It may not be an exaggeration to say Strasburg's debut on Tuesday night was beyond comparison. We look at a few Indians over the last 50 years who began their careers with some degree of expectation. And, links to Indians legend Bob Feller, who debuted in 1936 at age 17.
C.C. Sabathia during his major league debut with the Indians on April 8, 2001, pitching against the Baltimore Orioles.Mike Peticca, Plain Dealer Reporter
Pitcher Stephen Strasburg's debut on Tuesday night in Washington, striking out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates and walking none over seven innings in a 5-2 Nationals win, qualifies as historic. To say the least.
The game has immediate relevance for the Indians. Barring a weather postponement or other circumstances, Strasburg's next start will be Sunday against the Indians in Cleveland.
It's by no means a comprehensive list, but we look at the first games for some Indians over the last 50 years who began their big-league careers with expectations that they would make a major impact on the team.
Certainly, none created the national media frenzy that Strasburg's has, but all generated some buzz among Tribe followers.
A standard for such attention, of course, would have been pitching legend Bob Feller, who in 1936 at age 17 began his career with the Indians. After some notable rookie season achievements, Feller returned to Van Meter, Iowa for his senior year in high school. His graduation the following spring was broadcast on national radio. If there had been television and other media outlets as there are today, the hype surrounding Feller might not have ever been duplicated.
Click here for Part 1 of Plain Dealer reporter Dennis Manoloff's recent interview with Feller, and click here for Part 2.
And, from Retrosheet.org, the box score of Feller's major league debut in 1936; the box score of his 11th game that season, when - still 51 days short of his 18th birthday - he tied what was then a major league record with 17 strikeouts.
Beginning with the most recent of six Indians debuts over the past 50 years, we chronicle that of:
CC Sabathia
He was then "C.C.," a left-handed pitcher and a gifted athlete despite the 300 or so pounds that draped his 6-7 frame.
The Indians drafted Sabathia in the first round (20th overall) of the amateur draft days after his 1998 high school class in Vallejo, Cal. graduated, and they signed him on June 29, 22 days before his 18th birthday.
Sabathia had pitched in just 48 minor league games, and he was ranked by Baseball America as the seventh-best prospect in the sport when he made the Indians out of spring training in 2001.
Sabathia made his major league debut on Sunday, April 8 at Cleveland's then-Jacobs Field against the Baltimore Orioles. His immediate introduction to the Big Time was not easy, as the top of the first inning went fly out, double, walk, wild pitch and a three-run home run by Jeff Conine.
Then, a hint of the resilience that has helped Sabathia, then 20, develop into one of the game's most formidable pitchers. After the poor beginning, Sabathia pitched 5 1/3 scoreless, one-hit innings before being relieved with two outs in the top of the sixth inning and the Indians trailing, 3-2.
Juan Gonzalez - remember him? - drilled a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning to turn what stood as a loss into a no-decision for Sabathia, and gave the Indians a 4-3 win.
A sellout crowd of 40,754 watched Sabathia's first Tribe game. Just four days before, the Indians' streak of 455 straight sellouts at Jacobs Field had ended when 32,763 turned out for the second game of the season, an 8-4 win over the Chicago White Sox following an Opening Day packed house. The day before Sabathia's debut, the Indians drew 40,704. Their next home game, on April 20, was played before a crowd of 33,127.
Baseball-reference.com has the box score and play-by-play for Sabathia's debut.
Longtime Plain Dealer reporter Burt Graeff wrote of Sabathia's debut:
Sabathia, 20, is regarded as the future of the Tribe's pitching staff. Walking to the dugout from the bullpen after finishing his pregame warm-up, he got a standing ovation.
"With 40,000 people screaming," he said, "it felt like they were out there pitching for me."
Sixteen photographers, all standing on the track behind the home-plate area and armed with long-range telephoto lenses, fired away while Sabathia made his warm-up tosses.
