All-Time Indians: Charles Somers

There is an argument to be made that Charlie Somers is not only an All-Time Indian, but the first and possibly most important as if it weren’t for him, there would not have been a Cleveland based American League franchise in 1901. While baseball may have eventually returned, the years of history of the Cleveland Indians, Naps and Blues owe their existence to Somers, the franchises first owner.

In the late 1890’s the Robison brothers, Stanley and Frank owned the Cleveland Spiders, but in a conflict of interest, Frank also owned the St. Louis Perfectos. Following the 1898 season in the biggest thrift job in baseball history, the brothers sold every single starting player, including the Hall of Famers Cy Young and Jesse Burkett, to the Perfectos to make a super team. This left the Cleveland team with the the worst roster in the league and possibly baseball history as they finished with a 20-134 record, the worst in MLB history.

After this debacle, the National League contracted and one of the teams to be removed was the Cleveland Spiders, who had become a joke in the league. This is where Somers came in. The self-made millionaire from Newark, Ohio was a fan of the original Spiders and worked quickly after their removal from the league to bring baseball back to Cleveland. Purchasing the Grand Rapids Furniture Makers, Somers moved them to Cleveland in 1900 (they had played in Columbus, Ohio as well as Grand Rapids and were also known as the Buckeyes and Senators) and renamed them the Cleveland Lake Shores.

While Somers was owner and manager of this original American League franchise, he brought along Jimmy McAleer, who had played for the Spiders in 1898, but didn’t make the jump to St. Louis. As player manager, McAleer would ultimately become the only player to play for the Spiders, Lake Shores and Blues.

Along with the Lake Shores, the brand new American League (which was a minor league at the time) included seven other teams, three of which would join Cleveland the following season as members of the Major League version of the American League in 1901, the Chicago White Stockings (renamed White Sox in 1901), Milwaukee Brewers (moved to St. Louis as the Browns in 1902) and Detroit Tigers. Of course the Lake Shores would be renamed the Blues for 1901 and Bronchos for 1902 before becoming the Naps from 1903 through 1914.

In addition to bringing baseball back to Cleveland, Somers was instrumental in the creation of the original American League and was it’s original vice president. He was also vice president of the Cleveland team while another partial owner, John Kilfoyl was the president. In 1901, when no one was interested in buying the original Boston franchise, Somers sold part of the Cleveland franchise to Kilfoyl so he could run that franchise for a time. By 1902, Somers had bought back his share of the Cleveland team where he would stay until 1916.

A George Steinbrenner of his day, Somers was not afraid to spend money or to get intimately involved in his on the field product. His first big move was the purchase of Nap Lajoie from Philadelphia and subsequently naming the franchise after the player and future manager. An owner who was rarely satisfied, Somers hired and fired nine different managers in his 15 seasons as team owner including three between 1904 and 1905 and four between 1911 and 1912. Lajoie was the longest tenured manager during this period, ending the 1905 season and staying on until 1909, but at some point, even the Hall of Fame second baseman had to give in and he relinquished the title to resume a player only role for the rest of his time in Cleveland.

The early Cleveland teams were stacked with talent with multiple Hall of Famers playing alongside Lajoie including Addie Joss, Elmer Flick and in 1909 the return of Cy Young to Cleveland. Despite these talented players and others later on, like Shoeless Joe Jackson, Willie Mitchell and Bob Rhoads, these early Cleveland teams saw no success. In seven of 15 seasons, they finished below .500 only finishing in second once, in 1908 when they featured one of the best starting rotations in team history. That year they finished only a half game behind Detroit, but while the Tigers would remain successful throughout the rest of the decade, the Naps wouldn’t maintain their momentum.

Thanks to his reckless spending and poor gate results, Somers was going bankrupt in 1915 and was forced to sell Lajoie back to Philadelphia, leading to another more permanent name change to the Indians. While he retained control for another year, a group of his creditors called in his debts (costing the Indians another all time great as Jackson was traded/sold to the White Sox) and he was forced to sell the team to Jim Dunn, who would retain the franchise through their first World Championship and on until the 1927 season.

While he left on a sour note and almost certainly did more harm than good by having such a hands on approach as team president, all Cleveland baseball fans owe a debt of gratitude to Somers for bringing baseball back to Cleveland as quickly as he did after the disaster caused by the Robison brothers. His willingness to spend brought Cleveland their first star in Lajoie and his love of the game kept the franchise in Cleveland during the tumultuous first years of the American League when many franchises were tossed from city to city. Somers died in 1934 at the age of 65.