All-Time Indians: Lou Boudreau

Possibly the most revered hitter in Indians history, Lou Boudreau was both arguably the greatest short stop and manager in Indians history. He was an MVP, Hall of Famer and World Series winning manager and it all began when he signed as an amateur free agent in 1938.

Boudreau played both college baseball and basketball for the University of Illinoise, but after committing to the Indians, he was ineligible to play for his final season. His first professional season began with the Cedar Rapids Raiders after officially signing in 1938 before making his MLB debut at the end of the year, playing in just one game and walking once in two at bats. The next year, he began with with the Buffalo Bisons, but after 115 games he would return to the Majors and never play another game in minor league baseball. In that 1939 season, Boudreau was promoted in August and immediately became the starting short stop over his predecessor, Skeeter Webb. The Indians had been without a long term short stop since Joe Sewell in the 1920’s and Webb was just another stopgap. Boudreau would finally end that run and provide stability at the position for the next decade.

After 19 extra base hits and 19 RBI in 53 games in his rookie campaign, Boudreau would become an All-Star in his first full season. The top hitter on the Indians, Boudreau lead the team in runs (97), RBI (101) and doubles (46) and came in fifth in the 1940 MVP race. He lost to Hank Greenberg, who finished with 41 home runs and 150 RBI, also finishing behind his teammate, Bob Feller. An incredibly impressive season for a 22 year old, Boudreau walked 73 times to just 39 strike outs, a trend that would continue throughout his entire career.

Things would only get better for Boudreau as he went to the next five All-Star games as well (and two more later on) and received MVP votes each of the next nine years. A doubles machine, Boudreau lead the league in 1941, then again in 1944 and 1947 each time with 45. Only some of the greatest doubles hitters of all time have surpassed Boudreau for his Indians career, Earl Averill, Nap Lajoie and the greatest doubles hitter in baseball history, Tris Speaker.

He continued to be a top hitter for the Tribe in 1942, batting .283 for the season, a number that he would surpass in nine of his ten full seasons. One of Boudreau’s failings was apparent this year as he lead the league in times caught stealing. In his career he was safe just 50 times in 100 attempts as he was never a real speed player. Not wanting to believe this however, he kept trying and still has the third worst stealing percentage of all Indians with at least 100 attempts ahead of only Duane Kuiper (43%) and Charlie Jamieson (49%).

1942 also marked Boudreau’s first as the Indians manager. He replaced Roger Peckinpaugh who had come back for just one year after managing from 1928 through 1933. At just 24 years old, Boudreau was incredibly young for a manager, in fact he was the second youngest in baseball history behind Peckinpaugh, who managed the Yankees in 1914 at the age of 23. Throughout his tenure, Boudreau would have to deal both with players who were older than him and clashes with management, particularly Bill Veeck, but he was still the first manager to bring the Indians to the World Series after 1920 and the last until 1954. As a manager, Boudreau was most famous for creating the defensive shift which he used regularly against Ted Williams.

The 1943 season marked Boudreau’s third top ten MVP finish and fourth All-Star appearance. He played in all but three of the Indians games that year and crushed 42 extra base hits, knocking in 67 and scoring 69. The Indians offense was poor in general that season, scoring just 600 runs with no batter knocking in 100 runs. This was actually the case every year from 1942 through 1947 and the Indians record showed it as they never won more than the 83 won in 1943. The fact that Boudreau inherited a poor team that he himself was the best hitter on makes his ultimate accomplishments as a player and manager even greater.

In 1944, Boudreau set his highest average mark to this point, leading the league with a .327 in addition to his 45 doubles.  This was also his best season on the bases, stealing 11 in 14 attempts. After this year, he had two poor seasons compared to his norm, playing in only 97 games in 1945 (he was severely injured in a take out slide) and 140 in 1946. He still batted .293 in the second of those two seasons, but missed both All-Star games. Despite this, he still finished in the top ten in MVP votes each year.

