ABOUT THE CLEVELAND FORESTERS

The final team to be added to the Border Association, the Cleveland Foresters club was founded in 1890 during the self-destructive three-way war between the Border Association, Century League and Peerless League. That the Foresters survived is a testament to owner Harold Marshall who refused to allow his club to fold. His resolve despite massive financial losses in the first two seasons of operation before his club - like many others - was saved by the formation of the FABL organization - shows how iron-willed Marshall could be. He was tough but fair and often generous to a fault with his players. Unfortunately for Marshall, his teams generally did not reflect their owner's toughness in their play. The Foresters won their first pennant in 1901 and then two more (1917 & 1920) while Marshall owned the team. Marshall felt the machinations of Max Morris in engineering a trade to St. Louis represented a fundamental betrayal and he began to distance himself from the players. In 1926, with his health beginning to fail, Marshall turned over the day-to-day management of the club to his nephew Charles Turnbow as club President, although Marshall remained the owner. When the elder Marshall passed away in 1928, his son Elmer took over. The mercurial Elmer Marshall became a controversial figure almost immediately.