Last living member of 1948 Indians recalls World Series glory
CLEVELAND — Eddie Robinson can still remember the parade. It’s been 68 years and it’s still seared vividly into his brain. He may be 95 but some snapshots don’t fade so easily.
It was down Euclid Avenue and there were people all down the street and snug between the buildings too. As many as could fit, he says. The Indians players, newly crowned champions, sat in convertibles as they rolled down the street.
It had taken them six games to defeat the Boston Braves. They needed a one-game playoff — the first in Major League Baseball history — just to get into the postseason. But here they were, with the 1948 World Series title all their own and an entire city out to fete them.
“It was wonderful,” Robinson said.
And it hasn’t happened since. As long as that memory has sat inside Robinson’s mind, the Indians and their fans have waited for another championship. They won in 1948 and been in drought ever since.
The Indians will try to break it once again this October. Thursday, they will begin their American League Division Series against the Red Sox at Progressive Field, as substantive underdogs to a star-studded team with an emotional ballast in David Ortiz. The Red Sox broke their curse more than a decade ago now. In Cleveland, the streak is still alive.
Robinson is the avatar of that long wait. He was the starting first baseman and is the lone player from that team still living. Bob Feller, the Hall of Fame pitcher, died in 2010 in Cleveland — the same place where he starred. Bob Lemon, Robinson’s good friend and the ace that year, passed away in 2000. Al Rosen, just a rookie that season before winning an MVP over his 10-year career all spent playing for the Indians, left the world last year.
Robinson has watched them all go — nearly an entire team etched in history and still holding a particular lore here. He went on to long career in baseball. He played for eight more seasons, including a season in Baltimore alongside Tito Francona — Terry Francona’s father — and retired after 13 in the majors. He went on to coach and to be a general manager for the Braves and Rangers. He scouted for a while, finally stepping away from the sport after working for the Red Sox in 2004.
The passing of time and the casualties it has wrought has been hard to watch.
“Of course it is,” he said. “They were all dear friends and we were a very close knit group.”
Robinson will be watching the Indians closely. He is still an avid baseball fan. A reporter made the mistake of calling him on Tuesday night right as the AL wild-card game began and was told, frankly, this wasn’t the best time to talk.
He and his wife watch Texas play nearly daily. They live in Fort Worth and while he only makes it out to the ballpark a handful of times each year now, there’s a 65-inch television in his home that makes him feel like he’s behind home plate.
And while he hopes the Indians success, he hopes it’s not at the cost of his hometown team.
“We’re addicted,” he says. “I’m addicted to baseball and the Rangers.”
He adds: “It’s time they won. However, I don’t want them to beat the Rangers this year. I’m pulling for the Rangers. I’m a big Rangers fan.”
Robinson looks back at his time in Cleveland with fondness but seems to have mixed feelings about the ensuing years. He remembers when his Indians would play to large crowds at the old Cleveland Stadium — 86,288 people filled the seats for Game 5 of the World Series in 1948 — and is miffed why this Indians team had such lackluster attendance. The Indians ranked third-to-last in baseball in 2016.
“Over the years I’ve watched Cleveland, I’ve watched them stumble,” he said. “I’m disappointed in the Cleveland fans. This year, they didn’t get behind them, attendance wise. Maybe they didn’t think the Cleveland Indians could win. But anyway it took them a long time to catch on and start drawing people. When I was there in ’48, we drew a lot.”
He also has some gripes about the Indians organization too. Despite his ties to the last World Series-winning team, Robinson wonders why he hasn’t been back that often.
Robinson last returned to Cleveland some 20 years ago, he says, when the Indians invited members of that 1948 team for a celebration and to be honored on the field. But since then, he has felt left out.
He published a book in 2011 about his career in baseball and says he called the franchise soon after, thinking it would be fun for someone from the last championship team to make an appearance but says his idea fell on deaf ears.
“They don’t have any interest in their older players, I don’t think,” he said. “I’m disappointed in the fact I never heard a word from them. Maybe they don’t like to think it’s been that long since. They don’t want to bring it up, maybe, that they haven’t won since 1948.”
That season, the Indians began their postseason against the Red Sox too. Boston and Cleveland each won 96 games and tied for the best record in the American League. That brought upon baseball’s first tie-breaking game.
The Indians left for Boston after the season-finale and didn’t even bother to take luggage, figuring their wives would bring it if they won. Robinson only brought a pajama top and a Dopp kit. When they beat the Red Sox, they stayed in Boston and faced the Braves.
These Indians are hoping to forge their own path. It’s been 68 years since they led a parade in Cleveland. Will this be the year?
MEMORABLE 2016 POSTSEASON MOMENTS: