Cleveland Indians: A Town Rich With Baseball History

Cleveland is a town rich with baseball history and now the statues to prove it

Ohio is full of great history, from the music legends that are enshrined in the rock and roll hall of fame to the National Football League’ greatest, whose busts are on display in Canton. If baseball history is what you seek then look no further than Progressive Field where Cleveland baseball legends are on display. Let me refresh your memory on the 3 iconic statues that are on permanent display at the ballpark.

Bob Feller

Bob Feller was born in Van Meter, Iowa, on November 3rd, 1918, and is best known for his 12 one-hit games and 3 no-hitters (the most memorable of the no-hitters was on opening day at Comiskey Park against the Chicago White Sox on April 16, 1940). A man of many names, the Hall of Fame pitcher was nicknamed “The Heater from Van Meter”, “Bullet Bob” and “Rapid Robert”. 

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Number 19 played all of his 18 seasons with the Cleveland Indians,  had 3 straight 20 win seasons, and finished his career with 266 wins (World War II might have cost him another 100 wins). His career also saw him strikeout 2,581 batters. Feller reached 107.6 MPH on the radar gun in 1946 and held the record for the fastest pitch for 28 seasons. Feller was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, and in 1969, he was honored at the All-Star game festivities, as baseball’s greatest living right-handed pitcher.

Bob Feller made such an impact on both Cleveland and the team that in 2010 they renamed the “Man of the Year Award” to the “Bob Feller Man of the Year Award”. Indians Broadcaster Mike Hegan said, “The Indians of the 40s and 50s were the face of the City of Cleveland and Bob was the face of the Indians”. During Bob’s 1941 season, Joe DiMaggio said “I don’t think that anyone is ever going to throw a ball faster than he does”…“his curveball isn’t human”. Bob brought home a World Series Championship to Cleveland and to the Indians in 1948; the Tribe has not won since.  Ever the optimist, Bob mused “Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is”. Feller left his mark not only on the city of Cleveland but on baseball in general. On December 15th, 2010 in Cleveland, Ohio, Bob Feller passed away at the age of 92. Today, a 9-foot bronze statue of Feller stands just outside the outfield gates at Progressive Field.

Larry Doby

Larry Doby, the first African-American player in the American League, is honored for life by the Cleveland Indians. Larry was born on December 13, 1923, and joined the Indians on July 5, 1947 (11 weeks after Jackie Robinson).

Doby played 10 seasons with the Indians and 14 in total, the other 4 with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers. Doby was the first black player to hit a World Series home run and win a World Series Championship which he did with the 1948 Cleveland Indians. A year later in 1949, he became the first black player to participate in the MLB All-Star game for the American League. He was also the first black player to win the home run title leading the American League with 32 in 1952 then in 1954 he led the league with 126 RBI’s, the first black player to win that American League title as well.

Larry played with the same racial discriminations Jackie faced but without the fanfare and hype. During the 1994 season, the Cleveland Indians retired Doby’s #14. In 1997, while the league was retiring Jackie Robinson’s number 42 (on the 50th year celebration of the MLB breaking the colour barrier), Sports Illustrated ran a story asking why Doby was overlooked.  That same year at Jacob’s Field during the All-Star game, Larry threw the opening pitch. A year later he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame (1998, Veterans Committee).

Larry passed away on June 18, 2003. To honor him the Indians renamed Eagle Avenue to “Larry Doby Way”. At Progressive Field on July 25, 2015, a bronze statue of Larry Doby was erected to pay tribute to the career and legacy of number 14.

Jim Thome

Jim Thome was born on August 27, 1970 in East Peoria, Illinois. The best way to get to East Peoria is to take the route 24 between South Adams Street in Bartonville and Griswold Street in Peoria, better known as “The Jim Thome Highway”.

At 6’4” and 250 pounds, Jim played 22 seasons in the majors; 13 in Cleveland, 4 in Philadelphia, 4 for Chicago (White Sox), 2 in Minnesota, 1 for Los Angeles (Dodgers) and lastly in Baltimore for a season.
Thome’s career saw him hit 612 home runs (337 with the Indians), was a career .276 hitter, and drove in 1699 RBIs. He is also credited for 6 seasons of 40 plus home runs and his OPS is .956 which is 19th all time. He won the Roberto Clemente award in 2002, the Lou Gehrig Memorial award in 2004, and 2006 won the American League Comeback Player of the Year award. Thome also appeared in 5 All Star games (1997, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2006). On August 2, 2014, Thome returned back to the Indians on a one day contract and was honoured in front of the Cleveland faithful.

Jim Thome’s iconic batting stance was said to be a copy of a Robert Redford movie called “The Natural”.  Unlike the movie though, Thome said he was never pointing his bat at the pitcher; but rather, he used the stance to calm him down and it acted as a trigger to get ready to hit. Whether or not he was pointing at the pitcher, right field, or at the Thirsty Parrot bar, it didn’t matter. What did matter was the end result. That batting stance has been replicated in the statue of Jim Thome, which can be found just outside of Progressive Field, in the same general direct where he pointed.  Jim Thome will be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.

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Three legends, immortalized in bronze, are deep in the hearts of Cleveland Indians and baseball fans alike. Be sure to stop and view the statues and soak up the rich history of the Indians’ baseball greats.