These shrines, now gone save for League Park's crumbling remnants, hosted American sports heroes and icons, rock legends and hockey stars. Babe Ruth launched his 500th home run at League Park, where Indians great Bob Feller, all cleft chin and leg kick, debuted. A young and seemingly weightless Michael Jordan sunk the Cavs and Craig Ehlo at Richfield. Jim Brown broke the will of opponents at Municipal, where both Larry Doby--the first black American Leaguer--and Frank Robinson--baseball's first black manager--shattered color barriers. Morris Eckhouse and Greg Crouse delve into the city's lost sports sanctuaries, where Clevelanders rejoiced and wept, experiencing moments of jubilation and ineffable sadness that remain glowing and raw.
Morris Eckhouse is the creator of the Magical Baseball History Tour (MBHT), a partner in October Productions, and author or co-author of seven books. He was executive director of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and the Cleveland Sports Legends Foundation. A member of the American Association of Museums (AAM), SABR, the International Sports Heritage Association (ISHA), the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama (Sperdvac) and the National Historic Route 66 Federation, Eckhouse is a 1978 graduate of Shaker Heights High School and a 1982 graduate of Ohio University. He and his wife, Maria, live in Shaker Heights. Their son, Allen, is a student at the University of Southern California. Visit the Magical Baseball History Tour at www. magicalbaseball.com. Greg Crouse is an accountant who became a sports fan as a kid in the early 1970s. He has attended hundreds of events at Cleveland Stadium, the Coliseum and Cleveland Arena and has visited the League Park site many times since the late 1980s. He has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 1983 and has been published in SABR's Baseball Research Journal. Greg is a 1982 graduate of the University of Akron. He lives in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.