CLEVELAND, Ohio — The wildest of pitches were often tossed long after the lights went down on the field of dreams. When the bar stools, not the bases, were loaded and the shots came off a bottle not a bat.
Raise a glass and sing along:
Take me out to the ball game
Take me out to the bar
Buy me some whiskey, a stiff shot of Jack
I don’t care if I never get back…
You can’t help but drink to the baseball spirits at Hotz Café.
The shot-and-beer joint — 2529 West 10th St., 216-771-7004 — has been open for 98 years. It’s a family institution that spans generations and brings saloon stability to the ever-changing Tremont neighborhood.
It’s hosted FDR and once tossed out Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. But this old gem also claims the most legendary baseball drinkers of all time, going all the way back to the 1920s — from such New York Yankees greats as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Cleveland Indians slugger Rocky Colavito to Detroit Tigers legend Ty Cobb.
“The old ballplayers used to come in to drink and play an old card game called sixty-six,” says owner John Hotz, the third-generation owner of the joint. “It was a quiet place where guys could get away and just drink.”
Sometimes not so quiet – when The Babe came in. The Yankees slugger and legendary drinker often hit Hotz after a game in Cleveland. Even better, he was a big spender.
“One night, Babe Ruth came in and bought rounds for everyone in the bar,” says Hotz. “Thirteen dollars and sixty-five cents.”
A lot of money in those days, but Ruth rarely paid for a drink — even when he “paid.”
“He always wrote checks, because he knew people wouldn’t cash them,” says Hotz. “Plus, he signed the check ‘The Babe’ – which wasn’t even his real name, so I doubt a bank would have even cashed it.”
The Hotz family still has the check, in a safety deposit box. It’s one of countless Ruth legends.
Prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933, forced ballplayers like The Babe to seek out a speakeasy for a drink after a game. He found one in Hotz Cafe. But guys like Ruth weren’t hardly the type to keep a low profile.
“The old baseball players were real roustabouts, with women in every town,” says Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes. “Back then, teams would travel by train – and one time Ruth was running through the train totally naked with a woman chasing him with a knife.”
The Babe was better behaved when he once visited Hotz. So was Cobb, the legendary rogue who played from 1905 to 1928. Considered the greatest hitter of all time and notorious for being mean and violent, Cobb was on his best behavior at Hotz.
“Cobb was nicer than Lou Gehrig,” says Hotz. “There was a kid in the bar that was shining shoes, and Gehrig didn’t give him even a nickel!”
More than any other sport, baseball players are known to partake in that other American Pastime: drinking. Yes, you can thank guys like Ruth, but there’s also the long season filled with countless games and summer nights.
“Things have changed a lot,” says Bob DiBiasio, senior vice president, public affairs, for the Cleveland Indians. “But baseball has always been a sport of characters.”
The names roll of the tongue . . . Bob Wickman, the former Tribe reliever who was known to walk around the clubhouse with a beer in each hand.
Or Phil Niekro, the Indians knuckleballer who pitched more than 5,400 innings over 24 seasons – the most of any pitcher in the modern era.
These days, pitchers ice down after every game. Niekro did it his way.
“He would ‘ice down’ with bourbon on the rocks and would hit bars in Parma and Euclid to dance the polka,” says DiBiasio.
Jim “Mudcat” Grant hit the bars after games to perform with his band, Mudcat and the Kittens. Some favored Scotch to relieve sore arms, like Sam McDowell.
The Tribe fireballer was renowned for being able to strike out the side in five minutes — not to mention down three Manhattans in the same time after a game. He hung out in every bar in town and racked up as many barroom legends as victories. (And he had a lot of victories, 141 from 1961-75.)
Some players were even more colorful: Raise a bottle, no, a six-pack to Super Joe Charboneau.
The brief but exciting career of the 1980s Indian is laced with legends – like the time he opened a beer bottle with his eye socket.
“I only opened a beer bottle one time with my eye socket, back when I was in college — it was a bit uncomfortable,” says Charboneau. “But that story followed me the rest of my career.”
There’s also the story about how he fixed his broken nose with some whiskey and a pair of pliers. Or how he used to eat cigarettes. Or how he drank beer through his nose with a straw.
“That stuff was all exaggerated,” says Charboneau. “And the stories seemed to get bigger and bigger as we traveled from town to town in my rookie season.”
Perhaps, but the stories helped make the Avon Lake resident one of the most beloved Indians of all time.
“People loved that he was such a free spirit, but management didn’t get him,” says DiBiasio. “Like the time we were on the NBC Game of the Week and he came on national TV with pink streaks in his hair proclaiming, ‘I’m a punk-rock baseball player.’ “
Most clubhouses stocked kegs of beer back then. Some teams packed pewter beer mugs in players’ equipment bags.
Fans got into the act, and it spilled out onto the field with “Ten Cent Beer Night.” The June 4, 1974, game against the Texas Rangers featured a promotion that allowed fans to buy 12-ounce beer for a dime.
Many dimes and drinks later, fans rushed the field in a woozy riot.
Ah, those were different times…
“Drinking was a big part of baseball, especially in a city like Cleveland,” says sports journalist-broadcaster Dan Coughlin. “This was long before places like East Fourth Street, and there weren’t many places where you could grab something to eat downtown, so you went to a bar.”
More recently, players have moved on to restaurants, says Terry Tarantino, owner of La Dolce Vita, a regular stop for Joe Torre when he was manager of the Yankees.
“I would personally cook for Joe, and he brought the whole crew down over the years,” says Tarantino, who also hosted Don Mattingly, Jorge Posada and Derek Jeter. “Most ballplayers find a restaurant they like in a city where they can have a quiet dinner and keep on coming back.”
No doubt, the days of the roustabout are yesterday’s news.
These days, drinking is not allowed in the clubhouse and is frowned upon in general by Major League Baseball. But you can still thank drinking for keeping the Indians in Cleveland.
“The downtown hangouts for players and owners for many years were Pat Joyce Tavern and The Theatrical,” says Coughlin. The latter, a legendary, long-closed bar-club, played host to a wide ranges of characters — writers, politicians, gangsters and, yes, baseball players and team owners.
“George Steinbrenner would come to town with the Yankees and have an open tab for players and media,” says Coughlin. “Everyone hung out there.”
Including former sports Svengali Nick Mileti.
In 1972, Mileti learned that Cleveland had signed an agreement to play part of their season in New Orleans — no doubt the first step in moving the franchise.
So he cobbled together dozens of investors – many Theatrical regulars – and bought the team. He came to The Theatrical to make the announcement and stroll around the bar like a slugger around the bases after a grand slam.
“He got a standing ovation,” remembers former Plain Dealer reporter Bob Dolgan.
And as he rounded the bar, another proud baseball tradition took place: Drinks were served.
