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What's Your All-Time Indians Team?

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Hell, Cy Young didn't make a list yet. Or HOF CF Earl Averill.
Just because people have passed away, doesn't mean they weren't great.
That's what makes baseball so great. You can go to baseball-reference.com and look at stats from 100 years ago.

Prime Cy Young was a Cleveland Spider, he didn't come back till he was over 40 for his Naps years

Still dealt though
 
How anyone could compile a list without Gomer Hodge is beyond me. I’m stunned absolutely stunned!

Okay. Maybe Cats is old enough to have seen him play—pinch hit—too:)

Gomer! Gomer!

If you don't count coach cards...Gomer Hodge is the last Cleveland player without a baseball card
 
CF...Tris Speaker
LF...Shoeless Joe
RF...Manny Being Manny
1B...Thome
2B...Robbie Alomar
SS...Boudreau
3B...Rosen
C...John Romano

P...Addie Joss
P...Stan Coveleski
P...Feller
P...Kluber
P...Gaylord Perry
 
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All Characters Team

SS Chico Salmon - He believed in ghosts
2B Carlos Baerga - Ran like a penguin
3B Pat Tabler - 43 for 88 with the bases loaded
LF Nick Swisher - O-H-I-O
CF Jim Piersal - watch the movie
1B Mike Hargrove - Human Rain Delay
LF John Lowenstein - Batted .242 for 3 out of 4 seasons
C Duke Sims - Original lounge lizzard
SP Dennis Cook - crawled through vent to retrieve AB's bat
RP Chris Perez - had a smart dog.
 
All Characters Team

SS Chico Salmon - He believed in ghosts
2B Carlos Baerga - Ran like a penguin
3B Pat Tabler - 43 for 88 with the bases loaded
LF Nick Swisher - O-H-I-O
CF Jim Piersal - watch the movie
1B Mike Hargrove - Human Rain Delay
LF John Lowenstein - Batted .242 for 3 out of 4 seasons
C Duke Sims - Original lounge lizzard
SP Dennis Cook - crawled through vent to retrieve AB's bat
RP Chris Perez - had a smart dog.
Dennis Cook thought he was pitching in Calauhuga County....

Jason Grimsley retrieved AB's bat...
 
Before a Sunday doubleheader at the old stadium, Minnie Minoso burnt one bat from every player to try to break a team slump.
 
All Characters Team

SS Chico Salmon - He believed in ghosts
2B Carlos Baerga - Ran like a penguin
3B Pat Tabler - 43 for 88 with the bases loaded
LF Nick Swisher - O-H-I-O
CF Jim Piersal - watch the movie
1B Mike Hargrove - Human Rain Delay
LF John Lowenstein - Batted .242 for 3 out of 4 seasons
C Duke Sims - Original lounge lizzard
SP Dennis Cook - crawled through vent to retrieve AB's bat
RP Chris Perez - had a smart dog.
Though the reign was short .. Your DH/PH has to be Mike Napoli.
 
All Characters Team

SS Chico Salmon - He believed in ghosts
2B Carlos Baerga - Ran like a penguin
3B Pat Tabler - 43 for 88 with the bases loaded
LF Nick Swisher - O-H-I-O
CF Jim Piersal - watch the movie
1B Mike Hargrove - Human Rain Delay
LF John Lowenstein - Batted .242 for 3 out of 4 seasons
C Duke Sims - Original lounge lizzard
SP Dennis Cook - crawled through vent to retrieve AB's bat
RP Chris Perez - had a smart dog.
Tabler was a monster with the bags juiced
 
I forgot all about Johnny Romano, who was a heck of a catcher when the Indians sucked.

Of you go by fWAR, he was the greatest catcher Cleveland has ever had.
 
