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DD Martin · 12-04-2020, 02:15 PM

The Start of what we hope is a Championship Season 1934

Our schedule was kind of wonky to start the season. We played the Philadelphia Sailors for 3 games, but the first one was at home in Cleveland, but the next 2 were in Phily (Shrug). Oh well we have to play 154 with 77 on the road so we might as well.

Cleveland Foresters vs Philadelphia Sailors
(87-67 last season 2nd) (77-77 last season 4th)
Prediction 92-62 1st Prediction 78-76 5th

Opening Day in Cleveland saw 20,295 fans flood the gates at the City Dump (aka Forester Stadium). Honestly it was probably the most fans that attended a game at the dump in 15 years when it wasn't as dumpy. Last season only saw 11,654 fans on Opening Day (a 5-1 loss to Chicago) in a season where we averaging only 7,481 fans per game. This season we have sold 7,801 season tickets (more than double last years total of 3,367). Our fan interest is through the roof at 100 and with prohibition ending we were able to lax our ticket prices a bit as we did away with the Lounge Seating in the basement (we called it Loge for some reason) so the average price per ticket this year was less than a dollar ($0.99) which was 21 cents below the average last year. The expectation is that we will likely double our revenue per game, which would be nice.

I was preparing for Opening Day and the travel the next day to Philadelphia when Mr. Marshall came in. He was all decked out in a tux etc for Opening Day. He told me that I wouldn't be traveling to Phily and Chi-Town next week but would be on a 2-week excursion with him, his son (my best friend Ricky) to other towns. He said he would go more into it after today's game, but I could tell he was up to something. He excused himself as he stated "I have to go make nice with the city officials before the game".......

Philadelphia Sailors @ Cleveland Foresters
Opening Day Lineups

Philadelphia Sailors
1.) CF Lou Williams (last season 272/354/710 4-26)
2.) LF Curt Dickerson (249/317/699 6-35)
3.) RF Bobby Bond (303/378/789 7-74)
4.) 1B Dick Walker (272/383/801 10-63)
5.) 3B Mack Deal (258/288/634 1-42)
6.) C Alex Diaz (258/313/651 4-69)
7.) 2B Ray Wright (318/379/790 3-61 AAA- San Fran)
8.) SS George Drake (290/371/790 0-3)
9.) SP Oscar Morse (15-14 3.03 ERA)

Cleveland Foresters
1.) CF Dan Fowler (298/373/843 26-94)
2.) 2B Brooks Meeks (273/298/653 4-42)
3.) 1B Max Morris (325/382/962 41-120)
4.) C TR Goins (314/392/873 16-85)
5.) RF Moxie Pidgeon (308/376/842 17-74)
6.) LF Leon Drake (240/325/715 9-47)
7.) SS George Dawson (280/317/661 2-42)
8.) 3B John Turner (239/295/609 2-20)
9.) SP Eddie Quinn (12-21 3.22 Toronto)

Game #1 Philadelphia Sailors 3 @ Cleveland Foresters 2
Sailors C Alex Diaz hit a game winning single in the 8th inning to drive in Dick Walker and the Sailors came in a stole the first game of the season.

WP - Oscar Morse 1-0 2.00 ERA (9IP 8H, 2R, 2ER, BB 2K)
LP - Eddie Quinn 0-1 3.00 ERA (9IP 9H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB 5K)
HR - (Cl) Moxie Pidgeon 1st
Batting - Max Morris 2-4 1R, Moxie Pidgeon 3-4 HR RBI R)

Summary - So not the way we wanted to start the home season and opener in front of such a large crowd. I was hoping that Quinn was not the type of pitcher that pitched well but found ways to lose with his 21 losses last season. I am fairly sure it was the bad team he was on, but we will keep our fingers crossed.

After the game Mr. Marshall came into my office at the stadium and despite the loss was still smiling. He closed the door tightly and then told me what we would be doing for the next 2 weeks. While the team was in Phily and Chicago the rest of this week, we would not be accompanying them on the trip. (Now Mr. Marshall rarely went on the road, but I often traveled with the team on road trips about 60% of the time.) He let me know that we would be on a tour of several different cities (Buffalo, Newark, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Cincinnati) and meeting with what he termed 'representatives". What he was really doing was going around and visiting with city officials and local leaders discussing a possible move of the team to one of those cities and I was coming along for the ride. I left instructions for my Assistant GM Sonny Kelly to go on the road with the club and that I would call him each day to go over any things that needed to be discussed.

