All-Time Indians: Lew Fonseca

Lew Fonseca originally signed with the Cincinnati Reds in 1921 after playing a year in Pacific Coast League, but ultimately became one of the Cleveland Indians best first basemen and even a solid force at the corner for the White Sox in his later years. After joining the oldest franchise, Fonseca played four seasons for the Reds as a part time second baseman, batting .361 in his second season in 81 games. Over his first two seasons, he averaged 43 RBI, 45 runs and 15 doubles per season, portending a short, but impressive Major League career.

After a poor 1924 season in Cincinnati, he was let go by the Reds and picked up by the Phillies for the 1925 season. While this was the most he played in a year, 126 games, he was let go despite 30 doubles, 60 RBI and a .319 average. Fonseca then played 1926 with the independent Newark Bears before being signed by the Indians for the 1927, the first team that really gave him a chance to prove himself as a Major League starter.

In his first season with the Tribe, Fonseca was still a second baseman primarily and continued as a doubles machine with 20 in 112 games, sporting a .311 average. The Indians had an interesting situation at that time with infielders as some of the most talented in team history were active at the same time, but they didn’t have one particular position to control. Johnny Hodapp played mostly third with some second and first, Joe Sewell played short stop and third, Ed Morgan, the best hitter of the group, played first and third along with right and center field. With all this movement, the Indians didn’t have one set lineup and, outside of his best season in 1929, Fonseca never played just one position in a season.

In 1928, he would play each of the four infield positions, getting into 75 games (he missed time due to a broken leg) with a .327 average and 19 doubles. Despite a WAR of just 1.8 that year, Fonseca was one of five Indians to receive MVP votes, along with Carl Lind, both Sewell brothers and Hodapp. With two vote points, he ultimately came in 22nd (tied with Hodapp, Lind was 15th, Joe and Luke Sewell both tied for 12th) with Mickey Cochrane of the Athletics taking the award.

The following year, he would get no recognition, although it was the one year in his career that he actually deserved it. In a career high 148 games, Fonseca lead the league in average (.369) with career highs in runs (97), hits (209), doubles (44), triples (15), RBI (103) and steals (19). Batting fourth in the lineup, for most of the season, Fonseca took advantage of the rookie, future Hall of Famer Earl Averill batting third as the two were responsible for the majority of the Indians offense.

The following season, at 31, Fonseca was set to build on his best season yet, but he broke his arm after just 32 games and didn’t return to the team late August. While he had batted .303 with eight doubles before going down, just eight games in September dropped that average to .279 as he finished the year 3/20 with one extra base hit and two RBI.

Fonseca was batting .370 the next season on May 16th when he was traded to the White Sox for Willie Kamm, a move that ended up being very fortuitous for Cleveland. He batted just .299 for the rest of the year in Chicago and this would be his final good year. Over the next two seasons with the White Sox he played just 41 games total as he dealt with more injuries that ultimately ended his career at 34 in 1933.

For the Tribe, Fonseca didn’t play as much as the best first basemen in team history, but he still ranks fourth in Indians history among all batters in career average (.337) and his .369 mark in 1929 still ranks tenth among qualifying single season numbers. His 101 career doubles and 210 RBI are also impressive considering that he played just 401 career games.

After retiring as a player, Fonseca stayed with the White Sox as the team’s manager from 1932 through 1934, winning 34% of his games. After this, he became the director of promotions for Major League Baseball and he was responsible for some of the first use of video in baseball, including the creation of World Series high light films starting in 1949. After this, he remained a hitting coach with the Chicago Cubs until he was 82. He died shortly after in 1989 at 90 years old.