1995 Cleveland Indians: The Rebirth Of A Franchise
The city of Cleveland resembled a baseball wasteland for decades. Their pennant year of 1954 was the last time they had been in the postseason. From 1969 through 1993, when they resided in the AL East, the Tribe finished over .500 three times—barely. But under the management of Mike Hargrove, with some good young hitters, on the rise, Cleveland was starting to emerge when Major League Baseball realigned and put them in the newly created Central Division.
The Indians were squarely in the hunt when the August 1994 strike canceled the season. And in 1995, they produced a dominant season, reaching not just the playoffs, but returning to the World Series.
THE BATS THAT AWAKENED CLEVELAND
Cleveland did everything well in 1995 and that started with hitting. Albert Belle tore up opposing pitching staffs. His .690 slugging percentage, 50 home runs and 126 RBIs all led the league. Belle added 121 runs scored and a .401 on-base percentage. The only thing he didn’t add was the MVP award. A strained relationship with the media who did the voting was widely regarded as the reason for his second place finish in the final voting.
Belle was just the lead actor in a terrific cast. Jim Thome was 24-years-old and playing third base at this young stage of his career. Thome finished with a stat line of .438 OBP/.558 slugging percentage. Manny Ramirez, the 23-year-old rightfielder, came in at .402/.558 and drove in 107 runs. At the other end of the career spectrum was a future Hall of Famer in Eddie Murray. Now a DH at age 39, Murray put up a stat line of .375/.516.
Kenny Lofton was the igniter at the top of the lineup, with a .362 on-base percentage and 54 stolen bases. Paul Sorrento played first base and provided more power with 25 homers. Carlos Baerga was a consistent bat at second base and delivered a .355/.452 stat line.
All of this is the long way of saying the Tribe bats did everything well—they led the league in batting average, home runs, and stolen bases. Suffice it to say, they also led the league in runs scored.
THE OVERLOOKED ARMS
The Indians could pitch too. By 1995, offensive production in general was exploding, in an era we now know to have been rife with PED use. Consequently, pitching stats suffered and the quality of Cleveland’s staff can be obscured.
Dennis Martinez was at the top of the rotation with a 12-5 record and 3.08 ERA. Charles Nagy won 16 games with a 4.55 ERA. The Indians signed the great veteran, Orel Hershiser, and Orel won 16 games of his own and posted a 3.87 ERA.
The back of the rotation included Mark Clark, whose 5.27 ERA was tolerable in this era. Chad Ogea did steady spot starting work. And the front office moved in July, acquiring Ken Hill, who made 11 starts down the stretch and delivered a 3.98 ERA.
Hargrove’s relief corps was even better. Jose Mesa at the back end saved 46 games with a dazzling 1.13 ERA and finished second in the AL Cy Young voting. Julian Tavarez and Eric Plunk finished with ERAs in the 2s, and Jim Poole was a reliable arm.
The numbers don’t jump off the page, but in context, Cleveland had the best staff ERA in the American League.
ASSERTING CONTROL
The lockout that ended 1994 extended into spring training and the 1995 season didn’t actually begin until late April with a shortened 144-game schedule. After starting 6-4, the Indians hosted the Kansas City Royals, who would lurk in the playoff race much of the year for a three-game set in early May.
Clark worked into the sixth inning of Monday night’s opener, with Cleveland leading 3-2. Three runs in the bottom of the sixth, keyed by doubles from Murray and Belle, broke it open and the Tribe won 6-2. On Tuesday, the bats unloaded. In the first inning, Lofton led off with a home run. Baerga homered. Sorrento hit a grand slam. The Indians were up 8-0, Hershiser worked eight brilliant innings and Cleveland cruised to a 10-0 win.
Wednesday night’s finale was tougher. Trailing 2-1 in the ninth, the Indians were at risk of wasting a strong outing from Nagy. Sorrento drew a walk. Thome singled. Backup infielder Wayne Kirby tied the game with an RBI single. In the bottom of the 10th, Baerga doubled and scored the winning run on a base hit from Manny. Cleveland had a series sweep.
The Indians came rolling out of that series and went on a 7-2 run, that included taking three of four against the eventual AL East champion Boston Red Sox. By Memorial Day, Cleveland was 18-9 and up 4 ½ games on Kansas City.
RUNNING AWAY
A four-game home sweep of the Chicago White Sox followed the holiday weekend and was the starting point of a 15-2 hot streak that extended the AL Central lead to 7 ½ games. Then the Indians stumbled, losing six of nine that included getting swept by the White Sox on the return trip to the South Side. The margin over the Royals was at 5 ½ games on June 26 and Cleveland was going to Kansas City.
