THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 1999 5-D OURCENTURY 1957 ATA GLANCE Score taken down Sinking the subway by Yankee’s line drive Bob Feller was gone, having retired after the 1956 season. But the Indians had the new Bob Feller in 23-year-old left-handed firebal- ler Herb Score. Until the night of May 7. Before 18,000 horrified fans, a line drive from the bat of Yankee third baseman Gil McDougald struck Score squarely in the right eye. Blood gushed from his eye and his ears and he was carried from the field on a stretcher. To the relief of fans and especially McDougald, he did not lose the eye, but his season was finished. Al Lopez had left to manage the Chicago White Sox. Al Rosen had retired. Both were tired of feuding with Indians Vice President Hank Greenberg. But the Indians had one of the best outfields in the league, with young sluggers Rocky Colavito and Roger Maris and old Yankee Gene Woodling. Colavito hit 26 home runs and Woodling batted .321, but the pitching fell apart. Early Wynn and Bob Lemon had losing seasons, although relievers Don Mossi and Ray Narleski, pressed into starting service, each won 11. The new man- ager, Kerby Farrell, appeared lost. The Indians had their first losing season since 1946, finishing sixth. At the end of the season, Greenberg fired Farrell. Then the In- dians’ directors fired Greenberg. They hired Frank “Trader” Lane, who quickly lived up to his nickname. • The Browns had had their first-ever losing season in 1956. With a high draft choice for a change, they hoped to pick quar- terback Len Dawson, but Pittsburgh got him first. So they set- PLAIN DEALER PHOTOS tled for a running One hot debate: At left, Albert S. Porter making a point at the famous April 6 City Club subway debate. At right, Cleveland Transit System General Manager back from Syracuse Donald C. Hyde. named Jim Brown. All Brown did in his rookie year was lead Voters OK’d underground system in 1953, but battle really heated up 4 years later the league in rushing age” in downtown retail would be survey of listeners showed 87 percent support his prejudice.” and set a single-game more than offset by “an increasing opposed. record by gaining By Fred McGunagle Porter replied that Hyde was “the development of administrative, bank- PD FILE 237 yards against the Clevelanders looked forward to the Pied Piper who has led the customers It was a fight over the future of ing, civic and amusement activities.” out of downtown Cleveland and Los Angeles Rams. downtown — city vs. suburb, transit April 6 debate at the City Club. They Rookie Jim Brown Proctor Noyes, director of the coun- weren’t disappointed. forced them into the suburban cen- Quarterback Tommy vs. highways, old political rivals vs. ty’s Regional Planning Commission, in 1957. O’Connell ran Paul “Fighting like angered prizefight- ters because he has bitterly fought each other, newspaper vs. newspa- said the subway would stabilize the progress of the automobile.” He Brown’s offense to ers,” The Plain Dealer reported, per. And, underneath it all, one end of downtown and that autos would “jam said Hyde “keeps a phony set of perfection until he in- “County Engineer Albert S. Porter downtown against the other — Public up the roads and it will be difficult to books” in his effort to show the rapid jured his ankle, and then Milt Plum stepped in. and CTS General Manager Donald C. Square vs. Playhouse Square. drive downtown even with freeways.” was successful. The Browns’ record of 9-2-1 was the best in It also featured two of the most col- Hyde verbally rocked each other with The transportation panel of the jarring blows in the City Club subway He also took a crack at the man who the NFL. But in the title game, the Rams orful and sharpest-tongued public of- had defeated him for mayor in 1953 avenged their whomping by the Browns in the ficials in Cleveland history — Cuya- and who had campaigned for the sub- 1954 and 1955 title games by whomping the hoga County Engineer Albert S. way issue. “If you really want to Browns, 59-14. Porter and Cleveland Transit System known why the cost of the subway ex- General Manager Donald Hyde. ceeds the bond issue,” he said, “you • There seemed no doubt in Novem- can ask Tony Celebrezze, the mayor Steven Thomas thought he had gotten away ber 1953 that there would be a down- of Cleveland.” He charged that as a with a $2,376 robbery of the St. Clair Savings town subway. Voters handily ap- state senator, Celebrezze had pushed & Loan Co. on April 13. What he didn’t know proved a $35 million bond issue. It through a bill that made taxpayers was that an army-surplus gun camera had won 65.9 percent of the city vote and rather than utility companies bear been installed the day before. 