Vic Wertz had swung a hot bat since joining the Indians in early June. But that wouldn’t be enough to keep him in the lineup for an important four-game series at Municipal Stadium against the second-place White Sox. Al Lopez announced on July 1 that Bill Glynn, the defensive half of the offense/defense first base platoon the Tribe planned to use for the remainder of the season, would get the nod against Chicago.
“We’ll need all the defense we can get against the White Sox,” Lopez explained. “They like to run and bunt.”1 The style Lopez used when he managed Chicago to the 1959 American League pennant had been introduced by his predecessor, Paul Richards, and Richards’ style kept the White Sox nipping at the Indians’ heels as July began.
July opened with a pair of strong denials. One was issued by Bob Feller, who refuted the claim of a Baltimore newspaper that a rift had developed between himself and Al Lopez due to Feller’s lack of work. During the Indians’ visit to Baltimore, Feller had spoken to a press luncheon and admitted he wanted to pitch more. That was hardly news to anyone in Cleveland, but a Baltimore writer chose to make a story from Feller’s statements. When the team returned home, Feller denied claims that there was bad blood between him and his manager. “A manager does what he thinks is best,” said Feller. “That’s what he gets paid for. Sure, I think I could pitch and win oftener. I suppose most pitchers feel the same way. I’ll pitch whenever I’m called upon and as long as they pay me on the first and fifteenth.”2 Maybe that wasn’t such a strong denial after all.
Responded Lopez, “in my opinion, we’re getting the most out of our staff the way it is now. I certainly don’t blame Bob for wanting more work. In fact, I like to have players feel that way.”3 Lopez’s use, or misuse, of Feller would be a favorite topic of Cleveland scribes throughout the season.
Before the series with Chicago began, Al Rosen vehemently denied a report in a New York newspaper that, due to his injured finger, he had decided not to play in the All-Star game, which would be held in Cleveland. “That is completely untrue. I hope I get enough votes to make the team and would be very proud to play. I would consider it a great honor.” Rosen admitted his finger was still swollen and painful. “The other day in diving for a ball I landed right on it and made it worse. The doctor tells me the pain will remain for some time. I suppose the only real cure is rest and I’m torn between wanting to play in an effort to help the team as much as I can or sit on the sidelines and help myself.” Rosen revealed that Hank Greenberg had offered him a two-year contract at $40,000 per season in 1953, and he had declined. “Why should I limit my earning power?” the slugger asked. “I expect to prove I’m worth more.” Now that Rosen’s injury had essentially ended his chance for a raise in 1955, Rosen pondered, “I wonder, when we talk salary next year, if he’ll take into consideration that I’m not letting this finger keep me on the bench?”4
It hadn’t been lost on the Yankees that the Indians were maintaining their lead by laying waste to Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and Baltimore while struggling against the contenders. New York’s players didn’t think the Indians’ domination of the tail-enders could continue. They also thought Richards’ White Sox showed more spark than the Tribe after playing both clubs in late June.
The Yankees may have been impressed with the White Sox, but the Tigers, who played them before Chicago visited Cleveland for the Independence Day holiday weekend, were not. “The Sox don’t seem to have the same spark as before,” said one unidentified Tiger. “They look a little tired,” said another.5 Lopez thought he knew why. “They know they’ve got to beat us or fall back in the race,” said the senor. “Maybe they were thinking about us while playing the Tigers. They’ll be charged up for us. They always are. We’ll do what we’ve done all season—play each game as it comes up and give it our best shot.”6
Fears that Clevelanders weren’t interested in the pennant race were assuaged somewhat when 48,331 descended on Municipal Stadium for the Friday night doubleheader that opened the showdown with the White Sox. They watched the Tribe sweep their closest pursuers, 3–2 and 5–4. Bob Feller improved his record to 5–1 with a four-hit, complete-game victory in the opener, a game he said afterward that he’d been lucky to win. “I might have gotten a pasting except for a couple of good breaks. I didn’t have much of anything except pretty fair control [four walks]. I felt weak and not right in a pitching sense before the game. I couldn’t overpower anybody [just one strikeout]. Had to outsmart them.” Feller expressed the hope that he’d be back on the mound soon. “With no open dates and a couple of doubleheaders coming up, maybe it won’t be so long.”7 Feller’s last start had been June 20 in Boston. Eleven days’ rest between appearances was more than he felt he required, but he was the fifth starter in an era of four-man rotations.
