Bill Wambganss, wearing the special uniform
that the Cleveland Indians wore in 1921
October 10, 1920: Perhaps the most eventful game in World Series history unfolds at League Park in Cleveland, and we barely even have photographs of it. No film. Radio broadcasting was in the process of being invented. Television was still just an idea. The Internet wasn't yet an idea.
The American League Champions, the Cleveland Indians, were hosting the National League Champions, the Brooklyn Robins. The name "Dodgers" had already been used, but, since 1914, their manager had been Wilbert Robinson, a former star catcher, and so they were the "Robins," just as the Indians had been the "Naps" from 1903 to 1914, in honor of 2nd baseman and manager Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie.
In the 1950s, it would be a joke that the Dodgers had everything but a left fielder, but in their Robins days, their best hitter was their left fielder. Zack Wheat would finish his career with a .317 batting average and 2,884 hits, 2,804 of them with Brooklyn. After 100 years, this remains a Dodger franchise record. To put this Hall-of-Famer into perspective: According to Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, his 2 most statistically similar players are Tony Gwynn and Roberto Clemente.
Burleigh Grimes
Cadore, who had also pitched for the Robins on their 1916 Pennant winners, was held out of his next start, and pitched less than 5 innings in his next one. But he pitched a complete-game shutout in his next, and ended the season at 15-14 with a 2.26 ERA. Oeschger, who had pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies' Pennant winners of 1915, was held out of his next 2 starts, and lost his next 2, but was fine, going 15-13 for a 62-90 team, with a 3.46 ERA.
The Indians were managed by Tris Speaker, still their center fielder, and one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A .345 career hitter, he would collect 3,514 hits, 792 of them doubles, which is still an all-time record. And, until Joe DiMaggio came along, he was regarded as the greatest defensive outfielder ever. He had already helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in 1912 and 1915.
Speaker at an old-timers game in 1947
They also had a Hall of Fame pitcher, Stan Coveleski. Like Grimes, he threw a spitball. A son of Polish immigrants, he had escaped the Pennsylvania coal mines, and, when interviewed by Lawrence Ritter for his book The Glory of Their Times in the 1960s, he would say, "Lord, baseball is a worrying thing."
On August 16, the Indians went to the Polo Grounds in New York to play the Yankees, who were in their 1st season with Babe Ruth. Yankee pitcher Carl Mays hit Indian shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch. The impact was so hard that the ball came right back to Mays, and he threw it to 1st base, because he thought Chapman had hit it.
Chapman got up, and told catcher Wally Schang, "I'm all right. Tell Mays not to worry." He started toward 1st, and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital, and died the next day. He remains baseball's only player to die as the result of an in-game injury. Mays lived until 1971, insisting that he hadn't hit Chapman intentionally. Others backed that up, including Chapman's teammates, who admitted that he crowded the plate at times.
The Indians wore black armbands on their sleeves for the rest of the season, and would dedicate a monument to Chapman, which now stands in the Heritage Park section behind center field at Progressive Field.
Baseball would respond to Chapman's death by supplying umpires with far more balls, and ordering them to throw balls out if they looked too dirty, and thus insufficiently visible. They also outlawed the various altered -- or "doctored" -- pitches that fell under the umbrella category of "spitball." But they allowed 17 pitchers, including Cleveland's Coveleski and Brooklyn's Grimes, to continue throwing the spitball because it was their "bread-and-butter," or what we would call today their "out pitch."
Chapman's replacement was rookie Joe Sewell, and he ended up being a big reason why the Indians edged the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox for the Pennant. The suspension of 7 White Sox players for throwing the previous year's World Series -- an 8th, Chick Gandil, had already retired -- helped the Indians.
Joe Sewell
It was the 1st Pennant ever won by a Cleveland team. The Robins/Dodgers had won their 1st Pennant in 20 years.
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Game 1 was played on October 5 at Ebbets Field. In a game that lasted just 1 hour and 41 minutes, Stan Coveleski outpitched Rube Marquard, and a pair of RBI doubles by Steve O'Neill gave the Indians a 3-1 win. Burleigh Grimes pitched a shutout in Game 2, and the Robins won 3-1. The Dodgers took the lead in the Series in Game 3, when Sherry Smith outpitched Ray Caldwell, and Brooklyn won 2-1.
The Robins/Dodgers would not take a games lead in a World Series again for 33 years. The series moved to Cleveland, and the Indians knocked Leon Cadore out in the 1st inning. In spite of that, their win turned out to be just 5-1, but the Series was tied. Game 5 would be the one for the ages.
League Park, built 1910, torn down 1951.
A previous ballpark had stood there from 1891 to 1909.
In the bottom of the 1st inning, Grimes gives up hits to Charlie Jamieson, Bill Wambsganss, and center fielder/manager/legend Tris Speaker. Tribe outfielder Elmer Smith then hits the 1st grand slam in Series history.
