The Lake Erie LeBrons

Minor league baseball is just plain fun. Thirsty Thursdays, Keg Stand Sundays, Fall Down Drunk Fridays. It's generally a good excuse to stop drinking and get out of the tub to go drinking. They also come up with some of the wackiest promotions this side of Bill Veeck*. The Lake Erie Crushers are doing their part to keep basketball's Stephen Strasburg equivalent, LeBron James, in town during the "Keep LBJ in the C-L-E Night" promotion next week...

The Crushers will wear Cavaliers-themed jerseys June 30 and each player will wear No. 6 to honor James' switch from No. 23. The team is renaming its park LeBron James Field at All Pro Freight Stadium for the game. Anyone named LeBron gets free tickets.

But there's more! The Crushers are prepared to offer LeBron a league maximum contract worth $1600 per week. The contract also comes with a host family like in the movie Sugar. They'll teach him English and cook him breakfast.

Wait. Anyone named LeBron gets in for free? That's just fantastic. The ghost of Bill Veeck has to be behind this. Are there going to be midgets too?

*Crucial Bill Veeck quotes.

"What can I do, I asked myself, that is so spectacular that no one will be able to say he had seen it before? The answer was perfectly obvious. I would send a midget up to bat."

"There are only two seasons - winter and Baseball."

"I try not to kid myself. You know, I don't mind romancing someone else, but to fool yourself is pretty devastating and dangerous."

When I start the Off Base book club, Veeck - As In Wreck might be the first one up.

I've Got Baseball Patches

I have a collection of baseball patches in a big binder. Basically, it's like a step above stamp collectors on the cool ladder, but that's a really tall ladder. I'll share one with our OBP readers periodically.

Today we look at the 1948 Cleveland Indians, the last Cleveland team to win a major sports championship.




Lou Boudreau: "Old Shufflefoot", or "Handsome Joe" to the ladies, was the Tribe's player-manager and he did both well. The shortstop had a monstrous year at the plate, hitting .355 with a .453 on-base percentage and an OPS+ of 164. He struck out nine times in '48, completing a three-year stretch where he went down on strikes just 33 times. Boudreau was also pretty good at managing as the Indians beat the Boston Redsox 8-3 in a one-game playoff to clinch the AL pennant, then won the World Series in six over the Boston Braves.

Satchel finally gets his break: Veeck had already helped break the American League color barrier when he signed Larry Doby before the 1947 season, and the owner made history again in '48. After a long career in the Negro Leagues, Satchel Paige made his debut with Cleveland July 9 and had an excellent last two and a half months: 72 2/3 IP, 1.14 WHIP, 2.48 ERA and a 165 ERA+.

Good Ole Joe Earley: Veeck would never shy away from a public relations spectacle and he pulled off one of the most ridiculous during the '48 season. Indians fan Joe Earley had sent a letter to Veeck asking why the team's promotions seemed to ignore the average fan. So Veeck set up Good Ole Joe Earley Night before the September 28 game against the Whitesox. Earley and his wife were presented with an automobile and other gifts. A similar thing happened to me when I wrote a letter to the Yankees during the 1990 season. You can imagine my surprise when a few weeks later an envelope came in the mail containing one of manager Stump Merrill's hemorrhoids.


Logo

Grading system:

Archie Graham's Sacrifice Fly
Excellent logo; classic.

Jake Taylor's Swing
Good logo with a hitch, but still productive.

Scott Smalls' hat
Not a great logo, but they had to use something.

Rudy Stein's Pitching Motion
No idea where anything is going.

Kelly Leak's Teeth
Absolutely awful. No hope.


1948 Cleveland Indians: Jake Taylor's Swing