DID FORESTERS COMEBACK SAVE BASEBALL IN CLEVELAND?
If we have learned one thing the past couple of months it is to never count the Cleveland Foresters out. Reeling after blowing an 8 game lead in August, the Foresters regrouped and went 15-1 down the stretch to hold of Brooklyn for the Continental Association Pennant. Next up was the World Championship Series and Cleveland dug itself a hole in dropping three of the first four games before once again showing incredible resilience and roaring back to win three straight to give long suffering Foresters fans their first World Championship in franchise history. But one challenge remains and that is the uphill battle fans have been fighting to save their beloved Foresters.
Foresters owner Elmer Marshall has been battling Cleveland city administrators for quite some time to try and coax them into using taxpayer money to fund a new stadium for the club. It is no secret Forester Field is at the very least in need of a facelift, but Marshall wants the 24 year old building razed and a new home built - at taxpayer money of course - for his club. With the city, like most across the nation, still reeling from the fallout of the Stock Market crash there does not appear to be much money to spare so Marshall has taken it upon himself over the past couple of months to go on a national tour in hopes of finding a city council more receptive to giving into his demands. So instead of witnessing perhaps the best, and certainly the most exciting, couple of months of Forester baseball, Marshall has spent his time riding the rails, and being wined and dined by bureaucrats in places like Cincinnati, Buffalo and even Charlotte as they each make their pitch for his ballclub.
Marshall had okayed the club spending money to bring in veteran stars like Max Morris, T.R. Goins and Charlie Berry in hopes of making the team just good enough that it would create an uprising were Cleveland city council not to cave in on his demands of a new Stadium. Perhaps, he accomplished that task just a little too well as the Foresters were not only competitive, but they completed one of the greatest comebacks in World Championship Series history and ended a championship drought that stretched 45 years and two leagues. Cleveland, which joined the old Border Association in 1890, won it's CA 4th pennant earlier this month but up until yesterday had never won the World Championship Series. One has to think that Cleveland's accomplishment derailed Marshall's plans as even he could not want to face the venom he would certainly receive were he to move the club now, would he?
As for the Foresters it took a few games but their talented offense finally took control of the series, scoring 18 runs in Game Seven alone after getting 18 in the first four games. Now 18 in four games is nothing to complain about unless your pitching had a complete melt down, as the Foresters did, early in the series. The momentum turned in Game Five when Roger Perry shut the New York Gothams bats down, allowing just 1 hit over 7 innings of work as he combined with reliever Frank Phillips on a 4-0 shutout that was so impressive it prompted manager Jim Wilson to give the ball to the 27 year old again in Game Seven instead of Dean Astle, who had struggled in losing games one and four. Charlie Berry, the midseason acquisition from Boston acquired to solve the Foresters woes at third base, continued his strong series with a pair of hits in the game five win while Max Morris also delivered two hits including his second homerun of the series.
As much as we talk about the offense of this series, it was those 7 innings of 1 hit ball from Roger Perry in Game Five that turned the series and if the Foresters stay in Cleveland may ultimately be the reason why. The tide turned in that fifth game as the Foresters were able to prolong the series in order to return home. Game Six and Game Seven were both the T.R. Goins show as the 33 year old catcher, dominated New York pitching with 8 hits, 7 rbi's and 7 runs scored in those two games alone. For my money Goins was hands down the star of the series and should have been named it's MVP but one can't argue with the sentimentality of giving the award to Mighty Mo. Morris had a very good series, hitting .419 with 3 homers and 7 rbi's to add his first Series MVP award to a trophy case that also includes 8 (with possibly a 9th coming this year) Association MVP awards and 2 World Championship rings.
Roger Perry aside, the name of the game this Series was clearly "Offense". Cleveland scored 48 runs and the two clubs combined for 81 in the seven games. Individual records were established such as Charlie Berry's marks of 25 total bases and 13 rbi's while Max Morris equaled a 39 year old record by scoring 10 runs in the series and T.R. Goins came 1 hit shy of Carlos Cano's 1930 record for hits in a series with 15. Six times a player has hit 3 homeruns in a series and two of them occurred this year with Morris and Berry each socking 3. For Morris, he becomes the only player to hit 3 homers in a World Championship Series twice, having first done it in 1921 for St Louis. With 7 round-trippers in Series play, Morris takes sole possession of the career leaderboard in that category. He had entered the series tie with Rankin Kellogg and Tom Taylor with 4 each. As for career RBI's Morris is second all-time with 21, trailing only current teammate T.R. Goins, who has 24.
The question now is do the veteran Cleveland sluggers have another title left in their tank, but certainly for fans along the southern shores of Lake Erie the bigger question is "Will they still be able to witness the attempt in person?"