Game 2 and 3 of the series will be in Philadelphia

Game #2 - Cleveland Foresters 7 @ Philadelphia Sailors 3
Starting Pitchers Dean Astle 7-3 2.57 last year) vs Rollie Beal 19-9 3.01

CF Dan Fowler and RF Moxie Pidgeon both hit homers in the Forester's 4-run 3rd inning as they power Cleveland to a victory over Rollie Beal and the Sailors.

WP - Dean Astle 1-0 1.00 (9IP 7H 3R 1ER 3BB 2K)
LP - Rollie Beal 0-1 11.12 (5.2 7H 7R. 7ER, 5BB 2K
HR - (Cl) Dan Fowler 1st, Moxie Pidgeon 2nd
notable - TR Goins 2-5 DB, R, Moxie Pidgeon 2-4 DB, HR, BB, 3 RBI, 2R
Dan Fowler 2-3, DB, HR 2BB, 2RBI, 1R

Game #3 - Cleveland Foresters 7 @ Philadelphia Sailors 0
SP Roger Perry threw a 3-hit shutout and was back by a Max Morris homer and a 2-run triple by SS George Dawson.

WP - Roger Perry 1-0 0.00 (9IP 3H, 0R, 0ER 2BB, 4K)
LP - Russ Real 0-1 1.35 (6.2IP 8H, 6R, 1ER, 1BB 2K)
HR - (Cl) Max Morris 1st
Notable - Meeks, Turner, Goins and Drake all had 2 hits

Notes - The club heads of for a long ride to Chicago for the first 2 games of a 3 game set against the defending CA Champs and the team we will be battling with all season, the Chicago Cougars.

Cleveland Foresters 2-1 @ Chicago Cougars 1-2
Saturday April 21st-Monday April 23rd
Chicago's North Side Grounds (cap 28,450)

Chicago struggled on the field during the spring but that wasn't expected to continue to be the case. They started the season at home against the Toronto Wolves, which is a club in past seasons that a team could get well against. That didn't happen though for the Cougars as they lost 2 of the 3 games prior to our arrival.

This Cougar team is led by an exceptional pitching staff led by Tommy Wilcox, former Forester Max Wilder, Dick Luedtke, and Dick Lyons. They also have a great stopper in the pen in Chick Meehan who we stupidly passed on acquiring a couple of seasons ago because he was on the wrong side of 30. As long as age (or injuries) doesn't catch up with the Cougars, they will have the best staff in the CA once again.

Game #4 - Cleveland Foresters 6 @ Chicago Cougars 3
The Foresters made a big deal about sending a message in spring training and won all 4 meetings against the Cougars. That streak has now moved to the regular season as the Foresters pounded out a total of 14 hits and beat Wilder and the Cougs 6-3.

WP - Walter Murphy 1-0 3.12 (8.2 IP, 7H 3R, 3ER, 4BB, 3K 2HRA)
LP - Max Wilder 0-1 9.00 (6IP 11H 6R, 6 ER, 2BB, 2K)
S - Frank Phillips 1 0.00 (0.1 1H)
HR - (CH) Tom Taylor 2nd, Lou Kelly 1st, (Cl) Leon Drake 1st, TR Goins 1st
Notable - Brooks Meeks 4-4 BB, DB 1R 1RBI, SB TR Goins 4-5, HR, 2RBI, 2R, Leon Drake 2-4 HR 3RBI 1R

Game #5 - Cleveland Foresters 6 @ Chicago Cougars 5
2B Brooks Meeks continued his hot hitting in Chicago with 3 more hits a key 2-RBI double in the 3rd to go to 4-1 on the season.

