Browse Interviews

In this 2005 interview, Susie Guiliano, Manager Media Relations for the Cleveland Indians, discusses her live long love of baseball as well as her job with the Cleveland Indians for the past 22 years. Mrs. Guiliano is a native of the west side of Cleveland and recalls attending baseball games at Cleveland Municipal Stadium as a young girl in the 1970s with her mother. She attributes to her mother her love for baseball. In 1972, she and her mother struck up a friendship with Buddy Bell and his…

Scott Longert is the sports archivist at the Western Reserve Historical Society. In this interview he discusses the history of the Cleveland Indians, through the team's name changes, park changes and changes in baseball's rules. Longert also discusses his work at WRHS.

Bob DiBiasio is works in public relations for the Cleveland Indians. In this 2005 interview he discusses his personal love of baseball and the Cleveland Indians' history. He also discusses the team's interaction with the city and some of the minor league teams associated with the Indians.

In this 2005 interview, Jacob Rosenheim, a retired copy editor in the sports department of the Plain Dealer, talks about growing up in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood in the 1940s and 1950s. Rosenheim recalls when, in the 1950s, one white family sold its house to a black family, how the "for sale" signs popped up immediately thereafter. He also recalls attending Indians' ball games in both the old League Park as well as the old Municipal Stadium, and has many memories of the 1948 and 1954…

Baseball historian Jim Egan discusses the history of baseball in Cleveland. He discusses the early architectural features in the city, including horse hitching posts, flat-roofed housing, and chimneys. He discusses the creation of the modern game, baseball clubs (both locally and nationally), amateur baseball, and the formation of city leagues. He also discusses the connections between baseball and ethnicity, civic boosterism, local ballparks, and labor unions. Other topics include the…

John Lunkins was born in Cleveland in 1964. His family was one of the only black families on his mostly Italian American street, East 113th off of Union. Growing up, Lunkins had a best friend who was of Italian descent. He shares his fondest memories of his childhood, playing baseball in the street with his friends, but then also recalls that when all the kids went to go play in the little league, he was unable to play because of his color. As Lunkins grew up he experienced some racially driven…