Earlier this Winter, BurningRiverBaseball.com highlighted the ten worst tragedies in Indians history and while some of these were accidental (like Don Black) and some were self inflicted (like Tim Crews), there have been plenty of terrible things in Tribe history that have come by the direct fault of someone involved in the game of baseball. The following list are the five (actually six) people most guilty for bringing the Cleveland Indians down throughout the history of the franchise in reverse order of their effect on the team. The severity of the offenses increases considerably between each of the guilty parties from those who were just doing their jobs to a potential murderer and a few who directly attempted the destruction of the entire franchise.
5. Willie Mays
The Say Hey Kid was unquestionably one of the top ten players in the history of professional baseball, starting in the Negro Leagues in 1948 and crushing 660 home runs and stealing 338 bases in his Major League career. The Rookie of the Year, two time MVP, twenty time All-Star and 12 time Gold Glover played his entire career in the National League (21 years with the Giants and two with the Mets), however, so he almost never came into contact with the Cleveland Indians. Of course, the one time he and the New York Giants did clash with Cleveland, it was the most embarrassing event ever to befall the team.
The 1954 Cleveland Indians looked like the best edition yet. In addition to a tremendous pitching staff including future Hall of Famers Bob Lemon and Early Wynn, the Indians had a powerful line-up with another Hall of Famer, Larry Doby along with the 1953 AL MVP, Al Rosen and the powerful Vic Wertz. In all, the Indians won more games than any team had ever before, 111 (beaten by Seattle in 2001), and set a mark in winning percentage that would never be matched again, winning 72% of their games.
The Giants, on the other side, won just 97 games and took the NL with just a five game lead. In the World Series that year, the Indians got off to a hot start with Wertz smashing a two run triple to give the Indians the lead in the first inning of the first game. The Giants would tie things and keep it that way until the eighth. That was when the villain struck. Doby walked and Rosen singled to start the inning and with no outs in the oddly shaped Polo Grounds, Wertz blasted a ball an estimated 460 feet to deep center. Playing in center, Mays turned and sprinted to the wall making the only catch in baseball history so famous it is simply known as “The Catch.” Mays completed the play by throwing back to the infield, holding Doby on third and Rosen on first. The Indians wouldn’t score again and the Giants would end the game in the bottom of the tenth against Lemon. Of course, it was Mays who scored the game winning run from second on Dusty Rhodes pinch hit, three run, walk off home run. In another stadium, with another centerfielder, the Indians would have won game one with a three run Vic Wertz homer. Instead, Mays and the Giants swept the four game series and the Indians wouldn’t return to the World Series again for forty years.
4. Jose Mesa
Jose Mesa is the only Indians player to appear on this list as he has contributed a greater offense than simply not playing well on the field. Mesa became the greatest closer in Indians history when from 1994 through 1997 he kept a 2.81 ERA with 101 saves. The Indians went to the post-season in the final year of his prime and Mesa was solid in the first two play-off series, saving three and winning one game. An incredible offense combined with decent pitching pushed the Tribe to their second World Series in three seasons and Mesa continued his success as the closer.
For the first six games of the series, the teams alternated wins starting with the Marlins taking game one at home. Mesa pitched a scoreless inning in the game two win and gave up a meaningless run late in a 14-11 loss in game three, not playing again until game five. In that game, with the series tied and the Marlins with a three run lead in the ninth, Mesa came in to a non-save situation. After giving up a run on a Moises Alou single, the Indians came back to score three in the bottom on the inning and lose by one instead of going on into extra innings. After a three run save in game six, Mesa would appear in the deciding game seven in a game deciding position.
In the ninth with a one run lead, the perfect situation for Mesa, he allowed singles to Alou and Charles Johnson before a Craig Counsell brought home the game tying run with a sacrifice fly. Mesa got the third out and ultimately a Tony Fernandez error behind Charles Nagy would cost the Indians the game and the series. While losing the Indians last real chance to win a World Series since 1948 should have been bad enough, the second part of the story is that Omar Vizquel wrote up the situation in his book, Omar! and heavily insulted Mesa. Mesa took this seriously, threatening to kill the short stop and ultimately attempting to go through with it by throwing at his head years later when both were in the National League.
