No Money, No Beer, No Pennants. Scott H. Longert
Burns was quite angry with the decision, venting his frustration to the Cleveland papers. He told reporters, “I wouldn’t say the Cleveland club handed me a raw deal. I suppose it is good business for the club to get $7,500, but it is a hard blow to me and smashed my plans for grabbing a good berth with a minor league club.” Despite all the years of good service in the American League, Burns had no recourse but to report to New York. He played in just four games and was not eligible to receive any World Series money. Of course, the Yankees won another crown, beating St. Louis four games to none.
One of the strangest actions taken by the Indians occurred during the season on September 9. Manager Peckinpaugh announced that pitcher George Uhle was suspended for the remainder of the year. The explanation given was that Uhle was out of condition and not in shape to play baseball. There had to be more to the situation, as Uhle had already appeared in thirty-one games, starting in twenty-eight of them. How could a ballplayer not be in condition after playing for five months? There was no question that Uhle was having a poor season, with twelve wins and seventeen losses, but a suspension? A few months later the mystery was revealed. At the winter meetings, Billy Evans sent Uhle to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for shortstop Jackie Tavener and pitcher Ken Holloway. Evans revealed that the suspension was due to Uhle being a bad influence on several of the young players. For that reason, the former ace of the Indians pitching staff was banished from the club. Ironically, Uhle would return to Cleveland in 1936 and, at the age of thirty-eight, make a few token appearances for then-manager and old friend Steve O’Neill.
While the Cleveland front office tinkered with the roster, the city prepared to launch the campaign for the new stadium. On Friday, October 19, an executive committee was announced to lead the important battle. The chairman was Charles Otis, one of the most well-connected men in Cleveland and possibly the entire United States. Charles was born on July 9, 1868, to one of the wealthiest families in northeast Ohio. Otis’s grandfather William came to Cleveland in the 1830s and immediately started a shipping enterprise linking Cleveland to New York City via the Erie Canal. He became one of the original men to invest in the fledging railroad business and later was a pioneer in the iron industry. Charles’s father was a well-known local businessman who founded Otis Steel in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In the 1870s the elder Otis served one term as mayor of Cleveland.
Young Charles enjoyed a life of exceptional privilege, attending the best schools and frolicking in Europe with his closest pals. In the 1880s his brother owned a cattle ranch in Colorado where Charles rode horses and carried a six-gun in his belt. After attending Yale, Otis started his own steel business in Cleveland. He used his status as a member of the elite to solicit all the business he could handle. When he grew tired of the steel industry he hired more executives and left the business to others while he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1899 he founded the Otis & Hough Company, one of the initial brokerage houses in Cleveland. As might be expected, he had well-off clients with rolls of cash to invest. Soon after, he formed the Cleveland Stock Exchange, where he was elected its first president. Six years later it was time to explore new opportunities. In 1905 he bought the Cleveland News. Charles had great fun writing editorials and trying to boost the paper’s circulation. He is credited with hiring a young Grantland Rice for his sports department. Rice went on to become one of the most respected sportswriters in all of America.
Charles Otis could boast of friendships with John D. Rockefeller, comedian Will Rogers, and his distant cousin Amelia Earhart. He knew many United States presidents, from fishing trips with Grover Cleveland to card games with Warren G. Harding. He debated with Teddy Roosevelt on whether the Cleveland News would support TR’s Bull Moose Party. When America entered World War I, Charles was appointed to the War Industries Board, where he worked closely with future president Herbert Hoover. Regardless of being active in Washington, he found the spare time to sell a huge amount of war bonds in Cleveland.
In late 1919, when Prohibition was about to come into effect, Charles and close friend John Sherwin, the banker and future stockholder of the Indians, went on a buying spree. They spent the enormous amount of $30,000 on cases of Old Crow bourbon, whiskey, gin, and champagne. Trucks were hired to load the cases and deliver them to Sherwin’s lavish home in Cleveland Heights. Whenever the rich folks threw a high-powered party, Charles was there with all the booze needed. If you wanted something of importance done, there was only one man in Cleveland to call.
Otis and his committee got on the job without delay. To assist, he had the leaders from the Rotary Club, Cleveland School Board, Cleveland Athletic Club, and John Carroll University. They sent 125,000 envelopes promoting the bond issue to the voters of Cleveland. Stadium badges in the amount of fifty thousand were distributed all around the city. Posters by the thousands were printed to be displayed in store windows and downtown offices. A total of thirty thousand letters were sent to organizations that might have a potential need to use the stadium.
The committee assured voters that the Cleveland baseball club favored a lease that would be in effect for the duration of the bonds. They estimated the baseball lease revenue would take care of 50 percent of the bond interest the city would eventually have to pay out. A diverse list of other possible events at the stadium included boxing, football, soccer, track, carnivals, opera, and community Christmas celebrations. Mentioned specifically was the possibility of bringing the college football powerhouses to the proposed stadium, including Navy, Notre Dame, and a small school in Columbus named Ohio State.
Charles Otis and his committee knew exactly how to reach the voters. Banners were put up at local high school and college football games. Slides were created to be shown before movies at the downtown theaters. An army of speakers hit the ground running to plead their case at every possible club available. The campaign could not advertise on radio, nor could they attach signs to the many streetcars gliding up and down the east and west side avenues. Both means were prohibited at the time.
In spite of this, on November 1 they did manage to get Billy Evans and William Hopkins on WHK Radio. This was an informational discussion that would enlighten voters on the pros and cons of building a new stadium. With these two speakers, there were probably quite a few more pros than cons.
The committee had the support of the three major Cleveland newspapers. Though Charles Otis had long since sold the Cleveland News, he still had influence there. The Plain Dealer published editorials appealing to the voters to mark an X next to the “yes” box. Sam Otis (not a relative), the Plain Dealer sports editor, strongly endorsed the bond issue, writing, “We want a touchdown, we want a touchdown IN A STADIUM ON THE LAKEFRONT! Cleveland must have the stadium. It means more to sports here than any other project launched.”
Stuart Bell, the sports editor for the Cleveland Press, had a different angle as to why voters should support the stadium initiative. He wrote, “One argument we haven’t seen put forth in behalf of the proposed stadium on the lakefront is that it would be the first perfect baseball stadium in the history of the game.” Bell asserted that this would be the lone baseball park that would not be crammed onto an inadequate piece of land. There would be no short fences or sun fields, no entrance or exit problems, and parking spaces for everyone. Bell added, “There will be plenty of room on the lakefront. The stadium can be symmetrical and mechanically perfect as far as the outfield barriers are concerned. Best of all there would be no short fences to assist the manufacture of cheap home runs.”
The campaign for the new stadium did have its share of detractors. Several members of the Citizens League expressed stout opposition to the plan. They submitted a minority report that claimed revenues generated by the facility would not be ample enough to cover the costs. They questioned the estimated revenues of $250,000 and where they would come from. The gentlemen acknowledged that about $125,000 was expected from the Indians lease, but where was the remainder going to be produced? John Gourley, the Cleveland recreation commissioner, had sharp words for the dissenters, replying that “There are powerful influences favoring the stadium that are in a position to guarantee the appearances of great sporting events other than baseball.” When pressed for names, Gourley refused to comment.
On Friday, November 2, the Cleveland Baseball Commission held its annual banquet at the Statler Hotel. In the audience were 190 amateur ballplayers to accept awards and wolf down a gourmet dinner. City Manager Hopkins