Wynn’s complete-game eight-hitter won the nightcap, his ninth against six losses. Four Cleveland runs in the fifth inning gave Wynn a lead he managed to hang onto, and together Feller and Wynn gave the Tribe bullpen the evening off. That development proved to beneficial the next day.
A Saturday crowd of 27,704 got its money’s worth and then some as the Indians and White Sox battled for 15 innings before the Tribe prevailed, 5–4, rendering Lopez’s protest of a stratagem by Richards moot. With the White Sox ahead, 3–2, in the home half of the eighth inning, Richards shifted pitcher Sandy Consuegra to third base and summoned Morrie Martin to pitch to Larry Doby, who was leading off the inning. After Martin retired Doby, Richards waved Consuegra back to the mound and the umpiring crew permitted him to toss the customary eight warmup pitches, much to Lopez’s consternation. Consuegra couldn’t hold the lead, as a solo home run by Wally Westlake tied the contest and set up the marathon that ended when Hank Majeski’s pinch single off Jack Harshman plated Doby and Al Rosen with the tying and winning runs. Chicago’s Johnny Groth had given his team the lead in the top of the 15th with a single that scored Phil Cavarretta and appeared to give the White Sox the victory. Hal Newhouser earned his fourth win in five decisions with six innings of three-hit, one-run relief pitching.
Flouting tradition, the schedule maker gave the Indians a single game against the White Sox on the Fourth of July. With the holiday falling on a Sunday, the traditional doubleheaders had been scheduled for the following day, when the Tribe would be in Detroit. The 26,842 who celebrated Independence Day by visiting Municipal Stadium were almost treated to a piece of history, as Mike Garcia, Ray Narleski, and Early Wynn came within one out of tossing the first combined no-hitter in major league history. Minnie Minoso spoiled the fun with a two-out single in the ninth inning, but the Indians won the game, 2–1, to finish off the sweep. Garcia had to leave the game in the second inning when a blood vessel in the middle finger of his pitching hand ruptured. Narleski got the win with five and two-thirds innings of scoreless and hitless relief, and Wynn would’ve earned a save had saves been a statistic in 1954. The White Sox scored an unearned run in the eighth inning on a walk, a wild pitch, a ground out and an error.
“I seem to pitch better in relief and I suppose that’s why I’m not doing any worrying about starting,” said Narleski.8 The four nail-biting, one-run victories improved the Indians’ record in games decided by a single run to 18–6. According to baseball tradition, the team in first place on the Fourth of July was supposed to win the pennant. That bromide had held true since 1948 in the American League, which boded well for the Indians, who enjoyed a 4½-game advantage on Independence Day. The White Sox left Cleveland licking their wounds and anxious for another shot at the Tribe, which they’d get the next weekend in Comiskey Park.
Hal Lebovitz, in the News, wrote the next day that had Wynn retired Minoso and completed the no-hitter, it would not have been recognized by The Little Red Book of major league baseball, which conferred official status only on no-hitters pitched by a single pitcher.
“I’m home again. Mentally, I feel 100 percent better,”9 said Rosen of his return to third base, only weeks after claiming that first base was much easier to play and felt completely natural. Rosen had asked Lopez to return to his accustomed position before the series against the Yankees, but Lopez kept him at first, fearing his injured finger wouldn’t allow him to throw the ball across the diamond. Asked if the move was permanent, Lopez answered, “I think so. Of course, if we can’t find an answer at first base we’ll move him back, but now that he’s expressed himself as wanting to play third I’ll try to keep him there.”10 As to the possibility of Wertz being the answer at first, Lopez said, “he’s the first baseman as long as he hits. That’s what his job depends on. If he doesn’t hit, he won’t be much help.”11
The results of fan voting for the All-Star Game were announced during the holiday weekend, and the American League’s starting lineup would feature two Indians, both on the right side of the infield. Despite playing only two weeks at first base, and ignoring the fact that he’d been permanently returned to the other side of the diamond, fans made Rosen the league’s All-Star first baseman, and Bob Avila won the nod as the starter at second. Rosen was batting .337 with 14 homers and 58 RBI, and Avila was assaulting American League pitching at a .359 clip. All-Star manager Casey Stengel added Doby as a backup outfielder and selected Garcia and Bob Lemon as pitchers.
