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1987 Cleveland Indians season

Field	Value
name	Cleveland Indians
season	1987
league	American League
division	East
ballpark	Cleveland Municipal Stadium
city	Cleveland, Ohio
owners	Richard Jacobs
general_managers	Joe Klein
managers	Pat Corrales, Doc Edwards
television	WUAB
Joe Tait, Jack Corrigan
radio	WWWE
Herb Score, Steve Lamar

Joe Tait, Jack Corrigan Herb Score, Steve Lamar |}}

The 1987 Cleveland Indians season was the 87th in franchise history. The team, predicted by Sports Illustrated magazine to finish first, finished seventh in the American League East. Club president Peter Bavasi would resign before the regular season began. Bavasi had joined the Indians in November 1984. As team president, he served on Major League Baseball's Executive Council. During the 1986 season, the team had an 84–78 record, its best since 1968, and attendance of 1.47 million, its highest since 1959. There was much optimism that the team would reach its full potential in 1987.

Sluggers Joe Carter and Cory Snyder were featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated on April 6, 1987, with the headline "Indian Uprising". The Indians were being predicted as the best team in baseball on the back of their two 30+ home run hitters. What sports writers overlooked was that Cleveland had the worst performing pitching staff in the majors, despite the presence of 300 game winners Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton, as well as Tom Candiotti (with Niekro and Candiotti, Cleveland had two starters whose main pitch was the knuckleball).

The 1987 Indians would fall well short of SI's bold prediction. They were not above .500 even once all season, and an 8–20 May ended any realistic hope of contention. They finished 61–101, the worst record in all of baseball. The season would go on to be associated with the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.

Offseason

November 7, 1986: Fran Mullins was released by the Indians.
November 28, 1986: Casey Parsons was signed as a free agent by the Indians.
December 23, 1986: John Butcher was released by the Indians.
January 19, 1987: Doug Frobel was signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians.
February 23, 1987: Curt Wardle was traded by the Indians to the Oakland Athletics for Jeff Kaiser.

Regular season

In 1987, the Cleveland Indians achieved a baseball first. The Indians had veteran pitchers Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro on their roster to add experience. Their most notable accomplishment was appearing in a game together against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Carlton and Niekro became the first teammates and 300-game winners to appear in the same game. Both were ineffective in a 10-6 Yankee victory. It would be Carlton's first and only pitching appearance at the legendary stadium. Neither pitcher finished the season with the Indians. Carlton would end up with the Minnesota Twins and win a World Series championship. Niekro would be picked up by the Toronto Blue Jays and come within two games of winning the American League East Championship.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Transactions

April 4, 1987: Steve Carlton signed as a free agent with the Indians.
May 11, 1987: Don Schulze was traded by the Indians to the New York Mets for Ricky Nelson.
May 12, 1987: Dave Gallagher was traded by the Indians to the Seattle Mariners for Mark Huismann.
July 15, 1987: Tony Bernazard was traded by the Indians to the Oakland Athletics for Darrel Akerfelds and Brian Dorsett.
July 31, 1987: Steve Carlton was traded by the Indians to the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named later. The Twins completed the deal by sending Jeff Perry (minors) to the Indians on August 18.

Draft picks

June 2, 1987: 1987 Major League Baseball draft
- Albert Belle was drafted by the Indians in the 2nd round. Belle signed on August 27, 1987.
- Beau Allred was drafted by the Indians in the 25th round.

Opening Day Lineup

Cleveland Indians}}"	Opening Day Starters	Cleveland Indians}};
4	Tony Bernazard	2B
2	Brett Butler	CF
14	Julio Franco	SS
30	Joe Carter	LF
29	Andre Thornton	DH
26	Brook Jacoby	3B
10	Pat Tabler	1B
28	Cory Snyder	RF
23	Chris Bando	C
49	Tom Candiotti	P

Roster

1987 Cleveland Indians
Roster
Pitchers

Statistics

Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	SB
	50	154	17	41	6	0	3	16	.266	1
	89	211	20	46	9	0	5	16	.218	0
	38	125	14	27	9	1	2	13	.216	2
	79	293	39	70	12	1	11	30	.239	7
	137	522	91	154	25	8	9	41	.295	33
	149	588	83	155	27	2	32	106	.264	31
	89	220	27	55	17	0	11	31	.250	1
	29	87	11	18	5	0	3	12	.207	1
	60	141	16	25	10	0	1	9	.177	0
	5	11	2	3	0	0	1	3	.273	0
	128	495	86	158	24	3	8	52	.319	32
	29	40	5	4	0	0	2	5	.100	0
	15	36	2	4	1	1	0	1	.111	2
	142	485	57	136	21	1	18	76	.280	5
	67	257	31	68	9	3	3	21	.265	9
	155	540	73	162	26	4	32	69	.300	2
	19	17	2	1	0	0	0	1	.059	2
	39	80	7	18	2	1	0	7	.225	1
	18	25	2	4	0	0	1	5	.160	0
	157	577	74	136	24	2	33	82	.236	5
	151	553	66	170	34	3	11	86	.307	5
	36	85	8	10	2	0	0	5	.118	1
	22	64	9	11	4	0	1	4	.172	0
Team Totals	162	5606	742	1476	267	30	187	691	.263	140

Pitching

Note: W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; SV = Saves; IP = Innings pitched; H = Hits allowed; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
	2	6	6.75	16	13	0	74.2	84	60	56	38	42
	1	0	8.68	14	0	1	18.2	27	18	18	10	9
	7	8	4.64	39	17	6	120.1	145	75	62	47	65
	0	1	9.22	15	0	1	13.2	21	14	14	5	9
	7	18	4.78	32	32	0	201.2	193	132	107	93	111
	5	9	5.37	23	14	1	109.0	111	76	65	63	71
	1	1	4.55	16	0	0	31.2	26	17	16	13	22
	5	1	3.39	10	9	0	69.0	68	29	26	22	28
	0	3	4.08	21	0	1	39.2	49	31	18	12	20
	2	3	5.09	20	0	2	35.1	38	22	20	8	23
	6	5	3.15	49	0	8	91.1	101	45	32	24	87
	0	0	16.20	2	0	0	3.1	4	6	6	3	2
	7	11	5.89	22	22	0	123.2	142	83	81	53	57
	1	1	6.08	14	0	0	26.2	33	21	18	16	11
	6	13	6.50	32	29	0	153.2	185	126	111	57	61
	4	2	5.67	25	0	3	27.0	25	22	17	21	25
	3	8	5.10	16	15	0	102.1	112	62	58	37	97
	1	0	5.10	55	0	0	72.1	96	42	41	21	40
	0	1	14.29	6	0	0	5.2	7	10	9	7	6
	0	1	5.06	6	0	1	5.1	3	3	3	7	4
	3	9	5.25	37	11	1	97.2	96	63	57	49	59
Team Totals	61	101	5.28	162	162	25	1422.2	1566	957	835	606	849

Award winners

All-Star Game

Pat Tabler, designated hitter, reserve

Farm system

References

"Principals".
New York Times, January 24, 1987
"Fran Mullins".
"Casey Parsons".
"John Butcher".
"Doug Frobel".
"Jeff Kaiser".
"Steve Carlton".
"Don Schulze".
"Mark Huismann".
"Tony Bernazard".
"Albert Belle".
"Beau Allred".
"1987 Opening Day Lineup".
Johnson, Lloyd. (2007). "The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball". [[Baseball America]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

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