1966 Cleveland Indians season

The 1966 Cleveland Indians season was a season in American baseball. The team finished fifth in the American League with a record of 81–81, 17 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. The 1966 season started off hopeful for the Cleveland Indians as they won their first ten games, and held a 27-10 record in late May. They would hold first place as late as June 12 but were out of first place after that and never returned to the top. A struggle in run production brought the Indians back to the .500 mark, as a seemingly promising season ended up being one of the most disappointing.

1966 Cleveland Indians
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s)Gabe Paul, Vernon Stouffer
General manager(s)Gabe Paul
Manager(s)Birdie Tebbetts, George Strickland
Local televisionWJW-TV
(Harry Jones, Herb Score)
Local radioWERE
(Jimmy Dudley, Bob Neal)
< Previous season     Next season >

The Indians were the only team to win the regular-season series vs the World Series Winning 1966 Baltimore Orioles (who would sweep the Dodgers, while allowing only 2 runs the entire series). Ironically, it was their first series, starting on May 6, against the Orioles in Baltimore that put the team on the road to a disappointing season when they only won one game of a four-game series. When they came into Baltimore the Indians were 14 and 1. On May 13, the Indians had another series in Baltimore against the Orioles where they won only one game out of four. [1]

The Indians next went to D.C. where they played the Washington Senators, starting on May 17, for a three-game series where the team dropped 2 games.[2]

Offseason
  • Vernon Stouffer bought eighty percent of the Cleveland Indians for eight million dollars.[3]
  • November 28, 1965: Hank Peters resigned from the Kansas City Athletics and became the minor league director for the Cleveland Indians.[4]

Notable transactions

Regular season

On May 1, Sam McDowell threw his second consecutive one-hitter for the Indians.

Season standings
American League W L Pct. GB Home Road
Baltimore Orioles 9763 0.606 — 48–31 49–32
Minnesota Twins 8973 0.549 9 49–32 40–41
Detroit Tigers 8874 0.543 10 42–39 46–35
Chicago White Sox 8379 0.512 15 45–36 38–43
Cleveland Indians 8181 0.500 17 41–40 40–41
California Angels 8082 0.494 18 42–39 38–43
Kansas City Athletics 7486 0.463 23 42–39 32–47
Washington Senators 7188 0.447 25½ 42–36 29–52
Boston Red Sox 7290 0.444 26 40–41 32–49
New York Yankees 7089 0.440 26½ 35–46 35–43

Record vs. opponents
1966 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY WSH
Baltimore —12–612–69–98–109–911–510–815–311–7
Boston 6–12—9–911–77–118–109–96–128–108–10
California 6–129–9—8–1010–89–99–911–711–77–11
Chicago 9–97–1110–8—11–78–1013–54–149–9–112–6
Cleveland 10–811–78–107–11—9–96–129–912–69–9
Detroit 9–910–89–910–89–9—6–1211–711–713–5
Kansas City 5–119–99–95–1312–612–6—8–105–139–9
Minnesota 8–1012–67–1114–49–97–1110–8—8–1014–4
New York 3–1510–87–119–9–16–127–1113–510–8—5–10
Washington 7–1110–811–76–129–95–139–94–1410–5—

Notable transactions

Roster
1966 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
CJoe Azcue9830283.275937
1BFred Whitfield137502121.2412778
2BPedro González11035282.233217
SSLarry Brown10534078.229317
3BMax Alvis157596146.2451755
LFLeon Wagner150549153.2792366
CFVic Davalillo12134486.250319
RFRocky Colavito151533127.2383072

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
Chico Salmon126422108.256740
Chuck Hinton12334889.2561250
Jim Landis8515835.222314
Dick Howser6714032.22924
Duke Sims5213335.263619
Del Crandall5010825.23148
Vern Fuller164711.23422
Jim Gentile33476.12824
Bill Davis23386.15814
José Vidal17326.18803
Buddy Booker18286.21425
Tony Martínez17175.29400
Tony Curry19162.12503
George Banks441.25001
Paul Dicken220.00000

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
Gary Bell40254.114153.22194
Sonny Siebert342411682.80163
Sam McDowell35194.1982.87225

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 Hargan3819213102.48132
Luis Tiant4615512112.79145
John O'Donoghue32108683.8349
Tom Kelley3195.1484.3464
Lee Stange816102.818
Bob Heffner513013.467
George Culver59.2028.386

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
Dick Radatz3903104.6149
Bob Allen362254.2133
Jack Kralick273403.8231
Don McMahon121112.925

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Portland Beavers Pacific Coast League Johnny Lipon
AA Pawtucket Indians Eastern League Clay Bryant
A Reno Silver Sox California League Phil Cavarretta
A Dubuque Packers Midwest League Elmer Valo

[11]

Notes
  1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/tgl.cgi?team=CLE&t=b&year=1966
  2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/tgl.cgi?team=CLE&t=b&year=1966
  3. Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, p. 4, Bill Madden, Harper Collins Publishing, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-06-169031-0
  4. Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.95, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  5. Al Closter page at Baseball Reference
  6. Al Luplow page at Baseball Reference
  7. Joe Rudi page at Baseball Reference
  8. Doc Edwards page at Baseball-Reference
  9. Lou Piniella page at Baseball Reference
  10. Ralph Terry page at Baseball Reference
  11. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007

References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.