Elam Vangilder was a fastball pitcher who did not always
have control even when he was with the Tigers.
Elam started his career in the majors with the St. Louis Browns in
1919. He was a late season addition to
the 6th place Browns who got in his first game against the 7th
place Washington Senators coming out of the bull pen. He pitched the last two innings of the game
and allowed 1 run. But the Senators were
already up 11-3 when he came in. Elam
got a no decision. But his performance
was impressive enough that a week later he got his first major league start
against the first place Chicago White (Black) Sox in Chicago. In only his second game in the majors he held
Chicago to one run on 8 hits in a complete game victory 3-1. He struck out 6 and only walked 1. At the plate Elam was 2 for 3 and scored a
run for himself. Elam stayed with the
Browns for the next 8 years. He had only
one year that he K’d more batters than he walked. That was the great Browns season of
1922. That year Elam was the number two
starter and posted a record of 19-13 while K’ing 63 and only walking 48. Elam also hit .344 that season for the Browns
with a .559 slugging percentage. Only
George Sisler, who hit .420 that season for the Browns had a higher batting
average than Elam (batters with 100 or more plate appearances.). The next season Elam led the league in walks
with 120 while only recording 73 K’s. In
the 9 total seasons Elam played with the Browns he was 88-91 with a 4.30
ERA. At the end of the 1927 season Elam
was traded with outfielder Harry Rice and shortstop Chick Galloway to the
Tigers for Heinie Manush and Lu Blue. Elam
was considered the closer for the Tigers in 1928 by our standards. He started 11 games and pitched 7 of those as
complete games. But he also came in and
finished 21 other games. He had a record
of 11-10 with a 3.91 ERA and led the team in 5 saves (saves were not a stat at
that time.) which was fifth best in the league tied him with three other players. Elam still had 43 K’s to 68 BB’s. Elam started 1929 with the Tigers but was not
as effective. He pitched against his old
team, the Browns on April 20 in relief and gave up 5 runs in the one inning he
pitched, the 8th to take the loss 9-4. It was his only decision of the season. About a month later he faced the White Sox, a
very different team from the one he faced in 1919 when he did so well. This time he gave up the tying run in the
bottom of the ninth. He was removed
after the 11th and the Tigers would lose in the 14th. Elam never pitched in the majors again. He finished the season with the Montreal
Royals in the minors with a 12-13 record.
Elam pitched in the minors for another 5 years. His final record in the majors was 99-102
with a 11-11 record for the Tigers.
Harry Coveleski was a Giant killer before he was a Tiger
ace. Harry is the older brother of Stan
Coveleski who is in the Hall of Fame.
Stan came around after Harry and made his fame by winning 172 games for
the Cleveland Indians over 9 years. He
won three games for the Tribe in their 1920 World Series title and helped lead
the Washington Senators to the 1925 World Series. But Harry was in the majors 5 years before
his little brother. He came up with the
Philadelphia Phillies in 1907 and in 1908 beat the New York Giants 3 times in 5
days and kept them from winning the flag.
That was the year of Merkle’s boner and the last year the Cubs won a
World Series. So Cubs fans should thank
Harry. Despite Harrys’ fast ball he
never caught on in the majors and found himself in the minors with the
Chattanooga Lookouts in 1914 when the Tigers purchased his contract before the
season. Harry was an immediate success for the Tigers
as he became the ace of what was basically a three man rotation with a team of
pitchers making the occasional 4th start. Harry would be second in the league in starts
over the next three years. That first
year for the Tigers the lefty Harry was 22-12 and he followed that with a 22-13
and a 21-11 record for 1915 and 1916. In
all those years Harry never faced off against his brother. Both brothers had requested that they never
face off against each other directly and their managers obliged. Occasionally they would come in as a reliever
in a game the other was pitching but they never started against each
other. Harry also had a quirk in that
for some unknown reason he had an aversion to the song “Silver Threads Among
the Gold”. Other teams would start to hum
or sing the song and this could throw him off his game. The Yankees were merciless on him with this
song and drove him out of games that way.
After three years of being on top Harry suddenly had arm problems in
1917 and his record dropped to 4-6 in 1917 and 0-1 in 1918 and was back in the
minors in 1919 and out of baseball a pitcher by 1920 when his brother was
winning the World Series. Harry managed
in the minors in 1922 but when that did not last he went on to become a police
officer rather than go into the coal mines of his home in Pennsylvania. He later worked a couple years as a detective
at the Ford River Rouge plant. Later he
opened a café but was fined when he was found to be selling alcohol against the
prohibition laws of the time. After the
repeal of prohibition he opened a tavern call “The Giant Killer’.
Below is a 1916 M-101-4 card of Harry from my collection.
Below is a 1916 M-101-4 card of Harry from my collection.
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