1953 Cleveland Indians | ||
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League | American League | |
Ballpark | Cleveland Municipal Stadium | |
City | Cleveland, Ohio | |
Owners | Myron H. Wilson | |
General managers | Hank Greenberg | |
Managers | Al López | |
Television | WXEL (Bob Neal, Red Jones) | |
Radio | WERE (Jack Graney, Jimmy Dudley) | |
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The 1953 Cleveland Indians season was a season in American baseball. The team finished second in the American League with a record of 92–62, 8+1⁄2 games behind the New York Yankees.
Offseason
- December 11, 1952: Earl Averill, Jr. was signed as an amateur free agent by the Indians.[1]
Regular season
Al Rosen became the first third baseman in the history of the American League to win the MVP Award.[2]
Season standings
American League | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New York Yankees | 99 | 52 | 0.656 | — | 50–27 | 49–25 |
Cleveland Indians | 92 | 62 | 0.597 | 8½ | 53–24 | 39–38 |
Chicago White Sox | 89 | 65 | 0.578 | 11½ | 41–36 | 48–29 |
Boston Red Sox | 84 | 69 | 0.549 | 16 | 38–38 | 46–31 |
Washington Senators | 76 | 76 | 0.500 | 23½ | 39–36 | 37–40 |
Detroit Tigers | 60 | 94 | 0.390 | 40½ | 30–47 | 30–47 |
Philadelphia Athletics | 59 | 95 | 0.383 | 41½ | 27–50 | 32–45 |
St. Louis Browns | 54 | 100 | 0.351 | 46½ | 23–54 | 31–46 |
Record vs. opponents
Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] | |||||||||||||
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Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYY | PHA | SLB | WSH | |||||
Boston | — | 6–16 | 13–9 | 13–9 | 10–11 | 15–7 | 17–5 | 10–12 | |||||
Chicago | 16–6 | — | 11–11–1 | 14–8–1 | 9–13 | 10–12 | 17–5 | 12–10 | |||||
Cleveland | 9–13 | 11–11–1 | — | 14–8 | 11–11 | 19–3 | 17–5 | 11–11 | |||||
Detroit | 9–13 | 8–14–1 | 8–14 | — | 6–16 | 11–11–3 | 7–15 | 11–11 | |||||
New York | 11–10 | 13–9 | 11–11 | 16–6 | — | 17–5 | 17–5 | 14–6 | |||||
Philadelphia | 7–15 | 12–10 | 3–19 | 11–11–3 | 5–17 | — | 13–9 | 8–14 | |||||
St. Louis | 5–17 | 5–17 | 5–17 | 15–7 | 5–17 | 9–13 | — | 10–12 | |||||
Washington | 12–10 | 10–12 | 11–11 | 11–11 | 6–14 | 14–8 | 12–10 | — |
Notable transactions
- May 1953: Brooks Lawrence was acquired from the Indians by the Cincinnati Reds.[3]
- June 15, 1953: Ray Boone, Al Aber, Steve Gromek, and Dick Weik were traded by the Indians to the Detroit Tigers for Art Houtteman, Owen Friend, Bill Wight, and Joe Ginsberg.[4]
Roster
1953 Cleveland Indians | |||||||||
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Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders
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Outfielders
Other batters
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Manager
Coaches
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Player stats
Batting
Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
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C | Jim Hegan | 112 | 299 | 65 | .217 | 9 | 37 |
1B | Bill Glynn | 147 | 411 | 100 | .243 | 3 | 30 |
2B | Bobby Ávila | 141 | 559 | 160 | .286 | 8 | 55 |
SS | George Strickland | 123 | 419 | 119 | .284 | 5 | 47 |
3B | Al Rosen | 155 | 599 | 201 | .336 | 43 | 145 |
OF | Larry Doby | 149 | 513 | 135 | .263 | 29 | 102 |
OF | Harry Simpson | 82 | 242 | 55 | .227 | 7 | 22 |
OF | Dale Mitchell | 134 | 500 | 150 | .300 | 13 | 60 |
Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
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Wally Westlake | 82 | 218 | 72 | .330 | 9 | 46 |
Luke Easter | 68 | 211 | 64 | .303 | 7 | 31 |
Bob Kennedy | 100 | 161 | 38 | .236 | 3 | 22 |
Al Smith | 47 | 150 | 36 | .240 | 3 | 14 |
