[MrNFL_FanIQ]

The Fourth Continental Baseball Federation World Series was to begin in Cleveland on Thursday, October 22, 1953. The Midwestern champion Spiders were the favorite at 109-53 compared to Atlanta at 90-72. Further sinking the Crackers with the oddsmakers was the injury to former MVP Wakefield O’Hara. The Atlanta outfielder suffered a strained oblique in game seven of the WSC, knocking him out for the duration of the Fall Classic. The two teams had met in inter-conference play in the regular season. They split two games in Cleveland in May (11-1 Spiders, 9-3 Crackers), then in July, Cleveland won 8-4 and 6-3 in Georgia.

Both starters, Emiliano Franco for the Spiders and Campbell Walker for the Crackers, went seven innings with one run allowed. Against Jed McConnell in the bottom of the eighth, the Spiders had a solo home run from Aden Reid and a RBI double from Timothy Pauley, giving Cleveland a 3-1 game one victory.



In game two, the star was 32-year old lefty Jurmen Trustfull of Curacao. He was one batter from a complete game shutout, allowing only two hits and two walks with six strikeouts in a 5-0 Atlanta win. It was 1-0 until the eighth when the Crackers broke through against starter Keenan Williams with Peter Winchel’s bases loaded double giving Atlanta cushion. The series was even 1-1 as it shifted south.



Game three saw Cleveland’s Esteban Valadez spin a gem, allowing five hits and one run with five strikeouts in a complete game victory. The Spiders won 5-1 as they were able to get four runs in the sixth against rookie Enos Kornreich, led by Ashton Walsh’s three-run dinger.



Atlanta evened the series up with a game four home win 5-1. The Crackers managed a five run, six hit third inning against Franco. Walker had another great start, allowing one run on five hits over 7.2 innings.



In game five, Jurmen Trustfull couldn’t replicate his game two effort, giving up eight runs, including a seven-run third as Cleveland won 11-4. The Spiders managed to scatter four runs despite allowing 11 hits. With that, Cleveland held a 3-2 series lead as the World Series would conclude back by Lake Erie.



Game six was a 50 degree Thursday afternoon in Cleveland. The Spiders went ahead with a solo home run in the first inning by Jared Diehl; an inside-the-park one no less. In the second, J.C. Ordaz narrowly cleared the right field fence for a 2-0 lead. In the sixth, Atlanta got on the board with a Peter Winchel RBI single that brought in Jace Forse.

Enos Kornreich’s final line was 6.1 innings, four hits, two earned runs; not bad. For Esteban Valadez, 7.1 innings, seven hits, one run, no walks, and six strikeouts. Up 2-1, David Vaquera recorded the final five outs, striking out four, getting the save and the 2-1 Cleveland win. With that, it was fun times in Cleveland again (still Cleveland!) with the Spiders winning their first World Series in six games.



The series MVP went to Atlanta’s Peter Winchel despite the defeat, but considering he had 14 hits and the best Spider had seven, you can understand the choice. In the first four seasons of the First League, there had now been four different World Series (and seven teams making up the eight slots).