Show SPEAKING OF S OP 0 T irv 2 by ROBERT mcshane by F CEW EW teams in the history ot of big league baseball have been given so sound a spanking as have the cleveland indians during the last half of the present season the chastisement been administered by american league contemporaries as much as by the press and radio of the nation nevertheless ebur suffering is is just as intense maybe more so in that very little sympathy is offered them early in the season the indians rebelled against their manager Os car vm vitt details of the rebellion were few and for the most part were not substantiated when it first broke out local newspapers made light of the insurrection they printed what little they knew of the affair evidently regarding the player dissension as a temporary matter the rebel leaders finally a few facts began to drut drift out of the cleveland dugout A certain number of the indians who had a mutinous attitude toward vitt were dominated by catcher rowe rollie Hern hemsley sley it has never been exactly clear as to what players were under the hemsley banner hal trosky was known to be one of the leaders and bob feller was one of the signers of the original anti vitt petition feller since has had a change of heart as have mel harder jeff heath and ben chapman president alva bradley is receiving a large share of the blame for w d MANAGER OSCAR VI VITT TT failing to take a firm stand either for or against the revolt when it first broke out last june scores of newspaper scribes have refused to pull their punches in de bouncing noun nour cing icing the indians for their rebellion sports writers are more or less accustomed to friction between manager and player often the players have a just grievance but usually they are willing to air that grievance in an aboveboard above board manner the indians willing to do that their secretive underhanded attitude irritated both the paying public and the press press flays bradley the extent of that irritation was evidenced by one sports writer when he wrote they the indians are branded from top to bottom from front office to rawest rookie with intrigue false statements and petty squabbles the ludicrous attempts by alva bradley to hush up an anarchistic meeting of players in detroit cost the cleveland club caste with the paying public and with the press whose duty it is to report facts and not to lie about incidents affecting the indians as a ball club the whole affair has made interesting reading much to the disgust of cleveland baseball fans but its effect on the indians pennant quest is the important factor it may be that dissension finally will whip them however that dissension has existed all season and cleveland managed to hold first place from august 12 to september 9 when the erratic white sox removed them from top billing the present status whether or not the team is acom completely demoralized as charged by various baseball writers is highly debatable the indians are far from a high scoring team the success is largely dependent upon tight pitching supported by tight fielding when their pitching fails they lack the run ran making power to offset pitching ang weakness therefore they look abad bad regardless of the ou outcome acome of the pennant race cleveland can be sure of one definite result of the unsavory revolt in the fall somebody will have to go it may be manager vitt or it may be hemsley and trosky there just room on the samo same club for vitt and the two insurrect zionists |