Ogea took the ball on Monday night and was sharp. He got early support, an RBI double from Baerga in the first inning and a run-scoring single from Lofton the second inning. That was all the Indians got but that was all it took. Ogea and a bullpen tag-team outdueled KC’s Tom Gordon for the 2-0 win.
On Tuesday, Murray, Manny, and veteran catcher Tony Pena all had three hits apiece. Manny drove in three runs and Pena homered. Clark rode the offensive production, pitching eight strong innings in a 7-1 win.
Cleveland jumped out to an early lead in Wednesday afternoon’s getaway game, getting two-run blasts by Thome and Murray for a 5-0 lead. Nagy worked into the seventh inning, and the Tribe closed out another sweep with a 5-2 win.
The Indians were 8 ½ games up. They won seven of eleven going into the All-Star break and extended the lead to twelve games, pushing the Royals decisively into the wild-card race. Cleveland was soaring at 46-21 and running away with the AL Central.
STEAMROLLING THE LEAGUE
There was no letup in the late summer. The Indians took 13 of 18 games against a competitive AL West and the lead soared to 17 games by the end of July. Then they won 23 off 33 games going into Labor Day. Their record was an astonishing 82-36 and the margin in the division was no less astonishing at 21 ½ games.
A Friday night on September 8 was the night generations of Cleveland baseball fans had been waiting for. The magic number was one, and the Indians were hosting the Baltimore Orioles. A two-run single from Murray keyed a three-run third inning. Hershiser worked into the seventh inning, handing a 3-2 lead over to the bullpen. In the ninth, when Mesa got Baltimore’s Jeff Huson to pop out to Thome at third, the AL Central race was officially over.
By season’s end, even the shortened schedule couldn’t stop the Indians from hitting the 100-win threshold. They clocked in at 100-44, thirty games clear of the field in the division, +14 on the rest of the American League and ten games ahead of the National League’s best team, the Atlanta Braves.
BLOWING THROUGH BOSTON
The playoff bracket did not reward Cleveland’s excellence. This was the first year the Division Series was a regular part of the MLB postseason, and the league was using a system where the matchups were pre-determined based on division, rather than merit-based seeding.
Consequently, the Indians had to play the Red Sox, who had the second-best record in the American League. It was a bad break for Cleveland—although it proved a worse one for Boston.
Game 1 was hairy, going to extra innings at 3-3 and the Indians then fell behind 4-3 in the 11th inning. Belle answered with a home run in the bottom of the 11th. Two innings later, Pena homered. Cleveland had escaped with a 5-4 win.
Hershiser followed that up with a vintage performance in Game 2, leading a 4-0 win. The Indians went on to Fenway and closed out the sweep with an easy 8-2 win.
READ THE GAME-BY-GAME NARRATIVE OF THE 1995 ALDS
SURVIVING SEATTLE
The Indians’ arrival as a contender had given them an America’s Team quality, especially with the Major League movies starring Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger as Cleveland players in the recent rearview mirror.
But the Seattle Mariners were displacing the Tribe as America’s heartthrob team. The Mariners went on a stunning rally that began in August to win the AL West. They upset the New York Yankees in the Division Series, rallying from 0-2 down in the series and then rallying to win an extra-inning thriller in Game 5.
It was Seattle’s first time ever in the postseason. It was Cleveland’s first time in a couple generations. Someone was going to the World Series.
The Indians lost two of the first three games and were on the ropes. Hill, the late summer acquisition, stepped up and pitched seven shutout innings to win Game 4. Hershiser continued to add to his impeccable postseason resume from his Dodger days by winning a 3-2 decision in Game 5. Cleveland went on the road for Game 6. Dennis Martinez beat the great Randy Johnson, and the Indians had won the pennant.
READ THE GAME-BY-GAME NARRATIVE OF THE 1995 ALCS
A TOUGH LOSS TO THE BRAVES
The Fall Classic was set up to be a terrific showdown. The powerhouse bats of Cleveland against the pitching dominance of Atlanta, with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. These were clearly the best two teams in baseball.
It was a well-played Series with five games decided by one run. But the Braves, after near-misses in 1991 and 1992, finally had their time. Atlanta won it in six games.
Cleveland had still returned to the spotlight and they weren’t going anywhere. While they didn’t get the city a World Series title, 1995 began a seven-year stretch that included six AL Central titles and two American League pennants.