by There was a time in Cleveland sports that winning wasn’t hoped for, it was expected. People across the country have made the mistake in recent years to mock Cleveland sports teams because we haven’t won a World Championship in over forty-nine years. What those fans don’t realize is that this city was built on winning and that our fans can and will survive anything.
Cleveland is a blue-collar city with hardworking people that want to support their hardworking teams. No matter the previous season’s record, the loyal fan base is confident that this will be their season. Times have been tough for Cleveland sports teams, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact in the late forties, all of the fifties and the early sixties, Cleveland was the marquee sports city on the planet.
Joe DeLuca, who grew up in Cleveland, has many stories about the winning years of the past. Things were much different then and winning wasn’t a gift, but a birth right. Joe was born in 1933 and he had the incredible opportunity to see the first ever Cleveland Browns football game in person. Throughout the first fifteen years of his life, he saw multiple championship seasons, not only in football, but hockey and baseball as well.
Joe’s earliest memory of baseball came from sitting on his Italian immigrant grandfather’s lap listening to Jack Graney call games on the radio. His grandpa would have a hanky present at all times. When the Indians were winning, he would keep the hanky nice and smooth, folded neatly on his lap. When things weren’t going well, he would twist and bite on it in a sign of frustration and worry.
Joe had three uncles who listened to the games with him. His uncles: Prosper, Jimmy and Rocco, were New York Yankee fans because of the Italian, Joe DiMaggio. It was important that he grew up an Indians fan to make his grandfather proud despite his uncles’ love for the dreaded Yankees. He was such a devoted fan of the Cleveland Indians that he sneaked into League Park on off days and ran around the bases. It wasn’t until the groundskeeper, Emil Bossard, caught him and kicked him out that his fun ended.
In 1920, the Cleveland Indians had won the World Series in seven games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The series was unique in that it was actually a best of nine series. The amazing game five of the series contained the first World Series triple play, a grand slam and a home run hit by a pitcher. Years’ later owner, Bill Veeck, moved the team from League Park to Municipal Stadium. Deluca’s uncle Rocco had a weekend job delivering soda pop to the Municipal Stadium. It was on these trips that the young Joe Deluca tagged along just to run out of the truck at each stop and catch a glimpse of the inside of the ballpark. Memories like these only increased his passion for the team, and his support grew stronger by the famed 1948 season.
At his junior high, the smart kids would win tickets for their grades. DeLuca was never smart enough to win the tickets, so he always had to trade different items to the smart kids for their prized tickets. It didn’t matter that the free tickets always came against lowly teams such as the Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators, because he was just happy to be there. DeLuca recalled, “There was a city wide essay contest amongst Cleveland teenagers to decide who would be the visiting teams bat boy that season. It was won by my classmate, Alan Broyles, from Autobon Junior High. It wasn’t so much that Alan was a baseball fan, more so just a really good writer, which drove his classmates crazy that he would win. At school, Alan refused to discuss the players he got to meet, which only increased the jealousy of his classmates for landing such a sweet gig.”
The Cleveland Indians succeeded thanks to a new owner and a roster of great upcoming players, including the boy manager and star player, Lou Boudreau. They boasted an amazing pitching staff led by Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Gene Beardon. They even had the first African American to play in the American league, Larry Doby. The 1948 season provided incredible memories for the fans and players alike. “You could walk down the street at anytime and hear what was going on in the game because every store window and home had it on the radio blaring loudly. The excitement of Cleveland Indian’s baseball filled the air wherever you went,” DeLuca recalled.
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