As usual, the Old Professor had it all figured out.
Casey Stengel, his Yankees trailing the Indians by 5½ games as September began, knew what his club had to do to regain its accustomed position at the top of the American League standings and claim its sixth consecutive pennant. “Lopez never loses a game and I can’t do nothing about that. But I know what I got to do. I got to win every game from here in. I can’t wait around for somebody else to beat him. If Lopez beats me this series, I’m hurting. I’m hurting real bad. If I win every day and Lopez wins every day he still wins the pennant. But if I win every day he can’t win because he’s got to beat me.”1 Stengel had four more shots at Lopez, starting on the first day of September, and winning all of them would’ve greatly enhanced New York’s chances of erasing its deficit and coming from behind to play in yet another World Series.
The surest way for Stengel to notch one of the victories he needed was to send Ed Lopat to the mound. Lopat’s turn in the rotation came in the second game of the early September showdown, and Lopat didn’t disappoint, racking up his 40th career win over the Tribe in 51 decisions. With the Yankees up, 2–1, in the sixth inning, the Indians loaded the bases against their ancient antagonist with no one out. Lopat calmly retired the heart of the Cleveland batting order, Larry Doby, Al Rosen and Vic Wertz, without allowing a runner to move off his base. Cleveland threatened again in the seventh when the first two batters reached, but Lopat bore down and disposed of Jim Hegan, Rudy Regalado and Al Smith. The Yankees tacked on a pair of insurance runs off Mike Garcia and won, 4–1. The Indians’ lead was reduced to 4½ games.
“It was a game we had to win, and just as we’ve been doing for six years, we won it,” chortled Stengel afterward. “That’s why you can’t count us out yet. Never sell the Yankees short until they are mathematically eliminated. The other guys don’t have it wrapped up yet. They just think they have. Don’t forget, they haven’t had a slump all season. But if we can beat them again today and keep the pressure on them, we might scare them into one. I’m not saying they’ll choke. They never have. I know one thing. We better not choke. We can’t afford to lose any more.”2
A pair of errors by Wertz, who was still getting the hang of playing first base after having spent his entire career in the outfield, on sixth-inning ground balls by Joe Collins and Eddie Robinson gave New York two unearned runs that were just enough to enable Whitey Ford to beat Bob Lemon, 3–2, in the series finale. Each pitcher allowed only three hits. One of the hits the Tribe managed off Ford was a home run by Sam Dente, only his fourth in 2,204 major league at-bats. Hank Majeski tried to duplicate Dente’s blast with Regalado on base in the eighth inning but was robbed by left fielder Irv Noren’s sensational, leaping catch. The Indian’s lead was shaved to 3½ games. The Yankees would come to Cleveland for a Sunday doubleheader on September 12, the last time the two teams would meet ... in the regular season. “I should have had both of them. That’s all there is to it. I should have had them,” said a disconsolate Wertz of the ground balls he failed to field.3
“It’s not his fault,” said Al Lopez of Wertz’s errors. “He’s doing the best he can at a strange position. For one who never played the infield before he’s doing darn well. Naturally, he doesn’t have the reflexes of an infielder.”4 As to whether he considered replacing Wertz with Bill Glynn for defensive purposes with the Indians up, 1–0, in the fifth inning, Lopez responded “that’s not much of a lead, and my policy has been to put Glynn in late when we’re ahead enough to need defense.”5
The series in Yankee Stadium opened a closing stretch during which the Indians would play 17 of their final 24 games against the American League’s first division. Included were six against Detroit, which, despite holding fifth place, had lost 18 more games than it had won. Eleven of those 17 games were against the Yankees and White Sox. Three of the contests versus New York were in the books, and two of those games had been lost.
“We’re in fine position. The loss didn’t do much damage,” Lopez insisted.6
Doby’s seventh-inning solo home run broke a 2–2 tie and the Indians bullpen preserved a 3–2 victory in Comiskey Park on September 3. Bob Feller exited with one out in the seventh, clinging to the one-run lead Doby’s blast had given him, and Don Mossi and Garcia managed to keep the White Sox off the scoreboard the rest of the way. The Yankees hammered Washington, 9–2, to stay 3½ games behind.
The Indians sustained another injury to a key player in the victory over the White Sox. Doby pulled a hamstring in his left leg running out a double in the third inning. Though he stayed in the game and clouted the game-winning home run four innings later, the leg would impair his play for the rest of the season.
