The way things have been going, the 1990s may one day be remembered as the decade when the underdogs finally had their day.
The New York Rangers ended a 54-year championship drought last year, around the same time Hakeem Olajuwon and the Rockets were bringing the city of Houston its first-ever world title.
Now, as Northwestern threatens to go to its first Rose Bowl since its one-and-only appearance after the 1948 season, the Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians will duke it out for the right to once-and-for-all shed the image of longtime loser.
The Braves will attempt to give Atlanta its first world championship team, and the franchise its first since 1957, while the Indians go for their first World Series title in 47 years.
Lack of championships aside, the Braves and Indians are two of baseball’s oldest and most storied franchises. Along with the White Sox, Boston and Detroit, Cleveland is one of four charter members of the American League, beginning play in 1901. The Braves, originally located in Boston, have been a member of the National League since 1876.
In all those years, the two teams have met but six times. Those six games, naturally, were in the 1948 World Series, which the Indians took 4 games to 2. Almost a half-century later, the Braves get their chance for revenge.
To Generation X baseball fans, Saturday’s Game 1 matchup between Atlanta’s Greg Maddux and Cleveland’s Orel Hershiser is about as good as it gets. But the sixty-something crowd knows better. Game 1 of the 1948 Braves-Indians series provided a not-so-shabby matchup, too. The Braves’ Johnny Sain faced Cleveland’s Bob Feller, with Sain coming out on top with a four-hit shutout in a 1-0 Boston victory.
“It was the highlight of my career to win the opening-day game against a pitcher like Bob Feller,” said the 78-year-old Sain, an Oak Brook resident. “I thought he was out of this world.”
The game featured a controversial late-inning play when Feller and shortstop-manager Lou Boudreau appeared to have pulled off a successful pickoff of Boston’s Phil Masi at second. Masi was called safe and eventually scored the only run on a quail to left by Tommy Holmes.
Sain would pitch again on two days rest in Game 4, but lost 2-1. He was ready to go on two days rest against in Game 7, but the Indians took it in six. Sain found himself chuckling earlier this week when much was made of Randy Johnson pitching on three days rest in the playoffs. Sain threw nine complete games on two days rest in September of ’48.
“That was when it was `Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,’ ” he said. “Why not do it? You only have one chance to win it all. You’re going to get plenty of rest in the winter.”
Cleveland won 111 games in 1954, but was swept by the New York Giants in a World Series that is best recalled for Willie Mays’ incredible, over-the-shoulder catch against Vic Wertz.
The Braves last championship came in ’57, when they were the pride of Milwaukee. In a memorable seven-game series with the Yankees, the Braves called on Lew Burdette to start the decisive game in County Stadium, only two days after the reputed spitballer had shut out the Yankees for his second series win. Burdette again shut the Yankees out, 5-0, stranding the bases loaded in the ninth when Moose Skowron hit a hard smash to third baseman Eddie Mathews, who skipped towards the bag and gleefully jumped on top of it to start the partying.
The Braves went back to the World Series in ’58, losing a nail-biting, seven-game series to the Yankees, and then disappeared from World Series play for 33 years. The 1991 Braves became the first in history to advance to the World Series after having the worst record in baseball the previous year, but lost a seven-game heartbreaker to the Minnesota Twins. In ’92, they lost a six-game series to Toronto.
Sain and Boudreau will both be watching their old teams with interest this week.
“I’m real high on those guys,” Sain said of the Braves. “I like the way they think, the way they go after it.”
Boudreau, however, is certain this is finally the Indians’ year.
“The Cleveland fans have been loyal and deserve what they’re getting,” he said. “Hopefully, they can win it and that can in turn help the Cubs fans. It just goes to show you have to hang in there and be loyal, knowing there is always a chance.”
