1920 Cleveland Indians

 Cleveland sports are a cursed lot. The Browns are a factory of sadness. The Cavaliers only exist when Lebron James plays for them. Hockey forsakes the city entirely. And the Indians Guardians are in the midst of the longest active drought for championships. Other teams are in the league that have never won yet, but they didn't exist when the Indians last won, so their fans haven't technically been tortured for as long. Heck, in 2016 when they last made the World Series, a team with an even longer drought took the spotlight and the title when the Cubs won the series and left Cleveland as the new champions of failure. But, as mentioned in passing before, the franchise has tasted victory. There was even a time when they had more World Series championships than the New York Yankees. 1-0 is still a lead, and it was the case when the 1920 World Series ended.

In 1920, the Indians were quite content with their name after two other names in not even 20 years, and they were still figuring out a good logo (that would come a couple of decades later). Future Hall of Famer Tris Speaker was in his 2nd season in charge as he took his men into battle for the American League. The only threats to Cleveland were the defending AL champs White Sox (fresh off their scandalous World Series shenanigans) and the emerging Yankees (with their brand new Rightfielder).

It came down to the wire, with the three teams battling for the crown. No Wild Cards in 1920, you either finish on top or go home. With the full impact of the Black Sox scandal not yet realized and Babe Ruth just beginning to take baseball to another level of attention, the Indians took advantage of such a calm before the future storm by sneaking away with the pennant by just 2 games.

On the other side for the World Series were the Brooklyn Robins. When the series shifted to Cleveland after 3 games, the Indians were down 2-1 but would go on to sweep the next 4 games to take the series 5-2 thanks in part to Stan Coveleski's 3 Wins in the series and the Bill Wambsganss unassisted triple play in Game 5.

The following season saw the Yankees take charge of baseball as the Indians tried to keep up but would slowly fade away, not seeing the World Series again until 1948.

Tris Speaker wasn't just the player-manager, he was also their offensive star. It's no surprise that baseballs all time leader in doubles happened to lead the league that year with 50 two-baggers.

The rest of the lineup around Speaker. Elmer Smith and his mere 20+ homer chart was the "power" hitter of the team with his 12 dingers. Larry Gardner led the team with 118 RBI.

The Cleveland reserves. Some pretty solid bench options (not bad for the limited playing time they sample from). Smoky Joe Wood was trying to redefine his career after injury forced him to stop pitching. He did pitch a couple innings in 1920, but hardly worth making a card for.
You may remember Pinch Thomas from the (not) perfect game he was barely apart of.

Bagby paced the league with 31 Wins, while Coveleski finished 3rd with 24 of his own (put him in 2nd place if you add the WS Wins). Coveleski also struck out a leading 133 batters. Not to be left out, Caldwell also won 20 games.

The bullpen and spot starters. Not too shabby for a bunch of guys not trusted to make regular starts. No Closer to be found on this team, the "Saves" leader on the team was Starting Pitcher Guy Morton with 3. Bagby led the AL with 30 CG so Speaker wasn't faced with many situations where he was calling in a new pitcher in a close game.