Ray Boone | 34 | 112 | 27 | .241 | 4 | 21 |
Joe Tipton | 47 | 109 | 25 | .229 | 6 | 13 |
Joe Ginsberg | 46 | 109 | 31 | .284 | 0 | 10 |
Owen Friend | 34 | 68 | 16 | .235 | 2 | 13 |
Hank Majeski | 50 | 50 | 15 | .300 | 2 | 12 |
Jim Lemon | 16 | 46 | 8 | .174 | 1 | 5 |
Barney McCosky | 22 | 21 | 4 | .190 | 0 | 3 |
Hank Foiles | 7 | 7 | 1 | .143 | 0 | 0 |
Dick Aylward | 4 | 3 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
Dick Weik | 1 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |
Pitching
Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
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Bob Lemon | 41 | 286.2 | 21 | 15 | 3.36 | 98 |
Mike Garcia | 38 | 271.2 | 18 | 9 | 3.25 | 134 |
Early Wynn | 36 | 251.2 | 17 | 12 | 3.93 | 138 |
Bob Feller | 25 | 175.2 | 10 | 7 | 3.59 | 60 |
Dick Tomanek | 1 | 9.0 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 | 6 |
Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
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Dave Hoskins | 26 | 112.2 | 9 | 3 | 3.99 | 55 |
Art Houtteman | 22 | 109.0 | 7 | 7 | 3.80 | 40 |
Bob Chakales | 7 | 27.0 | 0 | 2 | 2.67 | 6 |
Steve Gromek | 5 | 11.0 | 1 | 1 | 3.27 | 8 |
Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
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Bob Hooper | 43 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 4.02 | 16 |
Bill Wight | 20 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3.71 | 14 |
Lou Brissie | 16 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7.62 | 5 |
Al Aber | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7.50 | 4 |
Ted Wilks | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.36 | 2 |
Awards and records
- Al Rosen, American League MVP
Farm system
Level | Team | League | Manager |
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AAA | Indianapolis Indians | American Association | Birdie Tebbetts |
A | Reading Indians | Eastern League | Kerby Farrell |
B | Spartanburg Peaches | Tri-State League | Jimmy Bloodworth |
C | Fargo-Moorhead Twins | Northern League | Zeke Bonura and Santo Luberto |
C | Sherbrooke Indians | Provincial League | Pinky May |
D | Daytona Beach Islanders | Florida State League | Ed Levy |
D | Green Bay Blue Jays | Wisconsin State League | Phil Seghi |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Fargo-Moorhead, Daytona Beach, Green Bay[5]
- On May 6, 1953, the Fargo-Moorhead Twins defeated Sioux Falls in their Opening Day game by a score of 12–3. A record crowd of 10,123 fans came to Barnett Field. In the game, Roger Maris got his first professional baseball hit.[6] That season, Twins player Frank Gravino would hit 52 home runs.[7] The Twins would host the Northern League All-Star game and defeat the Northern League All-Stars by a score of 8–4.[8] The Twins finished with a record of 86–39 (improving from their record of 44–80 in 1952[8]) and bested Duluth to win the Northern League championship.[9] Roger Maris was selected as the 1953 Northern League Rookie of the Year.[9]
Notes
- ^ Earl Averill, Jr. at Baseball-Reference
- ^ Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 152, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
- ^ Brooks Lawrence at Baseball-Reference
- ^ Ray Boone at Baseball-Reference
- ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
- ^ Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 54, Tom Clavin and Danny Peary, Touchstone Books, Published by Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4165-8928-0
- ^ Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 55
- ^ a b Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 56
- ^ a b Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 58