The
Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in
Cleveland
, Ohio
. They
are in the
Central Division
of
Major League Baseball's
American League.
Since , they have
played in Progressive
Field
(formerly Jacobs Field). The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear,
Arizona
. Since their establishment in 1901, the
Indians have won two
World Series
championships, in
1920 and
1948.
The "Indians" name originates from a request by the club owner to
decide a new name, following the 1914 season. In reference to the
Boston Braves (now the
Atlanta
Braves), the media chose "the Indians". They are
nicknamed "the Tribe" and "the
Wahoos". The latter is a reference to the mascot which appears in
the team's logos,
Chief Wahoo.
The Cleveland team originated in 1900 as the Lake Shores, when the
American League (AL) was officially a minor league. One of the AL's
eight charter franchises, the major league incarnation of the club
was founded in Cleveland in .
Originally called the Cleveland Blues, the
team played in League
Park
until moving permanently to Cleveland
Municipal Stadium
in . At the end of the 2009 season, they had
a regular season franchise record of 8,622–8,274 (.510). The
Indians have won seven
AL
Central titles, the most in the division.
Franchise history
Cleveland baseball prior to the Indians
During the
1869 season, Cleveland
was among several cities which established professional baseball
teams following the success of the 1869
Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first
fully professional team. In the newspapers before and after 1870,
the team was often called the
Forest Citys, in the same generic way
that the team from Chicago was sometimes called The Chicagos.
In
1871 the Forest Citys joined the
new
National
Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), the first
professional league. Ultimately, two of the league's western clubs
went out of business during the first season and the
Chicago Fire left that city's
White Stockings impoverished, unable to
field a team again until
1874.
Cleveland was thus the NA's westernmost outpost in
1872, the year the club folded. Cleveland
played their full schedule to
July 19
followed by two games versus Boston in mid-August and disbanded at
the end of the season.
In
1876, the
National League (NL) supplanted the NA as
the major professional league. Cleveland was not among its charter
members, but by
1879 the league was
looking for new entries and the city gained an NL team. The
Cleveland Blues had a mediocre
record for six seasons and were ruined by a trade war with the
Union Association (UA) in
1884, when its three best players (
Fred Dunlap,
Jack
Glasscock, and
Jim McCormick)
jumped to the UA after being offered higher salaries. The St Louis
UA team replaced Cleveland in the NA in
1885.
Cleveland went without major league baseball for two seasons until
gaining a team in the
American Association
(AA) in
1887. After the AA's
Allegheny club jumped to the NL
Cleveland followed suit in
1889, as
the AA began to crumble. The Cleveland ballclub, nicknamed the
Spiders (supposedly inspired by
their "skinny and spindly" players) slowly became a power in the
league.
The Spiders survived a challenge for fans from the
Cleveland Infants, an entry in the
one-season
Players' League in
1890.
The next year the
Spiders moved into League
Park
, which would serve as the home of Cleveland
professional baseball for the next 55 years. Led by native
Ohioan
Cy Young, the Spiders became a
contender in the mid-1890s, when they played in the
Temple Cup Series (that era's World Series)
twice, winning it in
1895.
The team
began to fade after this success, and was dealt a severe blow under
the ownership of the Robison brothers
.
The Robisons, despite already owning the Spiders, were allowed to
acquire a controlling interest in the
St. Louis Cardinals franchise in
1899. They proceeded to strip the
Cleveland team of its best players (including Young) to help fill
the St. Louis roster. The St. Louis team improved to finish with a
winning record. The Spiders were left with essentially a minor
league lineup, and began to lose games at a record pace. Drawing
almost no fans at home, they ended up playing most of their season
on the road, and became known as "The Wanderers." The team ended
the season in 12th place, 84 games out of first place, with an
all-time worst record of 20 wins and 134 losses. Following the 1899
season, the National League disbanded four teams, including the
Cleveland franchise. The disastrous 1899 season would actually be a
step toward a new future for Cleveland fans the next year.
1901–1946: Early to middle history of the franchise
Old Cleveland Indians logo
Seeking to
capitalize on general public disillusionment with the National
League, Ban Johnson changed the name of
his minor league, the Western
League, to the American League
and shifted the WL's Grand Rapids club to Cleveland, taking over
League
Park
in 1900 as the Cleveland Lake Shores.
Although still a minor league, the new organization was ready to
make its move. In 1901 the American League broke with the National
Agreement and declared itself a competing Major League. The
Cleveland franchise was among its eight charter members.
The new team was owned by coal magnate
Charles Somers and tailor Jack Kilfoyl.
Somers, a wealthy industrialist and also co-owner of the
Boston Americans, lent money to other team
owners, including
Connie
Mack's
Philadelphia Athletics,
to keep them and the new league afloat. For its first season as a
major league team, it was nicknamed the "Bluebirds," but the
players didn't think the nickname was suitable for a baseball team.
Writers frequently shortened it to "Blues" due to the players'
all-blue uniforms, but the players didn't like this name either.
They tried to change the name themselves to "Bronchos," but this
name never caught on.
The Blues suffered from financial problems in their first two
seasons.
