Editing Joe Gordon (section)

===Cleveland Indians===
[[File:Joe Gordon bowman.jpg|thumb|1950 Joe Gordon baseball card]]
While Reynolds would go on to win 131 games in eight seasons for the Yankees, Gordon proved resilient and kept his new team from regretting the deal. In {{Baseball year|1947}} he returned to his old levels of production, batting .272 and leading the club with 93 RBI, and again pacing the AL in assists. His 29 homers and 279 total bases were second in the league to Williams, and his .496 slugging average trailed only Williams and DiMaggio; Gordon again finished seventh in the MVP balloting. Additionally, he played a major role in befriending teammate [[Larry Doby]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=1572794&type=columnist |title=Remembering Larry Doby's dignity, courage |access-date=2007-11-29 |author=Joe Morgan |date=2003-06-26 |work=ESPN.com}}</ref> the AL's [[baseball color line|first black player]], who had been a second baseman in the [[Negro league baseball|Negro leagues]] but became a [[center fielder]] with Cleveland. Over Doby's first two seasons, Gordon became close to the player who was theoretically there to replace him, and Doby would later refer to him as his first friend in white baseball; however, reports that Gordon deliberately [[strikeout|struck out]] in Doby's first game to keep him from looking bad are erroneous.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/sports/baseball/doby.asp |title=Larry Doby |access-date=2007-11-29 |author=Barbara and David P. Mikkelson |date=2006-01-02 |publisher=snopes.com}}</ref> 1948 was even better, as Cleveland won their first AL title since 1920. Batting .280, he was second in the league to DiMaggio with 32 home runs, which remained the AL's single-season mark for a second baseman until [[Bret Boone]] hit 36 in {{Baseball year|2001}}. He again led the team with a personal high of 124 RBIs, and was sixth in the league in slugging (.507). Gordon placed sixth in the MVP vote, won by teammate and manager [[Lou Boudreau]]. In the [[1948 World Series]] against the [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]], batting cleanup, he had a RBI single and later scored to give Cleveland a 2-1 lead in Game 2; they went on to win 4-1. In the final Game 6, he homered to give the Indians a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning, and they went on to win 4-3 to capture the championship. His seven double plays in the Series are still the record for a six-game Series. In {{Baseball year|1949}} he slipped to a .251 average, though his 20 home runs and 84 RBI were still second on the team to Doby. His major league career ended in {{Baseball year|1950}} as he hit .236 with 19 home runs and 57 RBI.

Gordon was a career .268 hitter with 253 home runs, 975 RBI, 914 runs, 1,530 hits, 264 doubles and 89 stolen bases in 1,566 games. His .466 slugging average then placed him fifth among second basemen, behind Hornsby (.577), Gehringer (.480), Lazzeri (.467) and [[Nap Lajoie]] (.466), and only Hornsby had more homers among second basemen. Gordon might have had even higher batting totals had he played in other stadiums. His first several seasons were spent in [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]], with its immense "Death Valley" in left field that frustrated right-handed power hitters; during his New York years, he hit 69 home runs at home and 84 on the road. [[Cleveland Stadium|Municipal Stadium]] in Cleveland was also an unhelpful venue, being hostile to power hitters on both sides of the plate. Over his career, he batted 23 points higher on the road (.279) than he did at home (.256). He was selected for the [[Major League Baseball All-Star Game|All-Star]] team nine times, in all but his first and last seasons. He was also selected to ''The Sporting News'' Major League All-Star Team in 1939–42 and 1947–48, and was runner-up to Gehringer in 1938 and to [[Billy Herman]] in 1943. In {{Baseball year|2001}} he was selected as one of the Indians' 100 greatest players.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.clevelandmemory.org/indians100/ |title=Top 100 Greatest Cleveland Indians Players |access-date=2007-11-29 |publisher=Cleveland State University Library }}</ref>