Elden Auker
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Elden Le Roy Auker (born September 21, 1910) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher, noted for his submarine pitching style. He is the last living pitcher to have given up a home run to Babe Ruth.
Auker was born and raised in Norcatur, Kansas. He attended college at Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, where he was a first-team All-American in baseball and All-Big Six Conference in baseball, football, and basketball. In football, Auker starred at quarterback, was named second team All-American by Grantland Rice, and offered a $6,000 contract by the Chicago Bears. The Bears sent Bronko Nagurski to Manhattan to try to convince him to join the team. Auker turned down the Bears, however, to pitch for the Detroit Tigers.
During his ten-year major league career, Auker played with the Tigers, Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Browns. While with Detroit, Auker went to two consecutive World Series, in 1934 and 1935. In the 1934 Series against the Cardinals, Auker was the winning pitcher in Game Four, but the loser to Dizzy Dean in the decisive Game Seven. The next season, Auker led the American League in winning percentage with an 18-7 record. In the 1935 Series against the Cubs, Auker started Game Three but did not factor in any decision during the Tigers' 4–2 series victory.
Before the 1939 season, Auker was traded by Detroit to the Red Sox for Pinky Higgins and Archie McKain. That season was Ted Williams's rookie year in Boston, and the two would develop a life-long friendship during the season. However, Auker chafed playing under Red Sox manager Joe Cronin and his 9-10 record in the year was the lowest win total of any full season he played. Auker finished his career playing three seasons with the Browns (1940-42). During the 1941 season, he gave up hits to Joe DiMaggio during two games of DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak.
Auker retired in 1943 so that he could contribute to the war effort. In 2001 Auker wrote his memoirs, entitled Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms.
- Career statistics
| W | L | WP | GP | GS | CG | Sh | SV | IP | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
| 130 | 101 | .563 | 333 | 261 | 126 | 14 | 2 | 1,963.1 | 706 | 594 | 4.42 | 1.495 |
- Other MLB debuts in 1933
- Mel Almada
- Pete Fox
- Frankie Hayes
- Indian Bob Johnson
- Thornton Lee
- Dutch Leonard
- Schoolboy Rowe
- Cecil Travis
- Hal Trosky
- Russ Van Atta
- Ted Abernathy
- Chad Bradford
- Jeff Innis
- Byung-Hyun Kim
- Carl Mays
- Matt Miller
- Mike Myers
- Dan Quisenberry
- Kent Tekulve
See also
Bibliography
- Elden Auker with Tom Keegan, Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms: A Lifetime of Memories from Striking Out the Babe to Teeing it up With the President (ISBN 1892049252, 2001)
External links
- [Baseball-Reference.com] - career statistics and analysis
- [Interview with Elden Auker]
- [Kansas Sports Hall of Fame biography]
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