"The Frenchman" and Joe Birmingham
Being a Cleveland Indians fan in Cleveland growing up in the 1990s meant that I could rattle off every player on the 1995 roster including names like Alvaro Espinoza, Wayne Kirby, & Ruben Amaro. It also meant I could tell you about other Cleveland Baseball Heroes from yesteryear like Feller and Boudreau, Lemon and Rosen (who were part of the last great playoff run teams) or even names further back like Averill and Harder. But one name that I always gravitated towards growing up was Lajoie. I have always assumed it was because much like my Polish surname "Maciag" people seem to struggle with the French name "Lajoie" and how to spell and pronounce it. Fast-forward a few years to the early 2000s after our move to a small town (Marietta, OH), I discovered a local baseball card shop, aptly named "Marietta baseball card shop". It was here that I would spend many hours and many hard earn paper-route dollars as a young teenager. One of my favorit