Glynn, the defensive half of the Glynn/Wertz first base platoon, enjoyed a career day at the plate with three homers and eight runs batted in as the Indians trounced the Tigers, 13–6, in the first game of the July 5 twin bill at Briggs Stadium. Houtteman picked up the victory in relief of Dave Hoskins, who failed to make it through the fourth inning. The nightcap was a pitchers’ duel between Don Mossi and former Indian George Zuverink, who combined to permit just seven hits and one run, that run provided by Detroit’s Harvey Kuenn, whose solo homer in the 11th inning gave the Tigers a 1–0 victory.
The Tribe’s visit to Detroit was brief. The Indians returned home for a three-game series with Baltimore, the last games they’d play in Cleveland until July 27. Waiting for them after they concluded matters with the Orioles was a 16-game road trip, interrupted by the three-day All-Star break and starting with a four-game series in Chicago.
By this point in the season, no visiting manager could escape Cleveland without being asked to size up the Indians’ pennant chances. In the opinion of Orioles boss Jimmy Dykes, “you ought to win it. You’ve got the pitching, the power and the bench. Now or never.”12
The Indians barely broke a sweat sweeping the Orioles. Their 11–3 victory on July 6, in which Cleveland put up 11 first-inning runs and Wynn held the visitors without a hit until Jim Brideweser tripled with one out in the eighth inning, gave them a record of 54–23 after 77 games, the halfway point of the 154-game season. They led the Yankees by 3½ games, and were on a pace to win 108 games. Harry Jones wrote that the players were confident 98 victories would win the pennant, meaning they needed to go 44–33 the rest of the way.
“You don’t want to use up all your luck in one night,” Wynn said of his foiled bid for a no-hitter. “I would have liked a shutout, but I’m satisfied. Sure, I’d like to get a no-hitter in the record book before I’m through, but I figure I’ve got some time left.”13
Garcia pitched eight innings in the Indians’ 6–1 victory in the second game, giving way to Narleski after the finger in which the blood vessel had ruptured in his previous start became sensitive. “It began to swell up some in the eighth inning and I decided I’d better get out of there. I couldn’t grip the ball too well and didn’t throw too hard. Guess I didn’t use anything but a fastball.”14 A fastball was more than enough to shackle the woeful Orioles.
A brisk wind held up two balls Rosen was sure he’d powered over the fence. It was a problem he’d encountered frequently since incurring his nagging finger injury. “Sometimes I’m afraid this finger just won’t be right until next year. I just can’t get any right hand in my swing. I’m afraid I’m about 20 feet short of my full power since I hurt the finger,” lamented the discouraged slugger.15
Feller finished off the sweep with a complete-game, 4–1 win on July 8. The victory was achieved almost 18 years to the day after he’d made his Cleveland debut in an exhibition game at League Park on July 6, 1936. The 17-year-old Iowa farm boy fanned eight stunned St. Louis Cardinals in three innings. The fastball Feller used to set the American League on its ear during the latter years of the Great Depression was just a fading memory by 1954. “I fired the ball by a couple of them,” said Feller of his sixth win of the campaign. “That doesn’t happen too often anymore. I figure I’ll get about ten more starts this season. Sure 15 victories would be a nice total, but it’ll take a lot of pitching to make it. I’m not setting any target of victories, just trying to win one at a time.”16
After disposing of another also-ran, Lopez commented on the lack of competitive balance in the American League. Five of the circuit’s eight clubs had lost more games than they’d won. Lopez believed that would change. “It looks that way right now, I’ll grant you. But you watch. I’m positive those other five clubs will wake up and cause plenty of trouble. They’re all better than the standings would indicate. It’s just that right now there are three hot clubs, the Yanks, the White Sox, and us.”17
Lopez also answered those who wondered how long the Indians could stand the pressure of the Yankees continuing to win. “People keep saying to me that no matter how much we win, the Yankees are always right there, waiting for us to slip. They say this puts the pressure on us. Well, I happen to know Casey Stengel is very upset that he can’t get closer no matter how much they win. That’s pressure too, isn’t it? Frustration can wreck you.”18
As the Indians prepared for a lengthy road trip that would take them first to Chicago and then east, pundits looked for the reasons the club was hanging on to first place, unlike previous editions which had, by early July, fallen behind the Yankees, destined never to catch up. The answer could be found in the team’s second-line pitching. The Big Three was holding up its end, with a combined record of 30–15 as compared to 29–17 at the same point in 1953. But the contributions of Houtteman, Feller and the bullpen of Mossi, Narleski and Newhouser far surpassed those of their 1953 counterparts. The Indians’ spot starters and relievers had a sparkling record of 25–8, compared to 17–18 in 1953. The additions of Mossi, Narleski and Newhouser, plus the return to form of Feller and Houtteman, were proving to be crucial.
