It was a humid July afternoon in 2015 and the skinny lefty on the mound at Canal Park was sweating along with everyone else.
Ryan Merritt had thrown 77 pitches for the RubberDucks and was on the verge of a no-hitter in the first game of a doubleheader against Reading’s Fightin Phils.
The baby-faced Texan reared back, stuck his tongue through his chewing gum as if to blow a bubble and unfurled his 78th. Crack! The batter lifted a lazy fly ball to the center fielder. Out!
Peter Nauman, a furniture sales representative from Cuyahoga Falls, and 6,586 others watched the no-hitter from the stands that day. He said he knew then that Merritt would soon be bumped up to the Cleveland Indians like so many other former RubberDucks and Aeros players.
Watching that process — players fighting their way from Akron’s minor-league team into the major leagues in Cleveland — has built an unusual pride in Akron that is not unlike the Rubber City’s unwavering affection for hometown hero LeBron James.
As the Indians begin the World Series on Tuesday, local fans know that more than half of the Indians’ roster — including Merritt — played ball in Akron. Canal Park spectators got to know these players before most other baseball fans even knew their names.
Last week, when Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista suggested that Merritt would be “shaking in his boots” while pitching in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series — his second career start with the Tribe — Nauman and others who had seen the pitcher throw in Akron confidently scoffed.
“Merritt’s stuff is so nasty, so unhittable,” Nauman said. “The guy is unshakable.”
Nauman was right. Merritt pitched more than four innings without the Blue Jays scoring a run, setting up the American League win that evening that sent the Indians to the World Series.
The RubberDucks bill themselves as affordable family fun.
General-admission tickets this year cost $5 in advance, $7 at the gate. Nearby parking is easy to find for free. On Thursdays, a draft beer or a soda cost $1. And kids can slide down a free giant, inflatable slide every night.
Some people visit Canal Park only to see an Indians player on the field, often recovering from an injury that sent him to the minor-league club to rehab.
But diehard fans come for something else.
Travis Weyand and his wife, Heather, live near Atwater Lake and drive an hour each way to use their season tickets.
They sit along the third-base line and feel like they’ve come to know such players as Francisco Lindor, Lonnie Chisenhall, Jose Ramirez and Mike Clevinger with his flowing red hair.
“Heather and I said this is like watching our kids,” Weyand said. “The whole [Indians] team is like our Akron guys, our boys we watched grow up.”
Danny Madden of Cuyahoga Falls works as an electrical engineer but moonlights as a writer covering the RubberDucks for the website didthetribewinlastnight.com.
At Canal Park, he’s witnessed the unflappable composure of pitcher Merritt, the grace of shortstop Lindor and outfielder Tyler Naquin’s unyielding love for the game.
After every game, the RubberDucks’ staff asks Madden who he wants to talk to and the players — most, not older than Madden, who is 25 — line up to talk.
Once, when Madden asked Merritt about his “impeccable control” of the ball, Merritt surprised him by saying he never thought of throwing the ball anywhere but over the plate when he was a boy in Texas. In Akron, Merritt was working hard on moving the ball around.
“Tyler Naquin was my favorite prospect in Akron,” Madden said. “It’s really cool to see him heading to the World Series because it feels like I’ve already seen him for such a long time.
Canal Park feels like a mini Progressive Field. There’s little distance between the fans and the RubberDucks — on or off the field.
The players sign autographs in the concourse and sometimes chat with fans who call out their names from the stands.
“You’re right there,” Nauman said. “I have been to high school games and didn’t have as good of seats.”
That intimacy builds bonds.
Nauman, 52, grew up in Illinois as a Chicago Cubs fans.
Last week, he was pulling for the Cubs to make the World Series. That would have made his father, who died a long-suffering Cubs fan, happy.
But Nauman’s heart now is with the Tribe.
“I have to cheer for my Indians,” he said, “and all my RubberDucks.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.