Giants and Indians, partners in drought, to meet in Cleveland
Giants fans, it could be worse.
You could be Indians fans.
Fifty-four years without a World Series championship is one long drought. But the Indians can top that. This is the 60th anniversary of their last title. They won the '48 Series and have spent the next six decades failing to win again.
They lost three World Series in the meantime, two in the '90s. The most surprising came in 1954, when they were swept in an upset by the New York Giants, the last time the Giants won it all.
Remember?
On Tuesday, for the first time since the '54 Series, the Giants will play an official game in Cleveland. Johnny Antonelli was the last Giant to throw a pitch at the old Municipal Stadium, completing his save in Game 4, and Jonathan Sanchez will be the next (this time at Progressive Field) as Tuesday's starter.
"It's been a loooong time," Dusty Rhodes said in a phone interview.
Rhodes played in the majors seven seasons, mostly as a role player, and his crowning moment came in the '54 Series. The highlight of highlights was Willie Mays' epic catch to rob Vic Wertz at the Polo Grounds, but Mays said the other day, when asked about the Giants' last title, "The key, I think, was Dusty Rhodes."
When Rhodes was told of Mays' stance, he said, "I think it was that catch he made. I was just lucky."
Lucky? Rhodes had the Giants' only two home runs and seven of the team's 20 RBIs. He won Game 1 with a pinch three-run homer in the 10th and homered again in Game 2, having entered in the fifth with a pinch single to tie the game. The Series moved to Cleveland for Game 3, and another Rhodes pinch single with the bases loaded provided the winning margin.
"Dusty's time on earth was 1954," Al Rosen, the Indians' third baseman that year, said Thursday.
The Giants won the finale, and Antonelli - who pitched all nine innings in Game 2 - threw the final 12/3 innings in Game 4. Where's the ball used for the final out, a Dale Mitchell pop-up in foul territory to third baseman Hank Thompson?
"They gave it to me, and I'm sure I've got it," Antonelli said. "A lot of people would have displayed it better than I did, but I wasn't much for that. Right now, my son (John Jr.) has all my stuff."
The Giants were underdogs because the Indians won a then-record 111 games, had 23-game winners Early Wynn and Bob Lemon, and won the pennant over the Yankees, who had won five straight World Series.
"We knew the Giants were a very good ballclub because we played them in spring training every year in Arizona and traveled with them (barnstorming) back east before the season," Rosen said. "We knew them, and they knew us. I won't say the Giants had a better ballclub, but they were better in that Series."
Rosen said the turning point was Mays' catch of Wertz's shot to deep center, preserving an eighth-inning tie in Game 1. If the ball got past Mays, two runners (Rosen and Larry Doby) would have scored.
"If he didn't make that play, we would've won the first game, and how do you know what goes on from there?" Rosen said.
Rosen appeared in the Indians' last World Series triumph. He broke into the majors in August '48 and a few weeks later, made his only appearance in the '48 Series - as a pinch-hitter for Satchel Paige.
By 1950, Rosen was a star. Over five years, he averaged 31 homers and 114 RBIs and was the '53 MVP. By contrast, Rhodes topped 100 games once. His best year was '54, naturally. He played 82 games and hit .341 with 15 homers and 50 RBIs.
Then he went crazy against the Indians.
"You know, once in awhile, you get on a streak," Rhodes said. "You're right, it was an upset. But the Cleveland wives were celebrating winning the thing, and Leo (Durocher, the Giants' manager) made a speech before the game and said, 'They haven't won yet.' "
Cleveland Muni, a massive facility that seated more than 70,000, was opened in 1931 and demolished in 1996. The Indians drew 86,563 (closer to football capacity) for a Yankees game on Sept. 12, 1954, the largest big-league crowd until the Dodgers moved into the L.A. Coliseum in 1958. But for the most part, the Indians were losers, and the place was mostly empty.
From the beginning, Clevelanders complained about the Depression-era structure because it helped put the city in debt and wasn't appealing aesthetically. According to the Cleveland Press in 1943, the stadium "stands as a horrible and costly example of political bungling, or maybe outright thievery."
Thus, the Mistake on the Lake.
Even the Indians, shortly after the stadium opened, moved back to their original facility, League Park (capacity 23,000), until 1947. In the '60s, '70s and '80s, it was a sad place because of so many sad teams.
But in the late '40s and the first half of the '50s, the Indians were legit because of a sterling rotation - Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, Lemon and Wynn, along with a 41-year-old rookie in '48 named Paige - and an offense featuring Doby, Rosen, Wertz, Mitchell, Luke Easter, Bobby Avila, Ray Boone and an end-of-the-line Lou Boudreau.
It didn't matter in '54. The Giants won it all - "We just played flawless ball," Mays said - and are still trying to do it again.
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