Houtteman, in particular, was an intriguing case. Lopez, who knew a thing or two about the science of pitching, said, “Houtteman has everything needed to be a great pitcher, but he can’t seem to find the right combination.”19 Houtteman found the right combination in 1954, but couldn’t sustain it. He would never again be consistently effective.
Hank Greenberg knew why the Indians were leading the league.
“Seems that whomever [sic] we call on comes through. That’s how Stengel has been winning for five years. He points his finger to somebody on the bench, the player goes in and produces. Until now it has been the other way with us. We brought up [Harry] Simpson. He didn’t help. We brought up Al Smith last year. He didn’t come through. There were so many others. No matter whom we tried it was the same story. But this year every time we make a line up change the new player rises to the occasion.”20
Still stinging from being swept in Cleveland the previous weekend, the White Sox opened the final series before the All-Star break with an 8–3 victory on July 9. Houtteman was driven from the mound during a four-run seventh inning which wiped out a 3–2 Tribe lead. Newhouser, Mossi and Hooper couldn’t quiet the Chicago bats, with the loss charged to Newhouser. Richards, who’d been one of Newhouser’s catchers in Detroit, thought he’d figured out his old teammate after Hal had stymied the White Sox during the 15-inning marathon in Cleveland the week before. “We were swinging at bad balls,” said the White Sox skipper. “He didn’t throw a strike the whole night.”21 Richards instructed his players to lay off Newhouser’s offerings out of the strike zone, and two bases on balls proved to be his downfall.
Jack Harshman enjoyed a measure of revenge for suffering the loss in that 15-inning game when he and Sandy Consuegra blanked the Tribe, 3–0, in the second game of the series. Chicago extended the Indians’ losing streak to four with a Sunday doubleheader sweep, 3–0 and 8–2. Chicago pitchers Bob Keegan, Harshman, Billy Pierce and Virgil Trucks kept the Indians from denting home plate for 28 consecutive innings before the Tribe pushed across two runs against Trucks in the ninth inning of the second game of the doubleheader. The Indians had squeezed out four hard-fought, one-run victories over the White Sox in Cleveland. The Sox had thoroughly dominated the first-place Tribe in Comiskey Park, outscoring them 22–5 in the four games. Cleveland’s lead over New York was reduced to a half-game. The Indians had arrived in Chicago leading the White Sox by a comfortable seven games. They departed with a not-so-comfy three-game advantage.
Things got so bad during the second game of the doubleheader that scholarly Tribe pitching coach Mel Harder, who authored 223 victories while wearing a Cleveland uniform from 1928–1947, was given the heave-ho by umpire Ed Hurley. Harder had questioned Hurley’s strike zone after Hurley called Lemon’s 2-and-1 pitch to rookie first baseman Ron Jackson a ball. Lemon made the 3-and-1 pitch too good and Jackson slammed a three-run homer.
“All I said to Hurley was ‘that kid’s got a big strike zone,’” Harder insisted.22 For good measure, Hurley ended Lemon’s day early by ejecting him in the fifth inning. Lemon had to be physically restrained by Lopez from going after Hurley. “The Indians have had trouble all season with this umpiring crew,” noted the News.
Richards summed up the difference a week made. “You were hot then and we were cold. This time you got cold and we heated up.”23
The debacle in Comiskey Park was enough to sour Hall of Fame second baseman Rogers Hornsby on the Tribe’s chances. Hornsby, whose managerial resume included stints with the Cardinals, Braves, Cubs, Browns and Reds, in addition to an interim appointment with the Giants in 1927 while John McGraw was ailing, declared the Indians dead. Never one to mince words, Hornsby, despite the fact that the Indians were still clinging to first place, declared, “the Indians had their chance and blew it.”24 A lot of Indians fans, fearing the “June swoon” had been delayed until July, probably agreed with the Rajah.
The sweep at the hands of the White Sox cost the Indians more than several games in the standings. They lost the honor of carrying the best record in major league baseball into the All-Star break. The Indians were 56–27. The Giants were 57–27. Far more importantly to Lopez and his charges, the Yankees were 56–28.
