| 1987 Cleveland Indians | ||
|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| ||
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.[1] 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.[2] 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.