1949 Cleveland Indians season explained

Cleveland Indians
Season:	1949
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Cleveland Municipal Stadium
City:	Cleveland, Ohio
Owners:	Bill Veeck, Ellis Ryan
General Managers:	Bill Veeck
Managers:	Lou Boudreau
Television:	WEWS-TV (Bob Neal, Tris Speaker)
Radio:	WJW (Jack Graney, Jimmy Dudley)

The 1949 season was the 49th season in the history of the Cleveland Indians. The club entered the season as the defending World Champions. On March 5, 1949, Indians minority owner Bob Hope donned a Cleveland Indians uniform and posed with manager Lou Boudreau and vice president Hank Greenberg as the World Series champions opened spring training camp in Tucson, Arizona.^[1]

Offseason

• November 15, 1948: 1948 minor league draft
  • Bob Chakales was drafted by the Indians from the Philadelphia Phillies.^[2]
  • Grant Dunlap was drafted from the Indians by the New York Yankees.^[3]
• December 14, 1948: Ed Klieman, Joe Haynes, and Eddie Robinson were traded by the Indians to the Washington Senators for Mickey Vernon and Early Wynn.^[4]
• Prior to 1949 season: Brooks Lawrence was signed as an amateur free agent by the Indians.^[5]

Regular season

Following their 1948 World Series championship, the 1949 Indians season proved to be a disappointment. Despite having the best overall pitching and fielding statistics in either the American or National Leagues, the Indians finished a distant third place behind the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. A team roster that boasted eight future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame (Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby, Bob Feller, Joe Gordon, Bob Lemon, Satchel Paige, Minnie Miñoso, and Early Wynn) could not deliver a second consecutive championship to Cleveland. During the season, Indians fan Charlie Lupica spent 117 days on a flagpole, waiting for the Indians to regain first place. They never did, and he gave up his pursuit when the Indians were mathematically eliminated on September 25.^[6]

Notable transactions

• April 28, 1949: Grant Dunlap was returned to the Indians by the New York Yankees.^[3]

Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day Starters

	Name	Position
34		LF
37		CF
5		SS
4		2B
3		1B
6		3B
33		RF
10		C
19		P

^[7]

Roster

1949 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		ManagerCoaches (Pitching) (Third base)

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
C	Jim Hegan	152	468	105	.224	8	55
1B		153	584	170	.291	18	83
2B	Joe Gordon	148	533	136	.251	20	84
SS		134	475	135	.284	4	60
3B	Ken Keltner	80	246	57	.232	8	30
OF	Dale Mitchell	149	640	203	.317	3	56
OF	Larry Doby	147	547	153	.280	24	85
OF	Bob Kennedy	121	424	117	.276	9	57

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
Ray Boone	86	258	65	.252	4	26
Thurman Tucker	80	197	48	.244	0	14
Johnny Berardino	50	116	23	.198	0	13
Allie Clark	35	74	13	.176	1	9
Luke Easter	21	45	10	.222	0	2
Al Rosen	23	44	7	.159	0	5
Mike Tresh	38	37	8	.216	0	1
Hal Peck	33	29	9	.310	0	9
Minnie Miñoso	9	16	3	.188	1	1
Hank Edwards	5	15	4	.267	1	1
Bobby Ávila	31	14	3	.214	0	3
Milt Nielsen	3	9	1	.111	0	0
Herman Reich	1	2	1	.500	0	0
Fred Marsh	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
Bob Lemon	37	279.2	22	10	2.99	138
Bob Feller	36	211.0	15	14	3.75	108
Early Wynn	26	164.2	11	7	4.15	62
Gene Bearden	32	127.0	8	8	5.10	41

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
	40	92.0	4	6	3.33	22
Sam Zoldak	27	53.0	1	2	4.25	11

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
Al Benton	40	9	6	10	2.12	41
Mike Garcia	41	14	5	2	2.36	94
Satchel Paige	31	4	7	5	3.04	54
Frank Papish	25	1	0	1	3.19	23

Awards and honors

• Dale Mitchell, American League leader, triples (23)^[8]
• Team ERA of 3.36 lowest in MLB for 1949^[9]
• Team fielding percentage of .983 highest in MLB for 1949^[10]

All Star Game

Larry Doby, Outfielder, reserve

Joe Gordon, Second baseman, reserve

Jim Hegan, Catcher, reserve

Bob Lemon, Pitcher, reserve

Dale Mitchell, Outfielder, reserve

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Stroudsburg^[11]

References

• 1949 Cleveland Indians at Baseball Reference
• 1949 Cleveland Indians at Baseball Almanac

Notes and References

1. Web site: For our favorite son Bob Hope, all roads lead back home to Ohio . www.cleveland.com . https://web.archive.org/web/20110607122530/http://www.cleveland.com/homegrown/index.ssf?%2Fhomegrown%2Fmore%2Fhope%2Fallroads.html . June 7, 2011.
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/chakabo01.shtml Bob Chakales
3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dunlagr01.shtml Grant Dunlap
4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/v/vernomi01.shtml Mickey Vernon
5. https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lawrebr01.shtml Brooks Lawrence
6. Book: Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck. Bill. Veeck. Ed. Linn. April 7, 2001. University of Chicago Press. 9780226852188. April 22, 2018. Google Books.
7. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLA/SLA194904190.shtml 1949 Opening Day Lineup
8. Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 98, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York,
9. Web site: 1949 Major League Baseball Standard Pitching Baseball-Reference.com. Baseball-Reference.com. en. 2017-10-24.
10. Web site: 1949 American League Standard Fielding Baseball-Reference.com. Baseball-Reference.com. en. 2017-10-24.
11. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007