Review Fix chats with “The NHL’s Mistake by the Lake: A History of the Cleveland Barons” author Gary Webster, who discusses the book and so much more.
About the Book:
The Cleveland Barons should never have existed. Born when the National Hockey League’s California Golden Seals—another team that should never have existed—were transplanted to Cleveland in 1976 and greeted with apathy by the dwindling number of hockey fans in northeastern Ohio, the Barons were an embarrassment to the city and to the NHL. The only thing the team had going for them was the state-of-the-art arena they played in, which was all but empty for nearly every game they played. This book chronicles the Barons’ two regrettable seasons—a case study in what happens when an ill-conceived professional sports team created in an expansion splurge is moved, in an effort to save it, to a city that doesn’t really want it.
Review Fix: WHY HOCKEY? WHAT MAKES THE SPORT SPECIAL TO YOU?
Gary Webster: To be totally honest, hockey is the major sport in which I have the least interest. It wasn’t always that way. I got interested in hockey in the late 1960s, and became a fan of the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League. I never saw a Barons game at the old Cleveland Arena, but I listened to games on the radio. When the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association arrived in the fall of 1972, and drove the Barons out of town, I followed them. I rarely missed a Crusaders game on the radio, and I saw one of the first games they played in the Richfield Coliseum on the night before Thanksgiving in 1974. But as the Crusaders floundered, my interest in them began to wane. I was as passionate as ever about the Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers, but hockey became an afterthought. I admit to not following the sport nearly as closely as I used to, especially since Cleveland hasn’t had a major league team since the Barons left, 46 years ago. And, as I mention in the book repeatedly, calling the Barons “major league” may have been a stretch. I watch NHL games on television, and check occasionally to see how Cleveland’s AHL team is doing, but I don’t pay as much attention to hockey as I did many years ago.
Review Fix: WHY THE BARONS?
Webster: You’ve probably noticed all but one of my books are Cleveland-centric, since it’s my hometown and I’ve lived here all my life. What interested me about the Barons is that I remember well their brief sojourn in northeastern Ohio. All the other stories I’ve told in my books took place before I was born. I was in my sophomore and junior years in college when the Barons were here. I didn’t pay much attention to them…like most Clevelanders…but their tale of woe unfolded during my early years as an adult. I found in the library in which I did the bulk of my research two books about the history of hockey in Cleveland, and both barely mentioned the NHL Barons, despite the fact they were the only major league hockey team northeastern Ohio has ever had. I remembered the Barons had been a train wreck, and I decided to find out why. I thought it would make an interesting story, and it was more fascinating than I could’ve hoped for. It was a perfect example of truth being stranger than fiction.
Review Fix: WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THE TEAM YOU WEREN’T EXPECTING?
Webster: It’s safe to say I didn’t expect just about everything I learned during my research. I remembered the team had been lousy on the ice. But the bulk of the story takes place off the ice. I was startled by how little the team’s owner, Mel Swig, knew about Cleveland (basically nothing) before deciding to move the California Golden Seals there. I didn’t know anything about what a wretched franchise the Golden Seals were. I’d forgotten how many times the Barons came within an eyelash of folding. I didn’t recall Cleveland’s complete lack of interest in the NHL. I wasn’t aware of all the hoops the Gund Brothers had to jump through in order to buy the Barons from Swig. I learned a great deal through my research.
Review Fix: WHO’S YOUR FAVORITE BARONS PLAYER OF ALL TIME?
Webster: That’s easy. Dennis Maruk. He was the only All-Star caliber player the Barons had. And, as pointed out in the book, Maruk did his homework. Unlike Swig, he studied the history of Cleveland sports, enough to know Clevelanders are a hard sell. Maruk knew Clevelanders had been indifferent to the Cavaliers when they were born in 1970, just as they were to the Barons when they arrived in 1976. Maruk was the Barons’ leading scorer both seasons of their existence, and scored four goals in one game. He has to be my favorite player.
Review Fix: WHAT PLAYER DID YOU GROW AN APPRECIATION FOR BY WRITING THIS BOOK?
Webster: Definitely Bob Stewart, the team’s player representative who conducted himself so graciously during the period in late January and most of February of 1977 when it appeared the team would fold. Stewart handled an unprecedented crisis calmly and somehow kept his teammates from imploding.
Review Fix: WILL OTHER NHL FANS DIG THIS ONE, TOO?
Webster: I think so. There are multiple sub-plots in the book, such as the fact the Barons weren’t the only NHL team on the brink of folding at the All-Star break in 1977. Several teams were in serious financial trouble. The Atlanta Flames (now in Calgary) had to hold an emergency season ticket drive in December of 1976 to raise enough cash to keep the team going for the rest of the season. The story of how the Golden Seals moved to Cleveland rather than Denver is told in detail. And how the Kansas City Scouts moved to Denver rather than Cleveland. I also go into detail as to how the Crusaders moved from Cleveland to St. Paul, struggled for a while, and then folded, as the WHA teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The period from 1976-78 was part of a chaotic time for major league hockey, and this book chronicles quite a bit of the chaos.
Review Fix: WHAT’S NEXT?
Webster: I’ve just finished an 80 page self published booklet on the history of the Cleveland Rebels of the Basketball Association of America, which eventually became the NBA. I’d like to write the histories of both the Portsmouth Spartans of the NFL (1930-1933, the predecessors of the Detroit Lions), and the Miami Seahawks of the All-America Football Conference. I became fascinated by the history of the dysfunctional Seahawks while writing my McFarland book about the AAFC.
Review Fix: WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND OUT MORE?
Webster: Contact me at [email protected]. My books are all available through McFarland.
Leave a Reply