Earl Averill

Four cutouts of larger-than-life baseballs adorned the royal blue outfield wall at Cleveland Stadium. Each baseball sported a player’s name and the corresponding jersey number that had been retired by the Indians. Even the most casual of Cleveland fans would be familiar with Bob Feller’s number 19 and Lou Boudreau’s number 5. They may have also been familiar with Mel Harder, whose uniform number 18 was the most recent to be retired in 1990.

The last baseball on the wall displayed the number 3, which belonged to Cleveland outfielder Earl Averill. He was likely the least recognizable of the quartet. His years (1929-1939) in Cleveland were not punctuated with a pennant. The team finished no higher than third place and no lower than fifth in the American League standings during Averill’s tenure. Cleveland had competitive teams with good players; however, during the decade of the 1930s, when Averill was with the Indians, they could not put it all together for one season. New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington all won pennants during those years, while Cleveland was left looking forward to next season.  

Despite the club’s lackluster performance, Averill’s offensive impact could not be overlooked. When he was traded to Detroit in 1939, he was the Indians’ team leader in seven offensive categories. In 2024 Averill remained the franchise leader in runs (1,154), RBIs (1,084), triples (121), total bases (3,200), and extra-base hits (724). Averill is also in the top five in five other offensive categories.1

Averill finally reached the World Series with the Detroit Tigers in 1940. Although he was a backup outfielder at this point of his career, Averill proved how valuable he could be, batting .308 as a pinch-hitter.

In 1975 the Veterans Committee elected Averill to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Finally, 34 years after he played his last professional season, he took his rightful place with the game’s greatest players.

Howard Earl Averill was born on May 21, 1902, in Snohomish, Washington. He was the youngest of three children (brother Forrest and sister Valera) born to Jotham and Anna (Maddox) Averill. Jotham Averill died in 1904 and Anna had to take on work in a shingle factory to support her family.  

Averill dropped out of high school his freshman year. He worked in lumber mills and on road crews. He was not a big man (5-feet-9½, 160 pounds), but the hard labor resulted in brawn and muscle in his upper body. Averill played baseball on the Snohomish town team, battling neighboring cities after work and on the weekends. Although the players did not receive a salary, fans often took up a collection for the player who distinguished himself the most in the game. Averill was often the recipient of this largesse, one time receiving a pot of $80.

On May 15, 1922, Averill married Gladys Loette Hyatt in Mount Vernon, Washington.2 Earl and Loette were married 61 years and had four sons: Howard, Bernard, Earl, and Lester.3 

In 1924 citizens of Snohomish raised money to send Averill to Seattle to try out for the Seattle Indians of the Pacific Coast League. However, manager Red Killefer was not as impressed with his abilities and sent Averill home.

The Averill family grew to four when Bernard was born in 1925. Averill played two days a week for Bellingham (Washington), earning $15 a game. He also worked for the county painting bridges and picked up other jobs to support his growing family. After a few weeks in Bellingham, he moved on to Anaconda (Montana), where the baseball team paid $250 a month.4 Averill batted .430 at Anaconda, drawing interest from the San Francisco Seals of the PCL.

Averill won a spot on the Seals’ roster during spring training in 1926. Before long he was slashing line drives all over Recreation Park in San Francisco as well as the other venues in the league. In his three years with Seals, Averill averaged 250 hits and 50 doubles, 26 home runs, and a .342 batting average.5  

What was the secret to Averill’s hitting success? Why, it was sauerkraut juice. When Averill mentioned to Seals manager Nick Williams that he might give up the bitter elixir in favor of milk, Williams balked. “If you do, I’ll run you clean out of the joint,” threatened Williams. “If there are base hits in sauerkraut juice, as I suspect, you are going to drink lots of it and what is more, I think I’ll drink some myself and hit in a pinch.”6 

In 1928 Cleveland general manager Billy Evans had a pocket full of cash as he headed to the West Coast to sign players. The first player on his list was Seals outfielder Roy Johnson. But Detroit beat Evans to the punch and signed Johnson. Next was another outfielder, Smead Jolley. Seals pitchers Duster Mails and Dutch Ruether interceded, sending Evans in a different direction. “Forget Jolley. Forget Johnson, too. Buy that Averill,” they told Evans.7    

Evans took their advice, plunking down $45,000 to acquire Averill. “The Snohomish slugger came fast last season,” wrote the San Francisco Examiner. “He was always a good hitter, but last season he polished up his play in the outfield; learned how to play for batters and once he learned the lesson, did not forget it.”8

When Indians owner Alva Bradley first saw Averill, he said to Evans, “You paid all that money for a midget.”9 Bradley and the rest of the Indians would soon learn that Averill packed plenty of power in his compact body.