This led Somers to seriously consider moving
to either Pittsburgh
or Cincinnati
. Relief came in as a result of the conflict
between the National and American Leagues. In 1901,
Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the
Philadelphia Phillies' star
second baseman, jumped to the A's after his
contract was capped at $2,400 per year—one of the highest-profile
players to jump to the upstart AL.
The Phillies subsequently filed an
injunction to force Lajoie's return, which was granted by the
Pennsylvania
Supreme Court
. The injunction appeared to doom any hopes
of an early settlement between the warring leagues. However, a
lawyer discovered that the injunction was only enforceable in the
state of Pennsylvania.
Mack, partly to thank Somers for his past financial support, agreed
to trade Lajoie to the then-moribund Blues, who offered $25,000
salary over three years. Due to the injunction, however, Lajoie had
to sit out any games played against the A's in Philadelphia. Lajoie
arrived in Cleveland on June 4 and was an immediate hit, drawing
10,000 fans to League Park. Soon afterward, he was named team
captain, and the team was renamed the "Naps" after a newspaper
conducted a write-in contest.
Lajoie was named manager in , and the team's fortunes improved
somewhat. They finished half a game short of the pennant in 1908.
However, the success did not last and Lajoie resigned during the
1909 season as manager but remained on as a player.
After that, the team began to unravel, leading Kilfoyl to sell his
share of the team to Somers.
Cy Young who
returned to Cleveland in 1909, was ineffective for most of his
three remaining years and
Addie Joss died
from tubercular meningitis prior to the season.
Despite a strong lineup anchored by the potent Lajoie and
Shoeless Joe Jackson, poor pitching
kept the team below third place for most of the next decade. One
reporter referred to the team as the Napkins, "because they fold up
so easily" while others called them the "Molly McGuires" as a play
on their manager's name,
Deacon
McGuire. The team hit bottom in 1914 and 1915, finishing in the
cellar both years.
1915 brought significant changes to the team. Lajoie, nearly 40
years old was no longer a top hitter in the league, batting only
.258 in 1914. With Lajoie engaged in a feud with manager
Joe Birmingham, the team sold Lajoie back to
Philadelphia.
With Lajoie gone, the Naps now needed a new nickname. Somers asked
the local newspapers to come up with a new name, and they chose
"Indians". Legend has it that the team honored
Louis Sockalexis when it assumed its
current name in 1915. Sockalexis, a
Native American, had
played in Cleveland 1897–99. Research indicates that this legend is
mostly untrue, and that the new name was a play on the name of the
Boston Braves, then known as the
"Miracle Braves" after going from last place on
July 4 to a sweep in the
1914 World Series. Proponents of the name
acknowledged that the
Cleveland
Spiders of the
National League
had sometimes been informally called the "Indians" during
Sockalexis' short career there, a fact which merely reinforced the
new name.
At the same time, Somers' business ventures began to fail, leaving
him deeply in debt. With the Indians playing poorly, attendance and
revenue suffered. Somers decided to trade Jackson midway through
the 1915 season for two players and $31,500, one of the largest
sums paid for a player at the time.
By , Somers was at the end of his tether and sold the team to a
syndicate headed by Chicago railroad contractor James C. "Jack"
Dunn. Manager Lee Fohl, who had taken over in early 1915, acquired
two minor league pitchers,
Stan
Coveleski and
Jim Bagby and
traded for center fielder
Tris Speaker,
who was engaged in a salary dispute with the
Red Sox. All three would ultimately become
key players in bringing a championship to Cleveland.
Speaker took over the reins as
player-manager in , and would lead the team
to a championship in 1920.
On August 16, the Indians were playing the
Yankees at the Polo
Grounds
in New York. Shortstop
Ray Chapman, who often crowded the plate, was
batting against
Carl Mays, who had an
unusual underhand delivery. It was also late in the afternoon and
the infield would have been in shadow with the center field area
(the batters' background) bathed in sunlight. In any case, Chapman
did not move reflexively when Mays' pitch came his way. The pitch
hit Chapman in the head, fracturing his skull. Chapman died the
next day, becoming the only player to sustain a fatal injury from a
pitched ball. The Indians, who at the time were locked in a tight
three-way pennant race with the Yankees and White Sox, were not
slowed down by the death of their teammate. Rookie
Joe Sewell hit .329 after replacing Chapman in
the lineup.
In September 1920, the
Black Sox
Scandal came to a boil. With just a few games left in the
season, and Cleveland and Chicago neck-and-neck for first place at
94–54 and 95–56 respectively, the Chicago owner suspended eight
players. The White Sox lost 2 of 3 in their final series, while
Cleveland won 4 and lost 2 in their final two series. Cleveland
finished 2 games ahead of Chicago and 3 games ahead of the Yankees
to win its first pennant, led by Speaker's .388
hitting, Jim Bagby's 30
victories and solid performances from
Steve O'Neill and Stan Coveleski.
Cleveland went on to defeat the
Brooklyn Robins 5–2 in the
World Series for their first title,
winning four games in a row after the Robins took a 2–1 Series
lead. The Series included three memorable "firsts", all of them in
Game 5 at Cleveland, and all by the home team. In the first inning,
right fielder
Elmer Smith hit the
first Series grand slam. In the fourth inning,
Jim Bagby hit the first Series home run by a
pitcher. And in the top of the fifth inning, second baseman
Bill Wambsganns executed the first
(and only, so far) unassisted triple play in World Series history,
in fact the only Series triple play of any kind.
