We’re spending the 2025 season looking back at previous seasons, specifically the 50 greatest teams in history, a group that I call the Best 50. Today’s entry, the 1995 Cleveland Indians, is No. 15 on the list, as determined by my new book, Baseball’s Best (and Worst) Teams.
Here’s a quick boilerplate explanation that I’m appending to every story in this series:
I compiled the Best 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league teams from 1903 to 2024. Those clubs have been ranked by their team scores (TS), which are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given club’s all-time percentile is the percentage of the other 2,543 teams that it outperformed.)
See my book for an explanation of my TS calculations. The book also offers separate breakdowns of the best and worst clubs for every decade and franchise, comprehensive profiles of the Best 50 (including position-by-position lineups and much more information than you’ll find in this newsletter), and similar summaries of the 10 worst teams of all time.
Now on to today’s profile.
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Team: 1995 Cleveland Indians
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Team score: 88.827 points
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All-time rank: 15 of 2,544
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All-time percentile: 99.45%
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Season record: 100-44 (.694)
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Season position: First place in American League Central
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Final status: League champion
The Indians were perpetual also-rans, yet Cleveland fans anticipated a breakthrough in 1995. Their optimism was stoked by the club’s 66-47 record in the strike-truncated season of 1994. The winning percentage of .584 marked the Indians’ first appearance on the sunny side of .550 since 1959.
Dreams of a renaissance were also fueled by the 1994 opening of a shiny new ballpark, Jacobs Field. It replaced cavernous Municipal Stadium, a gloomy structure known locally as The Mistake on the Lake.
The players’ strike dragged into 1995, delaying opening day by three weeks. The Indians were unbothered. They won 36 of their first 50 games, eventually powering to 100 victories over a shortened 144-game schedule. Cleveland’s final margin in the American League Central — 30 games — was the widest gap between first and second place in history.
Jacobs Field hosted an unbridled celebration when the Indians clinched their playoff berth. One jubilant fan waved a sign that perfectly captured the mood: “Deal With It, America…Cleveland Indians…Best Team In Baseball.”
Get the complete lowdown on the 50 greatest (and 10 weakest) clubs of all time
The American League Division Series was brief — the Indians swept the Red Sox — though the AL Championship Series was bumpier. Seattle took two of the first three games, then Cleveland rebounded with three straight victories.
The Indians entered the World Series as the oddsmakers’ favorite. They were superior to the Braves in regular-season wins (100 to 90) and all-time ranks (15th to 38th). But Atlanta’s pitching tipped the balance. Cleveland had topped the majors with a regular-season batting average of .291, but slumped to .179 in the series. The Braves triumphed in six games.
“As disappointing as this is,” said Indians general manager John Hart, “you don’t see anybody falling off the earth.” Cleveland’s fans assumed (erroneously) that their young club would soon win a championship of its own.
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No big-league club scored more frequently in 1995 than the Indians (5.83 runs per game). Their attack was spearheaded by left fielder Albert Belle, who topped the American League in home runs (50) and RBIs (126). This prodigious output was offset by Belle’s moodiness and temper tantrums, inspiring a Sporting News correspondent to dub him the Sultan of Surly. “He’s a great player,” said shortstop Omar Vizquel. “But he didn’t contribute to team chemistry, and team chemistry is important.”
Six Cleveland regulars batted above .300, led by designated hitter Eddie Murray (.323). Right fielder Manny Ramirez amassed 31 home runs and 107 RBIs, and corner infielders Paul Sorrento and Jim Thome added 25 homers apiece. Center fielder Kenny Lofton leavened the team’s power with lightning-fast footwork. His 54 stolen bases were unsurpassed in the AL.
The pitching staff’s ERA of 3.83 was nearly half a run better than its closest competitor across the league. The most celebrated member was reliever Jose Mesa, who finished second in the balloting for the Cy Young Award. Mesa topped the majors with 46 saves. “When he comes in, you know the game is over,” said Sorrento.
Charles Nagy and Orel Hershiser set the pace for the starting rotation with 16 wins each. “We’re ruining young guys’ careers this year,” said the 37-year-old Hershiser, “because they’re going to go the rest of their careers, maybe 10 or 12 years, and never play on a team that’s this good.”