Back to full speed in 1947, Boudreau had his best season to date. He batted .307 with 79 runs scored, 67 RBI and another 45 doubles. He returned to the All-Star game and finished third in MVP voting behind Ted Williams, who should have won the award, and Joe DiMaggio, who actually did. Possibly the biggest reason for Boudreau’s increase in production was the addition to the lineup of another future Hall of Famer, Joe Gordon as well as the outfielder Dale Mitchell. These two, along with Boudreau and Ken Keltner who had been with the team for years already, would form the core of the much improved 1948 offense. The team improved much from 1946, winning 80 games over their 68 the year before. Another sign of this improvement was that the Indians would have three All-Star hitters that year (Gordon, Boudreau and Jim Hegan), the first time since 1944.

The 1948 season would be the one Boudreau and his teammates, Feller, Bob Lemon and the rest, would be remembered forever for. As the manager, Boudreau turned those 80 wins into an AL best 97, winning a game 156 play-off with the Red Sox to return to the World Series for the second time ever. As a hitter, he became the Indians second MVP ever (after George Burns in 1926) by setting career bests in all rate stats (.355/.453/.534), RBI (106), runs scored (116), walks (98) and home runs (18). Boudreau’s career would have a pretty sharp decline after this, but his career year at age 30 could not have come at a better time.

Gordon and Keltner each knocked in 100 runs as well and Larry Doby filled another glaring hole in the lineup in center field. The same three who had went to the All-Star game in 1947 returned as well as Ken Keltner matching Boudreau’s seventh appearance that year.

After winning 96 games in regulation, Gene Bearden lead the Indians into a one game play-off against Boston’s Denny Galehouse. The Indians would win this game 8-3, largely thanks to Boudreau, who went 4-4 with an intentional walk, crushing two home runs and scoring three times. Never before has a manager so deserved a win or a play-off appearance as Boudreau did on October 4th, 1948.

In the World Series that year against the other Boston team, the Braves, Boudreau was one of seven players to get into all six games. While he didn’t play as well as he did in the play-in game, he still batted .273 with three RBI and four doubles in his first and only time in the post-season as the Indians won four of six games. While the Indians would only return once more to the World Series between 1949 and 1994, this would mark the beginning of a long period of great teams for the Tribe as they won at least 88 games every season after through 1956. While Boudreau wasn’t the manager of these later team, he was part of the initial creation in 1947.

The 1949 season would be Boudreau’s final with more than 90 games played, but he was still a fantastic player with 60 RBI, 53 runs and 20 doubles while batting .284. For this, he finished 14th in the MVP voting and largely thanks to the production of Doby and the starting rotation, the Indians won 89 games. After just 81 more games in 1950, Boudreau was unceremoniously released. While his offense fell off a bit in his final seasons, his defense was always above average as he lead the league in short stop fielding percent each year from 1940 through 1948 (he also ranked first in defensive WAR in 1940, 1943, 1947 and 1948 for more modern readers).

After his release, Boudreau was signed by the Red Sox for two seasons, batting .265 in 86 games before retiring after the 1952 season. While he didn’t the manage the Red Sox in 1951, he was the player/manager in 1952 and stayed on in just a managerial role through 1954, finishing fourth in the AL each of his last two seasons. After being let go, Boudreau signed with Kansas City Athletics in their first season outside of Philadelphia and was their manager from 1955 through 1957. After a few years in the radio booth in Chicago, Boudreau got one more chance to manage, this time with the Cubs in 1960. After finishing out the year 54-83, he returned to announcing with Chicago, where he would stay until 1987.

Initially on the ballot in 1956, Boudreau wasn’t elected to the baseball Hall of Fame until 1970, although he was placed in the Indians Hall of Fame in 1954. After election, Boudreau’s #5 was retired, one of just seven retired numbers to this day. Lou Boudreau died in 2001 at the age of 84.