3. Carl Mays
Another head hunter on the list, Carl Mays had less motive, but a greater crime. Mays was a known intimidator, often throwing inside to hitters to back them off the plate. From 1915 through 1920, he hit 56 batters, but only one really mattered. Mays, with the Yankees, had multiple scuff ups with the Indians prior to August 16th, 1920 and things came to a close on that date. In his third at bat of the day, short stop Ray Chapman stood in against Mays and took a moving fastball to the head. Chapman collapsed on the field and would succumb to his injuries just a day later, making him the only player to die from an direct injury sustained on the field.
While it was obviously not Mays intention to murder, it was very probably his intention to hit Chapman. According to Mays, the ball was too battered and he couldn’t control it and the event did begin the practice of throwing old balls out of play. Considering Mays inside pitching, his strategy definitely did change as he hit just 33 more batters in his final nine seasons, lowering his HBP rate from one every 27.5 innings from 1915 through 1920 to one every 45 innings from 1921 through 1929. This decrease in aggression wouldn’t hurt his game either as Mays had his best season ever in 1921, leading the league in innings, wins and winning percent.
2. Frank Lane
While not as bad as the number one villain, Frank Lane’s destruction of the Indians is still talked about today, usually referred to as the Curse of Rocky Colavito, although it was much more than that. As mentioned already, the 1954 Indians team was full of merited players including Hall of Famers, All-Stars an MVP and a home run champion and things looked like they were just getting started. By 1956, the Indians had added two prominent rookies, Colavito and the AL Rookie of the Year, Herb Score. In both 1955 and 1956, the Indians finished in second in the American League, but then came the new General Manager, Frank Lane.
Lane was infamous for liking to see his name in the paper and would make deals just for that cause. Starting in 1957 he sold Art Houtteman and traded the Hall of Famer Wynn and top hitting outfielder Al Smith to Chicago. The following year, he traded the longest tenured position player in Indians history, Jim Hegan to the Tigers, in addition to Chico Carrasquel and Roger Maris, among others, to the Kansas City Athletics. After the 1958 season, star relievers Don Mossi and Ray Narleski were sent to Detroit while the great second baseman, Bobby Avila, was sent to Baltimore. Over this span, Bob Feller, Lemon and Mike Garcia were released as well, almost completely removing the team’s identity.
The 1959 season saw more moves as Doby was traded for a second time, as were Micky Vernon, Dick Brown, Minnie Minoso, Cal McLish and Billy Martin. With almost no players worth anything left, Lane traded Score and Colavito on back-to-back days in April of 1960, essentially finishing off a great franchise. From his start in 1957 until he was fired in 1961, Lane traded or released 64 players including Fred Hatfield twice. While many players going out were Hall of Famers, All-Stars or at least starters, there was barely a player brought back in return that was worth the loss. This destruction of the team cost the Indians the 1960’s, despite having one of the best rotations in team history and likely the early 1970’s as well. In fact, the Indians wouldn’t return to the post-season until 1995, despite being one of the greatest franchises ever going into Lane’s tenure.
1. Frank & Stanley Robison
The greatest villains in Indians history were both responsible for the destruction of the franchise and the creation of the Indians. If it had not been for the Robison brothers, the Cleveland Spiders could still possibly be a prominent National League franchise and the only team in Cleveland. Had that happened, Cy Young may have played his entire career in Cleveland and the early years of the franchise would likely have been much more successful.
Instead, Frederik and Stanley Robison, the owners of the Cleveland Spiders and the St. Louis Browns in 1898, decided to consolidate the two teams. In doing so, all of the great Spiders of the time were shipped out to St. Louis, becoming a new team called the St. Louis Perfectos. Included in this group were pitchers Denton True Young and Nig Cuppy along with hitting greats Ed McKean, Cupid Childs, manager Patsy Tebeau and Hall of Famer Jesse Burkett. Leaving Cleveland as essentially a minor league team with Major League opponents, the Spiders finished their final season as a franchise with a record of 20-134, the worst in the history of Major League Baseball. The club was disbanded after that season, in part because the other teams wouldn’t come to Cleveland for road games. Luckily, the city of Cleveland was still a great baseball market and the Cleveland Lake Shores (founded in 1900), lead by former Spider and future Blue Jimmy McAleer, would fill that void. Just two years after the demolition of the the Spiders, Cleveland had a new Major League team in the American League Cleveland Blues.
As for the Perfectos, they would finish just 84-67 and get renamed again the following year, becoming the Cardinals that still exist today. The Robison brothers wouldn’t last near as long as Frank died in 1907 and Stanley in 1911, keeping them from seeing both the Indians first championship (in 1920) and the Cardinals (1926).
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