Cleveland Municipal Stadium

I went to one game at the old Cleveland stadium the last season the Indians player there. This was a pre-WWII park that opened in the 1930’s that still had wood seats. It was huge by today’s standards with over 70,000 capacity for baseball. I went in July as part of my first baseball tour. We arrived at the stadium about 2 hours before game time. The gates were closed but we managed to find one that let some fans in anyway. We walked down to the field on the third base side while the A’s were taking BP. Dave Henderson came over and signed autographs for the crowd. As he was signing I asked how his road trip was going. He joked about not playing well, but despite not being in the lineup the night before had a hit in every game on the current trip (5 for 16 overall). The game was relatively uneventful. A’s won 7-2. Rickey Henderson stole a base. Dennis Eckersley pitched the 9th despite it not being a save situation.

After the game we asked if there was a good spot for autographs. The usher pointed us to the player parking lot. Since this was an old stadium, players didn’t have an isolated lot away from fans. From the locker room exit there were some saw-horse barricades set up and that was about it. Kenny Lofton came out, signed a ball, walked 20 feet, signed a program, walked 20 feet, signed something else, and was gone. During the game Jeff Treadway swung at a pitch, the bat came out of his hands and flew into the stands. A kid (probably 10-12 years old) ended up with the bat. As he came out of the locker room, he asked if the kid with the bat was there. Sure enough he was and Jeff made sure to sign the bat. It was also the only thing Jeff signed before the left. Finally Albert Belle walks out. There are a lot of kids around and one of the ones next to me groans as he sees Belle. I asked why. The kid says, “Albert never signs for anyone.” As the door closed behind him he paused, looked at the crowd, walked to the start of one side of the barricades and signed for everyone. Didn’t matter what they had; ball, program, bat, jersey, other. At this time in his career, Belle was developing a reputation for being an asshole. On this night, Albert was the coolest player in the game.