In 1929 Roger Peckinpaugh was in his second season as the Cleveland skipper. The year before, the team finished the season with a 62-92 record. Averill and fellow rookie outfielder Dick Porter garnered many of the headlines during the ’29 spring training. However, Irving Vaughan, beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, doused any hope that Cleveland fans might have for their team, writing, “There may be some improvement if a rookie comes through, but while these happenings are always looked for, they occur only about as often as Halley’s comet whistles through the heavens.”10

Maybe he wasn’t a comet, but Averill quickly became a star. Cleveland opened the 1929 season on April 16 against Detroit at League Park. Averill, playing center field and batting third in the lineup, came to bat in the bottom of the first inning. Detroit starter Earl Whitehill threw the rookie a fastball on a 0-and-2 count. The left-handed-hitting Averill sent a towering drive over the 45-foot right-field fence. The blast warmed the chilled crowd as Averill became the second American League player to homer in his first big-league at-bat.11

Later in the game, in the top of the sixth, the Tigers had a baserunner on first when Averill lunged forward and caught a sinking line drive off the bat of Detroit’s Marty McManus. Both plays contributed to the Cleveland 5-4 win. “Whitehill apparently thought he could slip a fast one by me,” said Averill. “I was all set, took a healthy swing and as the ball hit the bat, I knew it was going somewhere.”12 

Decimating minor-league pitching on the West Coast was one thing, but hitting against major-league talent was another. Averill batted .332 his rookie season and set a team record for home runs in a season at 18. As a team, the Indians finished in third place.

Averill also demonstrated a keen batting eye. While some home-run hitters tend to be free swingers and would rack up the whiffs, Averill did not. In the first 11 seasons of his career, he totaled more walks than strikeouts. He was the perfect hitter who combined hitting for power and average. 

Despite his size, Averill wielded one of the heaviest bats in the league. His bat was 36 inches long and weighed 42 ounces. Averill would also swing a 44-ounce bat from time to time.13

While many batters stand toward the back of the batter’s box to better pick up a pitch, Averill had a different philosophy. “I virtually straddled the plate,” he said. “The farther you stand in front, the smaller the break on the ball when you meet it. “I kept two things in mind at the plate. One was that I was up there to swing; the other was to keep my eye on my target. That was the pitcher’s cap. I always aimed for that, tried to go to the middle. But, if the ball was outside, I’d hit to left.”14 

One of Averill’s signature games occurred on September 17, 1930, at League Park. In a doubleheader against Washington, he smashed three home runs in the opener and drove in eight runs to set a team record in Cleveland’s 13-7 victory. In the second game, Averill came to the plate in the first inning with two runners aboard and smacked a drive to deep center field. He raced around the bases for an inside-the-park home run, his fourth home run and 11th RBI for the day.        

Averill was not the only formidable batsman in the Cleveland lineup. In 1930 the Indians hit .304 as a team. Besides Averill, who hit .339, their lineup consisted of Porter (.350), Johnny Hodapp (.354), Eddie Morgan (.349), Charlie Jamieson (.301), and Joe Sewell (.289). But opposing teams batted .305 against the Indians pitching staff. The result was an 81-73 record, earning the club a fourth-place finish, 21 games behind first-place Philadelphia.

Peckinpaugh was replaced as manager by Walter Johnson on June 9, 1933. Peckinpaugh was a players’ manager and Averill was sorry to see him go. “He knew more baseball than the rest of them put together,” Averill said, comparing Peckinpaugh to his other managers.15 Johnson had recent success as a field manager, guiding the Senators to 92 and 93 wins in 1931 and 1932. However, he had been replaced by Joe Cronin, who led the Senators to the AL pennant in 1933.      

