Wikipedia

1953 Cleveland Indians season

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.

1953 Cleveland Indians
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkCleveland Municipal Stadium
CityCleveland, Ohio
OwnersMyron H. Wilson
General managersHank Greenberg
ManagersAl López
TelevisionWXEL
(Bob Neal, Red Jones)
RadioWERE
(Jack Graney, Jimmy Dudley)
← 1952 Seasons 1954 →

Offseason

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Regular season

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Al Rosen became the first third baseman in the history of the American League to win the MVP Award.[2]

Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 99 52 .656 — 50‍–‍27 49‍–‍25
Cleveland Indians 92 62 .597 8½ 53‍–‍24 39‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox 89 65 .578 11½ 41‍–‍36 48‍–‍29
Boston Red Sox 84 69 .549 16 38‍–‍38 46‍–‍31
Washington Senators 76 76 .500 23½ 39‍–‍36 37‍–‍40
Detroit Tigers 60 94 .390 40½ 30‍–‍47 30‍–‍47
Philadelphia Athletics 59 95 .383 41½ 27‍–‍50 32‍–‍45
St. Louis Browns 54 100 .351 46½ 23‍–‍54 31‍–‍46

Record vs. opponents

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1953 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
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

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Roster

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1953 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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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 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

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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
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

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Starting pitchers

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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 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

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
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

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
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

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Farm system

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See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
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

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  1. ^ Earl Averill, Jr. at Baseball-Reference
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Brooks Lawrence at Baseball-Reference
  4. ^ Ray Boone at Baseball-Reference
  5. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 55
  8. ^ a b Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 56
  9. ^ a b Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero, p. 58

References

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