8th October 1879
What a difference a successful team can make to the mood of a city. Cleveland has been all smiles and cheers all year as the Blues forgot the last 8 years of indifferent ball play and put on a show for their fans this year. This play was good enough all year to see the team clinch its first AL pennnant in 9 attempts. The pennant was won early in the season as the team got off to a fast start. April and May saw the team lose only 9 out of 28 games. After this the team played just above average ball which was enough to see them win the AL title and progress to their first MLB Championship Series. They will face the NL's Chicago White Stockings in that Championship Series.
The October games saw the team win 6-3 on the road to the Philadelphia Athletics followed by a 2-1 series win against the St Louis Brown Stockings 6-3, 4-3 and 10-12
The pitching put up a solid showing all season as both starters managed to record 20 win seasons. The best of the 2 starters was 3rd year starter Will White. White started 42 games and pitched 361.1 innings for 25 wins. He gave up 346 hits and 86 earned runs for an ERA of 2.14
While the pitching played solidly the batting still had its ups and down during the season. This year it just managed more ups than downs. The best came in the form of Third Baseman Mike Burke. Rookie Burke managed to force his way into the managers thoughts as he played 47 games with 45 as starter. He had 177 at bats that produced 53 hits along with 23 runs and 23 RBI's for an average of .299
Full pitching stats for the season
Full batting stats for the season
The team will now face the NL's Chicago White Stockings is the best of 7 MLB Championship Series. We will bring you all the news from this once played. We will also bring you a full off season round up once the First Year Draft has been completed.