The 1933 season was a historic one for major-league baseball. The year marked the first-ever All-Star Game, pitting the best players of the NL against the AL. Billed as “The Game of the Century,” the game was played on July 6, 1933, at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Cleveland pitchers Oral Hildebrand and Wes Ferrell joined Averill as members of the American League squad. Averill was the only one of the trio to see action, pinch-hitting for Washington pitcher Alvin Crowder in the bottom of the sixth inning. Averill singled sharply to center field to drive Cronin in from second base, giving the AL a 4-2 lead that ended up being the final score.

Hal Trosky moved into the Cleveland lineup as the starting first baseman in 1934. Averill and the young Iowa slugger each played in all 154 games. They combined for 66 home runs and 255 RBIs. Trosky became another solid player in the lineup, one who could hit for power and average.

After the season, Averill joined a traveling all-star team that went to Japan. Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez, Lou Gehrig, Lefty O’Doul, and manager Connie Mack were among the party who made the trip.

Averill was awarded a Japanese sword for being the first American player to hit a home run against the All-Nippon Stars. He treasured the gift for years.16 “The Earl of Snohomish has been doing some long-distance clouting on his own hook in the land of cherry blossoms,” wrote Ed Bang of the Cleveland News. “Truth be, he has experienced no trouble in holding to the pace of the other sluggers. It so happens that Averill is the smallest member of the ‘Big Four’ home run manufacturers and that being the case, he should inspire the Japanese players far more than those Goliaths – Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx.17 

“The Japanese are small in size, and their main drawback is our national pastime, which they appear to have adopted as their own, has been their inability to pack enough force to drive the ball for the well-known bacon-getting route. However, since they have not seen Averill, who, while small, still is well-muscled and has perfect timing at the plate, they have evidently concluded they, too, can develop the well-known punch at bat.”18 

On June 28, 1935, the Indians had a day off and were enjoying a team picnic. “Earl threw a firecracker that didn’t go off,” said Mel Harder. “When he picked it up, it exploded. Joe Vosmik and I put him in a car and took him to St. Luke’s Hospital. It looked bad. There was a lot of blood.”19 This incident resulted Averill getting his nickname, Rock.20  

Averill missed three weeks as his right hand healed from the burns and scars caused by the firecracker. Vosmik replaced Averill for the All-Star Game, which in 1935 was played at Cleveland Stadium.

There had been weeks of speculation, especially in the Cleveland media, about the security of Walter Johnson’s job as manager. He dismissed popular players Willie Kamm and Glenn Myatt from the team because he felt that they were no longer useful. The Indians (37-26-1) were 2½ games behind New York (40-24) on June 30. They went 2-13-1 from July 1 to July 18. Obviously, Averill’s injury did not help the situation. “I’m 100 percent for Walter and I think the whole team is for him,” said Averill, “The boys have found Walter is on the level and has plenty of guts.”21  

Despite Averill’s stance, Johnson was fired on August 5 and replaced by Steve O’Neill, a former Indians catcher and a coach on Johnson’s staff.

In 1935 Averill did not bat over .300 for the first time in his career. He rebounded the next season in a big way, posting a .451 batting average in the month of July. His season average was .374 and climbed to over .380 in August. Averill was leading the AL in hitting going into September, but Chicago’s Luke Appling batted .477 in September to surpass Averill, .388 to .378, for the season. Averill led the league in hits with 232.

While Averill was hitting line drives around AL ballparks, a teenager from Van Meter, Iowa, joined the Indians. Bob Feller was 17 years old when he started his first game for Cleveland, against the St. Louis Browns on August 23, 1936. The right-handed fireballer threw a complete-game six-hitter against the Browns. He struck out 15 in the 4-1 win. Feller became, and still is, the face of the Cleveland franchise. 

Another game Averill is known for, perhaps infamously, is the All-Star Game on July 7, 1937, at Washington’s Griffith Stadium. The American League had taken a 2-0 lead on Lou Gehrig’s two-run home run off Dizzy Dean. Averill stepped to the plate and sent a liner back to the mound. “Diz threw that big curve,” said Averill. “The last thing I remember is seeing it break toward the outside of the plate. I was already into my swing. I connected and saw the ball hit him in the toe and bounced right into the second baseman’s glove. 

