In August, the Naps brought Roger to Cleveland. He appeared in only fifteen games, but had to be thrilled to play next to the great Lajoie. They may have walked home together after ball games, stopping at Hough Bakery, where Lajoie enjoyed flirting with a young redheaded girl behind the counter. At any rate, Roger was now moving with the fast company.
The 1911 season found Peck in Portland, Oregon, playing in the Pacific Coast League. It must have been quite a jolt for him to depart Cleveland and travel all the way to the West Coast. There were few cowboys and Indians left on the way, but a trip of this magnitude was a lot to handle for a twenty-year-old.
Despite the odds against him, Roger blossomed in Portland. He hit a decent .258, stole thirty-five bases, and made all the plays at shortstop. The newspapers admired his ability, labeling him as an up-and-comer. The Naps were quite impressed with his progress, and for the 1912 season Cleveland would be his home. All he had to do was walk the few blocks from Hough Avenue to League Park. There would be no more trips to the minor leagues.
For most of the season Roger split time at the shortstop position with Ivy Olson. He still had problems with American League hurlers, batting a measly .212. Despite the problems with the bat, Roger had a good opportunity to be the regular Cleveland shortstop. Just when things appeared to be falling his way, though, a major obstacle blocked his path. His name was Ray Chapman. The new infielder had rocketed through the minor leagues, hitting and fielding like no other shortstop in the organization. He would take the job away from Peck, causing the Indians to trade the local boy to the New York Yankees.
Roger played nine seasons in New York. There he became the consummate shortstop. He had enough quickness to go deep in the hole and gun the ball to first base. Roger could dash behind second base, spear a ground ball, and fire across his body to get the runner. While batting he held his hands slightly apart and generally slashed the baseball to left field.
Near the end of the 1914 season, manager Frank Chance resigned. The Yankee ownership did not hesitate to make Peck the interim manager. It was only a handful of games, but valuable experience for a twenty-three-year-old. He showed a lot of maturity for a young man, which would later result in him becoming a Yankee captain. A few years later, Babe Ruth joined the Yankees and became fast friends with Peck. In fact, the two became close enough that Babe asked for a thousand-dollar loan. That was a considerable amount of money, but Roger wrote the check. To this day, Peckinpaugh family members assert that Babe eventually paid back the loan.
In 1921, the Yankees overtook the Indians to win the American League pennant. They lost the World Series to the New York Giants, but the Yankee dynasty was taking root. Stories remain that Ruth and several other players were feuding with manager Miller Huggins and insisting that Peck be named player-manager, but before the start of the 1922 season Peck was traded to the Boston Red Sox. The timing of the trade was quite curious, since Roger had an excellent previous season for the Yankees. He batted .288, hit seven home runs, and scored 128 runs, a career high. Newspapers mentioned a time during the season when manager Huggins was ill and Peck took over the team: almost immediately the Yankees went on a winning streak. This may have been a case of Peck becoming more popular than the manager and as a result being shipped off to the lowly Red Sox. Norman E. Brown, in his syndicated column for the Central Press Association, wrote, “The recent trading of Roger Peckinpaugh, Yankee shortstop and captain, to the Boston Red Sox is the most coldblooded deal ever put over in baseball. . . . As far as Peck is concerned it is the dirtiest piece of business ever put over in the big show.”
The trade brought Sam Jones and Leslie “Bullet Joe” Bush plus shortstop Everett Scott to the Yankees. The Red Sox got Peck, Harry “Rip” Collins, Bill Piercy, Jack Quinn, and $100,000. Harry Frazee, the Boston owner, always had a blatant need for cash to support his theatrical ventures. He was a ceaseless trade partner with the Yankees. It seemed whenever the Yankees had issues, Frazee was more than willing to help. In 1919 he recklessly sold Babe Ruth to New York for $100,000. Boston fans watched glumly while their owner undid his team, squandering his money on Broadway plays.
Less than a month later, Frazee sent Peck to the Washington Senators as part of a three-way deal with the Philadelphia Athletics. Frazee insisted that there was no cash in this trade. In spite of this, Joe Dugan, who went from Philadelphia to Boston, somehow wound up in New York during the 1922 season. The Yankees, with all the newly acquired talent, would win another pennant while the Boston Red Sox finished last with a ridiculous total of fifty-three wins. The word “collusion” comes to mind here.
In Washington, Peck played alongside Bucky Harris. The two would become one of the most formidable double-play combinations in the game. Roger played in two more World Series, bringing home a championship in 1924. In game two of that series, against the New York Giants, the score was tied going into the bottom of the ninth inning. With a runner on base, Roger laced a double to win the game. The Senators took the series four games to three. The winners’ share totaled a handsome $6,000 per man.
The Senators repeated in 1925, but lost the series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. A number of the games were played in poor field conditions, leaving the diamond a sea of mud. Roger had a fielding nightmare, charged with eight errors for the seven games. Despite the awful time at shortstop he was voted Most Valuable Player in the American League. He beat out players including Al Simmons, Harry Heilmann, and Mickey Cochrane. The vote was handled by the senior sportswriters in each American League city. The writers had a complicated point system where the maximum points a player could get was sixty-five. Peck totaled forty-five, just slightly ahead of Simmons.
In 1927, Peck was off to the Chicago White Sox, where aching knees reduced his playing time. When Billy Evans became the general manager of the Cleveland Indians he believed the veteran shortstop would be a strong candidate to lead his ball club. In December, Roger gladly accepted the job and the chance to come back to his old stomping grounds. There was much work to be done.
Chapter 2
STARTING TO BUILD
In 1928, Cleveland, Ohio, was one of the leading cities in the nation. The population of the greater Cleveland area was over one million, making it the sixth largest city in the United States. The downtown area was thriving with first-class restaurants, hotels, and a popular theater district. Playhouse Square had multiple theaters including the Allen, the Hanna, the State, and the Ohio. The new phenomenon of talking motion pictures attracted thousands of viewers.
Just one year earlier, the Terminal Tower opened for business, the second-largest building in the country. The massive structure had fifty-two floors and stood over seven hundred feet tall. The project was the brainchild of the reclusive railroad barons, brothers Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen. Described as having “innate modesty,” the two men proposed building the gigantic structure on Public Square. Incorporated in the plans was the construction of a huge railroad terminal directly underneath. The 3.5-acre complex included major retail space, a sleek hotel, a medical building, and a post office. The cost of the project totaled a whopping $179 million. To encourage all the thrill seekers in town, there was an open observation deck built on the forty-second floor. Statistics were not kept on how many crazed individuals rode the elevators up the dizzying heights.
Since 1924, Cleveland government had been run by a city manager system. The person in charge was supposed to be nonpartisan,