The Washington times., 1920-01-12
BY FREDERICK G. LIEB.

Cleveland never has known what
it means TO hold a baseball cham
pionship. Until the 1919 season,
Ohio was basebalPs most conspicu-
Gus jinx State. Some uncanny power
seemed to camp on the coat-tails OF
the teams from Cincinnati and Cleve-
land by which the great Buckeye
State was kept perpetually in the
baseball background. After years OF
torment the Cincinnati Reds kicked
their jinx into the Ohio river last
season and won basebalPs greatest
honor, but Cleveland-as usual-is
talking of next year."
Cleyeland's quest OF major league
pennant dates back to the seventies.
In 1870 Cleveland was admitted into
the National League, and with the
exception OF a few years, Cleveland
has had an entry in one or the other
major leagues ever since.
During its National League career
Cleveland came nearest to winning
the championship in 1892, when the
league season was divided into two
parts. Cleveland was the victor in
the first half and Boston in the sec
ond, but in the series to decide the
championship the Spiders were an
initiated. After the first game, result
ing in an thinning 90 tie, Boston
won five straight games.
Cleveland was one OF the original
American League teams taking part
in that leagues 1900 race. The Sixth
City got it's greatest baseball boost
when the famous Napoleon Lajoie
was sent to Cleveland in 1902, after
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled
against Lajoie. Flick, Bernhard. Don
ohue and other Philadelphia National
League jumpers from playing with
the Athletics. The trio named were
switched by the American League to
Cleveland. and the Indians were
made.
Cleveland had some wonderful
teams in the first ten years of Ameri-
can League history, some of the best
that ever have stepped on baseball
diamond. But something or other,
usually injuries, often poor manage
rial Judgment, and frequently just
combination of circumstances pre-
vented the Indians from coming
through.
They were bitter years for Larry
Lajoie and the Cleveland fans. In
several seasons the club was 100
points in front by July 4, only to be
knocked out by wholesale injuries in
August and September.
Never on Title Team.
1t is the tragedy of Lajoie's twenty
one-yesr career in the majors that he
has played on some OF baseball's
greatest aggregations, yet he never
was on championship team. The
only time when King Larry figured
on a pennant' winner was In 1917.
when he won the International
League race as manager of the To-
ronto club.
Before he jumped TO the American
League Lajoie, on the old Philadel-
phia Nationals, was associated with
such stars as Delehanty, Thompson,
Cooley, Flick, the Crosses, Douglas,
Orth Duggleby Fraser, Bernhard
and others, but the club never could
finish in front.
The bitterest blow in Lajoies as
well as in Cleveland's baseball history
was the loss of the championship OF
1908. IL was in n year In which II
finally looked as though the Maps, as
they then were called. would finally
smash their traditional jinx and bring
home the pennant. At ono time it
looked as though the Maps could be
counted In.
The 1908 race was the closest and
most exciting in American League
history. All four OF the Western
clubs were running neck and neck on
Labor Day when the 81. Louis Browns
started 20 slip, leaving it up TO the
other three clubs--Clcvcland Chicago
and Detroit--to nEht it out for the
championship.
There was some great baseball that
September, but toward the end OF the
month Cleveland began TO draw a
little away from tho others, And
then came brutal wallop from an