The team would not reach the heights of 1920 again for 28 years.
Speaker and Coveleski were aging and the Yankees were rising with a
new weapon:
Babe Ruth and the
home run. They managed two second-place finishes
but spent much of the decade in the cellar. In 1927 Dunn's widow,
Mrs. George Pross (Dunn had died in 1922), sold the team to a
syndicate headed by
Alva Bradley.
The Indians were a middling team by the 1930s, finishing third or
fourth most years.
brought Cleveland a new superstar in 17-year
old pitcher Bob Feller, who came from
Iowa
with a dominating fastball. That season, Feller set a record
with 17 strikeouts in a single game and went on to lead the league
in strikeouts from 1938–1941. By , Feller, along with
Ken Keltner,
Mel
Harder and
Lou Boudreau led the
Indians to within one game of the pennant. However, the team was
wracked with dissension, with some players (including Feller and
Mel Harder) going so far as to request
that Bradley fire manager
Ossie Vitt.
Reporters lampooned them as the Cleveland Crybabies. Feller, who
had pitched a
no-hitter to open the season
and won 27 games, lost the final game of the season to unknown
pitcher Floyd Giebell of the
Detroit
Tigers. The Tigers won the pennant and Giebell never won
another major league game.
Cleveland entered 1941 with a young team and a new manager;
Roger Peckinpaugh had replaced the
despised Vitt; but the team regressed, finishing in fourth.
Cleveland would soon be depleted of two stars.
Hal Trosky retired in 1941 due to migraine
headaches and Bob Feller enlisted in the Navy two days after the Attack on
Pearl Harbor
. Starting third baseman
Ken Keltner and outfielder
Ray Mack were both drafted in 1945 taking two more
starters out of the lineup.
1947–1959
In
Bill Veeck formed an investment group
that purchased the Cleveland Indians from Bradley's group for a
reported $1.6 million. Among the investors was
Bob Hope, who had grown up in Cleveland, and former
Tigers slugger,
Hank Greenberg.A
former owner of a minor league franchise in Milwaukee, Veeck
brought to Cleveland a gift for promotion. At one point, Veeck
hired rubber-faced
Max Patkin, the "Clown
Prince of Baseball" as a coach. Patkin's appearance in the coaching
box was the sort of promotional stunt that delighted fans but
infuriated the American League front office.
Recognizing that he had acquired a solid
team, Veeck soon abandoned the aging, small and lightless League
Park to take up full-time residence in massive Cleveland
Municipal Stadium
. Prior to 1947 the Indians played most of
their games at League Park, and occasionally played weekend games
at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. League Park was demolished in 1951,
although a portion of the original ticket booth remains.
Making the most of the cavernous stadium, Veeck had a portable
center field fence installed, which he could move in or out
depending on how the distance favored the Indians against their
opponents in a given series. The fence moved as much as between
series opponents. Following the 1947 season, the American League
countered with a rule change that fixed the distance of an outfield
wall for the duration of a season. The massive stadium did,
however, permit the Indians to set the then record for the largest
crowd to see a Major League baseball game. On October 10, 1948,
Game 5 of the
World Series against
the
Boston Braves drew over
84,000.
The record stood until the Los Angeles Dodgers drew a crowd in
excess of 92,500 to watch Game 5 of the 1959 World Series at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum
against the Chicago
White Sox.
Under Veeck's leadership, one of Cleveland's most significant
achievements was breaking the
color
barrier in the
American League
by signing
Larry Doby, formerly a player
for the Negro League's
Newark Eagles
in , eleven weeks after
Jackie
Robinson signed with the
Dodgers. Similar to Robinson, Doby battled
racism on and off the field but posted a .301 batting average in
1948, his first full season. A power-hitting center fielder, Doby
led the American League twice in homers.
In 1948, needing pitching for the stretch run of the pennant race,
Veeck turned to the
Negro League again
and signed pitching great
Satchel
Paige amid much controversy. Barred from Major League Baseball
during his prime, Veeck's signing of the aging star in 1948 was
viewed by many as another publicity stunt. At an official age of
42, Paige became the oldest rookie in Major League baseball
history, and the first black pitcher. Paige soon proved he could
still pitch and ended the year with a 6–1 record with a 2.48 ERA,
45 strikeouts and two shutouts.
In , veterans Boudreau, Keltner, and
Joe
Gordon had career offensive seasons, while newcomers
Larry Doby and
Gene
Bearden also had standout seasons. The team went down to the
wire with the
Boston Red Sox, winning
a one-game playoff, the first in American League history, to go to
the World Series. In the series, the Indians defeated the Boston
Braves four games to two for their first championship in 28 years.
Boudreau won the
American League
MVP Award.
The Indians would appear in a film the following
year titled
The Kid From Cleveland, in which
Veeck had an interest. The film portrayed the team helping out a
"troubled teenaged fan" and featured many members of the Indians
organization. However, filming during the season cost the players
valuable rest days leading to fatigue towards the end of the
season. That season, Cleveland again contended before falling to
third place. On September 23, 1949, Bill Veeck and the Indians
buried their 1948 pennant in center field the day after they were
mathematically eliminated from the pennant race.