“That was the third out. Not many people remember that. We passed as Diz was on his way to the dugout. He said, ‘Hey, you didn’t have to hit me with it.’ I laughed. Heck, I wasn’t trying to pull the ball at him, I was just trying to hit the thing.”22 

Dean’s left toe was broken, his plant foot when he pitched. He was not the same pitcher for the rest of his career.

Off the field, a highlight of 1937 was when Averill appeared on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes. There was a tradition by General Mills to choose an athlete, either national or regional, to be in the advertisement on a box of the popular cereal. In Averill’s case, he often started his day with a bowl of Wheaties.23     

Cleveland manager O’Neill failed to move the needle in a positive direction and was fired after the 1937 season. He was replaced by Oscar Vitt. They were like night and day: O’Neill was a friendly, outgoing sort while Vitt was a taciturn, disciplinary type of manager. Club owner Bradley also gave Vitt the power to make trades, undermining general manager Cy Slapnicka and causing tension between the two. Vitt also didn’t make many friends when he stated that he “had only two major leaguers, Feller and Harder.”24  

Averill began the 1938 season on a hot streak. After his average climbed to .397 on May 5, he began to have back pain in Philadelphia. He played through the pain. However, his average started to drop. A groin injury in early September kept him on the bench. Averill hit .330 in 1938, which for most players would have been a very successful season.

Cleveland dealt Averill to the Detroit Tigers on June 14, 1939, for left-handed pitcher Harry Eisenstat and cash. Averill was inserted as the Tigers’ starting left fielder. He batted a career-low with the Tigers, hitting .262 with 10 home runs and 58 RBIs. Detroit finished in fifth place with an 81-73 record, 26½ games behind the red-hot Yankees with a record of 106-45, who went on to sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.

The 1940 AL pennant race came down to Detroit and Cleveland. The Tigers held a two-game lead over the Indians heading into the season’s final three games at Cleveland Stadium. The Tigers won the first game, clinching the pennant.

Cincinnati defeated Detroit in the World Series in seven games. Averill went 0-for-3 in three pinch-hitting appearances. He made the final out of the Series, a 2-1 Reds win.

Averill was released by Detroit and signed with the Boston Braves for the 1941 season. With just two singles in 17 at-bats, he was released after eight games. Averill then returned to the Pacific Coast League, joining the Seattle Rainiers. Also on the Rainiers was Earl Torgeson, also of Snohomish. After the season, Averill retired from professional baseball. In his 13-year career, he hit 238 home runs, 401 doubles, and 128 triples. Averill batted .318 (2,019-for-6,353) and drove in 1,l64 runs.

In retirement, Averill worked in a greenhouse he owned with his brother, Forest. For 20 years, he also owned and operated the Averill Motel in Snohomish. Averill spent time keeping tabs on his son, Earl Douglas Averill, too. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as Earl Jr., the younger Earl carved out a modest baseball career for himself. Primarily a catcher, with some time in the outfield, Earl Douglas played seven seasons with Cleveland (1956, 1958), the Chicago Cubs (1959-1960), the Chicago White Sox (1960), the Los Angeles Angels (1961-1962), and the Philadelphia Phillies (1963). He had a lifetime batting average of .242 with 44 home runs and 159 RBIs.

On February 3, 1975, the elder Earl Averill was elected to the Hall of Fame unanimously by the Veterans Committee. Also elected were Billy Herman, Bucky Harris, Judy Johnson, and Ralph Kiner. Averill was outspoken about how long it took for his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also candid about players who he believed merited inclusion but had not been elected, urging that the voting rules be changed.25

“It’s been a long time coming, but better late than never,” said Averill. “It is wonderful to make it while you are still alive. I’m going on 73. In fact, I told my sons that if I didn’t make it while I was still alive, that they turn it down if I made it afterward.”26

“My ambition is reached. I really longed for this. And, you know, a lot of good ballplayers never make it. I understand that it was a unanimous vote. That kind of makes up for the long wait.”27

Not everyone agreed with the election of Averill. Jack Lang of the New York Daily News wrote, “The moment he’s inducted, Averill pops off that it took baseball too long. Funny thing, but all the while he was waiting to get in, he expressed no resentment. If we are going to have these old geezers popping off after they’ve received the tributes, maybe they don’t deserve them to begin with.”28 

On June 8, 1975, the Cleveland Indians retired Averill’s uniform number 3, joining Feller (19) and Boudreau (5).

