Indianapolis Indians’ Randy Lewandowski Named MiLB Executive of the Year

Charlotte, N.C. – Minor League Baseball™ (MiLB™) today announced Indianapolis Indians president & CEO Randy Lewandowski as the 2024 MiLB Executive of the Year. Nominees from each league were selected by their peers before a final round of voting.

Lewandowski recently completed his 31st season with the Indians. It was his first as president & CEO after serving as president & general manager from November 2016 through March 2024. Lewandowski first joined the Indians as a ticket office intern prior to the 1994 campaign.

In 2024 the Indians ascended to pre-pandemic levels by leading MiLB in average attendance (8,405) for just the second time in the team’s 122-year history (also: 2017) while attaining record-level revenue figures for the third consecutive year. The club also finished second in overall attendance (588,363), marking the sixth top 2 finish for Indianapolis in the last 11 seasons. Over the last 14 seasons combined, the Indians are MiLB’s overall attendance leader.

Under Lewandowski’s guidance, the organization’s focus on community impact continued with $250,000 distributed to 19 community partners, elevating Indianapolis Indians Charities’ monetary donation total to $1.3 million since it was founded in 2019. Non-game day events also filled the calendar at Victory Field, including the IHSAA State Baseball Finals, a three-day experience of hosting the Savannah Bananas and community events like Baby Got Brunch and fundraisers for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and American Heart Association, among others. The Vic is set to host Rowdie’s Pumpkin Patch, Rowdie’s Home Plate Holiday, Bourbon at the Ballpark and Baseb(All) Too Well yet this fall.

All told, the Indians’ post-pandemic successes can be attributed to Lewandowski’s leadership. In 2020 and into early 2021, he went to bat for Indians employees during the pandemic and managed to keep all full-time staff members employed, making Indianapolis one of just a few MiLB teams to enter the COVID-impacted 2021 season with its staff intact.

Beyond the ballpark, Lewandowski has had a consistent presence in the community. He joined the Indianapolis Public Safety Foundation as a board member in December 2022 and serves on the board of directors for both Indy Chamber and Indianapolis Indians Charities. In addition, he spearheaded a partnership between the Indians and Indianapolis RBI in 2015 and now serves as chairman on the organization’s board of directors. He was previously active in the Indiana chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as past president and board member, and past chair of the LLS Light the Night Walk. For a seven-year period, he was active in the youth sports coaching and mentoring ministry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church and School. Since 2021 he also gave the Indians and other Professional Development League (PDL) teams a voice of reasoning in important year-over-year discussions by serving on the PDL Club Operations and International League Scheduling committees.

Lewandowski was inducted into the Bishop Dwenger High School Hall of Fame in 2015, was named the International League Executive of the Year in 2016 and was inducted into the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association Hall of Fame in 2018.

A native of Fort Wayne, Ind., Lewandowski graduated with a degree in business management from Anderson (Ind.) University, where he was a four-year starter on the baseball team and earned academic All-America honors as a first baseman and pitcher.

Lewandowski and his wife, Christina, reside in Noblesville, Ind., and have two adult children, Alyssa (Mike) Tallman and Sam, and one granddaughter, Isla.