61.6 percent of the suburban vote. Ac- the cost of moving utilities. It was the first-ever use of a bank surveil- tion was delayed first by a lawsuit, Not mentioned in the public argu- lance camera, and the film was shown on tele- then by a CTS study and finally by a ments was the underlying struggle vision stations around the nation. Thomas saw study the three county commission- between downtown and “uptown” in- it in a bar in Indianapolis. He took a bus back ers asked Porter to make. terests, especially department stores. to Cleveland and surrendered. “We see here a Porter was no fan of public trans- CTS had canceled hundreds of highly effective new weapon for preventing portation. Still, Clevelanders weren’t through buses that made stops along crime,” said Tom Story, police communica- prepared for the vehemence of the re- downtown streets in favor of rapid tions chief. port that occupied Page 1 and two in- trains, which dropped off passengers side pages of The Plain Dealer on at Public Square. That benefited Hig- • March 24. bee’s and May Co. at the expense of The Sam Sheppard case wouldn’t stay out of Porter said the subway was a Halle’s and Sterling-Lindner-Davis the news. Mystery author Erle Stanley Gard- “white elephant” that was 30 years and, to a lesser extent, Taylor’s. The ner said a key witness, whom he wouldn’t too late. It would cost at least $3 mil- subway would benefit the latter at the name, had disappeared mysteriously. Gard- lion more than the funds available. expense of the former — and of ner’s “Court of Last Resort,” a promotion of Rider projections were based on “un- Southgate, Westgate, Shoregate and Argosy magazine, had taken up Sheppard’s supported optimism and wishful Eastgate, suburban shopping centers cause, and said the case might be featured in thinking.” It would tear up downtown that had opened since 1950. its new television series. streets for three years, “a blow from On April 27, Cuyahoga County Gardner also said four Sheppard relatives which the central business district Commissioner Henry Speeth came had been cleared of guilty knowledge by lie- might never recover.” In off-peak out against the subway, calling it “an detector tests and that Sheppard now was will- hours, it would be “a breeder of crime almost criminal waste of taxpayers’ ing to take one, too. The warden of the Ohio and a constant police problem.” money” that would not help the aver- Penitentiary said every prisoner would de- He said the 2-year-old rapid transit age transit rider. That left Commis- mand a test if Sheppard got one. Coroner Sam- line was “a millstone around the neck sioner John F. Curry with the decid- uel Gerber said it had been too long since the of the transit system” and accused ing vote. Speeth called on crime for the results to be valid. The matter CTS of defending it with “fallacious constituents to flood him with 10,000 went up to Gov. William O’Neill, who decided and misleading reports.” He said letters: “It would only cost the sender there would be no test. downtown’s future was as a local a 3-cent stamp, which is a mighty rather than a regional center because small investment for a taxpayer to • people and business would continue make, compared with what he would pay in taxes for 25 years on the down- William A. Stinchcomb had started as a city to move to the suburbs. He said the money could be better spent on “proj- town subway.” surveyor’s chairman in 1896. As Mayor Tom On May 7, citing Porter’s rider esti- L. Johnson’s chief engineer of parks, he pub- ects of greater benefit to the commu- nity as a whole, such as roads, An early drawing of Cleveland’s proposed subway system. mates, Curry said, “I am of the firm lished a 1905 report calling for a ring of parks belief we are not justified in spending — an “emerald necklace” — in the still un- bridges, grade separations and a free- way system.” What downtown needed a large amount of public funds for a spoiled land surrounding the growing city. As Cleveland Automobile Club backed debate yesterday.” was more parking, which could be facility which will accommodate an county engineer, he supervised construction the subway by a vote of 12-2. Porter Hyde said Porter “single-handedly insignificant number of people.” of the Detroit-Superior High Level Bridge, but provided by tearing down old build- ings.