MLB.com

By Mike Hanzel / Special to MLB.com

Elden Auker is the last living player to have faced Babe Ruth in the Major Leagues. (Cy Jariz Cyr/MLB.com)

But the realities of the Great Depression forced him to rely on his athletic talents rather than academic prowess coming out of Kansas State University, and he signed with the Detroit Tigers because they offered him an immediate paycheck.

"I had a job all of the time," he said, "and if you went to medical school, you didn't have time to work and study. I thought I would play baseball and get enough money and go back to medical school. Never did get back. ... Got in a couple of World Series, got married and never did get back."

Today, the former Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Browns pitcher is a spry 93-year-old who still follows baseball, sometimes attending Dodgers Spring Training games near his home in Vero Beach.

His nine years in the Major Leagues gave him more than the money he sought when he signed his first pro contract 70 years ago. They've provided him with a wealth of memories and one great distinction: Auker is the only known man living who can claim he pitched to Babe Ruth.

"There were only three of us [two years] ago," Auker said. Mel Harder and Willis Hudlin, both of the Cleveland Indians, died in 2002, "so I'm the only one left."

In fact, Auker actually enjoyed some success against the Babe.

"I used to try to pitch him inside a lot so he couldn't get the big part of the bat on it," Auker said. "I threw underhanded, and that kind of bothered him a bit. He told me playing golf that it was hard to pick up my ball when I threw it."

Auker spent his first six seasons with the Tigers, winning the 1934 and 1935 American League pennants and the 1935 World Series. When second baseman Billy Rogell died last August, Auker became the only surviving member of that championship ballclub.

In Game 7 of the 1934 Series, Auker started against Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals' famous Gashouse Gang.

"We pitched the seventh game against each other," Auker said. "[I] didn't pitch very long. Only about 3 2/3 innings, I guess. They got me out in the fourth inning, and they went ahead and shut us out 11-0."

That was the game in which Joe "Ducky" Medwick had to be removed by the Commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, because Detroit fans were throwing trash at him as he patrolled right field.

"Medwick slid into third base and Marvin Owen, they got into a little scuffle," Auker said. "Then, when Medwick went into the outfield, the people in the stands threw stuff at him, you know. Of course, the game had blown open, and the fans were upset because we were losing."

Auker knew Dean well, having played golf with him for several years in Florida during the offseason. According to Auker, Dean created his celebrated hillbilly persona for show, but he was much different in private.

"Oh yeah, Diz was two different fellows," Auker said. "He and his wife, Pat, were good friends, and we played a lot of bridge with them. He was an excellent bridge player. He was just a regular guy around the house. Pat was the boss, she ran the place. And when he got out in the public, then he put on this show about being an Arkansas hillbilly or something. But he was a good fellow."

Elden Auker often played golf with the likes of Dizzy Dean (left) and Babe Ruth (right). (Courtesy of Elden Auker)

"He was a great leader, very inspirational, and, of course, he was the best catcher in baseball at that time, as well as being the manager," Auker said of Cochrane. "He took us to [two] World Series, which he had to be pretty good to do, because we were just a bunch of young kids at that time."

In 1939, Auker was traded to the Red Sox for third baseman Pinky Higgins. While with Boston, he roomed with Jimmie Foxx, whom he described as "very quiet, reserved, and big-hearted. Too big-hearted for his own good."

Auker also made the acquaintance that spring of a young slugger named Ted Williams, just as Williams was beginning his Red Sox career. It marked the beginning of a friendship that lasted until Williams died in 2002 at age 83.

"I talked to him on Sunday before he passed away on Friday," Auker said. "We kept in very close touch. I still miss him. He was a good guy."

According to Auker, even as a rookie Williams possessed the studied approach to hitting for which he became famous.

"He was just a great rookie. He just had led the American Association in Minneapolis with, I guess, home runs and hits and everything else," Auker said. "He was a student of the game -- hitters and pitchers and everybody else. Yeah, he was a student of the game, and he had his head in the game all of the time."

Auker moved to the St. Louis Browns the following season. In 1941, while pitching for the Browns in New York, he nearly stopped Joe DiMaggio in game 38 of DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak.

"He popped up once, and I struck him out twice, and then the [next] time up he got a hit off me. Kept the streak going," Auker said.

When the United States entered World War II, Auker decided to end his baseball career and join the war effort making anti-aircraft guns for the Army. He never looked back, becoming successful in the abrasives business before retiring in the 1970s.

Today, he said he mostly follows the Atlanta Braves because that's what is shown on television. Though much has changed since he last played the game, he said one thing about baseball has remained the same: Boston Red Sox fans.

"They're good fans," he said. "They know their baseball, and they like a winner, [but] they're a little frustrated. They haven't won a [World Series] in a long time."

Mike Hanzel is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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