The Ten Worst Cleveland Indians Tragedies

Over their history, the Cleveland Indians franchise has been one of the least successful, winning just two World Series titles, but more importantly, have been one of the most tragic. More than any other team in any other sport (or at least is would seem so), the Indians have had to deal with terrible events followed by something even worse. This is not just the normal situation where a player doesn’t perform as expected, like with Super Joe Charboneau after winning the Rookie of the Year, but a remembrance of the absolute worst events to happen to members of the Cleveland Indians (as well as a couple other Cleveland franchises). At the end, there will be an alternate history of what these players could have done had their time not been cut short.

10. The Curse of Rocky Colavito

While not a true tragedy, the trading of Rocky Colavito was one of the most Earth shattering events in Indians history. After turning over one power house team to another from around 1917 through 1954, the Indians were set to continue this winning tradition with a tremendous crop of young players including Herb Score and Rocky Colavito. However, new GM Frank Lane took over in 1957 and shut down all that potential. Almost the entire roster was traded including Hall of Famer Larry Doby, Score and the final straw, Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn. Colavito would go on to hit 139 home runs with Detroit before ultimately coming back to Cleveland while the Indians wouldn’t finish higher than third in the division until 1994 after finishing first or second in seven of nine years between 1948 and 1956.

9. Charlie Hustles Through Fosse’s Career

This is the first of three tragedies that could never happen in today’s game simply due to increased caution when regarding injuries. Ray Fosse began the 1970 season on fire, looking like a super star in the making, batting .312/.366/.512 and playing tremendous defense to earn a spot on the 1970 AL All-Star squad. It was in this exhibition game that Pete Rose, a.k.a. Charlie Hustle, plowed through Fosse at home plate to score a run for the NL. Fosse separated his shoulder on the play and with modern medicine, would have missed a short period and came back at full strength. Instead, he played through the injury, severely dampening his numbers and making it almost impossible to complete the throw to second. While the injury was eventually taken care of in later seasons, he would never return to the form of the first half of his 1970 season.

8. WWII

No event caused more Major League players to miss more time than World War II and Indians player were no exception. A partial list of Indians who participated in the war while under team control, whether by enlisting or being drafted, includes Gene Bearden, Soup Campbell, Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, Ken Keltner and Bob Lemon with Bearden sustaining significant injuries in combat. While most of these players were at the very beginning of their careers and didn’t miss much Major League playing time, Feller was already a four time All-Star and unlike many others, he volunteered for the Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He still obtained almost every Indians pitching record and made it to the Hall of Fame, but he missed more than three and a half seasons due to the war costing him a possible four All-Star appearances and a shot at 300 wins and 3,000 strike outs.

7. Don Black

It seems every Indians success was marred by some sort of tragedy and during the 1948 championship run, it was Don Black who was the victim. Black had pitched for the Indians for three seasons and, while not amazing, he was a very solid starter in 1947 when he posted a 3.92 ERA in 190.2 innings. In 1948, Black was used as both starter and reliever until September 13th, when he pitched his final MLB game. Against the St. Louis Browns, Black started, but was pulled after just two innings as he suffered from cerebral hemorrhaging that would end his career after just six seasons. While he would survive the event, he died just eleven years later at the age of 42.

6. Buckeye Crash

While not technically the Indians franchise or even from Cleveland at the time, there was a horrible accident that cost the lives of multiple professional baseball players. After the 1942 season, the Negro League Cincinnati Buckeyes moved to Cleveland, giving the city its first semi-permanent Negro League team. This move didn’t come without tragedy however as when five Buckeyes players and team owner, Wilbur Hayes were traveling in Geneva, Ohio, their car was struck from behind by a truck, instantly killing the driver, Raymond “Smoky” Owens and Ulysses “Buster” Brown and injuring super star pitcher Eugene Bremmer and Herman Watts. Another pitching great, Alonzo Boone survived the accident with little injury, as did Hayes.

5. The Original Indian

There may have been no player more anticipated for a Cleveland team than Louis Sockalexis for the 1897 Cleveland Spiders. He has become a legend, but even at the time it seemed that he was surrounded by myth. While he did have one amazing year, very quickly the fame, pressure and alcoholism caught up to the Native American who played just three years in the Major Leagues. By 1899, he was considered such a low level player that he wasn’t included among the many players sold to the St. Louis Perfectos when the Robison brothers consolidated the two franchises. He played just seven games in that final season and died just 14 years later at the age of 42.

4. The Ballad of Herb Score

Like Colavito, Score provided a great hope for the future of the franchise when he won the Rookie of the Year in 1955 and made the All-Star team in each of his first two seasons. These hopes were completely derailed on May 7th, 1957 when he was struck in the face by a batted ball off the bat of the Yankees’ Gil McDougald. The line drive broke Score’s orbital bone and he missed the rest of the 1957 season. While he attempted to comeback in 1958, he was unable to pitch consistently again until 1959 and even then, he was nothing compared to his former self. Score went on to have a great broadcasting career, but thinking about how Score could have been the greatest pitcher in Indians history is what makes this case particularly disappointing.

3. A Deadly Boat Ride

While injuries are bad enough, at least Score, Fosse and most of the others were able to complete a decent Major League career. Steve Olin was not that lucky. After becoming the team’s closer in 1992, Olin looked to be a solid presence at the back end of the bullpen for a team that was just coming into greatness. Instead, he would never pitch again. During Spring Training at Winter Haven, Florida in 1993, Olin and newly signed free agent teammate Tim Crews went on a boat ride on March 22nd. The relievers had been drinking and it was dark and when Crews piloted the boat into the dock, he crashed, killing both players.

2. The First All-Star Game

Quite possibly still the greatest pitcher in Cleveland history (and the record holder for lowest career WHIP in MLB history), Addie Joss was the Indians first ace. Beginning in 1902, Joss won 160 games with a 1.89 ERA in his nine year career. Unfortunately, when many players would have been just beginning to consider retirement, Joss’s life tragically ended in 1911 from tuberculous meningitis. Joss missed almost all of 1910 with the disease, then died in April of the following year. To support his widow, the Naps invited seven teams to send their best players who played in the first unofficial All-Star game against the remaining Naps. Joss was just 31 when he died.

1. The Pitch That Killed

To this day, there has been just one Major League Baseball player to die from injuries sustained on the field and that player was Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians. Chapman was the star short stop on the incredible Indians teams of the late 1910’s going into the World Champion team of 1920. In the middle of the pennant race in August in a game against the Yankees, Chapman was struck in the head by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees. At the time helmets were not worn by batters and the hit by pitch was fatal. Despite this and other close calls, Major League Baseball did not seriously consider helmets until the late 1930’s and didn’t make them mandatory until the 1970’s. Making his death more tragic, the 29 year old Chapman had just been married prior to the start of the season and was planning on retiring after the 1920 campaign. The Indians would go on to win the World Series that year, but it would be with another amazing defender, Joe Sewell, filling the hole between second and third.

The Speculative Fiction of What Could Have Been: