All-Time Indians: Stan Coveleski

Born Stanislaus Kowaleski, the future Hall of Fame pitcher had changed his name to the much more phonetically sound Stan Coveleski prior to beginning his professional baseball career with the Philadelphia Athletics. As often happened in the days before the draft, Coveleski began his career with a minor league team near his home town, in this case the Lancaster Red Roses in 1909 at the age of 19.

After a short debut in Philadelphia that featured Coveleski completing both of his starts and pitching a shut out in one, he was sold to the Spokane Washington Indians in the Northwestern League. At the time, it must have been similar to a player being sold from a Major League team to one in the KBO.

After two years in Spokane and one in Portland and 54 wins, Coveleski finally made his triumphant return to the Major Leagues in 1916 when the Indians purchased the pitcher from the Beavers. A young franchise, the Naps had always had elite pitching even if they didn’t have the World Series appearances to match. However, after Earl Moore was traded in 1907, Bob Rhoads retired after 1909 and Addie Joss died in 1911, they no longer had long term, reliable stars. While some pitchers still had tremendous seasons, including Cy Young in his return to Cleveland and Vean Gregg and Cy Falkenberg in some of the greatest and briefest peaks ever, none were able to continue that success over a period of more than two years or so.

Two men in 1916 would change that as Coveleski was joined by Jim Bagby, Sr. (purchased from New Orleans) and the pair would go on to pitch 3,394.2 innings from 1916 through 1921. While this would be Coveleski’s single worst season in Cleveland until his last in 1924, the pair of pitchers, along with Ed Klepfer getting an increased role in the rotation, lead to a drop in 68 runs allowed from 1915 to 1916 (about half a run per game) and an increase in 20 wins, making the Indians a .500 team for the first time since 1913.

It wouldn’t take long for Coveleski to hit his prime as he held a 1.81 ERA in 1917 over nearly 300 innings with a 0.99 WHIP, arguably the best pitching season in Indians history when you consider both effectiveness and his extreme work load. Again he had Bagby (the ace) and Klepfer by his side in the rotation and again the team improved, this time by 11 wins, finishing third in the eight team American League by allowing just 543 runs (3.53 per game, the lowest since 1909). The team would continue to improve each of the next three years as they became true contenders for the AL crown, finishing second in 1918 and 1919 by less than four games each time before taking the pennant in 1920.

Coveleski would continue to be a huge part of that. In 1918, he matched his 1917 ERA with a 1.82 mark over 311 innings although his strike out rate dropped considerably and his hit rate worsened as well. He did break the 20 win mark that year for the first time with 22, the beginning of an incredible streak of four straight seasons with at least 22 wins.

While he was quickly establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in Indians history (going back and forth with Bagby as the second best behind Addie Joss), Coveleski made an argument for the best in baseball in 1920. That year, he turned 31 and lowered his ERA from 2.61 the year before to 2.41 pitching 26 complete games in his 38 starts and hurling shut outs in three. At the same time, he lead the league with 133 strike outs (tying his career high), FIP, WHIP and H/9. While these numbers were not as good on the surface as his 1917 and 1918 seasons, that they lead the league was evidence of the overall increase in offense after the advent of Babe Ruth.

The 1920 season was the kind of confluence of great things happening at the same time that gets a team to the World Series. Bagby was nearly as dominant as Coveleski and, while Ray Caldwell struggled (even though he won 20 games) as did the veteran Guy Morton, Duster Mails came along late in the season to shore up the rotation. A more dire situation happened in the infield when super star short stop Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays, but he was replaced by a future Hall of Famer in Joe Sewell, who almost immediately picked up the slack, both offensively and defensively. Finally, the Indians top competition, the White Sox who had been to the World Series two years in a row, were essentially eliminated from contention due to the Black Sox scandal that saw eight of their best players get suspended.

And so the Indians would ride a 98 win season into a two game lead over the AL to win the pennant for the first time in franchise history. When it came time for the World Series against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, player/manager Tris Speaker was obviously going to lean heavily on his ace. Pitching on short rest twice, Coveleski threw games one, four and seven of the nine game series, winning all three and nearly single handedly bringing the Indians their first World Championship and their last until 1948. In both games one and four, he threw complete games and allowed a single run on five hits and a walk. In the clinching game seven he threw another complete game, but this time he stepped on their collective throat with a five hit, no walk shut out. In all, he pitched 27 innings, walked two, allowed 15 hits (13 singles) and allowed just two runs. If a World Series MVP award existed, Coveleski would have been the Indians first winner.

It would be Coveleski’s last appearance in the postseason with Cleveland, so it was a good thing he made it count. While the Indians won 94 games in 1921, they would finish in second four games back. On the wrong side of 30 (especially for his time), Coveleski lead the league in starts, but say his ERA rise to 3.37 and his K/9 drop significantly. He would have a similar season in 1922, still incredible by any standard except his own from earlier in his career.

Coveleski’s true decline would begin in 1924, but he saw a significant drop in playing time in 1923, when he lead the league with a 2.76 ERA, but pitched only 228 innings, breaking a streak of six years with at least 275. After his first ERA above 3.50, a 4.02 in 1924, the Indians ace was sent to Washington in an extremely short sighted trade that returned the Indians By Speece and Carr Smith.

Smith never played for the Indians and Speece put together a terrible 1925 season before being sold to the American Association Indianapolis team in 1926. At the same time, Coveleski would have an incredible resurgent season in 1925,  winning 20 and losing only five while leading the league in ERA for the second and final time. He received his first MVP votes for this season (the award didn’t exist during his prime) and would put together one more year similar to his seasons in 1921-22 before throwing just 14.1 innings in 1927 and 58 for the Yankees in 1928. After this, he retired from baseball altogether.

For his career, his 172 wins rank fourth in team history and he also ranks among the top five in losses, starts, complete games, shut outs and innings pitched. His career ERA of 2.80 is better than any other Indians pitcher with more than 1,500 innings pitched except for Joss. Coveleski did an incredible amount for the Tribe during a relatively short (nine years) tenure, stabilizing the rotation and bringing the Indians their first franchise ring. While there have been many  great pitchers in Indians history, Coveleski can easily be counted as one of the best of the best.

Stan Coveleski missed his first chance to get into the Hall of Fame, but this oversight was corrected when the Veteran’s Committee inducted him as a member of the Cleveland Indians in 1969. Coveleski is also a member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame (class of 1966). Stan Coveleski died in 1984.