1968 Cleveland Indians season explained

Cleveland Indians
Season:	1968
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Cleveland Municipal Stadium
City:	Cleveland, Ohio
Owners:	Vernon Stouffer
General Managers:	Gabe Paul
Managers:	Alvin Dark
Television:	WJW-TV
Radio:	WERE (1300)

The 1968 Cleveland Indians season was their 68th season of baseball in the American League. It saw their pitching staff lead the major leagues with the most strikeouts (1,157) while allowing the fewest hits (1,087).^[1] Despite this, they finished 3rd in the American League, their highest finish in nine years. They would not finish higher than 4th again until 1994.

Off season

• October 17, 1967: Jim King was released by the Indians.^[2]
• October 26, 1967: Marv Staehle was sent to the Indians by the Chicago White Sox to complete an earlier deal (the White Sox sent Jim King and a player to be named later to the Indians for Rocky Colavito) made on July 29, 1967.^[3]
• November 28, 1967: Darrell Sutherland was drafted by the Indians from the New York Mets in the 1967 minor league draft.^[4]
• November 28, 1967: Eddie Fisher was traded by the Baltimore Orioles with Bob Scott (minors) and John Scruggs (minors) to the Cleveland Indians for Gordy Lund and John O'Donoghue.^[5]
• January 27, 1968: Rick Sawyer was drafted by the Indians in the 3rd round of the 1968 Major League Baseball draft Secondary Phase.^[6]

Regular season

Transactions

• June 7, 1968: Vince Colbert was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 11th round of the 1968 amateur draft.^[7]

Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day Starters

	Name	Position
21		LF
13		2B
1		CF
9		C
11		1B
25		RF
10		3B
16		SS
42		P

^[8]

Roster

1968 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		OutfieldersOther batters		ManagerCoaches (First Base) (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		115	357	100	.280	4	42
1B		133	477	119	.249	14	59
2B		97	244	59	.242	0	18
SS		154	495	116	.234	6	35
3B		131	452	101	.223	8	37
LF		109	299	84	.281	4	26
CF		157	583	150	.257	7	44
RF		51	180	43	.239	2	13

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
	122	361	90	.249	11	44
	103	276	59	.214	3	12
	130	235	51	.217	6	26
	68	217	61	.281	2	23
	65	202	52	.257	5	23
	88	189	44	.233	0	19
	53	111	22	.198	1	8
	38	94	20	.213	0	3
	19	55	12	.218	0	5
	37	54	9	.167	2	5
	38	49	9	.184	0	6
	33	42	6	.143	0	3
	11	15	2	.133	0	3
	17	10	1	.100	0	0
	6	5	0	.000	0	1
	5	3	1	.333	0	0
	6	1	0	.000	0	0
	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
	38	269.0	15	14	1.81	283
	34	258.1	21	9	1.60	264
	31	206.0	12	10	2.97	146
	32	158.1	8	15	4.15	78

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
	44	194.1	13	11	2.50	147
	36	91.2	5	8	3.93	87
	12	31.1	1	1	1.72	24
	2	5.0	0	1	3.60	1

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
	40	5	3	12	1.62	54
	54	4	2	4	2.85	42
	28	1	0	1	5.21	16
	17	1	0	1	6.87	5
	5	0	0	0	6.75	6
	3	0	0	0	8.10	2
	3	0	1	0	2.70	1
	3	0	0	0	10.80	0
	2	0	0	0	0.00	1

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball.

^[9]

External links

• 1968 Cleveland Indians at Baseball Reference
• 1968 Cleveland Indians at Baseball Almanac

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1968 Major League Team Statistics . Baseball Reference . October 2, 2022.
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kingji01.shtml Jim King
3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/staehma01.shtml Marv Staehle
4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sutheda01.shtml Darrell Sutherland
5. Web site: Eddie Fisher Stats.
6. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sawyeri01.shtml Rick Sawyer
7. Web site: Vince Colbert Stats.
8. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA196804100.shtml 1968 Opening Day Lineup
9. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007