1949 Cleveland Indians season

The 1949 Cleveland Indians season was the 49th in franchise history. 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]

1949 Cleveland Indians
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
OwnersBill Veeck, Ellis Ryan
General managersBill Veeck
ManagersLou Boudreau
Local televisionWEWS-TV
(Bob Neal, Tris Speaker)
Local radioWJW
(Jack Graney, Jimmy Dudley)
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Offseason

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]

Season standings
American League W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 9757 0.630 — 54–23 43–34
Boston Red Sox 9658 0.623 1 61–16 35–42
Cleveland Indians 8965 0.578 8 49–28 40–37
Detroit Tigers 8767 0.565 10 50–27 37–40
Philadelphia Athletics 8173 0.526 16 52–25 29–48
Chicago White Sox 6391 0.409 34 32–45 31–46
St. Louis Browns 53101 0.344 44 36–41 17–60
Washington Senators 50104 0.325 47 26–51 24–53

Record vs. opponents
1949 American League record

Sources:
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHA SLB WSH
Boston —17–58–1415–7–19–1314–815–718–4
Chicago 5–17—7–158–147–156–1615–715–7
Cleveland 14–815–7—13–910–129–1315–713–9
Detroit 7–15–114–89–13—11–1114–814–818–4
New York 13–915–712–1011–11—14–817–5–115–7
Philadelphia 8–1416–613–98–148–14—12–1016–6
St. Louis 7–157–157–158–145–17–110–12—9–13
Washington 4–187–159–134–187–156–1613–9—

Notable transactions

Opening Day Lineup
Opening Day Starters
#NamePosition
34Dale MitchellLF
37Larry DobyCF
5Lou BoudreauSS
4Joe Gordon2B
3Mickey Vernon1B
6Ken Keltner3B
33Bob KennedyRF
10Jim HeganC
19Bob FellerP

[7]

Roster
1949 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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
1BMickey Vernon153584170.2911883
2B Joe Gordon 148 533 136 .251 20 84
SSLou Boudreau134475135.284460
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

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
Steve Gromek4092.0463.3322
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

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
Level Team League Manager
AAA San Diego Padres Pacific Coast League Bucky Harris
AA Oklahoma City Indians Texas League Joe Vosmik
A Dayton Indians Central League Ski Melillo
A Wilkes-Barre Barons Eastern League Bill Norman
B St. Petersburg Saints Florida International League Myril Hoag, Harry Sullivan,
Johnny Beazley and Dick Porter
B Harrisburg Senators Interstate League Les Bell
B Spartanburg Peaches Tri-State League Kerby Farrell
C Tucson Cowboys Arizona–Texas League Gene Lillard
C Bakersfield Indians California League Harry Griswold
C Pittsfield Indians Canadian–American League Gene Hasson
C Burlington Indians Central Association Lloyd Brown
D Cordele Indians Georgia–Florida League Hal Lee
D Iola Indians Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League Winlow Johnson
D Union City Greyhounds KITTY League Tony Rensa and Rudy York
D Stroudsburg Poconos North Atlantic League Frank Radler
D Zanesville Indians Ohio–Indiana League Pat McLaughlin
D Batavia Clippers PONY League Ed Kobesky
D Green Bay Blue Jays Wisconsin State League Phil Seghi

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Stroudsburg[11]

Notes
  1. "For our favorite son Bob Hope, all roads lead back home to Ohio". www.cleveland.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011.
  2. Bob Chakales at Baseball Reference
  3. Grant Dunlap at Baseball Reference
  4. Mickey Vernon at Baseball Reference
  5. Brooks Lawrence at Baseball Reference
  6. Veeck, Bill; Linn, Ed (April 7, 2001). Veeck--As In Wreck: The Autobiography of Bill Veeck. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226852188. Retrieved April 22, 2018 – via Google Books.
  7. 1949 Opening Day Lineup at Baseball-Reference
  8. Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 98, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
  9. "1949 Major League Baseball Standard Pitching | Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  10. "1949 American League Standard Fielding | Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  11. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007

References
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