Cleveland hosted its second All-Star Game in 1954, and the American League out-slugged the Nationals, 11–9, as 69,751 fans looked on and cheered for the game’s reluctant hero, Cleveland’s own Rosen. Dean Stone of Washington earned the victory while throwing just three pitches and not retiring a batter—Red Schoendienst was caught trying to steal home—simply because he got somebody out, which nobody on either team (except Whitey Ford, who started and pitched three scoreless innings) seemed to be capable of doing. Rosen, required to start at first base after having been voted on to the team by the fans, told Stengel he’d hold no grudge if the manager chose to remove him after one at-bat, even though starters were supposed to play at least three innings. Rosen was in the throes of a slump that had seen his batting average plunge from .382 prior to his finger injury to .313, and he’d hit just one home run since May 28. Knowing Stengel was anxious to win his first All-Star Game (he was 0–4 as the American League pilot), Rosen told Casey, “I probably won’t do your club any good because I haven’t helped my own club lately.”25
Rosen’s attitude changed after he was fanned by Philadelphia Phillies ace Robin Roberts with two runners on base to end the first inning.
“The fans voted me into the game and I wanted to start, but I figured I’d be out of there after one time at bat. Probably would have been, too, if it hadn’t been for that strikeout. I couldn’t leave after that. I wanted at least one more crack at it. With this bum finger and being in a slump, I was scared to death about being the All-Star Game goat. But that strikeout made me mad and I forgot about the finger. Yeah, the finger is painful, but I know that wasn’t causing all my trouble. I was doing everything wrong up there. The way I feel now, this has snapped me out of it.”26
Perhaps inspired by the fear of failing in front of his home fans, Rosen slammed a three-run homer off Roberts with Minoso and Avila on base in the third inning, and added a two-run shot off Johnny Antonelli of the Giants, scoring Yogi Berra ahead of him, in the fifth. Rosen played the entire game and contributed three hits to the American League’s first victory since 1949. His two homers and five runs batted in tied Ted Williams’ record for the midsummer classic. But the AL still needed a two-run bloop single by Chicago second baseman Nellie Fox in the eighth inning to nail down the win.
After the game, Stengel chatted with writers about the contributions made by Cleveland’s Rosen and Avila (six hits, seven runs batted in between them) and Chicago’s Minoso and Fox, who added three hits and a pair of runs batted in. Virgil Trucks worked a scoreless ninth. “Now they see what I’m up against in this American League,”27 cracked Stengel, who could, for one day, appreciate the talents of the star players of the two clubs fighting his Yankees for the pennant.
Lopez had no doubt that his team would shake off its miserable weekend in Chicago as it continued its lengthy road trip on the east coast. “We ought to start rolling again now. Rosen and Avila look as though they’re ready to go again. And there shouldn’t be any more talk of benching Rosen. I knew his finger was bothering him, but I felt all along that Rosen was simply in a slump. He wasn’t swinging right and it wasn’t only because of his finger. That two weeks rest just set him back.”28
An Indian who needed a rest, apparently, was George Strickland. “I want Strickland to get a good rest before starting the second half. He’s had three days off now, so two or three more ought to do the trick,”29said Lopez. Strickland would get a much longer rest than Lopez, or anyone else, wanted, thanks to a serious injury sustained in Yankee Stadium at the end of the road trip.
Lopez’s confidence was justified. Not only did he believe in his team, but the Indians opened the post–All Star break portion of the season with series against also-rans Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, each of which they had dominated up to that point. Lopez was certain the Tribe’s mastery over the second division of the American League would continue.
