Cleveland Indians Players at Jay's Sparkle Market – July 1962

If you've ever read the baseball classic Ball Four by pitcher Jim Bouton, then you might remember how some of his teammates were annoyed at having to make appearances to sign autographs or show up at some event. The players weren't paid very much (sometimes as little as $25) and these types of events usually took place on their day off.

I was thinking about that when I saw the above ad for Jay's Sparkle Market in Lorain, which was promoting the special appearance of two Cleveland Indians at the store, as well as at the Little League Park on Washington Ave. that day. The full-page ad appeared in the Journal on July 2, 1962.

Ironically, one of the Indians was Gary "Ding Dong" Bell, who a few seasons later would be one of Jim Bouton's roommates when both were members of the Seattle Pilots. Gary Bell is quite prominent in Ball Four, and the subject of many hilarious anecdotes. It's also quite poignant in the book when Bell finds out he's been traded to the Chicago White Sox. Bouton wrote, "He sat on the edge of the bed and I could see the thoughts racing through his mind. How do I move? What do I do with my car? Who's on that club? Any friends? It's like, I suppose, when you're wounded. You don't know where you've been hit and you have to sit there a minute and feel around to find out just how seriously you've been hurt."

The other member of the Tribe who was scheduled to come to Lorain that day was Jerry Kindall, who was with the Indians from 1962 - 1964. His Wikipedia entry notes, "Kindall quickly felt at home in Cleveland, where he became the everyday second baseman, a position he held for all of 1962. Through May 11, he was batting .289. Sportswriter Joe Reichler called him "a defensive whiz" in May 1962, observing that he had "steadied the infield" for Cleveland. 

"The greatest offensive moment of his career came that June, when Kindall had eight hits in a four-game series against the New York Yankees. He had four hits on June 16, including a two-run walk-off home run against Jim Coates in the bottom of the ninth inning that turned a 9–8 deficit into a 10–9 victory. The next day, his two-run home run against Bill Stafford in the first game of a doubleheader put Cleveland up 2–0 in an eventual 6–1 victory. The series victory pushed Cleveland past New York into the American League (AL) lead, though they would eventually finish the season in sixth place."