In 1983 the All-Star Game was held at Comiskey Park to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The living All-Stars who played in the first game in 1933 were invited to Chicago to take part in the festivities.

About six weeks later, on August 16, Averill died from respiratory problems brought on by pneumonia. He was survived by his wife, Gladys Loette; four sons; numerous grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. “He had a real good time in Chicago, but when he got back he was really down,” said his son Earl. “Of the 33 All-Stars in 1933, only 13 were left. Now with Dad’s death, there are only 12.”29      

Center fielder Doc Cramer, a contemporary of Averill’s , said “Earl Averill was a great hitter and a fine outfielder all around. … Whatever you write about Earl won’t be enough.”30   

Photo credit

Earl Averill, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes          

1 Cleveland Guardians 2024 Media Guide, 272. 

2 Ancestry.com marriage records, Howard Earl Averill, accessed June 8, 2024.

3 A.C. De Cola, “Earl Is Pal to His Sons,” Cleveland Press, July 2, 1936: 21.

4 Vince O’Keefe, “‘Hard Rock’ Earl Averill dies,” Seattle Times, August 17, 1983: E1.

5 It must be noted that the Pacific Coast League played 190-game schedules. 

6 Abe Kemp, “Earl Averill’s Bat Impresses Pirate Leader,” San Francisco Examiner, March 23, 1928: 1.

7 Gordon Cobbledick, “Hometown Fans’ Cash Started Averill on Career to Fame,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 26, 1936: 4.

8 Abe Kemp, “Young Star Outfielder Will Go Up to Big Top,” San Francisco Examiner, November 20, 1928: P-3.

9 Bob Dolgan, “A Man of Talent, Consistency, Class,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 7, 1996: D-6.

10 Irving Vaughan, “Vaughan Sees Tribe Improved This Year,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 19, 1929: 26.

11 Luke Stuart of the St. Louis Browns hit an inside-the-park home run at Washington’s Griffith Stadium on August 8, 1921.

12 Earl Averill, “The Biggest Thrill of My Career,” Cleveland News, undated, 1930. Player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.

13 Hy Zimmerman, “Gab Session With the Earl of Snohomish,” The Sporting News, December 25, 1965: 5.

14 “Gab Session With the Earl of Snohomish.”

15 Doug Simpson, “The Earl of Snohomish,” Baseball Research Journal,1982. https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-earl-of-snohomish/. Accessed June 15, 2024.

16 Penny Sopris-Kegerreis, “Cast a Vote for the ‘Rock’ of Snohomish,” Monroe (Washington) Monitor and Valley News, January 27, 1999: 8. 

17 Ed Bang, “Scribbled by Scribes,” The Sporting News, December 6, 1934: 4.

18 “Scribbled by Scribes.”

19 “A Man of Talent, Consistency, Class,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 7, 1996: D-1.

20 Bob Broeg, “Averill Shy, Except at the Plate,” The Sporting News, March 8, 1975: 8.

21 Henry W. Thomas, Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train (Washington DC: Phenom Press, 1995), 326.

22 Don Duncan, “Earl Averill Recalls Infamous ’37 Game,” Seattle Times, July 15, 1979: J3.

23 “Cast a Vote for the ‘Rock’ of Snohomish.”

24 William H. Johnson, Hal Trosky: A Baseball Biography (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2017), 80.

25 Transcript of Earl Averill Hall of Fame Induction Speech, Cooperstown, New York, August 18, 1975, in player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.  

26 Hy Zimmerman, “The Earl of Snohomish Feels Like a King,” Seattle Times, February 3, 1975: B1. 

27 “The Earl of Snohomish Feels Like a King.”

28 Jack Lang, “Reds Respectful of Mets Pitching,” player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.

29 “His Son Recalls Earl Averill,” player’s Hall of Fame clippings file.

30 Simpson, “The Earl of Snohomish.”