Defensive problems handed the White Sox an 8–5 victory in the second game of the series. Bill Glynn, inserted by Lopez to give the Tribe a more steady glove than Wertz’s at first base, and Avila, who was playing shortstop for the first time that season, uncorked wild throws, and the five unearned runs the miscues allowed to score in the sixth inning proved to be Wynn’s undoing. Wynn allowed just four hits before being relieved with two out in the sixth, but his record dropped to 19–10. New York was beaten by Washington and stayed 3½ games behind.
Cleveland’s 8–2 triumph in the final game of the series didn’t clinch the pennant. In fact, it only reduced the Tribe’s magic number to 15. But as far as Harry Jones was concerned, it concluded the 1954 American League pennant race. A Cleveland pennant, in the opinion of The Plain Dealer’s baseball scribe, was a foregone conclusion.
Houtteman lost his chance at an easy victory when he wilted early in Chicago’s unseasonable 97-degree heat. Houtteman couldn’t finished the required five innings to pick up the win, which went to Narleski, his third against two losses. New York lost to Washington, 5–4, dropping it 4½ games behind the Indians. In spite of his declaration that a Tribe pennant was a lead pipe cinch, Jones did sound a cautionary note. The following day was Labor Day, and Jones recalled that in 1948, the Indians had trailed by 4½ games on the traditional end of summer holiday before rallying to force a one-game playoff with the Red Sox, which Cleveland won. Jones wondered if the Yankees could pull off a similar miracle.
Ed McAuley agreed with Jones. The headline over McAuley’s September 7 column in the News read: PENNANT RACE IS A SIMPLE STORY: INDIANS TOO GOOD TO LOSE.
Paul Richards wasn’t convinced. Richards told Cleveland writers the Indians had to at least split their upcoming doubleheader with New York at Municipal Stadium. Losing both games, in Richards’ opinion, would cost the Tribe the pennant. In Stengel’s words, “there’s no use kidding anyone. I have to win every day.”7
Lopez had to win every day, too, in order to hold off Stengel’s relentless bunch, and, while Cleveland writers mentioned how much more relaxed the Tribe skipper was in 1954 compared to his first three seasons at the helm, the pressure may have been getting to him. Lopez said he planned to retire after his contract expired following the 1955 campaign. “Don’t let anybody tell you this isn’t hard work. It’s no fun sitting on that bench trying to figure out things before they happen. Paul Richards of the White Sox told me the same thing. He admitted if it wasn’t for the money in it, he would quit. Casey Stengel is different. It’s fun for him and I was certain he would be back in 1955.”
Lopez was asked if he would retire after the 1954 season, even if the Indians failed to maintain their lead and win the pennant. “I wouldn’t say that. All I know is that this isn’t the easiest way to make a living and I wouldn’t stick with it too long.”8
Because the American League schedule maker considered Baltimore, having replaced St. Louis, as a “western” city despite the fact it sat on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean, the Indians, after having played in Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and New York on their trip before going to Chicago, had to go east once again for a holiday doubleheader in Memorial Stadium. The Indians banged out 14 hits to capture the opener, 6–1, their 17th straight victory over the Birds. Don Larsen blanked the Indians for eight innings in the nightcap before they rallied to tie the game at 2–2 in the ninth before Baltimore pushed across the winning run in the tenth. Cleveland’s magic number was shaved to 13 as the Yankees split their doubleheader with Boston, blowing a 7–0 lead in the second game to lose, 8–7, and stay 4½ games behind the front-runners.
The Indians completed their trip, which took them to every city in the league except Detroit, with a 13–6 record, falling short of their manager’s stated goal of 15 wins. “Deep down, I didn’t think we could do it,” Lopez confessed. “I thought we’d be doing pretty good to come home with 98.”9 At the All-Star break, Jones had written that the Indians were convinced 98 victories would mean the pennant. All it meant was a precarious lead over the Yankees.
