Elden Auker (Decatur, 1932): Born in 1910 in Kansas, Auker's unique underhanded delivery, learned during his one season in the Three Eye, posed particular challenges to big league batters. From 1933 through 1942, "Big Six" won 130 games, mostly for the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Browns. 

Auker grew up a long way--geographically and culturally--from the East Coast and Midwest industrial centers and their big league ballparks. "I didn't much care what was going on in major league baseball when I was a child, hunting squirrels with my cousin in Norcatur, Kansas," he recalled in his 2001 memoir Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms (Triumph Books). "Sure, it was fun to play baseball, but why would I care what players were doing thousands of miles away when I was never going to see them anyway? I guess Babe Ruth was probably the only ballplayer whose name I would have recognized." 

An all-around athlete, Auker played baseball, basketball, and football at Kansas Agricultural and Mechanical College (Kansas State University). His nickname derives from earning All-Big Six Conference honors in three sports. As a sophomore playing in his first football game, he separated his shoulder. The injury necessitated a radical overhaul of his pitching delivery since he couldn't throw "up over the top." Thus he spent the remainder of his college days throwing sidearm. Auker graduated in June 1932, and though he aspired to study medicine, the dire economic times precluded further education. After spurning a rather lucrative offer to play professional football with the Chicago Bears, Auker signed a more modest baseball contract with Detroit. He spent a week or so pitching batting practice before the Tigers sent the righthander down to Decatur of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. 

During the 1932 season, the "Commies" pitching staff also featured Dutch Leonard and Claude Passeau. From 1933 through 1953, Leonard went 191-181 for the Dodgers, Senators, Phillies, and Cubs. And from 1935 through 1947, Passeau went 162-150 for the Pirates, Phillies, and Cubs. All told, Auker, Leonard, and Passeau combined for 483 big league wins. Though the three right handers enjoyed productive big league careers, they were a combined 10-15 in the Depression-shortened 1932 season. Rex McDonald of Terre Haute led the league in wins (12) and strikeouts (102). Not long ago, Baseball America writer Jim Callis ranked the 1932 Commodores pitching staff the sixth greatest in minor league history. Obviously, Callis based his rankings not on minor league performance but on big league productivity. 

During the Great Depression, the Three-I League struggled to remain a viable enterprise. With many Americans unemployed and burdened by foreclosed mortgages and vanished bank accounts, baseball seemed more and more inconsequential. Plummeting gate receipts and two disbanded clubs led league officials to suspend Three Eye play in mid-July 1932. That year was particularly grim for the nation's minor leagues. Other casualties included the Class A Eastern League (disbanded July 17); the Class B Southeastern League (folded May 23); and three Class D loops, the Arizona-Texas League (shut down July 24), the Cotton States League (July 13), and the Interstate League (June 20). The Three Eye remained shuttered for the next two years, and after reorganizing for the 1935 season (the league could field only six clubs), it suspended operations for a second time in 1936.

Despite the hard times, Auker's brief stay in the Three Eye proved indispensable to his career. Bob Coleman, the Commodores skipper, convinced Auker to further alter his sidearm delivery. Coleman, a former big league catcher who would lead Evansville to eight Three Eye championships, convinced Auker to throw submarine style (underhanded). "I pitched batting practice for about five days throwing underhanded and all the guys were moaning and complaining. Based on that, it seemed to be a pretty effective way to frustrate hitters," noted Auker in his memoir. With league-leading Quincy coming to Decatur, Coleman tapped Auker as the starting pitcher. The righthander recalled his manager's pre-game advice. "I want you to throw underhanded and I never want you to throw a ball any other way but underhanded the whole game. I don't care how many hits you give up or how many you walk. I'm going to leave you in the whole game and I want you to throw every pitch underhanded."

The experiment was an unqualified success, at least during the first game. "I tried it, beat them 1-0, and struck out 15 batters. I never again threw a pitch any other way. If not for Bob Coleman teaching me to come from down under, I probably never would have made it to the majors, and I wouldn't have been able to count some of the greatest men ever to play the game as such good friends."

Still, mastery of the underhanded delivery remained elusive, and Auker lost six consecutive Three-I games. After the league folded, the Tigers shifted Auker and Claude Passeau to Moline of the Class D Mississippi Valley League. The club finished sixth (55-66) in the eight-team circuit, and Auker won 6 and lost 6 with a 2.94 ERA. In 1933, Auker brought his unique delivery to Beaumont of the Texas League, where he went 16-10 in 31 games. Several other leading Detroit prospects also played in Beaumont, including Hank Greenberg and Schoolboy Rowe. By the end of the year, the 22-year old righthander was in the big leagues. He debuted August 10 in Chicago, relieving Carl Fischer in the fifth inning and earning a no-decision in a 6-3 loss. He finished his introductory Major League season 3-3 with a 5.24 ERA. 

During the next five seasons, Auker was a fixture in the Tigers starting rotation. In 1934, Mickey Cochrane, the future Hall of Fame catcher with the Athletics and Tigers, became Detroit's player-manager. "He had a young pitching staff, Schoolboy Rowe, and Tommy Bridges [another Three-I veteran] , and myself," Auker recalled. "Mickey was instrumental in handling us the right way. He inspired the team. He was the best catcher in baseball at that time." Cochrane's Tigers would win the 1934 A.L. pennant and the 1935 World Series. 

In game four of the 1934 World Series, Auker pitched a complete game in the Tigers 10-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. But in the deciding game seven, Auker lasted only two and two-thirds innings in a heartbreaking 11-0 loss. In the 1935 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, Auker started game three, and though he pitched 3 solid innings he did not figure in the decision (a 6-5 Tigers win). Detroit went on to defeat the Cubs in six games. During his six seasons in the Motor City, Auker won 77 and lost 52, completing 70 of his 136 starts. In 1935, his 18-7 record led the American League in winning percentage (.720).

In 1939, the Tigers traded Auker to the Red Sox, and the righthander experienced a difficult season pitching for Joe Cronin's Red Sox. He lost several weeks with a broken foot from a Luke Appling line drive. Even more frustrating, player-manager Cronin would call pitches from the infield. At the end of the season, Auker threatened to retire unless traded. The underhanded hurler then spent his final three years in St. Louis, winning 44 and losing 39 for the Browns.

Beginning in 1938, Auker found off-season employment with an abrasives firm. During World War II, he worked on 20 and 40 millimeter cannons. "I became an antiaircraft gun specialist during the war," Auker recalled in the 1995 collection of interviews In the Shadow of the Babe (McFarland & Company). "During the '42 season, when we'd go to Washington, on my days off I'd go down to the Washington Navy Yard and work with them." After retiring from professional ball in 1942 he continued to work in the defense industry. "So all during the war I worked on those darned antiaircraft guns. I worked with 27 gun arsenals over the United States and Canada and that's all I was doing." After the war, Auker joined Bay State Abrasives, and in 1974 he retired as company president. During his retirement years in Florida, Auker became close friends with former teammate Ted Williams.