1961 Cleveland Indians season

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

1961  Cleveland Indians
League American League
Ballpark Cleveland Municipal Stadium
City Cleveland, Ohio
Owners William R. Daley
General managers Frank Lane, Gabe Paul
Managers Jimmy Dykes
Television WJW-TV
(Ken Coleman, Harry Jones)
Radio WERE
(Jimmy Dudley, Bob Neal)
  1960 Seasons 1962  

The 1961 Cleveland Indians season was a season in American baseball. The team finished fifth in the newly expanded 10-team American League with a record of 78–83, 30+12 games behind the New York Yankees. Although the 1961 season ended up being a disappointment, the Indians had a brief flurry of pennant fever early in the 1961 season. After starting 12–13, the Indians started to streak, going 22–4 over their next 26 games to reach a record of 34–17 (were 38–20 after 58 games). However the Indians cooled off afterwards and were quickly knocked out of first place, as they went 44–66 the rest of the year. For the second year in a row, the Indians had held first place in June, only to slump to a losing record. This would happen again in 1962 as well (47–34 start in early July).

Contents

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings

American League W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 109530.67365–1644–37
Detroit Tigers 101610.623850–3151–30
Baltimore Orioles 95670.5861448–3347–34
Chicago White Sox 86760.5312353–2833–48
Cleveland Indians 78830.48430½40–4138–42
Boston Red Sox 76860.4693350–3126–55
Minnesota Twins 70900.4383836–4434–46
Los Angeles Angels 70910.43538½46–3624–55
Kansas City Athletics 611000.37947½33–4728–53
Washington Senators 611000.37947½33–4628–54

Record vs. opponents


Sources:
TeamBALBOSCHWCLEDETKCALAAMINNYYWSH
Baltimore 11–711–79–99–913–58–1011–79–9–114–4
Boston 7–119–95–138–1010–811–7–111–75–1310–8
Chicago 7–119–912–66–1214–410–89–9–16–1213–5
Cleveland 9–913–56–126–128–910–810–84–1412–6
Detroit 9–910–812–612–612–6–114–411–78–1013–5
Kansas City 5–138–104–149–86–12–19–97–114–149–9
Los Angeles 10–87–11–18–108–104–149–98–96–1210–8
Minnesota 7–117–119–9–18–107–1111–79–84–148–9
New York 9–9–113–512–614–410–814–412–614–411–7
Washington 4–148–105–136–125–139–98–109–87–11

Notable transactions

Opening Day Lineup

Opening Day Starters
#NamePosition
16 Johnny Temple 2B
14 Tito Francona LF
37 Jimmy Piersall CF
8 Willie Kirkland RF
3 Woodie Held SS
10 Vic Power 1B
5 Bubba Phillips 3B
11 Johnny Romano C
31 Jim Perry P

[7]

Roster

1961 Cleveland Indians
Roster
PitchersCatchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

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

PosPlayerGABHAvg.HRRBI
C Johnny Romano 142509152.2992180
1B Vic Power 147563151.268563
2B Johnny Temple 129518143.276330
SS Woodie Held 146509136.2672378
3B Bubba Phillips 143546144.2641872
LF Tito Francona 155592178.3011685
CF Jimmy Piersall 121484156.322640
RF Willie Kirkland 146525136.2592795

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

PlayerGABHAvg.HRRBI
Mike de la Hoz 6117345.260323
Chuck Essegian 6016648.2891235
Don Dillard 7414740.272717
Valmy Thomas 278618.20926
Ken Aspromonte 227016.22905
Bob Nieman 396523.354210
Walt Bond 38529.17327
Ty Cline 12439.20901
Jack Kubiszyn 25429.21400
Bob Hale 42366.16706
Hal Jones 12356.17124
Al Luplow 5181.05600
Joe Morgan 4102.20000

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

PlayerGIPWLERASO
Mudcat Grant 35244.21593.86146
Gary Bell 34228.112164.10163
Jim Perry 35223.210174.7190
Wynn Hawkins 30133.0794.0651
Sam McDowell 16.1000.005

Other pitchers

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

PlayerGIPWLERASO
Barry Latman 45176.21354.02108
Dick Stigman 2264.1254.6248
Johnny Antonelli 1148.0046.5623

Relief pitchers

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

PlayerGWLSVERASO
Frank Funk 561111113.3164
Bob Allen 483233.7542
Bobby Locke 374424.5337
Joe Schaffernoth 150104.769
Bill Dailey 121000.957
Russ Heman 60013.604
Steve Hamilton 20003.004

Farm system

LevelTeamLeagueManager
AAA Salt Lake City Bees Pacific Coast League Herman Franks and Fred Fitzsimmons
A Reading Indians Eastern League Ray Mueller
B Burlington Indians Carolina League Bill Herring and Walt Novick
D Selma Cloverleafs Alabama–Florida League Walt Novick and Joe Morlan
D Dubuque Packers Midwest League Pinky May

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Selma [8]

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References

  1. Marty Keough page at Baseball Reference
  2. Jim King page at Baseball Reference
  3. 1 2 Paul Casanova page at Baseball Reference
  4. Bob Nieman page at Baseball Reference
  5. Tommy John page at Baseball Reference
  6. Jim Piersall page at Baseball Reference
  7. 1961 Opening Day Lineup at Baseball-Reference
  8. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007