Sabathia finished his rookie season 17-5 and was credited with a win in the Division Series playoff round that the Indians lost to the Seattle Mariners, three-games-to-two. He went 106-71 for the Indians and won the 2007 American League Cy Young Award before Cleveland traded him - with his free agency looming - to the Milwaukee Brewers on July 7, 2008 for outfielder-first baseman Matt LaPorta, outfielder Michael Brantley and pitchers Rob Bryson and Zach Jackson.
Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million free agent contract with the New York Yankees following the 2008 season, and dropped the periods following the "C's" for "Carsten" and "Charles." With a 141-84 career record and not turning 30 until next month, Sabathia would become a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate with a few more big seasons.
Joey (Albert) Belle
Belle, a slugging outfielder, already had a reputation for his volatile personality as a player at Louisiana State. If not for his troubles there, he would have been taken before the Indians got him in the second round of the 1987 draft.
Belle, then 23, was batting .282 with 20 homers when the Indians brought him up from their Class AA affiliate, the Canton-Akron Indians, and put him into Cleveland's lineup for the first time on July 15, 1989. The Texas Rangers were the Indians' opponent for the Saturday night game in Cleveland Stadium
The right-hander batted in the sixth spot, between first baseman Pete O'Brien and center fielder Brad Komminsk, and played right field.
The familiar sight of Albert (formerly Joey) Belle watching one of his home runs sail toward the seats.Belle's first task was not easy, to step into the batter's box against legendary fireballer Nolan Ryan. Belle, not one to be intimidated, grounded an RBI single between shortstop and third base to give the Indians a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The Indians won, 7-1, making their left-handed starting pitcher, Greg Swindell, 12-2. Ryan fell to 10-5. Belle was 1-for-4 as the Indians improved to 42-46 on their way to a 73-89 record.
Click here for the box score and play-by-play of the game.
The game drew an above-average crowd of 28,952. Attendance was no doubt helped by Ryan's appearance and playing on a Saturday night. It wasn't possilbe to gauge Belle's impact on attendance, although Indians fans were curious to watch him play. The crowd the previous night was 14,511; the next day, 22,095.
After 218 at bats with the Indians during his rookie season and 23 in 1990, Belle became a star in 1991. In a six-year span through 1996, Belle batted .300 and averaged 39 homers and 119 RBI.
Belle left the Indians to sign a free agent contract with the White Sox before the 1997 season, and signed as a free agent with the Orioles prior to the 1999 campaign.
Because of an arthritic hip, Belle had to retire at age 34 after the 2000 season. He drove in more than 100 runs in each of his last nine seasons and finished his career as a .295 hitter with 381 homers and 1,239 RBI.
Partly because of the relative brevity of his career, and likely more because of his icy, tension-fraught relationship with the voting baseball writers, Belle lasted just two years on the Hall of Fame ballot, named on just 3.5 percent of the ballots - short of the necessary five percent to remain eligible - in the 2007 voting.
Cory Snyder
The hard-hitting Snyder began his professional career as a shortstop with a bazooka arm and was the Indians' first-round pick, and fourth overall, in the 1984 draft. He was a three-time All-American at Brigham Young and a star on the United States first Olympics baseball team, which won the 1984 silver medal.
The right-handed hitter had a combined 704 minor league at bats with Cleveland's AA Waterbury and AAA Maine affiliates before his major league debut on June 13, 1986.
Cory Snyder had power and a great throwing arm, but he never became the star some thought he would be.Friday night fireworks and Snyder's appearance helped the Indians draw 61,411 fans to Cleveland Stadium, after a crowd of 6,427 that Wednesday night and an off day on Thursday. For the Saturday game following Snyder's debut, a crowd of 10,742 showed up.
Snyder batted eighth in his first game, between shortstop Julio Franco and catcher Andy Allanson, and played right field. He grounded out in his first at bat against the Minnesota Twins, but his second time up was memorable. He lined a fourth-inning leadoff triple off former Indians ace Bert Blyleven - who will probably be elected to the Hall of Fame this winter - and scored for a 5-0 Cleveland lead.
