1948 Retrospective
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THE PLAIN DEALER . SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 1999 5-D OURCENTURY 1948 ATA GLANCE River fire damages railroad bridge Flames from the burning Cuyahoga River leaped 100 feet in the air, halting traffic on the Clark Ave. Bridge and knocking out power to 12,000 Muny Light customers.A fireboat and 24 engines on the banks poured water into the river to keep the fire from moving down- stream. The Feb. 10 fire did only minor damage to the high-level bridge, but the low-level River Terminal Railroad Bridge sustained more than $100,000 worth of damage. As usual, sparks from a passing train had ignited the oily scum that perpetually floats on the river. PLAIN DEALER FILE Angry officials of companies along the river demanded that the city halt the constant men- The largest crowd in baseball history — 86,288 fans — filled the Stadium for the fifth game of the 1948 World Series. Joe Gordon was at bat in the ace posed by river fires. bottom half of the first inning for the Indians with manager Lou Boudreau on first with a single on a line smash that caromed off the glove of Boston • pitcher Nelson Potter. Ken Keltner was on deck. This picture was made from three negatives. Returning veterans weren’t the only college students who had become more serious. Mem- bers of the Ohio Association of Deans of Women, meeting at Hotel Statler, said coeds’ choice had changed from “marriage or a ca- reer” to “marriage and a career.” On top of the world again Lucille Mowrey of Baldwin-Wallace College said women were preparing themselves for business “if they find in later years they have Clevelanders cheer themselves, too, with Indians’ Series win to work.” Ada Hyatt of Kent State University said, “Girls are taking over many campus jobs once held by men. One of our girls, for exam- By Fred McGunagle ple, headed the whole student government program.” It was V-J Day all over again, but now there were different heroes to • cheer. Eight thousand people in the jam-packed Terminal screamed out Police corrup- their names as each one reached the tion and “the rack- top of the escalator from the tracks: ets” were a run- “Doby!” “Keltner!” “Lemon!” ”Bou- ning story. In dreau! July, police Lt. Er- nest Molnar was Thirty police somehow cleared a convicted of tak- path through the cheering crowd to ing $80,000 in Public Square, where another 25,000 bribes. A month erupted in cheers. The players boarded convertibles behind a truck later, the homes of carrying the Parmadale Band. Mayor Buster H. Math- Thomas Burke rode in the front seat ews and Charles of the first car, with Bill Veeck and V. Carr were Lou and Della Boudreau waving bombed. Mathews from atop the rear seat. was a “policy kingpin” believed The parade moved up Euclid Ave. to be behind the il- with confetti and paper streamers legal lottery. Carr floating down from office windows was a Central area until the occupants of the cars looked councilman who like snowmen. Police estimated had several times 200,000 to 500,000 people lined the Birns route to University Circle. tried to repeal an ordinance making Children, out of school for the day, possession of policy slips illegal. shrieked. Fathers held up babies to see the players. People ran alongside Police theorized the bomber was sending a the cars to shake the players’ hands. “clam-up” message to keep the men from co- Even the police trying to keep the operating with Assistant Safety Director Alvin spectators back reached toward the Sutton’s investigation of rackets and bribery. cars for a handshake. Streetcars They rounded up such “police characters” as stopped and crews got out to join the Willie Hoge, Arthur “Little Brother” Drake cheering thousands. and Alex “Shondor” Birns. An ex- convict “This was not a crowd which had PLAIN DEALER FILE named John Horvatin was arrested in the come merely to honor a triumphant A heroes’ welcome: Indians owner Bill Veeck, seated in the car at right, and Lou and Della Boudreau rode together bombing but acquitted by a jury. group of athletes,” Alvin Silverman observed in his Plain Dealer story. in the parade after the Indians won the 1948 World Series. • “This was a crowd which was, in a sense, cheering itself.” Veeck’s attempt to trade Boudreau looked for residents willing to take in Little work was done in Cleveland Les Cunningham had retired, but the Bar- before the season; the “Big Three,” visitors who couldn’t get hotel rooms. that Monday afternoon; office work- ons had Johnny Holota, Pete Leswick, Fred