All-Time Indians: Bill Armour

There has to be a first for everything and for the Cleveland Blues at manager, that first was Jimmy McAleer, a former outfielder for the Cleveland Spiders who stuck through the losses and the year in the minors before Cleveland finally got an American League team. As with any expansion franchise, the Blues were unimpressive off the bat, winning just 54 games (.397) and McAleer saw a quick end to his managerial career in Cleveland. Replacing him was Bill Armour, a short tenured manager who oversaw the change from expansion franchise into powerhouse contender.

Armour began his career in 1891 as an outfielder in the New York-Pennsylvania League with Bradford. While he showed potential that year (.269 AVG, 19 2B and 43 steals), he would ultimately jump across ten teams through eight seasons in the minor and independent leagues before giving up on his Major League dreams after the 1899 season. Amour played his final two seasons in Dayton for the Veterans (called the Old Soldiers in 1897), so his transition to Cleveland was just a short drive across the state.

After the poor inaugural season, the Cleveland Blues changed almost everything about the team, including the name. Now the Bronchos, they changed managers to Armour and added future super stars Addie Joss, Napoleon Lajoie, Elmer Flick, Bill Bernhard, Otto Hess and Harry Bay. In fact, only Earl Moore, Bill Bradley and Jack McCarthy would retain their important roles on the team in what would be one of the biggest transitions in franchise history. With the new talent, Armour was able to turn things around, winning 69 games to just 67 losses, giving the Indians their first winning season despite the roster flux. While they would finish just fifth of the eight American League teams, this would start a stretch of three years of consistent improvement.

The following season, 1903, would be one of the greatest from a pitching stand point in Cleveland history as the three future Hall of Famers, Joss, Lajoie and Flick all came into their own. The top three starters in the rotation, Joss, Moore and Bernhard, combined for a 52-26 overall record and a combined ERA of 2.02 ERA. Offensively, things weren’t as impressive, but Bradley, Lajoie and the newly added Charlie Hickman all batted above .340, helping push Cleveland’s record to 77-63 and a third place finish in Armour’s second season at the helm.

The 1903 season saw one other change as well as the team would undergo a change in name, to the Naps, and in leadership, towards Lajoie. More than anything else, this change in popularity lead to the fact that the 1904 season would be Armour’s last with the team, despite his success. This season would mark the least amount of change in roster and Armour made it through the whole season using just seven pitchers, six of whom threw at least 150 innings. Joss would continue his incredible, but short, career with the second best ERA in team history (1.59) while Lajoie would lead the offense with 93 RBI and 90 runs scored in 125 games.

The Naps worked to a 86-65 finish that season, setting new team bests for wins and runs allowed. While this was only good enough for fourth in the AL, Cleveland was just 7.5 games behind the AL Champion Boston Americans. This was a marked improvement over the previous seasons and it appeared the Naps were ready for contention, but it is difficult to run a team that is named after one of the players. Armour left the team after the 1904 team, to be replaced in the short term by Bill Bradley and ultimately by Lajoie himself who would head the team as player/manager until 1909. Armour would move on to Detroit, where he would manage the Tigers for two seasons (1905-1906), going 150-152 while never finishing above third.

Despite the change in management, the Naps actually performed worse in 1905 and wouldn’t improve on Armour’s third place 1903 finish until 1908 when they finished just a half game out of the World Series. In the end, despite a short career, Armour still ranks 14th in Cleveland history with 431 wins, more than all but one other manager (Ossie Vitt) with three or less seasons and eighth all time with a .538 winning percent. While there will always exist the question of how important the manager is to a baseball team, there is a solid argument that had the Naps stuck with Armour for three or four more years, they could have won their first World Series a decade earlier. For how he turned around a brand new Cleveland team alone, he should be considered one of the greatest managers in Cleveland baseball history. Just two years after the Indians first World Series win in 1922, Armour died at the age of 53.