Later in 1949, Veeck's first wife (who had a half-stake in Veeck's
share of the team) divorced him. With most of his money tied up in
the Indians, Veeck was forced to sell the team to a syndicate
headed by insurance magnate Ellis Ryan. Ryan was forced out in in
favor of Myron Wilson, who in turn gave way to William Daley in .
Despite this turnover in the ownership, a powerhouse team composed
of Feller, Doby,
Minnie Miñoso,
Luke Easter,
Bobby Avila,
Al Rosen,
Early Wynn,
Bob
Lemon, and
Mike Garcia
continued to contend through the early 1950s. However, Cleveland
only won a single pennant in the decade, finishing second to the
New York Yankees five times.
The best season in franchise history came in , when the Indians
finished the season with a record of 111-43 (.721). That mark set
an American League record for wins which stood for 44 years until
the
New York Yankees won 114 games
in 1998. The Indians 1954 winning percentage of .721 is still an
American League record. The Indians returned to the
World Series to face the
New York Giants. The team could not
bring home the title, however, ultimately being upset by the Giants
in a sweep. The series was notable for
Willie Mays' famous
over-the-shoulder catch off the bat of
Vic Wertz in Game 1.
1960–1993: The 30-year slump
From 1960 to 1993, the Indians managed one third-place and five
fourth-place finishes but spent the rest of the time in the
American League cellar. The Indians hired General Manager
Frank Lane, known as "Trader" Lane away from St.
Louis in 1957. Lane had gained a reputation as a GM who loved to
make deals over the years. With the White Sox, Lane made over 100
trades involving over 400 players in seven years. In a short stint
in St. Louis, he traded away
Red
Schoendienst and
Harvey Haddix.
Lane summed up his philosophy when he said that the only deals he
regretted were the ones that he didn't make.
Arriving after the 1957 season, one of Lane's early trades was to
send
Roger Maris to Kansas City in the
middle of 1958. Indians executive
Hank
Greenberg was not happy about the trade and neither was Maris,
who said that he couldn't stand Lane. After Maris broke Babe Ruth's
home run record, Lane defended himself by saying he still would
have done the deal because Maris was unknown and he received good
ballplayers in exchange.
After the Maris trade, Lane acquired 25-year old
Norm Cash from the White Sox for
Minnie Miñoso and then traded him to
Detroit before he ever played a game for the Indians. Cash went on
to hit over 350 home runs for the Tigers. The Indians received
Steve Demeter in the deal, who would
have only five at bats for Cleveland.
The curse of Rocky Colavito
In 1960, Lane made the trade that would define his tenure in
Cleveland when he dealt slugging right fielder and fan favorite
Rocky Colavito.Just before
Opening Day in , Colavito was traded to the
Detroit Tigers for
Harvey Kuenn. It was a blockbuster trade that
swapped the AL home run co-champion (Colavito) for the AL batting
champion (Kuenn). After the trade, Colavito hit over 30 home runs
four times and made three All Star Teams for Detroit, and later the
Kansas City Athletics, before
returning to Cleveland in . Kuenn, on the other hand, would play
only one season for the Indians before departing in a trade for an
aging
Johnny Antonelli and
Willie Kirkland.
Akron Beacon Journal columnist
Terry Pluto documented the decades of
woe that followed the trade in his book
The Curse of Rocky
Colavito. Despite being attached to the curse, Colavito
said that he never placed a curse on the Indians but that the trade
was prompted by a salary dispute with Lane.
Lane also engineered a unique trade of managers in mid-season 1960,
sending
Joe Gordon to the Tigers in
exchange for
Jimmy Dykes. Lane left the
team in 1961, but the trades continued. In 1965, the Indians traded
pitcher
Tommy John, who would go on to
win 288 games in his career, and 1966 Rookie of the Year
Tommy Agee to the White Sox to get Colavito back.
Lou Piniella, the 1969 Rookie of the
Year and
Luis Tiant, who was selected to
two All-Star games after leaving, both left. At one point,
Cleveland even traded
Harry Chiti to the
New York Mets, only to receive him
back as the player to be named later after 15 days.
The 1970s were little better with the Indians trading away several
future stars, including
Graig Nettles,
Dennis Eckersley,
Buddy Bell and 1971 Rookie of the year
Chris Chambliss, for a number of players who
made no impact.
Constant ownership changes did not help the Indians. In 1963,
Daley's syndicate sold the team to a group headed by general
manager
Gabe Paul. Three years later, Paul
sold the Indians to
Vernon Stouffer,
of the
Stouffer's frozen-food empire.
Prior to Stouffer's purchase, the team was rumored to be relocated
due to poor attendance. Despite the potential for a financially
strong owner, Stouffer had some non-baseball related financial
setbacks and consequently, the team was cash-poor.
In order to solve
some financial problems, Stouffer had made an agreement to play a
minimum of 30 home games in New Orleans
with a possible move there. After rejecting
an offer from
George
Steinbrenner and former Indian
Al
Rosen, Stouffer sold the team in 1972 to a group led by
Cleveland Cavaliers and
Cleveland Barons owner
Nick Mileti. Steinbrenner went on to buy
the New York Yankees in 1973.