A large crowd was anticipated at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to welcome the Indians home from Baltimore. Club officials, fearing a mob scene, expressed the hope that no more than 200,000 rooters would venture to the city’s western edge to greet their returning heroes. They got their wish. About 10,000 Tribe supporters were on hand when the team’s plane touched down. Wertz was impressed with the display of affection. “Lucky me,” said the Tribe first baseman. “To think I started the season with the last place Orioles. Baltimore was never like this.”10
Upon their return to Cleveland, Gordon Cobbledick anointed the Indians the league champions, despite the fact the upcoming home stand afforded the Yankees one final chance to cut into their deficit in a head-to-head match-up. “Leave us waste no more precious minutes in speculation about the Indians chances to win the pennant,” Cobbledick wrote. “The Indians have won the pennant. Not because they’re 4½ in front, although it helps, but simply because they’re too good for the competition.”11
A cold front blew through Cleveland before the Indians met the Athletics on September 8, sweeping away the late summer heat wave that had baked the city in 98-degree temperatures over the Labor Day weekend and replacing it with a cold, biting wind off Lake Erie. The conditions made it difficult for Wynn to control his bread-and-butter pitch, the knuckleball. Had the opponent been someone other than the pathetic visitors from Philadelphia, Wynn might have been in trouble. Regardless of the change in the weather, Wynn managed to vanquish the Athletics, 5–2, for his 20th victory.
“That cold and wind was really rough,” Wynn remarked. “I knew it was going to bother me before the game, when I tried to warm up. I just couldn’t loosen up. After all the hot weather, the temperature change hurt.”12
The Tribe’s magic number was an even dozen. New York topped Baltimore, 8–2, to remain within 4½ games of the lead. Cleveland’s 99th victory was a franchise record, breaking the mark of 98 set during the 1920 pennant-winning season.
As he felt a sixth consecutive pennant slipping away, Stengel groped for reasons (excuses?) why his Yankees couldn’t catch the rampaging Indians. His contention that New York’s opponents saved their best pitchers for the defending champions, even though the Indians were in first place, irritated Lopez. “What does he want them to do, lay down?” Lopez asked.
“If the Yanks think we’re getting any soft touches, they’re crazy. He should know that baseball isn’t played that way. The team in first place always faces the best. “If Jimmy Dykes had been trying to play favorites he would have saved Larsen for the Yanks. Larsen owns a shutout over the Yanks this year. But it was Larsen’s turn to face us, so we got him. We expect to face the toughest pitchers all the way in. That’s what we’ll get—and that’s the way we want it. Anybody who studies the box scores—and you can bet I know the Yanks do—knows darn well that we have faced only the best pitchers all season. We’re on top because we’ve beaten the best. All this crying about clubs laying for the Yanks is a joke.”13
Hal Lebovitz revealed before the Indians’ final meeting with Philadelphia that substitute infielder “Win Plenty” Dente had been playing with a broken right index finger since August 12. Lopez knew of the injury, as did Dr. Don Kelley. Dente managed to keep the media and most of his teammates from finding out. “The finger hurt for about a week. It’s still swollen,” said Dente.14 Fortunately for the Indians, George Strickland was ready to return to the lineup, his broken jaw having healed.
The Indians needed 11 innings to beat the Athletics, 5–4, in the final meeting between the two clubs on September 9. The Tribe trailed, 4–1, when the Yankees’ 1–0 loss to Baltimore was flashed on the scoreboard. With a chance to lop two games off their magic number and drop New York a game further behind in the standings, the Indians rallied to send the game into extra innings and won it when reliever Ed Burtschy walked Hal Naragon with the bases loaded, forcing in Dave Hoskins with the winning run. Hoskins was pinch-running for Rosen, who pulled his right thigh muscle running the bases during the ninth-inning rally that tied the game. Said Rosen,
“It just seems that one thing leads to another. I guess when you start getting hurt, you favor the injury, and that leads to something else. When I broke my finger I changed my swing and it made my arms and wrists sore. Later on I got something wrong with my foot and I started to favor it. My leg had begun to hurt a little, but today this cold weather aggravated the injury and when I had to run hard in the ninth inning to score the tying run, the strain became too much. I tried to stick it out, but when I got in scoring position in the 11th, I figured we’d better get someone who was able to run. I’m still not hitting the way I should. Now I have to come down with something else—and I don’t know how long this will knock me out. Right now, the leg hurts too much to run on it.”15
Lopez was grateful to escape with the victory. “You know, that’s the first bad game Philadelphia has played against us this year—in spite of the number of times we’ve beaten them. They couldn’t do right today.”16 The record would show that, in their final season in Philadelphia, the Athletics won four games against the Indians. They lost 18.
