page_title: History of the Cleveland Indians
section_title: 1894–1946: Beginning to middle
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Cleveland Indians / 1894–1946: Beginning to middle
caption_attribution_description: Shoeless Joe Jackson, Black Betsy in hand, during his 1913 season with the Cleveland Naps.
context_page_description: The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since 1994, they have played in Progressive Field. The Cleveland team originated in 1900 as the Lake Shores, when the American League was officially a minor league. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the major league incarnation of the club was founded in Cleveland in 1901.
context_section_description: The Grand Rapids Rustlers was founded in Michigan in 1894 and were in the Western League.  In 1900 the team moved to Cleveland and was named The Cleveland Lake Shores. Around the same time Ban Johnson changed the name of his minor league Western League to the American League.  In 1900 the American League was still considered a minor league.  In 1901 Cleveland renamed itself the "Bluebirds" when the American League broke with the National Agreement and declared itself a competing Major League. The Cleveland franchise was among its eight charter members.
  The new team was owned by coal magnate Charles Somers and tailor Jack Kilfoyl. Somers, a wealthy industrialist and also co-owner of the Boston Americans, lent money to other team owners, including Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, to keep them and the new league afloat. Players didn't think the name "Bluebirds" was suitable for a baseball team. Writers frequently shortened it to "Blues" due to the players' all-blue uniforms,  but the players didn't like this name either.  The players themselves tried to change the name to "Broncos" in 1902, but it never really caught on.
  The Bluebirds suffered from financial problems in their first two seasons. This led Somers to seriously consider moving to either Pittsburgh or Cincinnati. Relief came in 1902 as a result of the conflict between the National and American Leagues.  In 1901, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the Philadelphia Phillies' star second baseman, jumped to the A's after his contract was capped at $2,400 per year—one of the highest-profile players to jump to the upstart AL. The Phillies subsequently filed an injunction to force Lajoie's return, which was granted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The injunction appeared to doom any hopes of an early settlement between the warring leagues.  However, a lawyer discovered that the injunction was only enforceable in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Mack, partly to thank Somers for his past financial support, agreed to trade Lajoie to the then-moribund Blues, who offered $25,000 salary over three years.  Due to the injunction, however, Lajoie had to sit out any games played against the A's in Philadelphia.  Lajoie arrived in Cleveland on June 4 and was an immediate hit, drawing 10,000 fans to League Park.  Soon afterward, he was named team captain, and the team was renamed the "Naps" after a newspaper conducted a write-in contest.
  Lajoie was named manager in 1905, and the team's fortunes improved somewhat. They finished half a game short of the pennant in 1908.  However, the success did not last and Lajoie resigned during the 1909 season as manager but remained on as a player.
  After that, the team began to unravel, leading Kilfoyl to sell his share of the team to Somers. Cy Young, who returned to Cleveland in 1909, was ineffective for most of his three remaining years and Addie Joss died from tubercular meningitis prior to the 1911 season.
  Despite a strong lineup anchored by the potent Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson, poor pitching kept the team below third place for most of the next decade. One reporter referred to the team as the Napkins, "because they fold up so easily". The team hit bottom in 1914 and 1915, finishing in the cellar both years.
  1915 brought significant changes to the team. Lajoie, nearly 40 years old, was no longer a top hitter in the league, batting only .258 in 1914. With Lajoie engaged in a feud with manager Joe Birmingham, the team sold Lajoie back to the A's.
  With Lajoie gone, the club needed a new name. Somers asked the local baseball writers to come up with a new name, and based on their input, the team was renamed the Cleveland Indians. It is claimed that the nickname "Indians" references Cleveland Spiders baseball club during the time when Louis Sockalexis, a Native American, had played in Cleveland (1897–99); however this is contested by sportswriter Joe Posnanski who argues "Why exactly would people in Cleveland — this in a time when Native Americans were generally viewed as subhuman in America — name their team after a relatively minor and certainl
caption: Shoeless Joe Jackson was an Indians outfielder from 1910–1915, and still holds franchise records for both triples in a season and career batting average.
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