Baseball was a matter of life and Lemon, Feller and Bearden; Satchel ers gathered around radios. School Thurier and Bob Solinger scoring goals, and death in Cleveland in the summer of Some scalpers were asking $50 a 1948, and the last month of the season Paige; a hobbling Boudreau’s pinch ticket. Parking lots raised their rates. principals put the radio broadcast on goalies Roger Bessette and Johnny Bower pre- the PA system or broke in with fre- venting them. had plenty of both. Not since the war hit with the bases loaded against the Stouffer’s and Rohr’s restaurants an- had one story so dominated the news- Yankees; trailing by a seemingly in- nounced they would open on Sunday. quent reports. It was late afternoon before the result was final: a 4-3 They dominated the American Hockey papers and, for that matter, daily life. surmountable 41⁄2-game margin on Boston Mayor James Curley bet squeaker to make the Indians — after League, finishing the season with a 27-game In the year of its own golden anni- Labor Day; the 8-3 victory over the Burke 100 pots of baked beans unbeaten streak. This time, they didn’t fall against a wooden Indian that he 28 years of disappointment — world versary, The Plain Dealer recounted Red Sox in the first American League champions. apart in the playoffs. On April 11, they pres- the Indians’ season day by day: pennant playoff. planned to set up on his front lawn. ented owner Al Sutphin with a birthday pres- That triumph When the Tribe came back from Burke announced that, in deference ent: the Calder Cup. over Boston Boston with a split in the first two to the wishes of the players, the re- ception would be simple and swift The 1948 Browns were the first professional brought a spontane- games, Clevelanders camped out ous civic celebra- overnight to get 8,000, $1 bleacher with no speeches. But he said he football team to go through a season unde- hoped it would make up in enthusi- feated since the 1942 Chicago Bears of the Na- tion of its own. tickets. Most Clevelanders crowded Downtown was asm what it lacked in pomp. tional Football League. The Browns won 14 around radios that Friday afternoon; jammed until mid- He needn’t have worried. Cleve- games, including three in an eight-day stretch. Jimmy Dudley had joined Jack night with revelers landers were, as Silverman had writ- They beat the San Francisco 49ers, 14-7, be- Graney in the broadcast booth at the blowing horns, ten, cheering themselves. In the fore a Stadium crowd of 82,769, the most ever beginning of the season. A lucky few whistles and sirens, 1920s, when the “Fifth City” was to see a professional game. It came three Sun- watched flickering images on bluish- teenagers snake- tinted black-and-white televisions. America’s boomtown, their pride was days after the Indians drew the largest crowd dancing through as high as the flag atop the new Ter- At the Stadium, 70,000 fans saw ever to see a baseball game. streets and young minal Tower. But in the 1930s, the Gene Bearden pitch a 2-0 shutout; the men looking for city, dependent on steel and autos, The Browns won the Eastern Division of the gate of $345,000 — about $5 a ticket pretty girls to kiss. was beaten down in poverty, popula- All America Football Conference by beating on average — was a world record. In James E. Doyle’s tion and psyche. the 49ers again, 31-28. Otto Graham, suppos- Downtown taverns had their busiest “The Sport Trail” edly out with a knee injury, played the whole night ever. On Saturday, more than But after a decade of misery, Amer- the next morning, game. Then — just in case anybody didn’t 81,000 — the largest crowd ever to ica had won the war and achieved Egg Shelley poeti- know who the best team in either league was see a single game in the history of prosperity. And now Cleveland had cized: “We waited — they walloped the 49ers, 49-7, for their third baseball — watched Steve Gromek reclaimed its rightful position as the 20 years and eight, straight AAC title. defeat the Braves 4-1. best city in the nation. So Cleveland- and brethren, did ers cheered and they threw confetti Cleveland was now a pro football town, but we celebrate!” A victory on Sunday and the Indi- and they ran alongside to shake their the annual Thanksgiving Day college game With 75,000 out- ans would be world champions. If so, heroes’ hands and they cheered some was still the play story in The Plain Dealer — of-towners ex- Mayor Burke announced, the parade more. especially since Case broke a 21-year losing would start at 8:30 a.m. Monday. It pected for the The players were overwhelmed.