Among the witnesses as the Indians reduced their magic number to ten was former Cleveland center fielder and manager Tris Speaker. The man who guided the Indians to their first World Series title in 1920 was impressed with Lopez’s squad. “This is a better ball club than most people think,” Speaker said. “In some ways it’s a great club.”17 Speaker wasn’t asked if he thought the 1954 edition of the Indians was as great as his 1920 world champions.
The other player-manager to bring a World Series triumph to Cleveland was in Municipal Stadium the next night. Lou Boudreau, whose MVP season led the Indians to the 1948 world championship, was inducted into the team’s hall-of-fame before Boston’s game with the Tribe. “This is one of the greatest honors of my life,” Boudreau told the crowd of 34,561 that turned out to pay homage to him. “It will go down in my memory along with all the wonderful years I spent here and at old League Park.”18 Steve O’Neill, Boudreau’s minor league manager at Buffalo, and former Tribe pitcher Mel Harder, Boudreau’s teammate from 1938–1947 and the Indians’ pitching coach in 1954, were present at the ceremony.
The 1954 season would not provide many fond memories for Boudreau. He was finishing his third season at the helm in Boston, and with his team floundering in fourth place after having been expected to contend with Cleveland, New York and Chicago, he’d be fired at year’s end. The Indians pounded another nail into Boudreau’s coffin with a 4–2 victory. A three-run third inning was all Garcia needed to post his 17th win, tossing a complete-game eight-hitter at the Red Sox. The magic number fell to nine. The Yankees beat the White Sox, 6–3, to stay within 5½ games.
It would have been easy for the Indians to look past their final game against Boston to the one-day, two-game showdown with the Yankees that was on the horizon, but Houtteman stayed focused on the business at hand and twirled a neat, five-hit, 3–0 shutout for his 15th victory of the season. “I got along pretty well, all right,” said Houtteman in the clubhouse, “but I think I pitched a better game against the Red Sox the last time we were in Boston. The situation today was different. I had that wind blowing in all afternoon, and in Boston I had the short fence to worry about.”19 The White Sox knocked off New York, 6–5, increasing the Yankees’ almost insurmountable deficit to 6½ games and helping the Indians reduce their magic number to seven. Cleveland couldn’t clinch the pennant the next day, but it could shove New York to the brink of elimination.
And that was precisely what a record crowd poured into Municipal Stadium to witness. The overflow mob of 86,563 (84,587 paid) wasn’t disappointed. The Tribe’s 4–1 and 3–2 victories reduced their magic number to a mere three. The proud, haughty Yankees left town 8½ games out of first place and needing a miracle to win consecutive pennant number six.
Offensively, Avila, the American League’s leading batter, contributed five hits in eight trips to the plate, improving his average to .340, 13 points ahead of Chicago’s Minnie Minoso. “What a day, what a day!” Avila exulted. “Two things I always wanted to do when I started playing baseball. One was to play in an All-Star Game, another to be in World Series. I been in two All-Star Games, now I’m gonna be in a World Series. Maybe I’ve had better hitting days, but never one that meant as much as this.”20
Hegan praised Lemon and Wynn, who held the Bronx Bombers to a paltry nine hits and three runs in 18 innings (Wynn fanned 12 Yankees.) “We had two real pitchers today, didn’t we? Lem goes out and throws a great game, and then Gus tosses a better one. That Wynn pitched a terrific game. He only threw one bad pitch all afternoon. When he had two balls on Berra he tried to get a fastball past him on the outside. But he had to bring it in close enough for a strike, and he threw it too close.”21 Wynn suffered the fate many pitchers suffered when trying to sneak a fastball past Berra: a two-run homer that was all the offense the Yankees could muster in the second game. It wasn’t quite enough.
“I’ll take that game I won even over my no-hitter,” Lemon said. “I never saw a game I wanted more or one that meant more. Getting a big lead now means we can relax during these last two weeks. I went through one of those hectic finishes in 1948, and I don’t want any more of that.”22
“Now maybe they’ll call the Yanks a choke up club,” exulted Newhouser. “You couldn’t say they responded well to the pressure, could you, losing six of their last eight?”23
“I said after we left Yankee Stadium that we wanted to knock off the Yanks ourselves,” said Lopez. “Now we’ve done it. Now nobody can make cracks about how we were able to knock off the second division clubs but not the Yankees. We beat ’em ourselves—and that’s the way we wanted it.”24 The cautious Lopez, who reminded everyone that the Indians hadn’t yet clinched anything, did allow himself the luxury of looking ahead to the World Series it was all but guaranteed his team would participate in. “Naturally, we want the Giants. It would be a great series.”25
Stengel conceded that if his Yankees couldn’t win a sixth straight pennant, he was glad Lopez would break the streak. “This fellow played for me and they don’t come any better. If I was thinking of investing any money, he’d be the man.”26
But could the Indians, as Lemon suggested, relax? Even though any combination of Cleveland victories and/or New York losses equaling three would remove the pressure of clinching the pennant, there was still the matter of breaking the 1927 Yankees’ record for most wins in a season. Lopez wanted that record. So did his players, so did the fans, and so did management. Club president Myron “Mike” Wilson sent Lopez a note after the doubleheader sweep that was tacked to the clubhouse bulletin board: CONGRATULATIONS. NOW LET’S WIN 111.
