# 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.

## Offseason

* December 11, 1952: Earl Averill, Jr. was signed as an amateur free agent by the Indians.

## Regular season

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

### Season standings

vteAmerican 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

1953 American League recordvte Sources: :
| 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

* May 1953: Brooks Lawrence was acquired from the Indians by the Cincinnati Reds.
* June 15, 1953: Ray Boone, Al Aber, Steve Gromek, and Dick Weik were traded by the Indians to the Detroit Tigers for Art Houtteman, Owen Friend, Bill Wight, and Joe Ginsberg.

### Roster
## 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
| 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

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
#### 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 |
| 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

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

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

* Al Rosen, American League MVP

## Farm system

| 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
* 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. That season, Twins player Frank Gravino would hit 52 home runs. The Twins would host the Northern League All-Star game and defeat the Northern League All-Stars by a score of 8–4. The Twins finished with a record of 86–39 (improving from their record of 44–80 in 1952) and bested Duluth to win the Northern League championship. Roger Maris was selected as the 1953 Northern League Rookie of the Year.