Snyder made outs in his last two at bats. The Indians' 11-2 win was keyed by Andre Thornton's five RBI, including a three-run homer, and Tom Candiotti's complete game pitching.
The game's box score and play-by-play are here. Cleveland became 30-28 with the win and finished 84-78, the most wins the Indians had in any season between 1968 and 1995.
Snyder was soon moved to right field and finished an impressive rookie campaign with a .272 average and 24 homers in 416 at bats. However, he never became the star he was projected to be by most experts. Often slipping into prolonged slumps because of not consistently making contact, Snyder batted .245 with 115 homers in 657 games for the Indians.
The Indians traded Snyder and minor league infielder Lindsay Foster to the White Sox for pitchers Eric King and Shawn Hillegas after the 1990 season. He played four more major league seasons, finishing with a .247 career batting average and 149 homers in 1,068 games.
Greg Swindell
The Indians selected Swindell, a 21-year-old lefthanded pitcher, in the first round with the second overall pick of the 1986 draft.
He signed with the Indians that July 31 and made three starts at Class A Waterloo, going 2-1 with a 1.00 ERA.
The Indians made a short-notice decision to bring up Swindell and start him against the powerful Red Sox lineup on Thursday night, August 21, at Cleveland Stadium.
Pitching with little sleep after traveling to the lakefront, Swindell lasted just 3 2/3 innings. The Red Sox got to him for six runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks. Swindell pitched like Bob Feller compared to the next three Indians hurlers - Dickie Noles, Jose Roman and Bryan Oelkers. They surrendered 18 runs in the next 4 1/3 innings and the Indians were pummeled, 24-5, as the Red Sox set several team batting records.
The game drew 26,316 fans, a superb weeknight attendance for the Indians in those days. The previous night, just 10,002 fans showed up. The next night, with a Friday night fireworks promotion, the crowd was 45,138.
The Indians became 62-60 with the loss, and finished 84-78.
The game's box score and play-by-play are here.
Swindell pitched well the rest of the season, going 5-1 with a 3.88 ERA in his last eight starts. From 1986-91, and including a short stint in 1996, Swindell went 61-56 with a 3.86 ERA as an Indian.
Cleveland traded Swindell to the Cincinnati Reds for pitchers Jack Armstrong and Scott Scudder and minor league pitcher Joe Turek after the 1991 season. He pitched 17 big-league campaigns, including stops with the Astros, Twins, Red Sox and Diamondbacks.
Swindell became a reliever, and in his last six seasons, he made 370 bullpen appearances and one start. He finished his 17-season career in 2002, with a 123-122 record and 3.86 ERA in 664 games.
Steve Dunning
Dunning's most lasting achievement for the Indians is that before the onset of the designated hitter in 1973, he was the team's last accomplished hitting pitcher. Dunning was 9-for-33 (.273) with a double and three homers for Cleveland in 1972.
But it wasn't Dunning's hitting that persuaded 25,380 Indians fans to attend Cleveland Stadium on Sunday, June 14, 1970 - the Indians had played before 8,162 fans on Saturday, and would attract a crowd of 4,681 the night after Dunning's debut.
The fans wanted to see why the right-handed Dunning, 21, was selected out of Stanford and signed by the Indians mere days before, the second overall pick in the draft. They were hearing about how hard he threw, and why the Indians would have him start a major league game before even one appearance in the minor leagues.
Dunning didn't dominate, but neither did he disappoint as he earned credit for Cleveland's 9-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Dunning went five innings, allowuing two runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out three.
Shortstop Jack Heidemann, second baseman Eddie Leon and right fielder Vada Pinson each had three hits as the Indians became 24-32. Click here for the game's box score and play-by-play. The Indians finished the season 76-86.
Alas, Dunning's fastball wasn't enough to consistently get big league hitters out. He was 4-9 as a rookie with a 4.96 ERA -- exceedingly high for that era.