Winning 111 would prove to be both a blessing and a curse for the Indians.
With the sad-sack Senators following the Yankees into town, Lopez saw an opportunity to rest Doby, Rosen and Dave Philley, each of whom was nursing a leg injury. The Indians managed to nose out the Senators without them, 4–2. Wally Westlake, Hank Majeski and Dave Pope, subbing for the injured trio, each drove in runs. The Tribe scored four times off Washington starter Chuck Stobbs in the first inning and didn’t find home plate again. Stobbs’ replacement, Camilo Pascual, whose curveball would baffle American League hitters for years to come, held the Tribe to one hit over seven innings and retired the last 17 batters he faced.
The victory, Garcia’s 18th, gave the Indians a record of 40 wins and only four defeats against the league’s second division teams at home. Philadelphia and Boston had beaten the Indians twice at Municipal Stadium. Against Washington and Baltimore, the Tribe was a perfect 22–0. Cleveland’s record overall against the second division was an astonishing 75–13.
The Yankees, angered over the loss of a pennant they considered to be their property by divine right, did the Indians no favors after leaving Cleveland. While the Tribe was idle on consecutive days, New York defeated Detroit, 4–2. The magic number remained two as the Indians packed for a weekend series at Briggs Stadium, from which they hoped to return as American League champions. “We’ll go all out to end it here,” said Lopez. “We’d like to get it over with as soon as we can.”27
Avila went from goat to hero between the sixth and seventh innings of the first game of the series on September 17. The second baseman’s error in the sixth helped Detroit to score a pair of unearned runs, tying the game at 2–2. Rosen had given the Indians a 2–0 lead with a first-inning home run, and Lemon made it stand up until his defense betrayed him in the sixth. Avila quickly atoned for his miscues by depositing a pitch from Tigers starter Ned Garver into the lower deck in left field with the bases loaded in the seventh, and the Indians were on their way to a 6–3 victory that clinched a tie for the pennant. Lemon posted his 23rd victory with a six-hit complete game. New York kept its extremely faint hopes alive with a 10–3 trouncing of Philadelphia.
The Indians extinguished those faint hopes the next day. On a Saturday afternoon, in a game twice delayed by rain, the Tribe sloshed its way past Detroit, 3–2, to win the third pennant in the franchise’s history. It was the second time the Indians had clinched a pennant in Detroit. The 1920 team wrapped up its pennant in the same stadium, then known as Navin Field, on October 2.
The Indians’ offense consisted of Mitchell’s two-run homer and Hegan’s solo shot. Narleski saved the victory for Wynn, who may have been distracted by the rain and was removed by Lopez after walking Jim Delsing on four pitches with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh, cutting the Cleveland advantage to 3–2. Narleski induced Ray Boone to ground out to Rosen, and held the Tigers at bay in the eighth and ninth.
As the giddy Tribe players chanted “speech, speech, speech!” in Lopez’s direction in the beer-soaked clubhouse during the clinching celebration, Lopez, cunningly, simply introduced Hank Greenberg, who’d made the trip to Briggs Stadium, his old stomping grounds as a player, to watch his handiwork result in the franchise’s third league title. “I guess the best thing I did for this team was stay away from it all year,” cracked the general manager. “I didn’t tell one fellow how to hit or one pitcher how to pitch and I didn’t tell Lopez how to manage. You seem to have done pretty well. Looks like you’ll get a record of winning more ball games than any team in history. I hope you do and I hope you win the World Series in four games.”28
“It’s been a great season,” Lopez understated in the happy clubhouse. “This is a great team. It is a greater team than anyone knows.”29 Unlike most pennant winners, the 1954 Indians couldn’t bask in the glory of their triumph and club-record 107 victories and plan for the upcoming World Series. The league championship secured and the hated Yankees vanquished (for one season, anyway), the Indians faced the task of winning 111 games and wiping the 1927 Yankees out of the record books. They had seven chances left in which to win the four games needed to accomplish that feat.