WP - Ben Turner 1-0 4.32 (8.1IP 9H 5R, 4ER, 2BB 2K 1HRA)
LP - Jim Crawford 0-1 7.71 (7 IP, 13H, 6R, 6ER, 3BB 3K HRA)
S - Frank Phillips 2 0.00 (0.2IP 1H 1K)
HR - (Cl) Leon Drake 2nd, (CH) Mike Taylor 2nd
Notable - Brooks Meeks 3-5 DB, 2RBI, R SB, John Turner 3-4 2R

Comments from Asst GM Sonny Kelly - The team has been playing well so far with a good mix of hitting and pitching leading to 4 straight wins. We are tied for 1st place in the CA with the Montreal Saints at 4-1, with Brooklyn just a half a game back after their double header on Saturday at 4-2.

We have no injuries in the first week which is great and welcome news after last year's spring and early season issues. Our SP's are #1 in the CA after 5 games with a 2.25 ERA and the bullpen (Frank Phillips only pitcher used) has 2 saves and no runs allowed in 1 total inning. Our team FIP rating though suggests that we have been a bit lucky as it stands at 4.29.

Right now the only thing I would like to see us improve on is the number of errors that we have. So far we have committed 6 errors in 5 games but our defensive efficiency is 2nd in the league.

Offensively we are off to a nice start scoring 28 runs to average 5.6 rpg (2nd) with a 309 (2nd) batting average and a league leading 7 home runs.

Overall there is not too much to complain about so we will finish off the series in Chicago on Monday and then head home to face these same two teams again for 6 games.

Also the minor leagues will begin play late next week so we have done all of our final cutdowns. There are no major surprises in the players but we did release veteran OF Carlos Cano and veteran 3B Harry Stroud (who has been at AA/AAA the last few seasons).

Players of the Week CA - Our former #1 draft pick Brooklyn Kings SS Harry Barrell (20) took the honors in the first week hitting 12-21 571 with 5 runs scored and 6 RBI's, helping the Kings to a 4-2 record.

Player of the Week FA - Another 20 year old won in the FA as Pittsburgh rookie C George Cleaves went 11-24 458 with 5 RBI's and 5 runs scored. Despite Cleaves heroics the Miners only went 2-3 to start the season.

Cleveland Players of the Week
Pitcher - SP Roger Perry who threw a complete game 3 hit shut out against the Sailors.

Hitter - RF Moxie Pidgeon went 8 for 22 with a double, 2 home runs and drove in 5 RBI's and scored 5 runs.