Dunning's Indians career ended on May 10, 1973, when he was traded to the Texas Rangers for pitcher Dick Bosman and outfielder Ted Ford. He had an 18-29 record as an Indian, with a 4.37 ERA.
Dunning did not pitch in the minors until 1972, when he began to bounce back and forth between the big-time and the farms. Including stints with the Oakland A's. Montreal Expos and California Angels, Dunning's major league numbers were 23-41 and a 4.56 ERA.
His last major league game was in 1977. He retired after the 1978 season, having compiled a minor league record of 45-40.
Sam McDowell
Fans - even the huge majority that didn't show up but watched on television or tuned in the radio - looked with some anticipation toward every game that big left-hander "Sudden Sam" McDowell pitched. Baseball people favorably compared both McDowell's fastball and curveball to those delivered by Los Angeles Dodgers' great Sandy Koufax.
McDowell found some fame with the Indians - leading the American League in strikeouts five times, for instance - but he never achieved the all-time great status many had predicted for him.
Batters did not have an easy time facing the stuff "Sudden Sam" McDowell could throw.McDowell had a drinking problem that he eventually overcame; after his retirment, becoming a counselor to athletes on the dangers of alcohol abuse.
Another reason McDowell didn't realize his full potential -- even though he made six all-star teams -- was his penchant for toying with batters he should have over-matched. Often, it was the banjo-hitting middle infielder, and there were a bunch of them in those days, that doomed McDowell to a baffling loss. He'd give one a chance by fooling around and tossing them a changeup or even knuckleball, and the guy would make McDowell pay.
Major League Baseball didn't begin its June amateur draft until 1965. Had there been one, McDowell likely would have been one of the first players picked after he graduated from Pittsburgh's Central Catholic High School in 1960.
The Indians signed McDowell, then 17, as an amateur free agent, and the next spring, he was assigned to the Indians' Class AAA farm team in Salt Lake City. McDowell went 13-10 with a 4.42 ERA, often getting in trouble with his overpowering but sometimes uncontrollable stuff, walking 152 in 175 innings.
Strikeout records for 1961 in Salt Lake City are not available, but no doubt, Sudden Sam got a bundle of them. The Indians saw enough to bring him to the major leagues when Salt Lake City's season ended, and on Sept. 15, McDowell took the Cleveland Stadium mound against the Minnesota Twins.
Although he wouldn't turn 19 until six days later, McDowell gave the Twins all they could handle. He held them scoreless on three hits in 6 1/3 innings, with five strikeouts and five walks.
Minnesota won, 3-2, making the Indians 72-75 on their way to a 79-82 finish. Click here for the game's box score and play-by-play.
Though fans were curious about McDowell, just 4,503 showed up for the Friday night game. That was better than the 4,221 crowd for the previous game, that Wednesday, and topped the cozy 2,946 that squeezed into the 80,000-seat (or so) stadium the day after McDowell debuted. Cleveland fans had turned apathetic after general manager Frank Lane had dismantled the 1959 second-place team by trading star outfielder Rocky Colavito and other key players prior to the 1961 season. And, there were no guaranteed minimum announced crowds as there are now, as there was no need for fans to buy season tickets into such a large stadium.
McDowell spent 1962 and 1963 between the Indians and minor leagues, before establishing himself as an elite major league pitcher during the summer of 1964.
Often getting minimal run support, McDowell went 122-109 for the Indians with a 2.99 ERA before being traded to the San Francisco Giants for future Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry and shortstop Frank Duffy.
McDowell's 2,159 strikeouts with the Indians, in 2,109 innings, remain second on the team's all-time list, trailing Bob Feller's 2,581.
Although McDowell worked during a pitcher-friendly era, his numbers were still impressive, and he was just 30 when the Indians traded him. But his career quickly deteriorated, and after time with the Giants, Yankees and Pirates, McDowell's career was through after 1975. He finished 141-134 with a 3.17 ERA and 2,453 strikeouts in 2,492 innings.