The day after the pennant was clinched, Hank Greenberg talked about how close he came to having to hire a new manager following the disappointing 1953 season, when most people assumed Lopez had grown weary of Cleveland (and of finishing second) and, his contract having expired, would sign with another club. “Al did have an offer from another team,” Greenberg revealed.
“In fact, officials of the club contacted me and I presented the proposal to Lopez. We talked over the proposition and discussed the Cleveland situation. He was discouraged about the second place finish and couldn’t sleep after the losses. I reminded him of the 90-plus Cleveland victories and the additional sleepless nights he’d have with any other team. Just the two of us were together when Al said, ‘if you want me back, I’ll be back.’”30
It was later revealed that the team hoping to lure Lopez away from the Indians was the Reds, as the newspapers had speculated. It will never be known if the 1954 Indians could have accomplished what they did for another manager.
Greenberg also wasted no time putting additional pressure on his manager. Barely giving Lopez a chance to savor the sweetness of his first pennant, Greenberg spoke to the Cleveland chapter of the National Journalism Fraternity on September 20 and declared that the Indians would repeat as American League champions in 1955, “but won’t win as many games.”31
The quest to become the winningest team in American League history began with a 4–2 victory in Briggs Stadium on September 19, the Indians’ 52nd win on the road against just 25 losses. Cleveland earned the victory despite being out-hit by the Tigers, 13–5. The Tribe scored three first-inning runs off Ted Gray and, while neither pitcher was particularly sharp, Garcia and Mossi made them stand up. The victory was Garcia’s 19th, leaving him with one more start in which to join Lemon and Wynn as a 20-game winner. The Indians headed home needing three wins in their remaining six games to set a record.
“I hope we can do it. This club deserves to go in the record books as the winningest of all time,” said Lopez.32 Setting a new record wasn’t the senor’s top priority, however. “We want to keep on winning, not because of the record, but because we want to be in a winning frame of mind for the World Series.”33
The Indians stretched their winning streak to 11 with a 7–4 victory over the White Sox to open the final home stand of the season. It was another occasion on which the Indians were out-hit by their opponents but managed to pull out a win—-a common occurrence in 1954. The Tribe struck early, reaching Chicago’s 16-game winner, Bob Keegan, for five runs in the first two innings. Feller struggled through six innings before giving way to Narleski with one out in the seventh. Narleski and Newhouser combined to save Feller’s 13th and last win of the season. Cleveland’s 109th victory was in the books.
In the National League, the Giants dethroned the defending champion Dodgers with a 7–1 win in Ebbets Field. New York had finished 35 games behind Brooklyn in 1953. The Indians and Giants, long-time spring training antagonists, would meet in the World Series.
Lemon said the Giants would be a tougher match-up for the Indians than the Dodgers would’ve been. “They beat us 13 times this spring, didn’t they? They’ve got more good left-handed hitters like Don Mueller, Whitey Lockman and Henry Thompson. That Willie Mays is right-handed, but he applies plenty of wood to the ball. He’s a hard man to pitch for he hits bad balls good.”34 Lemon’s reference to the spring barnstorming tour was significant. Although exhibition games generally aren’t a reliable barometer of a team’s strength (remember the Yankees won just eight of their 27 exhibitions in 1954), it was emphasized in the spring and throughout the season by Cleveland writers that the Indians-Giants spring series was different. It was noted that Leo Durocher played his regular line-up against the Indians, and Lopez, for the most part, reciprocated, although Lopez did some experimenting as he tried to find a first baseman and used Rudy Regalado at second in an effort to find a position for the “red-hot rapper.” When the Indians played the Giants in the spring, it wasn’t simply for fun and exercise. Thus, the results of the 1954 spring series couldn’t be tossed aside as “just exhibition games.”
