September 27, 1948

The Cleveland Indians have yet to clinch a spot in the World Series, but that isn’t stopping fans around northern Ohio to make plans.

Last week Indians team president Bill Veeck announced that the organization would begin accepting World Series ticket requests by mail on Tuesday. No requests postmarked before 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 28 would be considered for tickets. Despite the newspaper and radio announcements clearly stating the rules, the ball club has already received 20,000 requests that have been returned to senders since they are too early.

Fans from out of Cleveland are fearful that even if they have an early postmark, they will be at the back of the line for ticket requests when it takes an extra day or two for their mail to get to Municipal Stadium. Some fans and their local postmasters have conspired together to give them the best chance of having their requests processed quickly.

Postmaster William Jenne of Elyria announced yesterday that any Elyrians may mail their letters at any time, taking care to attach a note stating their purpose. The postmaster promised all mail will be held until after tonight’s midnight deadline, then postmarked and immediately delivered.

According to Rudie Schaffer, business manager of the Cleveland Baseball Co., said any non-Clevelanders who promptly made their ticket request should still have it met.

“Not only the time of delivery but the postmark as well will be taken into consideration for out-of-town requests,” Schaffer said. “We realize that even the earliest postmark in another Ohio city would not reach us as quickly as an application mailed here. Everyone will have a fair chance.”

Thirty to 40% of the club’s supporters are nonresidents of Cuyahoga County, according to Schaffer, who said the ball club would see that these fans were not overlooked in the rush simply because their letters must travel a longer distance.

Around northern Ohio, however, postmasters are making special plans for the inundation of mail they are about to receive. Raymond Schryver, the Warren postmaster, said a special crew would be at work early Tuesday morning to process the requests. Joseph Ryan, postmaster of Willoughby, encouraged residents to mark their letters, “Baseball Requests,” so that letters could be postmarked and delivered as quickly as possible.

In Lorain, Postmaster W.J. Mortarity said no one had questioned him about special service, but he would be willing to withhold earlier mail until after midnight.

Although the Hudson post office does not open until 7 a.m. Postmaster William A. Ellsworth said, “Anything that is in the letter drop in the morning can be given a 12:01 postmark. We will go along with whatever scheme is best.”