75 Years and Counting: The Story of the 1982 Cleveland Indians
An 11 game win streak! But not much else...
Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t have much to say about this one. Not in a “oh my God it was that bad” kind of way, more in a “this season was incredibly forgettable” kind of way. Just not a lot of eventful stuff happened, the kind of stuff that sticks around and is available to be found through internet research. I’m hoping that the comments section can provide some interesting stories and anecdotes about this year because I’m somewhat at a loss.
As far as I can tell, here’s the basic idea of what happened in 1982.
The Indians traded for Rick Sutcliffe to bolster their struggling pitching rotation, and he pitched extremely well, winning the league ERA title and placing 5th in the Cy Young voting. Unfortunately the presumed ace of the staff, Bert Blyleven, was shelved with an elbow injury after only four starts. The rest of the pitching staff, except Len Barker, was absolutely dreadful, particularly Rick Waits who went 2-13 with a 5.40 ERA.
The offense didn’t fare much better. Toby Harrah and Andre Thornton had stellar seasons. Harrah hit .304/.398/.490 with 25 home runs and Thornton hit .273/.386/.484 with 32 bombs. Unfortunately apart from them there wasn’t much else in the way of power as Von Hayes was the only other player in double figures for home runs. A third baseman and a DH providing the lone power spark for an otherwise anemic offense? Where have I seen that one before?
They did have an 11 game winning streak from May 23rd - June 4th, which would have been great if that win streak hadn’t been sandwiched between two separate 1-8 stretches. Seriously, they went 1-8, then won 11 in a row, then went 1-8. They dug themselves into a hole, climbed right out of it, then slipped on a banana peel and fell back in. Welcome to baseball in Cleveland before Jacobs Field.
Anyway, not much else to say, if you have any cool stories or anecdotes about this season please don’t hesitate to comment below!
Join us tomorrow for 1983!