The 6'2" righthander threw with a submarine delivery that was hard for many batters to pick up. Auker developed the delivery after suffering an arm injury playing football at Kansas State University.
I heard Auker speak at the 2000 SABR Convention at West Palm Beach. I was impressed that a man nearing 90 years of age at the time was in such great shape. He looked like he had just walked off of a golf course and had shot under his age.
Auker is survived by his wife Mildred, to whom he was married to for 73 years, and a son, Jim.
BaseballLibrary.com has excerpts from a book by Auker. This is a link to chapter 3 in which Auker explains why nobody wanted to room with Babe Ruth and why he had no use for Leo Durocher or Pete Rose.
66 years after he lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Cardinals for Detroit, he was still pretty upset about it and didn't really want to talk about it. He just said he thought he was ready and was going to pitch well. And he didn't. And he had to live with it.
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