Bill Veeck (68 page)

23
. Ira Berkow in the
New York Times
, February 23, 1997.

24
. Frazier Robinson,
Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues
, 127.

25
.
Baltimore Afro-American
, August 3, 1946, 8.

26
. David Maraniss in the
Washington Post
, July 8, 1997. Doby mentioned this in several interviews, especially later, when he played in right field. He told William Marshall, “So high school, you got cheers. I'd go to Washington, D.C. At that time you couldn't sit … you know, behind home plate or third base or first base. Everybody had to sit in the right field bleachers or center field bleachers. And, of course … that's close to me.”

27
.
Baseball Digest
, September 1949, 50.

28
.
Tucson Daily Citizen
, September 19, 1947, 2.

29
. Superior Court of the State of Arizona in and for the County of Pima, Complaint 29224, October 3, 1947.

30
. Stipulation and Order of Dismissal with Prejudice, Superior Court of the State of Arizona in and for the County of Pima, Complaint 29224, August 4, 1948. Bob Feller mentioned in an interview (November 7, 2008) that it was his understanding from conversations with Veeck that he was forced to sell the Cleveland Indians in 1949 not only because of a costly divorce but also because of a settlement he had made for the automobile accident.

31
. Franklin Lewis,
The Cleveland Indians
(Kent State, OH: Kent State University Press, 1949), 250.

32
. Quotes from a press clipping compiled in
The 1948 Indians Remembered
(Minneapolis: private press, 1988). Presented at the SABR Convention, July 9, 1988, unpaginated.

33
. David Maraniss in the
Washington Post
, July 8, 1997.

34
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, December 31, 1947.

35
.
Newark
Star-Ledger
, March 4, 1998.

36
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 177.

37
. A heavily redacted file on Veeck was obtained by Eric E. Enders of the National Baseball Library and Archives in November 1999 under Freedom of Information Act request 909944.

38
.
New York Times
, February 9, 1947, S7; February 10, 1947, 23.

1
.
Baseball Digest
, June 1953.

2
. Irving Vaughn in the
Chicago Tribune
, January 9, 1948, 25.

3
. Shirley Povich in the
Washington Post
, January 20, 1948, 14.

4
. Russell J. Schneider,
The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996), 578.

5
. Timothy M. Gay,
Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005), 3–4.

6
.
Philadelphia Tribune
, April 6, 1948.

7
.
Sporting News
, April 14, 1948;
World-Telegram
, April 12, 1948.

8
.
Milwaukee Journal
, April 19, 1948, 16.

9
. Joseph Thomas Moore,
Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby
(New York: Greenwood, 1988), 73;
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, April 8, 1960.

10
. Interview with Claire Smith, October 2, 2009.

11
. Interview with Monte Irvin, November 7, 2008.

12
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 76. This interview took place earlier but was folded into the collection when Williams was preparing his book on Veeck's management style. He also said, “He collected Indian artifacts long before anybody thought about collecting things the Indians made.”

13
.
Indian Highlights of 1948
, 12–13.

14
. “After several weeks he probably had introduced Greenberg to several thousand fans. And, more often than not, the introduction would take a number of minutes as Veeck, Greenberg and the fan would share memories of Greenberg's glory days with the Tigers.” E-mail from Bob Alden to the author, December 20, 2009.

15
.
New York Times
, October 3, 1948.

16
.
Washington Post
, April 27, 1948, 19;
Los Angeles Times
, May 4, 1948, A10.

17
.
Chicago Defender
, May 8, 1948, 1.

18
.
Pittsburgh Courier
, May 15, 1948, 17.

19
. George Wiley,
Especially for Cleveland Fans
:
The 1948 Indians Remembered
(Minneapolis: Society for American Baseball Research, 1988).

20
. Ibid. A full interview with Savage appears on the Web site Baseball in Wartime,
http://www.baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/savage_bob.htm
.

21
. Interview with Ernie Harwell, August 28, 2009.

22
. Ruth's final public appearance comes on July 26 at the opening of
The Babe Ruth Story.

23
.
Call and Post
, July 3, 1948, 7B.

24
. Stephen Banker,
Black Diamonds
:
An Oral History of Negro Baseball
(Westport, CT: Meckler, 1989), cassette 3, side 2. A slightly different version of this conversation appears in Franklin Lewis,
The Cleveland Indians
(Kent State, OH: Kent State University Press, 1949), 257. An alternative version in which Grabiner is also in the conversation appears in the
Los Angeles Times
, February 13, 1954, B2.

25
. Banker,
Black Diamonds
, cassette 3, side 2.

26
.
Pittsburgh Courier
, April 7, 1962, A29.

27
. Wiley,
Especially for Cleveland Fans
.

28
. Banker,
Black Diamonds
, cassette 3, side 2.

29
. Ibid.

30
. Lou Boudreau with Russell Schneider,
Covering All the Bases
(Champaign, IL: Sagamore, 1993), 112–13.

31
. “This Morning with Shirley Povich,”
Washington Post
, July 15, 1948, 18.

32
. Ibid.

33
.
Sporting News
, July 14, 1948.

34
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), 185.

35
.
Pittsburgh Courier
, July 24, 1948, 10.

36
. Anthony J. Connor,
Voices from Cooperstown: Baseball's Hall of Famers Tell It like It Was
(New York: Collier Books, 1984), 247.

37
.
Chicago Defender
, August 14, 1948, 11.

38
. Frank Graham,
Baseball Extra
(New York: Barnes, 1954), 141–45.

39
. Ibid.