In Philadelphia, which had been put on notice by Earle and Roy Mack, feuding sons of the club’s former manager and founder, 91-year old Connie Mack, that attendance would have to increase dramatically in July, August and September or the Athletics would be sold to out-of-town buyers, the Indians started the unofficial second half of the campaign with a 4–0 victory. The shutout was authored by Wynn, who retired the last 13 batters he faced. The Indians managed only five hits off Alex Kellner and Mario Fricano, bunched in the fourth and fifth innings. The offense came to life the next day, slamming 18 hits in a 9–3 rout. Garcia won his 12th game but left early again in deference to his fragile middle finger. Narleski came out of the bullpen and pitched three perfect innings. While this was going on, the Yankees were extending a winning streak that began on July 3 to 11 straight games. Nonetheless, Lopez thought the streak had exposed a weakness, as neither Allie Reynolds nor Ed Lopat were responsible for any of the victories. “They’ve managed to get along lately without Reynolds and Lopat, but I doubt they can go very far without them,” the Tribe skipper said.30 All 11 of New York’s victories had come against second division clubs, the same clubs the Indians had been fattening up on and would could continue to feast on for the rest of the year. They finished their stay in Philadelphia with a 6–0 victory on July 17. Feller faced just 29 Athletics, walking none and allowing two hits, both to Don Bollweg. Feller needed only 97 pitches to subdue the dreadful Athletics. Seventy-five of the pitches were strikes. “I seem to recall pitching to 29 batters in a game a few years ago,” Feller said. “Just when it was I don’t remember. I had pretty good stuff, but control was the thing. I could throw the ball just about where I wanted to.”31 The shutout improved Feller’s record to 7–1.
The Indians dropped out of first place, but just briefly, on July 18. Losing the first game of a doubleheader to the Senators at Griffith Stadium, 8–3, sank them a half-game behind the Yankees, who shut out the Tigers in the first game of a twin bill, 6–0, behind the five-hit pitching of Harry Byrd. Within hours, the Tribe was back on top, as it captured the nightcap, 7–4, while Detroit was outscoring New York in the second game of their doubleheader, 8–6. Cleveland scored twice in the seventh and eighth innings to overcome a 4–3 deficit and make a winner of Mossi, in relief of Lemon, who continued to exhibit the effects of the pulled muscle he sustained before the All-Star break. The loss in the opener marked the first time the Indians had been out of first place since June 11.
Dale Mitchell’s pinch-hit single the next day scored Doby and produced a 4–3 victory that Lopez needed three pitchers to preserve in the ninth inning. Houtteman, Mossi and Narleski tamed the Nats in the ninth and saved the victory for Wynn. Rosen drove in three of the Indians’ four runs, giving him 71 for the season and 12 since the All-Star break. It appeared the Tribe third baseman really had conquered his prolonged slump. Senators fans who took in the game from the bleachers on a hot July afternoon probably didn’t even notice Lemon sitting among them, soaking up the sun. Lopez suggested his ace pitcher watch the proceedings from the stands, minus a shirt. “Let the sun bake your side,” said Dr. Lopez. “Might do it some good.”32
From Washington, it was on to Boston, where the Indians and Red Sox battled through 16 innings before the league’s 12:59 A.M. curfew forced the umpires to declare the game a 5–5 tie. With the Red Sox one out from a win, Avila’s two-run homer off Willard Nixon in the ninth inning drove in Al Smith ahead of him and ended the scoring for the evening. Twelve hours later, the two teams went at it again and slugged their way to a 7–7 deadlock that ended when rain descended on Fenway Park in the ninth inning. The Indians had fought back from a six-run deficit to take a 7–6 lead that reliever Hoskins couldn’t hold. The umpires waited 41 minutes before declaring the game a tie. The rain stopped minutes later, but the umpires’ decision couldn’t be reversed. The statistics from both games went into the record books, but the games had to be replayed.
An afternoon baking his ailing side in the blazing Washington sun was apparently just what Lemon needed. After Feller stopped the Red Sox in the first game of a Thursday doubleheader, 6–3, with a complete-game seven-hitter, Lemon duplicated the feat and finished the sweep with a 5–2 victory, the 150th of his career. The double victory kept the Tribe in first place by a half-game as the Yankees took two from the White Sox, 4–3 and 11–1.
