1968 Cleveland Indians season

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.

1968 Cleveland Indians
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkCleveland Municipal Stadium
CityCleveland, Ohio
OwnersVernon Stouffer
General managersGabe Paul
ManagersAlvin Dark
TelevisionWJW-TV
RadioWERE (1300)
← 1967 Seasons 1969 →

Off season

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Regular season

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Transactions

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

Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Detroit Tigers 103 59 .636 56‍–‍25 47‍–‍34
Baltimore Orioles 91 71 .562 12 47‍–‍33 44‍–‍38
Cleveland Indians 86 75 .534 16½ 43‍–‍37 43‍–‍38
Boston Red Sox 86 76 .531 17 46‍–‍35 40‍–‍41
New York Yankees 83 79 .512 20 39‍–‍42 44‍–‍37
Oakland Athletics 82 80 .506 21 44‍–‍38 38‍–‍42
Minnesota Twins 79 83 .488 24 41‍–‍40 38‍–‍43
California Angels 67 95 .414 36 32‍–‍49 35‍–‍46
Chicago White Sox 67 95 .414 36 36‍–‍45 31‍–‍50
Washington Senators 65 96 .404 37½ 34‍–‍47 31‍–‍49

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET MIN NYY OAK WSH
Baltimore 9–9 10–8 11–7 7–11 8–10 10–8 13–5 9–9 14–4
Boston 9–9 9–9 14–4 10–8 6–12 9–9 10–8 8–10 11–7
California 8–10 9–9 8–10 7–11 5–13 7–11 6–12 5–13 12–6
Chicago 7–11 4–14 10–8 5–13 5–13 10–8 6–12 10–8 10–8
Cleveland 11–7 8–10 11–7 13–5 6–12 14–4 10–8–1 6–12 7–10
Detroit 10–8 12–6 13–5 13–5 12–6 10–8 10–8–1 13–5–1 10–8
Minnesota 8–10 9–9 11–7 8–10 4–14 8–10 12–6 8–10 11–7
New York 5–13 8–10 12–6 12–6 8–10–1 8–10–1 6–12 10–8 14–4
Oakland 9–9 10–8 13–5 8–10 12–6 5–13–1 10–8 8–10 7–11
Washington 4–14 7–11 6–12 8–10 10–7 8–10 7–11 4–14 11–7


Opening Day Lineup

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Opening Day Starters
# Name Position
21 Tommy Harper LF
13 Vern Fuller 2B
1 José Cardenal CF
9 Duke Sims C
11 Tony Horton 1B
25 Vic Davalillo RF
10 Max Alvis 3B
16 Larry Brown SS
42 Sonny Siebert P

[8]

Roster

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1968 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 Joe Azcue 115 357 100 .280 4 42
1B Tony Horton 133 477 119 .249 14 59
2B Vern Fuller 97 244 59 .242 0 18
SS Larry Brown 154 495 116 .234 6 35
3B Max Alvis 131 452 101 .223 8 37
LF Lee Maye 109 299 84 .281 4 26
CF José Cardenal 157 583 150 .257 7 44
RF Vic Davalillo 51 180 43 .239 2 13

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
Duke Sims 122 361 90 .249 11 44
Chico Salmon 103 276 59 .214 3 12
Tommy Harper 130 235 51 .217 6 26
Russ Snyder 68 217 61 .281 2 23
Lou Johnson 65 202 52 .257 5 23
Dave Nelson 88 189 44 .233 0 19
Jimmie Hall 53 111 22 .198 1 8
Billy Harris 38 94 20 .213 0 3
Richie Scheinblum 19 55 12 .218 0 5
José Vidal 37 54 9 .167 2 5
Leon Wagner 38 49 9 .184 0 6
Willie Smith 33 42 6 .143 0 3
Lou Klimchock 11 15 2 .133 0 3
Ken Suarez 17 10 1 .100 0 0
Lou Piniella 6 5 0 .000 0 1
Russ Nagelson 5 3 1 .333 0 0
Eddie Leon 6 1 0 .000 0 0
Ray Fosse 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
Sam McDowell 38 269.0 15 14 1.81 283
Luis Tiant 34 258.1 21 9 1.60 264
Sonny Siebert 31 206.0 12 10 2.97 146
Steve Hargan 32 158.1 8 15 4.15 78

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
Stan Williams 44 194.1 13 11 2.50 147
Mike Paul 36 91.2 5 8 3.93 87
Horacio Piña 12 31.1 1 1 1.72 24
Steve Bailey 2 5.0 0 1 3.60 1

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
Vicente Romo 40 5 3 12 1.62 54
Eddie Fisher 54 4 2 4 2.85 42
Hal Kurtz 28 1 0 1 5.21 16
Billy Rohr 17 1 0 1 6.87 5
Rob Gardner 5 0 0 0 6.75 6
Darrell Sutherland 3 0 0 0 8.10 2
Tommy Gramly 3 0 1 0 2.70 1
Mike Hedlund 3 0 0 0 10.80 0
Willie Smith 2 0 0 0 0.00 1

Awards and honors

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All-Star Game

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Portland Beavers Pacific Coast League Red Davis
AA Waterbury Indians Eastern League Phil Cavarretta and Ray Mueller
A Reno Silver Sox California League Clay Bryant
A Rock Hill Indians Western Carolinas League Pinky May
Rookie GCL Indians Gulf Coast League Ken Aspromonte

[9]

References

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  1. ^ "1968 Major League Team Statistics". Baseball Reference. Retrieved October 2, 2022.
  2. ^ Jim King at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Marv Staehle at Baseball Reference
  4. ^ Darrell Sutherland at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ "Eddie Fisher Stats".
  6. ^ Rick Sawyer at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ "Vince Colbert Stats".
  8. ^ 1968 Opening Day Lineup at Baseball-Reference
  9. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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