“You know, I can’t tell you how glad I am we’re in this thing with the Indians. They’re our friends,” said Durocher during the Giants’ victory celebration.35
Tris Speaker picked his old team to win the world championship, because of its pitching. “The ’48 team probably had a better infield and perhaps three pitchers as good as the Big Three but it didn’t have the depth behind the starters. You’d have to go a long way to beat that ’48 infield, though. How it could knock in those runs!” The Tribe’s 1948 infield of first baseman Eddie Robinson, second baseman Joe Gordon, shortstop Boudreau and third baseman Ken Keltner accounted for 432 runs batted in. The Tribe’s 1954 infield of Wertz, Avila, Strickland/Dente and Rosen drove home 276 runs. Adding Glynn’s 18 RBI in limited duty at first base swells the total to 294.
Speaker was also impressed with the Indians’ bench strength. “I’ve known of many good benches in my time in baseball but never one like this. Some looked better on paper but I don’t think any ever produced like this one. New men consistently came in and did as good or even better a job.”36
Rosen didn’t play in Cleveland’s 11th consecutive win, Lopez choosing to rest his star third baseman’s sore leg. “I just want to be in number one shape for that series,” Rosen commented. “Sure, my leg’s been bothering me some and I’ve had a sore back, but you can bet I’d be in there if the pennant wasn’t wrapped up. Then with our kind of bench anyone can lay off for a couple of days without being missed.”37
For the second time in 1954, the White Sox snapped a Cleveland 11-game winning streak on September 21, edging the Tribe, 9–7, in a contest low-lighted by five Indians errors, a wild pitch, and a passed ball. The Indians could hardly be blamed if their heads weren’t completely in the game. Being guests of honor at an 18-mile parade from Cleveland’s far east side to its far west side, witnessed by an estimated half a million fans, to celebrate the American League pennant can distract a club from the business at hand, and that was how the players spent their late morning and early afternoon hours. Starting (and losing) pitcher Houtteman couldn’t use the parade as an excuse for a poor outing in his last start of the season, as Lopez hadn’t required him to attend the festivities, feeling it unfair to ask his pitcher to spend hours waving at cheering fans and then use the same weary arm to propel baseballs at enemy batters. Why the parade wasn’t scheduled for the team’s September 23 off-day wasn’t explained.
The Indians entered the record books on September 22, their 3–1 victory over Chicago tying the Yankees for the most victories by an American League club in the circuit’s 54-year history. Mossi started and dodged bullets all day, allowing only five hits but walking six. Cleveland generated just enough offense to pin the loss on Jack Harshman who, like Mossi, hurled a complete game. The Indians’ quest for immortality hadn’t caused the fans to beat a path to the Municipal Stadium ticket windows. A slim crowd of 4,662 attended the history-making game.
During New York’s futile attempt to overhaul the Indians in September, Stengel had said that if he couldn’t guide his club to a sixth consecutive pennant, he deserved to be fired. Yankees co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb wanted Stengel to return, however, and he did. On September 22, Stengel signed a two-year contract to manage the Yankees through 1956, for a base salary of $75,000, considerably more than Lopez was earning.
“We’ve got to fix our pitching and our hitting,” Stengel said after signing the new pact. “When you get a setback you have to rebuild. After five years, I found out I forgot to win 140 games. I’ve got to find a way to catch Cleveland and so do six other clubs.” It isn’t often that a club which wins 103 games, as the Yankees did in 1954, needs much rebuilding. Asked about his remark that he should be fired if he didn’t win the pennant, Stengel responded “by God, I’m surprised I lost it. I didn’t expect to lose it until we left Cleveland.”38 Stengel often referred to the Yankees as “I” rather than “we.”
The 1954 Yankees were the only team in Stengel’s illustrious career as a player and manager to win 100 or more games. And their 103 victories earned them only second place.
The early betting line established the Indians as 8½-to-5 favorites to polish off the Giants. For those National League fans who claimed the Indians were champions of a much weaker league, former Cub Phil Cavarretta disagreed. Cavarretta, fired as Cubs manager in spring training, spent his first year in the American League in 1954 strengthening the White Sox bench after 20 seasons in the National, which included the 1945 pennant and batting title. “I don’t see where they can say [that the National League is stronger.] They have less weakness at the bottom, yes, but I don’t think they have as much strength at the top. I’ll admit that even the tail-enders over there can give you trouble. In a short series like the World Series I’ve got to go with that pitching. I’ve liked the Indians all year and I think they should be able to stop the Giants. It won’t be easy though.”39 Cavarretta had liked the Indians enough to seek employment with them after being dismissed as both a player and manager by the Cubs, only to be told by Lopez that he had virtually no chance of earning a roster spot. He hit .316 in 71 games for the White Sox.