Only five years later, Mileti's group sold the team for $11 million
to a syndicate headed by trucking magnate
Steve O'Neill and which
included Gabe Paul, who had been an executive with the Indians,
Reds and Yankees. O'Neill's death in 1983 led to the team going on
the market once more. His son, Patrick O'Neill, did not find a
buyer until real estate magnates
Richard and David Jacobs purchased the team
in 1986.
The team was unable to move out of the cellar with losing seasons
between 1969 and 1975. One highlight was the acquisition of
Gaylord Perry in . The Indians traded
fireballer
'Sudden Sam' McDowell for
Perry, who became the first Indian pitcher to win the
Cy Young Award. In , Cleveland broke another
color barrier with the hiring of
Frank
Robinson as Major League Baseball's first
African American manager. Robinson served
as player-manager and would provide a franchise highlight when he
hit a
pinch hit home run on
Opening Day. But the high profile signing of
Wayne Garland, a 20-game winner in
Baltimore, proved to be a disaster
after Garland suffered from shoulder problems and went 28–48 over
five years. The team failed to improve with Robinson as manager and
he was fired in . In 1977, pitcher
Dennis Eckersley threw a no-hitter against
the
California Angels. The next
season, he would be dealt to the
Boston
Red Sox where he won 20 games in 1978 and another 17 in 1979.
The 1970s also featured the infamous
Ten Cent Beer Night at Cleveland
Municipal Stadium. The ill-conceived promotion at a game against
the
Texas Rangers ended in
a riot by fans and a forfeit by the Indians.
There were more bright spots in the 1980s. In May 1981,
Len Barker threw a
perfect game against the
Toronto Blue Jays, joining Addie Joss as
the only other Indian pitcher to do so.
"Super Joe" Charbonneau won the
American League
Rookie of the Year award. Unfortunately, Charboneau was out of
baseball by 1983 after falling victim to back injuries and Barker,
who was also hampered by injuries, never became a consistently
dominant starting pitcher.
Eventually, the Indians traded Barker to the
Atlanta Braves for
Brett Butler and
Brook Jacoby, who would become mainstays of the
team for the remainder of the decade. Butler and Jacoby were joined
by
Joe Carter,
Mel
Hall,
Julio Franco and
Cory Snyder, which brought new hope to fans in
the late 1980s.
After a rare winning season in ,
Sports Illustrated, with Carter and
Snyder pictured on the cover, boldly predicted the Indians to win
the
American League East in .
Instead, the team went on to lose 101 games and finish with the
worst record in baseball, a fate attributed to the
Sports Illustrated cover
jinx.
Cleveland's struggles over the 30-year span were highlighted in the
1989 film
Major League,
which comically depicted a hapless Cleveland ball club going from
worst to first by the end of the film.
Organizational turnaround
Throughout the 1980s, Indians owners had pushed for a new stadium.
Cleveland Stadium had been a symbol of the Indians' glory years in
the 1940s and 1950s. However, during the lean years even crowds of
40,000 were swallowed up by the cavernous environment. The old
stadium was not aging gracefully; chunks of concrete were falling
off in sections and the old wooden pilings now petrified. In 1984,
a proposal for a $150 million domed stadium was defeated in a
referendum 2–1.
Finally,
in May 1990, Cuyahoga County
voters passed an excise
tax on sales of alcohol and cigarettes in the county.
The tax
proceeds would be used to finance the building of the Gateway
Sports and Entertainment Complex
which would include Jacobs Field
and Gund Arena
for the Cleveland
Cavaliers basketball team. The team had new ownership
and a new stadium on the way. They now needed a winning team.
The team's fortunes started to turn in , ironically with a very
unpopular trade. The team sent power-hitting outfielder
Joe Carter to the
San
Diego Padres for two unproven players,
Sandy Alomar, Jr. and
Carlos Baerga. Alomar made an immediate
impact, not only being elected to the
All-Star team but
also winning Cleveland's fourth
Rookie of the Year award and a
Gold Glove. Baerga would become a
three-time All-Star with consistent offensive production.
Indians general manager
John
Hart made a number of moves that would finally bring success to
the team. In , he hired former Indian
Mike
Hargrove to
manage and traded
catcher
Eddie Taubensee to the
Houston Astros who, with a surplus of
outfielders, were willing to part with
Kenny Lofton. Lofton finished second in AL
Rookie of the Year balloting with a .285 average and 66
stolen bases.
The Indians were named "Organization of the Year" by Baseball
America in 1992, in response to the appearance of offensive bright
spots and an improving
farm system.
The team suffered a tragedy during
spring training of , when a boat carrying
pitchers
Steve Olin,
Tim Crews, and
Bob Ojeda
crashed into a pier. Olin and Crews were killed, and Ojeda was
seriously injured. (Ojeda missed most of the season, and would
retire the following year).
By the end of the 1993 season, the team was in transition, leaving
Cleveland Stadium and fielding a talented nucleus of young players.
Many of those players came from the Indians' new
AAA farm team, the
Charlotte Knights, who won the
International League title that
year.
1994–2000: A new beginning
Indians General Manager
John
Hart and team owner
Richard
Jacobs managed to turn the team's fortunes around.