In the 3rd‚ Jim Bagby comes up with 2 on, and crashes another Grimes delivery for a 3-run blast‚ the 1st home run ever by a pitcher in Series play.
Elmer Smith
Jim Bagby
An unassisted triple play. And, 102 years later, this remains the only triple play of any kind in World Series history.
The only known photo of the play
The Indians win the game, 8-1, and their 1st appearance in the World Series will soon be a successful one. Duster Mails outpitched Sherry Smith for a 1-0 Cleveland win in Game 6. in Game 1. The Series went back to Brooklyn for Game 7 and a potential Games 8 and 9, but on October 12, 1920, Game 7 was won 3-0, as Coveleski pitched a shutout to beat Grimes, whose error allowed the deciding run.
Wambsganss, suddenly nationally famous, later lamented that he had a pretty good career (and a case can be made that he was right), but that, for most people, he might as well have been born the day before this game and died the day after.
As it turned out, Wamby died on December 8, 1985, in a suburb of Cleveland, where he'd lived all his life, making him 89 years old.
The last living player from this game was Joe Sewell, the man who had been called up after Ray Chapman had been killed. Sewell went on to a Hall of Fame career, including helping the Yankees win the 1932 World Series, and lived until 1990.
The Indians began to split their home games in 1932, with their bigger-attendance games, and eventually their night games, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. They last played at League Park in 1946, and it was demolished in 1951. The only surviving part is the ticket booth, outside the right field corner.
Today, a baseball field is on the site, and the City of Cleveland has named the facility "League Park."
Cleveland was World Champions. Brooklyn would have to wait.
On the other hand, in the 102 years since, the Indians have won just 1 more World Series, while the Dodgers have 7.
UPDATE: Through the 2025 season, the Dodgers have 10 World Series wins since 1920; the Guardians, still just 1, in 1948.
The Guardians have a team Hall of Fame. From the 1920 World Champions, they have honored Tris Speaker, Stan Coveleski, Steve O'Neill, Jim Bagby Sr., Charlie Jamieson, Joe Sewell, and, it should be said, Ray Chapman.
From their start in 1901 until 1919, but not including 1920, they have honored Cy Young, Nap Lajoie, Addie Joss, Bill Bradley (not the Knicks star turned Senator), Elmer Flick, Jack Graney and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.
From the period between the 1920 and 1948 titles, they have honored Wes Ferrell, Mel Harder, Earl Averill and Hal Trosky.
Bradley, Flick, Speaker, Wambsganss, O'Neill and Harder have also been elected to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. That Hall has also honored a few Indians who were from Cleveland or nearby: Bradley, Wambsganss, Hegan, 1910s catcher Paddy Livingston, 1910s shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, 1930s 2nd baseman Ray Mack, and 1930s left fielder Joe Vosmik.
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October 10, 1920 was a Sunday. Frank Sinkwich was born on this day. He won the Heisman Trophy as a University of Georgia running back in 1942, and later played for the Detroit Lions.
It was the 2nd week of competition for the newly-founded American Professional Football Association, which was renamed the National Football League the next season. On this day:
* The Decatur Staleys beat the Kewanee Walworths, 25-7 at Staley Field in Decatur, Illinois. The next season, the Staleys became the Chicago Bears. The Walworths, from western Illinois, soon folded.
* The Chicago Cardinals played the Chicago Tigers to a 0-0 tie, at Cubs Park, which was renamed Wrigley Field in 1926. The Tigers soon went out of business. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960 and Arizona in 1988.
* The Green Bay Packers were founded in 1919, but did not join the NFL until 1921. All teams mentioned after this ended up folding before the 1920s were out.
* The Canton Bulldogs beat the Toledo Maroons, 42-0 at Lakeside Park in Canton.
* The Akron Pros beat the Columbus Panhandles, 37-0 at League Park in Akron. The Pros would go on to win the league's 1st Championship.
* The Buffalo All-Americans beat a team called "All-Buffalo" at Canisius Field, on the campus of Canisius University in Buffalo.
* The Cleveland Tigers and the Dayton Triangles played to a 0-0 tie, at Triangle Park in Dayton.
* The Detroit Heralds beat the Cleveland Panthers, 40-14 at Navin Field in Detroit. It was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961. In the 1950s and '60s, Detroit and Cleveland would be a great NFL rivalry, but that would be the Lions and the Browns, respectively, not the Heralds and the Panthers.
* The Rock Island Independents beat the Hammond Pros, 26-0 at Douglas Park in Rock Island, Illinois, one of the "Quad Cities." The week before, the Independents played what is generally regarded as the 1st NFL game, beating the Muncie Flyers, 45-0 at Douglas Park. Both the Pros and the Flyers were based in Indiana.
* And the Rochester Jeffersons beat Fort Porter, 66-0 at the Bay Street Baseball Grounds.
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