The Indians pounded the stuffing out of the American League’s bums, and needed to beat one of those bums, Detroit, at least once in Municipal Stadium to set the league record for victories they wanted so badly. The Tigers took the first game, 6–4, having little trouble with Lemon, who failed in his bid for his 24th victory. Lemon hadn’t pitched in a week, and the rust showed. “I can work after three or four and feel right, but a longer layoff than that and I sometimes get wild. That was the trouble this afternoon. I was getting behind on the batters and had to come in with the ball.”40 Again the chance to witness history didn’t entice Clevelanders to flock to the ballpark. Only 3,788 played hooky from work or school to watch the Friday afternoon contest.
The record for most victories in an American League season, held by the Yankees since 1927, was transferred to Cleveland on September 25, and the Indians established the new standard in style, thrashing the Tigers, 11–1, with Wynn holding the visitors hitless until Fred Hatfield led off the ninth inning with a single. The Tribe scored four runs in the fifth and four more in the eighth to make Wynn’s 23rd victory a laugher. Pundits noted how appropriate the score, 11–1, was for the Tribe’s record 111th victory.
The Indians played their only meaningless game of the 1954 season on September 26th, and no one could have blamed them for mailing it in to get the season over with and get on to the World Series. Instead, with Lopez using most of his regulars, Cleveland battled Detroit through 13 innings before losing, 8–7. Garcia started, seeking his 20th victory, which may explain why Lopez let the Big Bear, in his last tune-up before the World Series, struggle through 12 innings (surrendering six runs on a staggering 16 hits) before lifting him for a pinch-hitter. Narleski was touched up for a pair of runs in the 13th to suffer the loss, his third in six decisions. A final-game crowd of 17,225 brought the club’s season attendance total to 1,335,472. While an increase of 266,000 over 1953, it was a disappointing turnout for a pennant winning, record-setting club. It had taken Clevelanders a long time to warm up to the 1954 Indians, thanks to three consecutive runner-up finishes that left fans fearing an inevitable collapse that never came.
Three Tribe pitchers who helped the club achieve a 2.78 team ERA: Mike Garcia (left), Ray Narleski, and Early Wynn (Cleveland State University, Cleveland Press collection).
The 1954 American League champions. Their winning percentage of .721 is still the best in American League history (Cleveland Public Library).
There were some individual honors for the Indians. Avila won the league batting title with a .341 average, and Doby was pleased to learn after the season’s final game that his 126 runs batted in had paced the circuit. Berra had driven in 125 for the Yankees. “I’m sure Berra must have knocked in at least a couple,” Doby said when the topic was brought up in the Tribe’s clubhouse. Informed that Berra went hitless in five at-bats and didn’t drive in a run in New York’s final game, Doby responded, “I backed in. Can you imagine that? I never thought I’d win it. This is my year.”41
And that it had been. Many Indians, Rosen the most noteworthy, said in March that the Indians’ pennant hopes depended on Doby bouncing back from a disappointing 1953 season, and Doby didn’t let his team down. He batted a modest .272, but his 32 homers were tops in the American League, and he fielded flawlessly, committing just two errors in 411 chances for a .995 percentage and bailing Tribe pitchers out of numerous jams with circus catches.
When the sun set on the night of Sunday, September 26, the final American League standings showed a champion other than New York for the first time in six seasons.
New York’s 103 wins were easily the most ever for an American League runner-up. In only seven of the league’s first 53 seasons would 103 victories have failed to capture a pennant. In 17 of those same 53 seasons, including the war-shortened season of 1918, Chicago’s 94 victories would have won the pennant. But 1954 was no ordinary season in the American League.
The Indians had triumphed by following the Boudreau formula of breaking even with the contenders and beating the living snot out of the bums. The Indians split their 44 games with the Yankees and White Sox, and posted an amazing 89–21 record versus the rest of the league. Only Detroit came close to giving the Indians any trouble, winning eight of the 22 games between the two clubs. As noted earlier, the Tribe’s mark against the Red Sox, Athletics, Orioles and Senators was a mind-boggling 75–13. The Indians had come from behind in 52 of their wins, including 22 such victories achieved in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings. Thirty times the Indians were out-hit by their opponents but still won the game. It all added up to the team’s third pennant, a league-record 111 victories, and a date with an old friend in the World Series.