CLEVELAND, Ohio - Indians play-by-play announcer Matt Underwood has produced "Addie Joss: Revealed," a documentary on the first of only two Cleveland pitchers to throw a perfect game.
Joss is an overdue documentary subject, a tragic hero and beloved teammate. His entire career - 1902 to 1910 - was spent in a Cleveland uniform. One of the franchise's greatest pitchers ever, he took the mound in one of the most memorable pitching duels, on Oct. 2, 1908. Joss was perfect as he threw only 74 pitches in a pennant-contending game against Chicago. (For more on the game, here is a story and box score.)
Underwood - who also wrote and narrated the documentary - has crafted an excellent, efficient look at Joss. With period music, great scholarship, smart interviews and classic photographs, the documentary covers Joss' brief life, career and the posthumous efforts to get him into the Hall of Fame. Current Indians pitchers also read brief quotes in austere tones.
Local historians Morris Eckhouse, special-projects coordinator for the Baseball Heritage Museum at League Park, and author Scott Longert are among those interviewed. Longert wrote "Addie Joss: King of the Pitchers," the definitive biography on Joss published in 1998.
Story by Marc Bona, Courtesy of cleveland.com