The Story and Passion Behind the Making of War on the Diamond

Yes, I am dedicated and devoted to Cleveland sports teams

I grew up in a sports fandom household, we normally would discuss the sports page before
bringing up anything with school or family topics and of course most of the time all conversations would evolve around the three Cleveland teams. One of my favorite memories growing up in the 1980s would be going to Cleveland Indians games at Municipal Stadium. Even though the Browns and Cavs were better teams that were going to playoffs annually, the Tribe always felt like family. Yes, a dysfunctional family with a lot of losses and you always needed a fresh roster as it would change daily like a struggling restaurant menu. But it was home, you could sit anywhere you want, literally anywhere you wanted to sit. No such things as food lines, in fact by the early 1990s my family would bring in a cooler along with a portable TV (battery packed of course) and we would place the cooler in an empty seat with
the TV on top, basically bringing our living room to the stadium. We would park beside the players. One time back in the early 1990s, my dad helped direct traffic to Tribe outfielder Glenallen Hill so he could get to his parking spot. Two rows over from where we parked. Hill thanked my father, and he ran into the locker room. Yes, for those of you who are too young, we usually had a spot right outside the Indian’s locker room, making it easy for autographs.

Learning to hate the Yankees early in my life!

The Cleveland Indians in the late 80s into the early 90s were not very good. The film Major
League, which came out in 1989, felt more like a documentary than a scripted feature, and I
remember crying when Willie May Hayes scored bringing a victory over the hated Yankees, the
closest thing to a playoff victory a Tribe fan could have. Yes, to beat the Yankees even in a film,
was so sweet. I was taught to hate the Yankees and seeing the I hate Yankee Hankie was such a sense of pride to a young Tribe fan. We knew the Indians could not compete with the Yanks growing up, but
my father would always tell me about the glory days of the late 40s into the 1950s when Tribe
would not only compete with the Yankees but would conquer the Bronx bombers in 1948 and
again in 1954. In my senior year of high school, 1997, seeing the Tribe beat the mighty Yankees with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, I felt like I was in Camelot as a Cleveland fan. 10 years later, watching Joba Chamberlain swat off midges as Grady Sizemore scored the game-tying run was wonderful. Two games later, they would eliminate New York ending the legendary career of Yankees manager Joe Torre.
During the making of Believeland in 2014, I learned that the larger-than-life Yankees owner,
George Steinbrenner grew up as a Cleveland Indians fan and tried to buy the team in the
The 1970s only later to buy the hated New York Yankees.

The anger and rivalry heated up in 1920!

I also learned about the tragic story in 1920, when the star player for the Cleveland Indians, Ray
Chapman was struck and killed by a pitch from Yankees hurler Carl Mays. Somehow the
Indians would win the 1920 AL pennant, overtaking the Babe Ruth-led Yanks and Chicago White
Sox, winning the 1920 World Series, the first championship for the Tribe. 1920 also started a rivalry in baseball between New York and Cleveland. Yes, it is not Red Sox and Yankees, but it is personal for a Clevelander and the hate runs deep for the Yankees. With the wonderful book authored by Mike Sowell, The Pitch That Killed, I decided that it was a story that needed to be brought to life through film and video and tell the story of Ray Chapman and the 1920 Cleveland Indians’ run to a championship and how the tragic moment when Chapman lost his life started a rivalry between the two clubs in a documentary War on the Diamond.

Next Up 7/21 Part 2: Production and Development of the War on the Diamond Documentary

Watch War on the Diamond

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