The Indians opened
Jacobs
Field
in 1994 with the aim of improving on the prior
season's sixth-place finish. The Indians were only one game
behind the division-leading
Chicago
White Sox on August 12 when a
players strike wiped out
the rest of the season. The strike also led to an absurdity:
The Minnesota Twins
traded
Dave Winfield to the
Cleveland Indians for a player
to be named later just before the season was officially canceled,
so no player was named. To settle the deal, the executives of the
teams went out to dinner, and Cleveland picked up the tab, meaning
that the future Hall-of-Famer had been dealt for dinner.
1995 season: A first since 1954
Having contended for the division in the aborted 1994 season,
Cleveland sprinted to a 100–44 record (18 games were lost to
player/owner negotiations) in 1995 winning its first ever
divisional title. Veterans
Dennis
Martinez,
Orel Hershiser and
Eddie Murray combined with a young core
of players including
Albert Belle,
Jim Thome,
Manny Ramírez and
Charles Nagy to lead the league in team
batting average as well as team
ERA.
After defeating the
Boston Red Sox in
the
Division
Series and the
Seattle Mariners
in the
ALCS, Cleveland
clinched a
World Series berth, for the
first time since 1954. The World Series ended in disappointment
with the Indians falling in six games to the
Atlanta Braves. The Indians repeated as AL
Central champions in , but lost to the
Baltimore Orioles in the
Division Series.
Notably in 1996, tickets for every home game for the Indians sold
out within 10 minutes of going on sale.
1997 season: Two outs away
In 1997 Cleveland started slow but finished with an 86–75 record.
Taking their third consecutive AL Central title, the Indians
defeated the heavily-favored
New York
Yankees in the
Division Series, 3–2.
After defeating the Baltimore Orioles in the
ALCS, Cleveland
went on to face the
Florida Marlins
in the
World Series which featured
the coldest game in World Series history. With the series tied
after game six, the Indians went into the ninth inning of Game 7
with a 2–1 lead, but closer
Jose Mesa
allowed the Marlins to tie the game. In the eleventh inning,
Edgar Rentería drove in the
winning run giving the Marlins their first championship.
Cleveland became the first team to lose the World Series after
carrying the lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of the
seventh game. In his 2002 autobiography, Indians shortstop
Omar Vizquel blamed Jose Mesa for the loss,
which led to a feud between the players.
1998-2000
In , the Indians made the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
After defeating the wild-card Boston Red Sox three games to one in
the
first round of
the playoffs, Cleveland lost the
1998 ALCS in six
games to the New York Yankees, who had come into the playoffs with
114 wins in the regular season.
For the season, Cleveland added relief pitcher
Ricardo Rincón and
Roberto Alomar, brother of catcher Sandy
Alomar, and won the Central Division title for its fifth
consecutive playoff appearance. The team scored 1,009 runs,
becoming the first (and to date only) team since the 1950 Boston
Red Sox to score more than 1,000 runs in a season. This time,
Cleveland did not make it past the first round, losing the
Division Series to the
Red Sox, despite taking a two-games-to-none lead in the series. In
game three, Indians starter Dave Burba went down with an injury in
the 4th inning. Four pitchers, including presumed game four starter
Jaret Wright, surrendered nine runs in
relief. Without a long reliever or emergency starter on the playoff
roster, Hargrove started both
Bartolo
Colón and
Charles Nagy in games
four and five on only three days rest. The Indians lost game four
23–7 and game five 12–8. Four days later, Hargrove was dismissed as
manager.
In , the Indians had a 44–42 start, but caught fire after the All
Star break and went 46–30 the rest of the way to finish 90–72. The
team had one of the league's best offenses that year and a defense
that yielded three gold gloves. However, they ended up five games
behind the
Chicago White Sox in
the Central division and missed the
wild card by one game to the
Seattle Mariners. Mid-season trades brought
Bob Wickman and
Jake Westbrook to Cleveland, and free agent
Manny Ramírez departed for Boston
after the season.
The Indians set a Major League record for most pitchers used in a
single season. Colon, Burba, and
Chuck
Finley posted strong seasons, and the bullpen was solid. But
with Jaret Wright and Charles Nagy spending months on the disabled
list, the team could not solidify the final two spots in the
rotation. Other starting pitchers that season combined for a total
of 346 2/3 innings and 265 earned runs for an ERA of 6.88.
In 2000,
Larry Dolan bought the Indians
for $320 million from Richard Jacobs, who, along with his late
brother David, had paid $45 million for the club in 1986. The sale
set a record at the time for the sale of a baseball
franchise.
2001–present: The Shapiro years
saw a return to the playoffs. After the departures of Manny Ramírez and Sandy Alomar, Jr., the Indians signed former MVP Juan González, who helped the Indians win the Central division with a 91–71 record.
One of the highlights came on August 5, 2001, when the Indians
completed the biggest comeback in MLB History. Cleveland rallied to
close a 14–2 deficit in the sixth inning to defeat the
Seattle Mariners 15–14 in 11 innings. The
Mariners, who won a record 116 games that season, had a strong
bullpen, and Indians manager
Charlie
Manuel had already pulled many of his starters with the game
seemingly out of reach.
