Was Cleveland's 'Flagpole Sitter' the greatest baseball fan of all time?

Satchel Paige

The “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” cartoon last Thursday included an unusual sports-related item that I’d like to pass along to you this week. According to that syndicated feature, baseball fan Charley Lupica spent 117 days in 1949 on top of a 60-foot flagpole on top of his store. He did so to inspire his favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, and even missed the birth of one of his children during his stunt.

Lupica was a character and the New York Times even published his obituary when he died in a nursing home in 2002 at the age of 90. According to his obit, Lupica, who “may have been the ultimate baseball fan,” owned a grocery store and deli in Cleveland, and his stunt made him somewhat of a national celebrity. He hoped that his stunt would inspire the Indians to win the American League title and repeat as World Series champions.

In newspaper interviews later in life, Lupica said that he got the idea to climb the flagpole after he got into an argument with a group of New York Yankees fans. They kept on about how terrible the Indians were and predicted that the Yankees were going to walk all over them during the 1949 season. He told one of the Yankee fans, “If you love the Yankees so much, why don’t you move there.”

The Yankee fan replied by saying, “Well, if you like the Indians so much, who don’t you sit on a flagpole until you die up there.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Lupica erected a flagpole on top of his store and climbed to the top on May 31, where he’d affixed a platform. The platform was four-foot-square, and he said that he was going to stay up there until the Indians made it to first place or got eliminated from playoff contention. The Indians needed all the help they could get. They were seven-games behind the first-place Yankees when Lupica climbed his flagpole.

Lupica’s stunt gained so much attention that he felt like he had to stay on top of the flagpole to fulfill his promise. His photo appeared in LIFE magazine, and Mobile native Satchel Paige, who pitched for the Indians, even paid him a visit. Newspaper across the U.S. and in other countries also reported on his stunt.

Despite Lupica’s best efforts, the Yankees went on to win the American League title in 1949, beating their archrivals, the Boston Red Sox. Lupica remained atop the pole on Sept. 25, and the owner of the Cleveland Indians, Bill Veeck, had the flagpole cut down with Lupica still on top and had it transported to the baseball stadium by truck for Cleveland’s last home game. A crowd of over 34,000 was on hand, and Lupica came down from the flagpole amidst a standing ovation. He kissed home plate, and the Indians gave him a new car. That’s not bad for a guy who beforehand had been best known for owning the only grocery store in his neighborhood that was open after 6 p.m.

In 1997, Lupica and co-authors William Ellis and Nancy Schneider wrote a book about Lupica’s famous stunt called “The Story of Charley Lupica, the Cleveland Indians Flagpole Sitter.” I haven’t read it, but it must be pretty good because it’s sold out in all of the places I looked for it.

Lupica’s story is amusing, and I could see where it would inspire others to pull off such stunts in support of their teams. With that said, if you see any of our local Alabama or Auburn fans trying to climb a flagpole, we’ll at least know where they got the idea.