Day and Night for Indians

The dreaded three-headed, doubleheader monster the Indians feared is finally over. Now Cleveland’s season looks a bit scarier too.

Forced to play their third doubleheader in six days--this one against two teams--the Indians ended up with a split, defeating the Chicago White Sox, 9-2, in the daytime opener and then fizzling against the Minnesota Twins, 4-3, in the nightcap.

It was only the second three-team doubleheader in the majors since 1900 and first since Sept. 13, 1951, when the St. Louis Cardinals played host to the New York Giants and Boston Braves at Sportsman’s Park.

With history being made, the Indians said they would send a ball from each game, signed by the starting pitchers, along with tickets and the lineup cards to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown for a twinbill that was a logistical nightmare that came off smoothly with four team buses, two equipment trucks, three TV crews, nearly 100 players, more than 80,000 fans and eight umpires.

The unique doubleheader came about when the AL rescheduled a Sept. 10 rainout between Cleveland and Chicago.

Cleveland General Manager John Hart complained it was unfair to his team to have to play a game that might not be necessary. Hart’s argument got louder when Oakland’s Sept. 17 game in Tampa was postponed by Hurricane Gordon, but the AL said the A’s would not have to make it up until Oct. 2.

White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel sympathized with the Indians.

“I think it’s a difficult call for the league,” he said. “But I don’t know if it’s fair that this team has to play as many doubleheaders as it has, especially with them coming home after a long road trip. I don’t know if the league took everything into consideration.”

Yet there was little good will between the White Sox and Indians during the opener. Cleveland jawed with the new AL Central champions and Roberto Alomar took exception to a hard slide by Chicago’s Tony Graffanino on a forceout in the top of the sixth inning, and by the bottom of the inning the lingering animosity sent both teams onto the field, although no punches were thrown.

Chicago first baseman Paul Konerko said he thought some of the Indians agreed that Graffanino’s slide was clean. “Some of his teammates were rolling their eyes over there,” Konerko said. “Alomar, as good as he is, you’d think he’d know better.”

Having clinched the division title on Sunday, the White Sox rested starters Frank Thomas, Jose Valentin and Charles Johnson.

In the nightcap, Minnesota’s Torii Hunter hit a game-tying, two-run single, and Jacque Jones drove in the go-ahead run off Bob Wickman in the eighth inning for the Twins’ victory.

“We’re running out of games,” Indian Manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’re kind of at the point now where we can’t lose.”