2018 Score football card of a current pro football wide receiver, Chris Hogan, who has carved out an 11 year pro career in the NFL so far with 6 different teams. His most success came with the New England Patriots, where he helped win a pair of Super Bowl titles. Hogan also played lacrosse in college, and also played in the Premier Lacrosse League in 2021, signing with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, his current team, after the PLL season ended.
The Major League baseball regular season wound up this week and an event of historical proportions took place in Cleveland, Ohio as that city’s big league team ended the 100+ year era as the “Indians”. The franchise had been known as the Cleveland Naps, after star player Nap Lajoie, but when Lajoie left the club, owner Charles Somers asked baseball writers to pick a new name. They went with Indians to honor another player, Louis Sockalexis, a Native American. And so, the “Tribe” was born. Bowing to pressure from Native and other groups to change the name, Cleveland’s team, beginning in 2022, will be rebranded as the Guardians, named after iconic statues on a local bridge that “guard” the city.
Perhaps the rebranding will change the team’s luck. They have won only a pair of World Series titles, in 1920 and 1948, and the span of years from ’48 until today marks the longest non-title drought in major league baseball. The Indians have had some iconic players and moments over the years. Bob Feller was one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and Larry Doby broke the color barrier in the American League shortly after Jackie Robinson did it in the NL with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Frank Robinson became the first African American manager in the majors when he took the reins as player/manager in 1975. The Indians were the opponent when Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak came to an end in 1941.
Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller
There were tragic and comical moments also. In 1920, Tribe shortstop Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a pitched ball and died the next day, becoming the only player in history to die from being hit. Pitcher Herb Score was struck in the face by a batted ball, breaking facial bones and effectively ending his career, although he became the iconic play-by-play voice of the team for many years after that. In spring training of 1993, 2 players, Ken Olin and Tim Crews, were killed in a boat crash, with Bob Ojeda seriously injured also. When Bill Veeck owned the team, he hired a clown known as “The Clown Prince Of Baseball”, Max Patkin, to coach third base as a promotional stunt.
Baseball clown Max Patkin
And, in one of baseball’s most forgettable evenings, the team hosted Ten Cent Beer Night at Municipal Stadium, with the game ending in a Tribe forfeit to the Texas Rangers as drunken fans stormed the field and caused a riot.
Riots on “Ten Cent Beer Night”
Cleveland has had a terrible reputation for trading away players who were stars or would become stars, with the dubious list including Roger Maris, Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Sam McDowell, Tommy John, Tommy Agee, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Dennis Eckersley, Joe Carter, C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee and most recently Francisco Lindor. The franchise rebounded somewhat in the 1990s and fielded respectable teams, including a pair that reached the World Series, in 1995 and 1997, only to lose both times. Those clubs had star power, with names like Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Sandy Alomar Jr., Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton, Eddie Murray, Dennis Martinez and Orel Hershiser. Perhaps the most odious of seasons for the Tribe came in 2016, when they reached the Series only to blow a 3-1 edge in games to the formerly lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs, and lose in 7 games.
Will the Guardians start a new chapter in 2022 and give the fans a team worth cheering for? Despite a not-so-special year in 2021, they do boast a promising core of players going forward. We’ll examine what the future looks like for them in an upcoming post. For now, it’s time to say a fond farewell to the Cleveland Indians, as they make their way to the Happy Hunting Grounds of baseball history. Also, GO GUARDIANS!
Logo of the major league baseball team from Cleveland that was formerly known as the Indians, the Cleveland Guardians. The newly re-branded franchise will begin play under their new name in 2022, after surrendering to pressure to drop their old name, which was considered racist by some in and out of the Native American community. “Guardians” is taken from a set of iconic statues (see below) located on a local Cleveland bridge that “guard” the city.
1959 Topps baseball card of former major league pitcher Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who pitched for 8 different teams in a 14 year career that spanned 3 decades. His longest stint was with the Cleveland Indians, who he played with for 7 years. His most successful season came in 1965 with the Minnesota Twins, as he posted a 21-7 record with 6 shutouts in helping the Twins reach the World Series. Grant was a two-time All Star and holds the distinction of being the starting hurler in the first game of the Montreal Expos’ existence in 1969. After retiring, he served as a broadcaster for the Indians and Athletics and wrote a book honoring the “Black Aces”, who are the 15 black pitchers to have won 20 games in a season in the major leagues, a list that includes Grant himself.
We’re already headed into week 4 of the young NFL season, and one of this week’s matchups features a pair of teams who were once division rivals in the AFC East – the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts. The game we are highlighting was played on December 9, 1973 at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The Dolphins were the class of the NFL at the time, having completed a perfect 17-0 season in 1972 culminating in their first Super Bowl win. Some consider the 1973 club even better, even though they had lost to Oakland earlier in the year to snap their unbeaten streak. Miami came into the game heavy favorites, with an 11-1 record under coach Don Shula, who had formerly coached the Colts. Baltimore entered the game with a dismal 2-10 mark, and were coached by Shula’s old assistant, Howard Schnellenberger. Also, the rivalry between these 2 teams had been completely one-sided in Miami’s favor. The Fish owned 4 consecutive shutout victories over the Colts, including a 44-0 shellacking in Miami’s Orange Bowl a month earlier. Even with all the odds stacked against the Colts, this turned out to be one of those “any given Sundays” that pop up in the NFL all the time.