12-04-2020, 02:15 PM	#125
DD Martin All Star Starter Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Seattle area Posts: 1,022	The Start of what we hope is a Championship Season 1934 Our schedule was kind of wonky to start the season. We played the Philadelphia Sailors for 3 games, but the first one was at home in Cleveland, but the next 2 were in Phily (Shrug). Oh well we have to play 154 with 77 on the road so we might as well. Cleveland Foresters vs Philadelphia Sailors (87-67 last season 2nd) (77-77 last season 4th) Prediction 92-62 1st Prediction 78-76 5th Opening Day in Cleveland saw 20,295 fans flood the gates at the City Dump (aka Forester Stadium). Honestly it was probably the most fans that attended a game at the dump in 15 years when it wasn't as dumpy. Last season only saw 11,654 fans on Opening Day (a 5-1 loss to Chicago) in a season where we averaging only 7,481 fans per game. This season we have sold 7,801 season tickets (more than double last years total of 3,367). Our fan interest is through the roof at 100 and with prohibition ending we were able to lax our ticket prices a bit as we did away with the Lounge Seating in the basement (we called it Loge for some reason) so the average price per ticket this year was less than a dollar ($0.99) which was 21 cents below the average last year. The expectation is that we will likely double our revenue per game, which would be nice. I was preparing for Opening Day and the travel the next day to Philadelphia when Mr. Marshall came in. He was all decked out in a tux etc for Opening Day. He told me that I wouldn't be traveling to Phily and Chi-Town next week but would be on a 2-week excursion with him, his son (my best friend Ricky) to other towns. He said he would go more into it after today's game, but I could tell he was up to something. He excused himself as he stated "I have to go make nice with the city officials before the game"....... Philadelphia Sailors @ Cleveland Foresters Opening Day Lineups Philadelphia Sailors 1.) CF Lou Williams (last season 272/354/710 4-26) 2.) LF Curt Dickerson (249/317/699 6-35) 3.) RF Bobby Bond (303/378/789 7-74) 4.) 1B Dick Walker (272/383/801 10-63) 5.) 3B Mack Deal (258/288/634 1-42) 6.) C Alex Diaz (258/313/651 4-69) 7.) 2B Ray Wright (318/379/790 3-61 AAA- San Fran) 8.) SS George Drake (290/371/790 0-3) 9.) SP Oscar Morse (15-14 3.03 ERA) Cleveland Foresters 1.) CF Dan Fowler (298/373/843 26-94) 2.) 2B Brooks Meeks (273/298/653 4-42) 3.) 1B Max Morris (325/382/962 41-120) 4.) C TR Goins (314/392/873 16-85) 5.) RF Moxie Pidgeon (308/376/842 17-74) 6.) LF Leon Drake (240/325/715 9-47) 7.) SS George Dawson (280/317/661 2-42) 8.) 3B John Turner (239/295/609 2-20) 9.) SP Eddie Quinn (12-21 3.22 Toronto) Game #1 Philadelphia Sailors 3 @ Cleveland Foresters 2 Sailors C Alex Diaz hit a game winning single in the 8th inning to drive in Dick Walker and the Sailors came in a stole the first game of the season. WP - Oscar Morse 1-0 2.00 ERA (9IP 8H, 2R, 2ER, BB 2K) LP - Eddie Quinn 0-1 3.00 ERA (9IP 9H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB 5K) HR - (Cl) Moxie Pidgeon 1st Batting - Max Morris 2-4 1R, Moxie Pidgeon 3-4 HR RBI R) Summary - So not the way we wanted to start the home season and opener in front of such a large crowd. I was hoping that Quinn was not the type of pitcher that pitched well but found ways to lose with his 21 losses last season. I am fairly sure it was the bad team he was on, but we will keep our fingers crossed. After the game Mr. Marshall came into my office at the stadium and despite the loss was still smiling. He closed the door tightly and then told me what we would be doing for the next 2 weeks. While the team was in Phily and Chicago the rest of this week, we would not be accompanying them on the trip. (Now Mr. Marshall rarely went on the road, but I often traveled with the team on road trips about 60% of the time.) He let me know that we would be on a tour of several different cities (Buffalo, Newark, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Cincinnati) and meeting with what he termed 'representatives". What he was really doing was going around and visiting with city officials and local leaders discussing a possible move of the team to one of those cities and I was coming along for the ride. I left instructions for my Assistant GM Sonny Kelly to go on the road with the club and that I would call him each day to go over any things that needed to be discussed. Game 2 and 3 of the series will be in Philadelphia Game #2 - Cleveland Foresters 7 @ Philadelphia Sailors 3 Starting Pitchers Dean Astle 7-3 2.57 last year) vs Rollie Beal 19-9 3.01 CF Dan Fowler and RF Moxie Pidgeon both hit homers in the Forester's 4-run 3rd inning as they power Cleveland to a victory over Rollie Beal and the Sailors. WP - Dean Astle 1-0 