40
.
Baltimore Afro-American
, August 21, 1948, 7.

1
. AP,
Ottawa Citizen
, August 21, 1948, 10.

2
. Gordon Cobbledick, “Don Black's Greatest Victory,”
American Weekly
, September 12, 1948.

3
.
Washington Post
, May 5, 1947. This was Shirley Povich's column and was based on an interview with Black.

4
. Franklin Lewis,
The Cleveland Indians
(Kent State, OH: Kent State University Press, 1949), 262–63.

5
.
Baltimore Sun
, September 17, 1948, 18.

6
. Hal Lebovitz, “The '48 Indians: One Last Hurrah,”
Sport
, June 1965.

7
.
Cleveland Press
, September 9, 1948.

8
. Warren Brown in
Sportsfolio
, April 1949.

9
. Douglass Wallop,
Baseball: An Informal History
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1969), 225.

10
. AP,
Eugene
Register-Guard
, September 28, 1948, 8; Dan Holmes, “Bill Veeck's ‘Night to End All Nights,'”Baseballpage.com, July 28, 2008,
http://oldsite.thebaseballpage.com/blog.php/108stitches/article/bill_veeck
.

11
. Brown in
Sportsfolio
, April 1949.

12
. David E. Kaiser points out in his book
Epic Season: The 1948 American League Pennant Race
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), “To match the value of that contribution, a present-day owner would have to contribute about half a million dollars.”

13
. Lou Boudreau with Ed Fitzgerald,
Player-Manager
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1949), 210–11.

14
. “This Morning with Shirley Povich,”
Washington Post
, October 4, 1948, 9.

15
.
Deseret News
, October 4, 1948, 14.

16
.
Boston Herald
, October 4, 1948, 1;
New York Times
, October 5, 1958, 116–17.

17
.
Deseret News
, October 4, 1948, 14.

18
. Bill Cunningham in
Elks Magazine
, June 1949, 12.

19.
Frank Graham,
Baseball Extra
(New York: Barnes, 1954), 145.

20
. Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 210.

21
. Joseph Thomas Moore,
Pride Against Prejudice: The Biography of Larry Doby
(New York: Greenwood, 1988), 4.

22
. Irving T. Marsh and Edward Ehre,
Best Sports Stories
(New York: Dutton, 1952), 126.

23
. Graham,
Baseball Extra
, 146–47.

24
. “Pitching Pays,”
Time
, October 14, 1948.

25
.
New York
Amsterdam News
, October 16, 1948.

26
. Lebovitz, “The '48 Indians.”

27
. Bill Veeck with Edward Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), 208.

28
.
Los Angeles Times
, October 22, 1948, C1.

29
.
Baseball Digest
, February 1950, 52.

30
.
Sporting News
, November 3, 1948;
Milwaukee Journal
, October 21, 1948.

31
. Banker,
Black Diamonds
, cassette 3, side 2.

32
. Russell Schneider,
The Boys of the Summer of '48
(Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 1998), 38–42.

33
. Veeck was at least aware of the scheme, as he mentioned it in passing in Veeck with Linn,
Veeck—as in Wreck
, but Russell Schneider, who covered the Indians for the
Plain Dealer
for fourteen years, revealed the scope of the operation in his 1998 book,
The Boys of the Summer of '48.

34
.
New York Times
, June 21, 1982.

35
. Mickey McDermott,
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cooperstown
(Chicago: Triumph Books, 2003), 92.

36
.
People
, April 19, 1976.

37
. Russell J. Schneider,
Tales from the Tribe Dugout
(Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 2001); Pat Williams interviews, 1997–98, no. 165.

38
.
Washington Post
, November 21, 1948, S1.

39
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, November 28, 1948.

40
.
New York Journal-American
, July 8, 1948 22.

41
. “Veeck Not Fair-Haired Boy of Fellow-Owners,”
Cleveland News
, undated clipping.

42
.
Nation's Business
, November 1948, 36.

43
.
Milwaukee Journal
, March 23, 1949, 45.

44
.
Cleveland Press
, December 29, 1948.

45
.
Milwaukee Journal
, January 39, 1939, 44.

1
.
Sporting News
, February 9, 1949.

2
.
Cleveland Press
, February 7, 1949.

3
. AP,
Miami News
, February 12, 1949.

4
. Decree of Divorce in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona, October 29, 1949, no. 31450; interview with Ellen Maggs, March 15, 2011.

5
.
Milwaukee Sentinel
, February 7, 1949, 1;
Reading
(PA)
Eagle
, February 7, 1949.

6
.
Milwaukee Sentinel
, February 6, 1949; Leonard Lyons column in
Miami News
, February 14, 1949.

7
. William Marshall,
Baseball's Pivotal Era, 1945–1951
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 340; “Veeck Won't Amputate Says Bob” was the headline in the
Los Angeles Times
, January 23, 1949.

8
.
St. Petersburg Times
, March 19, 1949.

9
.
Pewaukee Journal
, October 18, 1949.

10
.
St. Petersburg Times
, February 12, 1949.

11
.
Los Angeles Sentinel
, February 24, 1949.

12
.
Harper's Bazaar
, July 1949, 70.

13
.
Pittsburgh Courier
, March 12, 1949;
Tucson Weekly
, February 12, 2009.

14
.
New York
Amsterdam News
, May 14, 1949;
Sporting News
, April 13, 1949.

15
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, April 17, 1949, 22; April 18, 1949, 22.

16
.
New York Herald Tribune
, May 30, 1949.

17
.
Cleveland Press
, June 21 and 24, 1949.