All-Time Indians: Elmer Smith

In the mid 1910’s, the Cleveland Naps were building something special behind an incredible pitching staff and a few Hall of Famers in the batting order. In 1913, one of the final pieces were added to what would ultimately become a championship ball club. Elmer Smith was signed by the Indians from Duluth and although he would only play 13 games across his first two years, he would ultimately play seven seasons in Cleveland, become one of the greatest right fielders in team history and help the Indians win their first World Series title.

Smith’s first full season was in 1915 when he played all three outfielder positions, but was primarily the team’s right fielder. That year, he joined Shoeless Joe Jackson and Jack Graney in the outfield to form an impressive unit and himself provided 38 extra base hits and 68 RBI. The following season, however, the Indians brought in future Hall of Famer Tris Speaker to play center field and Smith was moved out of a position. Without much playing time, Smith knocked in 40 runs in 79 games prior to being traded to the Washington Senators in August of that year. In exchange, the Indians received Joe Boehling and Smith’s replacement Danny Moeller.

While neither player brought back for Smith played up to expectations, either did Smith as he batted just .214 in 45 games in 1916 and .222 in 35 games in 1917. After just a few months of this, Smith was sold back to Cleveland for $4,000 in June and proceeded to raise his batting line from .222/.260/.308 to .261/.316/.360 in 64 games in Cleveland to end the season. Just when it appeared Smith was working his way back into the line-up going into 1918, he was drafted into World War I and spent all of the 1918 season in France.

The following season, Smith was back and more importantly, Braggo Roth had been traded for two huge parts of the team in the upcoming seasons. For Roth, the Philadelphia Athletics returned Larry Gardner, Charlie Jamieson and Elmer Myers and opened up a spot in the lineup for Smith. In 1919, Smith batted .258 with 54 RBI and 60 runs scored in 114 games. That year, Speaker continued with his legendary performance in center field, including 38 doubles with Graney in left (22 doubles) and Smith in right (24 doubles). The incoming Jamieson played in just 26 games that year, but would break into the outfield replacing Graney in the following season.

The 1920 Cleveland Indians were the best yet and had an incredible offense to match their amazing rotation. Offensively, the outfield of Speaker, Jamieson and Smith was backed by catcher Steve O’Neill, short stop Ray Chapman, first baseman Doc Johnston and the new third baseman Gardner. Speaker lead the offense with a .388 average, 50 doubles and 137 runs scored, but Smith wasn’t too far off with a .316 average, 103 RBI and a team high 12 home runs. While Chapman’s tragic and untimely death marred the season, he was replaced quickly in the line-up by future Hall of Famer Joe Sewell who played as well as Champan in his rookie campaign.

Lead by Stan Coveleski, Jim Bagby and Ray Caldwell in the rotation, the 1920 Indians scorched their way into the World Series against the Brooklyn Robins. Smith pinch hit in the opening game of the series, but would start four of the other six games. The Indians lost games two and three behind Bagby and Caldwell, but would come back to win the final four games of the series to take the best of nine. Smith was largely uninvolved until game five, when he knocked in four of the Tribe’s eight runs with a home run, triple and single. In the end, the Robins would only score eight total runs during the seven games, so not much more offense was needed.

Looking to repeat in 1921, Smith had the second best season of his career, batting .290 with a team high 16 home runs (the next highest total was four). Despite a another solid season offensively and on the pitching mound, the Indians were kept out of the World Series by 4.5 games as they finished in second place behind the New York Yankees. This was the beginning of a long stretch of Yankee dominance and the end of the Indians short superiority. This was also the final year of Elmer Smith in Cleveland as he was to be traded to the Red Sox for Stuffy McGinnis. While losing Smith alone was not worth McGinnis, who would bat .305, but be released at the end of the season, the big loss was George Burns, who would give two of his prime seasons to the Red Sox before returning to Cleveland.

Smith would ultimately play three more seasons between the Red Sox, Yankees and Reds. He never again played over 100 games and he missed the 1924 season entirely before finishing out his career in Cincinnati in 1925. While he was no longer a Major League caliber player, Smith wasn’t ready to retire from baseball and he continued on with the Portland Beavers, Hollywood Stars, Louisville Colonels, Minneapolis Millers, Buffalo Bisons and Springfield Senators. In 1932, he came back to the Cleveland system and played with the Fort Wayne Chiefs, batting .371 with 70 extra base hits in 114 games at the age of 39. While he was born in Ohio, Smith retired to Kentucky and died in 1984 at the age of 91.