Lopez joked about how his fan mail had changed recently. The manager said he was accustomed to getting letters urging him to not use Feller since, in the opinion of the writers, the one-time ace was now obviously washed-up. In 1954, however, Lopez got letters from fans begging him to let Feller pitch more often. There was nothing derogatory about the term “doubleheader pitcher” as it applied to Feller, whose record stood at 8–1 after his victory over the Red Sox. Lopez also said he wasn’t interested in Detroit coach Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe’s opinion of the pennant race. That was after Rowe claimed that “the Yankees will win the pennant because Cleveland will fold up like an accordion.”33
Stengel had promised that the Yankees would be waiting for the Indians when they arrived in New York to wrap up their 16-game journey, and he greeted the visitors by sending to the mound their chief nemesis, Lopat, seeking his 40th career victory over the Tribe. Lopat’s assortment of junk, which usually totally flummoxed the Clevelanders, was no mystery to them on the 23rd of July. Doby homered twice, Smith went deep and drove in five runs, and the Indians bagged an 8–2 victory, scoring all of their runs after the fifth inning. A crowd of 61,446 watched Wynn scatter 14 Yankees safeties to notch his 13th win in 20 decisions. The Indians increased their lead to 1½ games. “I liked him better than in many of the games where he gave up less hits,” said Lopez of Wynn’s outing. “At least ... he wasn’t running the count to three-and-two on every hitter. When he does that it kills me. I’d rather see them hit.”34
The win came with a price. Strickland suffered a fractured jaw when hit by a throw while sliding into third base. New York team physician Dr. Sidney Gaynor examined the Indians shortstop and urged him to return to Cleveland immediately to have the jaw wired, rather than waiting for his teammates to finish the series in two days. Gaynor thought Strickland would miss at least a month of action. He’d be replaced by light-hitting (even lighter than Strickland, who was batting .231 at the time) Sam Dente, who’d be expected to hold the fort at the infield’s most difficult position until at least Labor Day. WIN PLENTY WITH DENTE became the club’s rallying cry in the absence of their regular shortstop, and that was just what the Indians did.
Al Smith (left), Larry Doby, Hal Newhouser and Bobby Avila. Doby led the American League with 126 RBI in 1954, and Avila led in batting average at .341 (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection).
The Tribe wasn’t the only contender to suffer a serious loss due to injury. The third-place White Sox, who were still within striking distance, would have to do without the services of first baseman Ferris Fain for an indefinite period after Fain tore ligaments in his right knee. Speculation as to the length of time Fain would need to recover from surgery ranged from several weeks to the rest of the season.
Doby’s third home run in two games, a two-run blast off reliever Johnny Sain in the tenth inning, proved to be a game-winner after Narleski fell behind Gil McDougald three balls and no strikes with the tying run on third in the home half of the inning, then rallied to fan the New York third baseman to end the second game of the set. The 5–4 victory stretched Cleveland’s lead to 2½ games and guaranteed they’d leave New York in first place. It also ended a streak of 15 consecutive appearances by Sain in Yankees victories.
“After games like these, they ought to take the manager and walk him around the field three times to cool him off and then put him under blankets the way they do race horses,” said Lopez of the nail-biter. “My stomach is all tied up. I’d rather be playing. When you play you can get rid of your nervous energy.” Told that, in the Yankees clubhouse, Stengel had called his team’s close defeat “a great game,” Lopez responded, “I’d take it in stride, too, I think, if I had won five pennants in a row.”35
The Yankees needed 11 innings to salvage the final game of the series. The Indians couldn’t hold a 3–1 lead before 57,259 fans, and a bases-loaded single by Andy Carey off Houtteman scored Mickey Mantle with the winning run in a 4–3 game. The Yankees hadn’t lost more than two straight games all season, and they kept that record intact. The Indians nonetheless had no complaints about a swing through the east that saw them win nine of 11 and add a game to their margin over the Yankees.
It wasn’t often that a coach would take an exhibition game seriously enough to get himself tossed over a play that didn’t go his way, but it happened in the annual match-up between the Indians and a National League visitor on July 26, for the benefit of the Cleveland Baseball Federation. St. Louis Cardinals first base coach Bill Posedel got the thumb from umpire Ed Hurley in the first inning for arguing too strenuously over a call Hurley made in a game that didn’t count. Manager Eddie Stanky, who probably wanted to be somewhere else to begin with, had to take Posedel’s place in the coach’s box. Then again, maybe Posedel wanted the night off himself and goaded Hurley into accommodating him. The game, won by the Cardinals, 2–1, drew 33,775 fans on a Monday evening and raised $34,000 for sandlot baseball in Cleveland.
The exhibition with the Cardinals marked the Cleveland debut of catcher Mickey Grasso, who was still recovering from the severely broken ankle he’d suffered in spring training. Grasso played briefly, stroking a single and gunning down a runner attempting to steal. He could barely run, however, and was a long way from being activated.
July 26 was a memorable day for Garcia, for reasons both good and bad. Garcia’s wife gave birth to a son, Michael Martin Garcia, after a difficult pregnancy. But the Big Bear’s joy at becoming a father was dampened by the death of his father, Merced Garcia, in Visalia, California, on the same day. Garcia’s mother-in-law had passed away earlier in the season. Garcia left immediately to attend his father’s funeral.