Baltimore achieved what had to be a moral victory in the first quarter when George Hunt kicked a short field goal to give his team their first score of any kind in 5 meetings against the stifling Dolphins. Colts’ quarterback Marty Domres played an extremely conservative game on this day in an era where conservative was the norm. Relying on his running game and throwing only 8 passes, the career journeyman signal caller engineered touchdown drives in each of the next 2 quarters. Bill Olds scored from 2 yards out to up the lead to 10-0 at halftime, and Domres found tight end Tom Mitchell for a 1 yard touchdown toss to put the Colts up 16-0 with the extra point attempt failing. Meanwhile, the Colts’ defense played their best game of the season, picking off a pair of Dolphin passes and recovering a fumble. They also at least contained Miami’s strong rushing attack, and held the defending champs to only 228 total yards. Garo Yepremian’s fourth quarter field goal was all the offense the proud Dolphins could muster on this day, and the Colts pulled off a huge 16-3 upset. Player of the game for Baltimore was their workhorse running back Lydell Mitchell, who carried 35 times for 104 hard-earned yards.
Miami got the wake-up call from this loss, for certain. They won their final game of the regular season, pounding Detroit 34-7, then defeated Cincinnati in the divisional playoffs, and avenged the earlier loss to the Raiders in the AFC title game. The season ended with a second straight Super Bowl title win as they defeated the Minnesota Vikings.
Colts’ QB Marty Domres celebrates the upset win
Logo of a small college football team that plays in the Patriot League, the Bucknell Bison. The school played its’ first game in 1883, and won the Lambert Cup in 1960 as the best college team in the East. Bison alumni who have gone on to play pro football include Tom Mitchell, Sam Havrilak, Potsie Jones, Lou Tomasetti, Julie’n Davenport, Walt Szot and one Hall of Famer, Clark Hinkle.
1974 Topps football card of former NFL quarterback Marty Domres, who enjoyed a 9 year career in the league for 4 different teams, mainly as a backup. An Ivy League grad who played his college ball at Columbia, the only opportunity he got to be a starter wasn’t exactly a good one, as he was called on to replace legendary John Unitas when he played for the Colts. He brought out the boo birds when he didn’t quite live up to the task. Domres works as a financial analyst for Deutsche Bank in his post-playing days.
Week 3 of the NFL season is upon us, and one of the matchups features the Denver Broncos and New York Jets. For our Throwback Thursday feature of the week we’ll revisit an old-fashioned American Football League shootout played on November 22, 1962 between these 2 original AFL franchises. It was played at an old minor league baseball park in Denver, Bears Stadium, and the New York club was still known as the Titans. Denver came into the game with a winning record at 7-4, a rarity for that team in the AFL days, and was favored at home in this contest. It turned out to be the crowning moment in the career of Titan quarterback Johnny Green, who had been acquired from Buffalo after languishing with the Bills in the first 2 seasons of the league’s existence. Coach Bulldog Turner’s New York team jumped out to a surprising 17-0 lead on a short touchdown run by Bill Mathis, a Green scoring toss to Dick Christy and a Bill Shockley field goal. Denver finally broke the ice as Frank Tripucka found Bob Scarpitto open for a 35 yard touchdown, but Green matched that by hitting Art Powell, one of the AFL’s first stars, from 4 yards out for a touchdown. Denver ended the half with a pair of field goals from Gene Mingo to cut the Titans’ lead to 24-13, and the Broncos rode that momentum and came out storming in the second half. First their defense struck, as Bud McFadin scooped a fumble and rambled 69 yards for a score, followed by an offensive strike, as the other Bronco signal called, George Shaw, threw a 6 yard touchdown pass to Scarpitto to give his team a 27-24 lead. Now the shootout was on.
When Shaw fell on his own fumble in his own end zone to give New York a safety, he didn’t know at the time that he was providing the Titans with their margin of victory. Denver’s lead was now down to a single point, and that evaporated when Green hit future Hall of Famer Don Maynard for a 35 yard touchdown. New York missed their extra point attempt, and when Shaw found Lionel Taylor with a short scoring pass to open up the final quarter, Denver took advantage of an AFL rule that didn’t exist in the NFL at the time – the 2-point conversion – to take a 35-32 lead. The Broncos then took command. First Jim McMillin picked off a Green pass and returned it 59 yards for a score, then Mingo added a field goal to give Denver a sizable 45-32 lead. In the old wild and wooly AFL, however, no lead was safe. Green redeemed himself for the pick six by engineering scoring drives that ended in his 4th and 5th touchdown passes of the day, both short tosses to Christy and Powell, and the Titans left the Mile High city with a hard-earned 46-45 win.
Dejected Denver coaches Mac Speedie, Jack Faulkner after loss to the NY Titans
Used from 1962 until 1969, this is a logo of the American Football League’s Denver Broncos. The team never had a winning season in this era, with their best record coming in ’62 when they finished 7-7. There were some notable AFL players on those teams, like Frank Tripucka, Gene Mingo, Lionel Taylor, Willie Brown, Cookie Gilchrist, Abner Haynes and Ike Lassiter, and some memorable names, like John Denvir, Wahoo McDaniel, John “Johnny O” Olszewski and Rich “Tombstone” Jackson.
1962 Fleer football card of former pro football back Dick Christy, who played 5 seasons of pro ball, 3 of them for the American Football League’s New York Titans, who later became the Jets. He was an AFL All Star in 1962. Christy died in an automobile accident in 1966. His alma mater, North Carolina State, created the Dick Christy Award, given to the most valuable player in games against rival South Carolina.