The Submariner
A look at Elden Auker, former Detroit Tiger pitcher of the 1930’s
Bygone baseball by C. Philip Francis
It was a hot steamy day on August 14, 1937 when the Detroit Tigers annihilated the lowly St. Louis Browns in a doubleheader at Detroit’s Navin Field. The second-place Tigers won 16-1 and 20-7 with the combined winning runs the most scored by one team in a major-league twin bill. The victorious pitcher of the first game was Elden Auker who threw a four-hitter, and even added a couple of home runs that brought in five runs. The Tigers’ Boots Poffenberger, one of baseball’s more eccentric players, won the nightcap.
You might recognize some of Auker’s teammates of that day - Henry Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, Rudy York, Gee Walker, and Goose Goslin who are all gone - but the very spry, alert, and golf-playing 92-year-old Elden Auker and his wife enjoy the good life in a beautiful home off the Florida inter-coastal waters. I had the opportunity to talk baseball with Mr. Auker at his home earlier this year, so meet one of the Tiger pitchers of some 70 years ago, and one of the fine gentlemen of baseball.
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Elden LeRoy Auker was born in Norcatur, Kansas on September 21, 1910, and starred in basketball, football, and baseball at Kansas State University. His unusual underhanded or submarine type of throwing started after hurting his right shoulder during a football game with Purdue University. He studied pre-med, but it was the Great Depression and money was hard to find. Elden graduated from college in June of 1932, turned down a chance to play with the football professional Chicago Bears, and soon signed with the Detroit Tigers. He began to make his way through some of the Tiger minor league teams including Decatur of the Three-I League. The manager told him to throw underhand, not sidearm. In his next game the 6’2”, 194-pound right-hander threw a shutout walking only one man, and a baseball career was off and running – as one of the few submariners in the game.
Although the underhand or submarine-type pitching was rare, it was not unknown. Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity had little success in the minors and was struggling in the semi-pros when he decided to develop an underhand delivery. That put him in the majors and eventually in the Hall of Fame with 247 victories. Carl Mays was another submariner who won 207 games yet is best known as the man who killed Cleveland’s Ray Chapman with a pitched ball, the only major leaguer ever to lose his life during a game.
Elden’s major league debut occurred on August 10, 1933, and it wasn’t long before he was called in from the bullpen to face Babe Ruth. The game was in New York’s Yankee Stadium, and even though the Babe was near the end of his career he finished that season with .301 with 34 home runs. Elden struck Ruth out in four pitches.
Auker had a record of 3 and 3 in his rookie year then followed with a fine 15 and 7. Schoolboy Rowe and Tommy Bridges along with Auker gave the Tigers an outstanding pitching staff that helped win the pennant yet could not beat the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Championship. Elden won Game Four 10-4, but lost the rubber game to Dizzy Dean’s rowdy Gashouse Gang who romped to an 11-0 victory. In 1935 Detroit did win the World Championship over the Chicago Cubs as the underhand thrower appeared in one game with no decisions.
During the winter of 1938 Detroit sent Auker along with two other Tigers to the Boston Red Sox for third baseman Pinky Higgins. The man with the unusual pitching style stayed in Beantown for one year before he was traded to the St. Louis Browns where he finished his 10-year career in 1942. He had already been thinking about life after baseball, and had previously had an off-season job with an abrasives company that was involved with aircraft guns. Auker retired in 1975 as president of the company.
Elden’s small den is filled with memorabilia such as bats, balls, and many photographs of presidents, ballplayers, personalities, and celebrities. He noted that of all the people looking back at us from the frames on the wall only Bob Hope and Billy Rogell were still living. (Note: Billy was the Tiger shortstop when Auker was playing, and now it is down to one.) We sat for an hour talking about players he played with and against. He told his first big league hit that came off Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox Comiskey Field saying that he and Ted became good friends.
When asked about the toughest batters he faced, the former Tiger hurler said, “There were too many good hitters then.” He did, however, name the best players by position whom he played with and against: Catcher – Mickey Cochrane, also his favorite manager; First base – either Hank Greenberg or Lou Gehrig; Second base – Charlie Gehringer; Third base – Not sure; Shortstop – Joe Cronin, but a bad manager; Left field – Ted Williams; Center field – Joe DiMaggio; Right field – Babe Ruth.
After I asked about any of his most memorable games Elden brought up the very first night game in St. Louis on Friday, May 2, 1940 at Sportman’s Park between the Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Browns – Bob Feller versus Elden Auker. Exactly 25,562 fans turned out to see Cleveland’s fireball right hander beat the submariner 3-2, and it was one of Feller’s career eight home runs that made the difference in the game. When the two pitchers met Elden asked if Feller remembered that game. Yes, he did, and said that it was his first home run that night. The Submariner was considered a good hitting pitcher, and had six home runs of his own.