1.00 (9IP 7H 3R 1ER 3BB 2K) LP - Rollie Beal 0-1 11.12 (5.2 7H 7R. 7ER, 5BB 2K HR - (Cl) Dan Fowler 1st, Moxie Pidgeon 2nd notable - TR Goins 2-5 DB, R, Moxie Pidgeon 2-4 DB, HR, BB, 3 RBI, 2R Dan Fowler 2-3, DB, HR 2BB, 2RBI, 1R Game #3 - Cleveland Foresters 7 @ Philadelphia Sailors 0 SP Roger Perry threw a 3-hit shutout and was back by a Max Morris homer and a 2-run triple by SS George Dawson. WP - Roger Perry 1-0 0.00 (9IP 3H, 0R, 0ER 2BB, 4K) LP - Russ Real 0-1 1.35 (6.2IP 8H, 6R, 1ER, 1BB 2K) HR - (Cl) Max Morris 1st Notable - Meeks, Turner, Goins and Drake all had 2 hits Notes - The club heads of for a long ride to Chicago for the first 2 games of a 3 game set against the defending CA Champs and the team we will be battling with all season, the Chicago Cougars. Cleveland Foresters 2-1 @ Chicago Cougars 1-2 Saturday April 21st-Monday April 23rd Chicago's North Side Grounds (cap 28,450) Chicago struggled on the field during the spring but that wasn't expected to continue to be the case. They started the season at home against the Toronto Wolves, which is a club in past seasons that a team could get well against. That didn't happen though for the Cougars as they lost 2 of the 3 games prior to our arrival. This Cougar team is led by an exceptional pitching staff led by Tommy Wilcox, former Forester Max Wilder, Dick Luedtke, and Dick Lyons. They also have a great stopper in the pen in Chick Meehan who we stupidly passed on acquiring a couple of seasons ago because he was on the wrong side of 30. As long as age (or injuries) doesn't catch up with the Cougars, they will have the best staff in the CA once again. Game #4 - Cleveland Foresters 6 @ Chicago Cougars 3 The Foresters made a big deal about sending a message in spring training and won all 4 meetings against the Cougars. That streak has now moved to the regular season as the Foresters pounded out a total of 14 hits and beat Wilder and the Cougs 6-3. WP - Walter Murphy 1-0 3.12 (8.2 IP, 7H 3R, 3ER, 4BB, 3K 2HRA) LP - Max Wilder 0-1 9.00 (6IP 11H 6R, 6 ER, 2BB, 2K) S - Frank Phillips 1 0.00 (0.1 1H) HR - (CH) Tom Taylor 2nd, Lou Kelly 1st, (Cl) Leon Drake 1st, TR Goins 1st Notable - Brooks Meeks 4-4 BB, DB 1R 1RBI, SB TR Goins 4-5, HR, 2RBI, 2R, Leon Drake 2-4 HR 3RBI 1R Game #5 - Cleveland Foresters 6 @ Chicago Cougars 5 2B Brooks Meeks continued his hot hitting in Chicago with 3 more hits a key 2-RBI double in the 3rd to go to 4-1 on the season. WP - Ben Turner 1-0 4.32 (8.1IP 9H 5R, 4ER, 2BB 2K 1HRA) LP - Jim Crawford 0-1 7.71 (7 IP, 13H, 6R, 6ER, 3BB 3K HRA) S - Frank Phillips 2 0.00 (0.2IP 1H 1K) HR - (Cl) Leon Drake 2nd, (CH) Mike Taylor 2nd Notable - Brooks Meeks 3-5 DB, 2RBI, R SB, John Turner 3-4 2R Comments from Asst GM Sonny Kelly - The team has been playing well so far with a good mix of hitting and pitching leading to 4 straight wins. We are tied for 1st place in the CA with the Montreal Saints at 4-1, with Brooklyn just a half a game back after their double header on Saturday at 4-2. We have no injuries in the first week which is great and welcome news after last year's spring and early season issues. Our SP's are #1 in the CA after 5 games with a 2.25 ERA and the bullpen (Frank Phillips only pitcher used) has 2 saves and no runs allowed in 1 total inning. Our team FIP rating though suggests that we have been a bit lucky as it stands at 4.29. Right now the only thing I would like to see us improve on is the number of errors that we have. So far we have committed 6 errors in 5 games but our defensive efficiency is 2nd in the league. Offensively we are off to a nice start scoring 28 runs to average 5.6 rpg (2nd) with a 309 (2nd) batting average and a league leading 7 home runs. Overall there is not too much to complain about so we will finish off the series in Chicago on Monday and then head home to face these same two teams again for 6 games. Also the minor leagues will begin play late next week so we have done all of our final cutdowns. There are no major surprises in the players but we did release veteran OF Carlos Cano and veteran 3B Harry Stroud (who has been at AA/AAA the last few seasons). Players of the Week CA - Our former #1 draft pick Brooklyn Kings SS Harry Barrell (20) took the honors in the first week hitting 12-21 571 with 5 runs scored and 6 RBI's, helping the Kings to a 4-2 record. Player of the Week FA - Another 20 year old won in the FA as Pittsburgh rookie C George Cleaves went 11-24 458 with 5 RBI's and 5 runs scored. Despite Cleaves heroics the Miners only went 2-3 to start the season. Cleveland Players of the Week Pitcher - SP Roger Perry who threw a complete game 3 hit shut out against the Sailors. Hitter - RF Moxie Pidgeon went 8 for 22 with a double, 2 home runs and drove in 5 RBI's and scored 5 runs. Attached Images Last edited by DD Martin; 12-08-2020 at 01:46 PM.