fix the team, he revamped the starting rotation, ultimately making use of Lane’s acquisitions of Sam McDowell and Sonny Siebert and adding his own man in Luis Tiant in 1962. He also signed Steve Hargan in 1961 and by 1966, the rotation of McDowell, Siebert, Tiant and Hargan would not only be among the best in baseball, but arguably better than those of the mid-1950’s.
On the other front, Paul’s biggest move was to bring back Rocky Colavito. It wouldn’t be a cheap fix, but nothing less would bring back the Indians fan base and he moved John Romano and Tommy John in part of a massive three team deal to bring back the veteran slugger in 1965. Colavito would have two more great seasons before being traded from Cleveland a second time. This time, Indians fans weren’t quite as mad to see him go.
In 1963, Paul headed a group to purchase the team and, for a time, was both the primary owner and GM. Bill Veeck had been the same during his tenure, although he purchased the team first, then named himself GM. Paul’s ownership of the franchise wouldn’t last long as he sold out to Vernon Stouffer in 1966. As president, GM and owner, Paul wore a lot of hats and with all that responsibility, he deserves credit for turning the 76 win 1960 team into the 87 win 1965 team although the difference in division ranking was actually worse as the team finished fourth of 10 in 1960 and fifth in 1965.
While this doesn’t seem much of an improvement, it can’t be overstated the terrible shape of the Indians as a franchise in the early 1960’s. In addition to Lane freewheeling without any thought of the future, attendance was terrible and there was talk of moving the team. While Paul didn’t fix these problems, he certainly improved the situation and in 1968, the Indians won 86 and finished in third in the AL behind his greatest pick-up, Tiant’s 1.60 ERA.
Taking on a smaller role, Paul allowed manager Al Dark to become GM in 1969 as he held in the president’s role. The 1969 season would be the Indians worst in terms of wins since 1928, winning percentage since 1915 and the first time the team came in dead last in the AL since 1914. After two more extremely poor seasons, Dark was fired from both roles and Paul was back in charge. However, after finishing 5th in the six team AL East in 1972 and 6th in 1973, Paul followed him out of town. Stouffer had been bought out by Nick Mileti in 1972 and the new ownership brought in new management in 1973, hiring Phil Seghi who would remain GM through 1985.
It wouldn’t take Paul long to get back on his feet, however, as he became the general manager of the Yankees in 1974 and ultimately turned that franchise around. After their dominance from 1947 through 1964 where they played in all but two World Series (the two the Indians played in) and won ten, including five in a row from 1949 through 1953, they hadn’t appeared in World Series since 1964 and had lost two in a row. In 1976, Paul got them back and, while they lost that one, they would win in both 1977 and 1978.
After the 1977 World title, Paul would try to do the same for Cleveland, buying back into the team and becoming team president. He would retire for good from baseball in 1985, shortly after which Dick Jacobs would purchase the team in 1986. Known for his great trades, Paul also hurt the team with his inabilities to draft. The first player he ever chose in the draft, Ray Fosse, would turn out to be the best, at least until his second tenure as GM and the picks of Rick Manning and Dennis Eckersley in 1972. While his signings and trades helped turn the Indians and their fan base around to the point they were nearly contenders in the late 1960’s, his inability to find any discernible talent through the newly created amateur draft likely destroyed the Indians chances in the early 1970’s as much as Lane’s trades killed the early 1960’s.
Paul died in 1998 at the age of 89 back in his home town of Rochester where the whole thing started.
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