Seattle and Cleveland met in the
first round of the
playoffs, with the Indians taking a two-games-to-one lead.
However, with Freddy Garcia, Jamie Moyer and a strong bullpen, the
Mariners won Games 4 and 5 to deny the Indians their first playoff
series victory since 1998.
In the 2001 offseason, GM
John
Hart resigned and his assistant
Mark
Shapiro took the reins. Shapiro moved to rebuild by dealing
aging veterans for younger talent. He traded
Roberto Alomar to the
New York Mets for a package that included
outfielder
Matt Lawton and prospects
Alex Escobar and
Billy Traber. When the team fell out of
contention in mid- , Shapiro fired manager
Charlie Manuel and traded pitching ace
Bartolo Colón for prospects
Brandon Phillips,
Cliff Lee, and
Grady
Sizemore; acquired
Travis Hafner
from the
Rangers for
Ryan Drese and
Einar Diaz; and picked up
Coco Crisp from the
St. Louis Cardinals for aging starter
Chuck Finley.
Jim
Thome left after the season, going to the Phillies for a larger
contract.
Young Indians teams finished far out of contention in 2002 and
under new manager
Eric Wedge. They posted
strong offensive numbers in , but continued to struggle with a
bullpen that blew more than 20
saves. A
highlight of the season was a 22–0 victory over the
New York Yankees on
August 31, one of the worst defeats suffered by
the Yankees in team history.
In early , the offense got off to a poor start. After a brief July
slump, the Indians caught fire in August, and cut a 15.5 game
deficit in the Central Division down to 1.5 games. However, the
season came to a end as the Indians went on to lose six of their
last seven games, five of them by one run, missing the playoffs by
only two games.
The next season,
the club made several roster changes, while retaining its nucleus
of young players. The off-season was highlighted by the acquisition
of top prospect
Andy Marté from the
Boston Red Sox. The Indians had a
solid offensive season, led by career years from
Travis Hafner and
Grady Sizemore. Hafner, despite missing the
last month of the season, tied the single season
grand slam record of six, which was
set in by
Don Mattingly. Despite the
solid offensive performance, the bullpen struggled with 23 blown
saves (a Major League worst), and
the Indians finished a disappointing fourth.

Indians fans celebrate as the team
clinches the 2007 division title
In , Shapiro signed veteran help for the bullpen and outfield in
the offseason. Veterans
Aaron Fultz, and
Joe Borowski joined
Rafael Betancourt in the Indians bullpen.
Shapiro also signed right fielder
Trot
Nixon and left fielder
David
Dellucci to short-term contracts for veteran leadership. The
Indians improved significantly over the prior year and went into
the All-Star break in second place. The team brought back
Kenny Lofton for his third stint with the team
in late July. The Indians finished with a 96–66 record tied with
the Red Sox for best in baseball, their seventh Central Division
title in 13 years and their first post-season trip since
2001.
The Indians began their playoff run by defeating the New York
Yankees in the
American League Division
Series three games to one, and jumped out to a
three-games-to-one lead over the Red Sox in the
American League
Championship Series. The season ended in disappointment when
Boston swept the final three games to advance to the
2007 World Series.
Despite the loss, Cleveland players took home a number of awards.
Grady Sizemore, who had a .995
fielding percentage and only two
errors in 405 chances, won the
Gold Glove award, Cleveland's
first since 2001. Indians Pitcher
CC
Sabathia won the second
Cy Young
Award in team history with a 19–7 record, a 3.21 ERA and an
MLB-leading 241
innings pitched.
Eric Wedge was awarded the first
Manager of the Year Award in team
history.
The Indians struggled during the 2008 season. Injuries to sluggers
Travis Hafner and
Victor Martinez, as well as
starting pitchers
Jake Westbrook and
Fausto Carmona led to a poor start.
The Indians, falling to last place for a short time in June and
July, traded
CC Sabathia to the
Milwaukee Brewers. However, amid the
mediocrity, some key players, such as shortstop
Jhonny Peralta and catcher
Kelly Shoppach, who took over starting duties
after Martinez was injured, began to shine. Pitcher
Cliff Lee went 22-3 with an ERA of 2.54 and earned
the AL Cy Young Award.
Grady Sizemore
had a career year, winning a
Gold Glove
and
Silver Slugger, and the Indians
finished with a record of 81-81.
The team announced on September 30, 2009, that Eric Wedge and all
of the team's coaching staff would be released at the end of the
2009 season.
Manny Acta was hired as the
team's 40th manager on October 25, 2009.
Season-by-season results
Uniforms
- See also: Major League Baseball#MLB
uniforms (including image of baseball-cap logos of the 30 MLB
franchises)
The Indians' home uniform is white with navy piping around the neck
and down either side of the buttons on the front of the jersey; the
navy piping is also located around each sleeve. Across the front of
the jersey in script font is the word "Indians" in red with a navy
and white outline. The jersey has the Chief Wahoo logo on the left
sleeve. The home cap is navy with a red bill and features the Chief
Wahoo logo on the front.
The road uniform is gray with identical piping to the home jersey.
The word "Cleveland" in red script font is placed on the front of
the jersey, also with a blue and white outline. Like the home
uniform, the Chief Wahoo logo is located on the left sleeve. The
road cap is entirely navy with the Chief Wahoo logo on the
front.