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ok, too many to pick from so I'm making a 1st and 2nd string from my favorites

C- Victor Martinez - Sandy
1B-Thome - Santana
2B-Baerga - Kipnis
SS-Julio - Omar
3B-Jose - Jacoby
LF-Albert - Super Joe
CF-Lofton - Grady
RF-Manny - Carmen Castillo
DH-Thunder Thornton- Pronk


SP-Large Lenny - Carrasco
Big Sexy - CC
Kluber - Lee
Nagy - Civale
Biebs - Swindell

RP-Cody Allen - Clase
El Sid - Shaw
Shuey - Andrew Miller
Plunk - Spillner
Betancourt - Wickman

And I would have included Mesa but I'm still bitter about the 97 series lol
 
No love for Hal Trosky? The dude was a monster before WWII... He was the guy Manny had to beat for the RBI in a season...
 
All Characters Team

SS Chico Salmon - He believed in ghosts
2B Carlos Baerga - Ran like a penguin
3B Pat Tabler - 43 for 88 with the bases loaded
LF Nick Swisher - O-H-I-O
CF Jim Piersal - watch the movie
1B Mike Hargrove - Human Rain Delay
LF John Lowenstein - Batted .242 for 3 out of 4 seasons
C Duke Sims - Original lounge lizzard
SP Dennis Cook - crawled through vent to retrieve AB's bat
RP Chris Perez - had a smart dog.
You missed one of my all time favorites, Leon 'Daddy Wags' Wagner.

I also liked the style of Vic Power.

And Oscar Gamble for that afro and how he had to wear his cap.

Finally, Bartolo and the pink bicycle.
 
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A bit off topic, but these guys had to be a little nuts.

How to catch a ball dropped 700 feet from a tower​

A simple game of catch became an extreme sport​

April 18th


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Tom Forget/Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University Library

One of the first skills every baseball player learns is how to catch. Not only is catching the ball a fundamental part of the game, but, in its simplest iteration, it's not all that hard. Your typical youth player can play a game of catch for a good length of time without error.

We humans are always seeking a challenge, so, naturally, we quickly try to up the difficulty. We try to catch balls on the run and while diving. We try to catch balls thrown high and balls thrown low.

Apparently, when you're a professional baseball player those tweaks aren't enough to make for a compelling activity. The game of catch needs to get even more extreme. Enter: catching balls dropped from great -- and, frankly, dangerous -- altitudes.
Senators catcher Gabby Street caught a ball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument in 1908.

Senators catcher Gabby Street caught a ball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument in 1908.

In 1908, Washington Senators catcher Charles "Gabby" Street took up the challenge of catching a ball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument. The feat had apparently been tried before, but never successfully. Street was used to catching Walter Johnson -- the hardest thrower in baseball -- and perhaps he figured this would be easy in comparison.
So, on an August morning the Washington Post's society editor climbed to the top of the Monument and tossed 13 balls down to Street, who was armed only with his catcher's mitt 555 feet below. Street later claimed he caught the fourth ball dropped, but lore has it that he missed the first twelve before finally succeeding on No. 13.

Either way, he managed to catch a ball thrown off the Washington Monument -- and the experience was much different than catching a Johnson fastball. “I felt it right down to my heels when it finally hit,” Street said. “That’s one ball I’m glad I didn’t misjudge.”
Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson, 1916

Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson, 1916

Seven years later, Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson got in on the game of trying to catch spherical objects dropped from great heights during Spring Training. He and outfielder Casey Stengel got in contact with stunt aviation pilot Ruth Law and asked her to drop a baseball from her plane that Robinson would catch.

On the day of, though, plans changed. Instead of a baseball, a grapefruit came falling out of the sky toward Robinson's glove. Robinson made the catch, but the impact caused the grapefruit to burst, covering the manager with its juice.
Hank Helf waits for a ball at the base of Cleveland Terminal Tower, 1938.

