Show seeing big bag league iLea gise by BILLY EVANS ts writer big I 1 leagui ague umpire and aad general mans er of the ih indian igns its a rotten ball club wall waa the opinion I 1 expressed to president limit itral ley ler of 0 the cleveland club la in december of 10 ia just after he and several other capitalists hod had purchased the american league franchise what do you think of the ball club now n ow it was president bradley speaking an and it the t time me was early june 1028 tile tho cleveland indians indiana the e early Beno tlona of the american league svere mera resting securely in second place with something like ailts thirty games won and fifteen lost cleveland had finished sixth la in 1027 1927 no one la Is more delighted with the w any jay the club la Is going than me ine I 1 replied so far ye we hayo baye fooled everybody no nd ong one more than myself tny self I 1 hope tile the boys boya leep heep it up all season but it if you want to know what I 1 think ot of the indians I 1 still insist its ft rotten tt ball club tf if the pitching ever I 1 s stopa L P end nd langford quits hitting wo we will just naturally told fold up As aa knows the pitching sud denly stopped when uhle and rould could no longer win consistently like wise when hen langford started hitting nice pop lies flies instead of doubles aud and triples with nn occasional home run the offense quit ba as badly as did the pitching from second place the in ins began to slip aej it long until the phen phenoi ag were in the second division ordinarily one likes to have a so called ailed expert opinion substantiated by performance but I 1 am frank to confess here was waa one ona time I 1 was willing A ft A joe who in 1927 was wa voted the dest best shortstop Shortt top in the american league to have my judgment as to the strength of the Cleveland club be git all wrong I 1 would have much preferred to have t tile the indians stick in the birst division and malte plenty of noney money rather than drop into the second division and be a big biff loser simply to have my opinion of the club stand up tip however by august tle the indians lind had proved tny ray judgment was correct its to tile strength and weakness of me club it was a bad ball club when it was apparent that the club going any anywhere whore that it would probably prohn bly onlan sixth it if we kept our veteran strength in the lineup lineus li neuV we decided to throw caution to the wInds put nil all our ayalla blo young material ito into the lineup forget about whether wo won or lost figuring finishing sixth aneito n bit more in the final than if we finished last it wits a cold move such buch al na few cl clauhs bs have in bald season the first radical move made was tho the shifting ot of joe joa sewell from short to third tho the year previous sewell sewel had bad been voted the best shortstop tn in the american tongue league however it was apparent that thai sewell was fas ansi I 1 slowing up that he was falling to get liatta balls by a step that a few years previous lie would have handled with case in sonio some circles the shifting shit ting of a good shortstop to third base was regarded as aa too drastic a move J joe oe sowell was well aware that his legs were beginning to play him false I 1 that hut hla his career as a shortstop sh was fa fast I 1 th coming to n R close cloe lie he welcomed the e shift to third our only fear in making tills this move inove was the question na as to whether or not joe would be able to bunts also slowly lilt hit balls down the third base line ile ie soon proved lie le could do tt it that one proof made all our 1023 experiments worth while there wits was no better third haseman baseman in the american league in 1921 than joe sewell bewell some other things wet we did was try johnny at first used eddia eddi morgan at first and third and gave all the young player sL under contract a chance to show their stuff the too anent me ut they became ah available liable for major league play by these experiments we wa proved there was no better third sacker in the league than joe sowell that tl int lew fonseca could do a good job at first that eddie morgan cut out for w nn that of t the he pew new out only eddie morgan morga n was vas aw able t U give elve help held that pitcher wesley perren ferrell looked use like quite a prospect also we learned more re ahrin ever er ahil wha the cleveland cle eland dub neet need pd dna power a at t the bat I 1 doll er |