The alternate home uniform is new for the 2008 season. It is cream
in color with "Indians" across the front in red block lettering
with a dark navy outline. The Chief Wahoo logo is located on the
left sleeve. This jersey is the only Indians jersey to not have the
players' names on the back. The alternate home cap is dark navy
with a red block "C" on the front. This uniform is worn during
weekend and holiday home games.
The alternate road jersey is blue with white piping around the neck
and down either side of the buttons on the front of the jersey; the
white piping is also located around each sleeve. Script "Indians"
is located across the front of the jersey in the same fashion as
the home uniform; the Chief Wahoo logo is on the left sleeve. The
alternate road cap is navy with a script "I" on the front. The blue
jersey is also worn during Tuesday home games with the standard
home cap.
In the 2009 season, the team wore a patch on the right sleeve of
their uniform jerseys in tribute of
Herb
Score. The former pitcher turned broadcaster died on November
11, 2008.
Fan support
Sellout streak
On June 12, 1995, the Indians began a record-breaking 455-game home
sellout streak that did not end until April 4, 2001, almost six
years later.
The streak would span parts of seven MLB
seasons, extend over 2,100 days, and would draw a total of
19,324,248 fans to Jacobs Field
. The demand for tickets was so great that
all 81 home games were sold out before
Opening Day on at least three separate
occasions. The 455 straight home game sellouts remained a Major
League Baseball record, until broken by the
Boston Red Sox on September 8, 2008. The
team's success during the late 1990s would even lead comedian and
Cleveland native
Drew Carey to quip,
"Finally it's your team that sucks!" As a thank-you to their fans,
the Indians honored them with a retired number – 455, signifying
the length of the streak.
Nickname and Logo Controversy
The club nickname and its cartoon logo
have been criticized for
perpetuating Indian stereotypes. In 1997, during the team's most
recent
World Series appearance,
three
Native
protesters were arrested, but later acquitted.
Radio and television
The
Indians' flagship radio station is WTAM
, a news/talk
station located at 1100 AM. Tom Hamilton and
Mike Hegan are the radio announcers, with Jim
Rosenhaus serving as pregame host, producer/engineer, and fill-in
whenever Hamilton or Hegan take time off. Select games can be heard
on
hot talk/
rock
station
WMMS 100.7 FM when there is a conflict
with
Cleveland Cavaliers
basketball games, which also air on WTAM. If the Cavaliers are in
the playoffs, all conflicted Indians games go to WMMS.
The television rights are held by
SportsTime Ohio (STO), a network launched in
by the Indians.
Matt Underwood and
Rick Manning form the announcing team,
with
Al Palowski as the pregame and
postgame host and update anchor during the game. Palowski also
serves as a fill-in when Underwood or Manning take time off, and
WKYC weekend sports anchor Dave Chudowsky then fills Palowski's
role.
Twenty games a year are shown on over the
air TV, originating on NBC affiliate WKYC
Channel 3,
(STO will also air the WKYC games via simulcast).
Broadcast
games are also carried on WWHO
53,
Columbus; WLIO
35 Lima;
WICU-TV
12 (or WSEE-TV
35) Erie, PA; WKBW-DT
7.2, Buffalo, NY; MY-YTV
(WYTV-DT
) 33.2, Youngstown; and BCSN Toledo.
For the first time ever in 2009, every Indians regular season game,
home and away, is scheduled to be televised.
Past Indians broadcasters include
Tom
Manning,
Jack Graney (the first
ex-baseball player to become a play-by-play announcer), Jack
Corrigan (now with the Colorado Rockies),
Jimmy Dudley who received the
Ford Frick Award in 1997,
Ken Coleman,
Joe
Castiglione,
Van Patrick,
Joe Tait,
Bruce
Drennan,
Jim "Mudcat" Grant,
Harry Jones,
Rocky Colavito and
Herb
Score, who called Indians' baseball for 34 seasons.
Baseball Hall of Famers
Ford C. Frick Award recipients
Retired numbers
Jackie Robinson's number 42 is retired throughout Major League
Baseball.
The number 455 was honored after the Indians sold out 455
consecutive games between 1995 and 2001, which was an MLB record
until it was surpassed by the Boston Red
Sox on September 8, 2008.
Current roster
Minor league affiliations
Franchise records
Season records
- Highest Batting Average: .408, Joe
Jackson (1911)
- Most Games: 163, Leon Wagner
(1964)
- Most Runs: 140, Earl Averill
(1930)
- Highest Slugging %: .714, Albert
Belle (1994)
- Most Doubles: 64, George Burns
(1926)
- Most Triples: 26, Joe Jackson
(1912)
- Most Home Runs: 52, Jim Thome
(2002)
- Most RBIs: 165, Manny Ramirez
(1999)
- Most Stolen Bases: 75, Kenny Lofton
(1996)
- Most Wins: 31, Jim Bagby, Sr.
(1920)
- Lowest ERA: 1.16, Addie Joss
(1908)
- Strikeouts: 348, Bob Feller
(1946)
- Complete Games: 36, Bob Feller
(1946)
- Saves: 46, Jose Mesa (1995)
See also
References
External links