Hank Helf waits for a ball at the base of Cleveland Terminal Tower, 1938.Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University Library

Thirty years after Street's catch at the base of the Washington Monument, five members of the Cleveland Indians -- catchers Hank Helf, Frank Pytlak and Rollie Hemsley along with coaches Wally Schang and Johnny Bassler -- gathered at the base of Cleveland's 708-foot Terminal Tower, determined to break the Senators catcher's elevation record. The stunt drew a crowd, with 10,000 spectators looking on.

While his five teammates and coaches waited below, rookie third baseman Ken Keltner climbed to the top of the tower with a dozen baseballs in tow. He had to loft the balls such that they would go beyond the base of the tower and land in a 50-foot circle the guys with the gloves were stationed in.

The first three balls went uncaught, but produced quite a sight: They bounced six stories high after hitting the ground. Perhaps it was better that they hit the ground instead of a glove.

You might think that baseball players would be well-prepared for catching falling objects. After all, that's what they do on every fly ball and popup. But it turns out that this -- and please excuse me -- is an entirely different ballgame.

"They looked the size of aspirin tablets when they started down," Helf said, "and when they got closer, they had stopped spinning and were dancing like knuckleballs. I didn't know if they were going to hit my glove or my head."

It was estimated that the balls reached a velocity of 138 mph on their fall. After seeing three fall, the entire endeavor may well have lost some of its appeal.

Front of Terminal Tower, ca. 1920-ca. 1950.

Front of Terminal Tower, ca. 1920-ca. 1950.
Nevertheless, Helf persisted and managed to snag one on the fourth attempt. Pytlak joined the party three balls later. For being the first to break Street's vertical catch record, Helf received the loudest applause from the crowd as well as some nifty prizes. The first was a coat that was apparently oppressively thick, even for winters on the Great Lakes. Helf wore it once and then gave it away. He also got a trophy, which he kept even after a piece of it broke in the ensuing years.

As the stories suggest, this endeavor can easily go very, very wrong. Catcher Joe Sprinz of the Pacific Coast League's San Francisco Seals tried to catch a ball dropped from a Goodyear blimp 1,000 feet in the air. The drop was on target, but Sprinz never saw it. "It hit me on the mouth," he recalled. "It put 12 cracks in my jaw. I lost about half a dozen teeth and my lips looked like hamburger." He would need two months in the hospital as a result.

The historic catch at the base of the Terminal Tower likely goes down as the highlight of Helf's career. He only played in six games for the Indians in the 1938 season and made just a single trip to the plate for them in 1940. In his only season of regular playing time with the St. Louis Browns in 1946, he hit a lowly .192.

But while his teammates may have found more success -- and playing time -- on the field, Helf still found his way into the record books with his 708-foot vertical catch. With the only likely cost being a bruised hand and a few minutes of mortal terror, it was probably worth it. After all, he did keep the trophy.

Eric Chesterton is a writer for MLB.com.
 
With respect to the likes of Bob Feller, Larry Doby, etc. I'm not going to put anyone that is significantly before my time

C Victor Martinez
1B Jim Thome
2B Roberto Alomar
SS Francisco Lindor
3B Jose Ramirez
RF Manny Ramirez
CF Kenny Lofton
LF Michael Brantley
DH Albert Belle

C/1B Carlos Santana
IF Omar Vizquel
IF Carlos Baerga
OF David Justice
OF Grady Sizemore

SP Corey Kluber
SP CC Sabathia
SP Cliff Lee
SP Carlos Carrasco
SP Shane Bieber

RP Andrew Miller
RP Cody Allen
RP Emmanuel Clase
RP Brad Hand
RP Chris Perez
RP Jose Mesa
RP Rafael Betancourt
 
So, a couple comments on the posts so far....
1) How could I have forgotten Greg Swindell?
2) IDK if it's bias or actuality, but I'm surprised how little Frankie Lindor is regarded in the responses so far(including my own)
3) This highlights our relatively recent pitching factory status.
4) It also reflects the talent we had in the 90's....

great memories.
 

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