The Indians opened a home stand against the Red Sox on July 27 with a 6–3 victory, highlighted when Doby somersaulted over the center field fence trying to catch a home run off the bat of Jackie Jensen, spraining his neck in the effort. Doby was replaced by Westlake, but his injury wasn’t considered serious and proved not to be. Lemon spaced ten hits while pitching a complete game for his 12th win.
It has often been said that people should be careful what they wish for since those wishes might come true. Hal Lebovitz wrote in the News on July 28 that while most of the Indians believed the Dodgers would defend their National League pennant, they hoped their spring training antagonists, the Giants, would win the NL flag. The Polo Grounds could accommodate more paying customers than Ebbets Field, Brooklyn’s tiny home park, and that would mean larger World Series shares for the participating clubs, of which the Indians were confident they’d be one. Lebovitz added that the Indians had no doubts they’d beat whoever represented the NL in the Series.
Cleveland took the second game of the series from Boston, 2–1, despite being limited to five hits by Russ Kemmerer. A two-run, sixth-inning rally, with Rosen doubling in Avila and then scoring on Wertz’s single, gave Wynn his 14th victory. The Red Sox out-hit the Tribe, 11–5. Wynn had coughed up 25 hits over his last 18 innings but only three runs.
The fans who’d written to Lopez urging him to use Feller more often may have had second thoughts after the Red Sox routed the Tribe’s fifth starter, 10–2, to salvage the final game of the series. Feller failed to survive the second inning as Boston beat Cleveland for just the second time in 17 tries.
Houtteman halted the one-game losing streak with an 8–3 victory over Washington on July 30, keeping the visitors off the scoreboard after Roy Sievers clouted a first-inning homer with a teammate aboard. Houtteman got a large assist from Doby who, after almost stealing a home run from Boston’s Jensen a few games earlier, committed highway robbery against the Senators’ Tom Umphlett. Doby leapt over the five-foot fence in center field, caught the ball while bouncing off the awning covering the Indians’ bullpen, and returned to Earth within the confines of the playing field, clutching the ball. Dizzy Dean, who was in the broadcast booth for the national television broadcast, called Doby’s grab the greatest he’d ever seen. “I seen them all,” said Diz, “[Terry] Moore, [Joe] DiMaggio, and this here fellow named Mays. But I never seen a catch as good as this one and that pitcher ought to pay that Doby a month’s salary.”36
“Larry really took off and most of him was over the fence when he back-handed that ball,” said umpire John Flaherty, who watched the play to make sure Doby held on to the ball. “He bounced off that awning like a rubber ball. I thought he broke his back until he held up his glove with the ball in it.”37 “I just went for the ball,” said Doby modestly. “The fellows in our bullpen told me my right hand went through the awning before I bounced off. If it did, I didn’t notice. I didn’t get hurt much. Knocked the wind out of me. And my left shoulder gave me a little jolt, where I hurt it before. Maybe it hit a nerve.”38
Dean Stone, the winning pitcher in the All-Star Game the last time he took the mound in Municipal Stadium, didn’t fare as well this time, although his appearance was almost as brief. Stone’s record fell to 8–4 as the Indians touched him up for six hits and five runs in two innings. In Baltimore, the Orioles spoiled Stengel’s 64th birthday by routing the Yankees, 10–0. Cleveland’s lead increased to 2½ games, but Stengel wasn’t concerned. “It’ll take 100 games to win it,” the Yankee boss told reporters. “We’ll win it because I got the money players.”39
Lemon barely broke a sweat as he closed out July by pitching the Indians to a 6–0 victory over the Senators. Lemon faced just 30 batters and allowed only three harmless hits. Doby and Rosen slammed first-inning homers off Frank “Spec” Shea and Lemon coasted to his 13th victory. The loss was Shea’s ninth in ten decisions.
At the conclusion of business on July 31, the American League standings showed little change from the final day of June.
In an ordinary season, the Yankees and White Sox records would have put them in first place, in the Yankees’ case by a substantial margin. But 1954 was no ordinary season. If New York continued to win at its current pace, the 98 victories the Indians thought would be enough to nose out the defending champions would earn them the ignominy of a fourth consecutive second-place finish. No one in Cleveland was willing to settle for that.