Stanley Anthony Coveleski (born Stanislaus Kowalewski, July 13, 1889 – March 20, 1984) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for four American League (AL) teams between 1912 and 1928, primarily the Cleveland Indians. The star of the Indians pitching staff, he won over 20 games each year from the war-shortened 1918 season through 1921, leading the AL in shutouts twice and in strikeouts and earned run average (ERA) once each during his nine years with the club. The star of the 1920 World Series, he led the Indians to their first title with three complete-game victories, including a 3–0 shutout in the Game 7 finale. Traded to the Washington Senators after the 1924 season, he helped that club to its second AL pennant in a row with 20 victories against only 5 losses, including a 13-game winning streak, while again leading the league in ERA.
Coveleski followed in the footsteps of his brother Harry as a major league pitcher. But after making his debut with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1912, he was sidetracked by three more seasons in the minor leagues before joining the Indians in 1916, and won only 13 major league games before turning 27. Coveleski specialized in throwing the spitball, where the pitcher alters the ball with a foreign substance such as chewing tobacco. It was legal when his career began but prohibited in 1920, with Coveleski being one of 17 pitchers permitted to continue throwing the pitch. In 450 career games, Coveleski pitched 3,082 innings and posted a record of 215–142, with 224 complete games, 38 shutouts, and a 2.89 ERA. He set Cleveland records of 172 wins, 2,502+1⁄3 innings and 305 starts, which were later broken by Mel Harder and Willis Hudlin. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
Stanislaus Anthony Kowalewski was born on July 13, 1889, in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, one of eight children of Anthony and Ann (Racicz) Kowalewski, who had immigrated from Russian Poland in the early 1870s. They settled in Shamokin, where Anthony worked as a coal miner, in Northumberland County, east of the Susquehanna River and northeast of the state capital of Harrisburg. Stanley was the youngest of five baseball-playing brothers; his oldest brother Jacob died serving in the Spanish–American War (1898). In addition to his older brother Harry, who pitched in the major leagues between 1907 and 1918, their other brothers Frank and John also played professional baseball, but only in the minor leagues. Harry won 20 games in a season on three occasions during his 14-year major league career.
Like many his age in the Shamokin area, Coveleski began work as a "breaker boy" at a local colliery at the age of 12. In return for 72 hours of labor per week, Coveleski received $3.75, or about five cents an hour. "There was nothing strange in those days about a twelve-year-old Polish kid working in the mines for 72 hours a week at a nickel an hour", he later recalled. "What was strange is that I ever got out of there". Coveleski was rarely able to play baseball as a child due to his work schedule.
Nevertheless, he worked on his pitching skills during the evenings, when he threw stones at a tin can placed 50 feet away. When he was 18 years old, Coveleski's abilities caught the attention of the local semi-professional ball club, which invited him to pitch for them. "When it came to throwing a baseball, why it was easy to pitch", Coveleski recalled. "After all, the plate's a lot bigger than a tin can to throw at". His baseball career in Shamokin was short-lived; after five games, Coveleski relocated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia Athletics and minor leagues
Coveleski signed his first professional contract in 1909 with the minor league Lancaster Red Roses, a club affiliated with the Tri-State League. Originally reluctant to sign for the club, he only agreed to do so if his older brother John also joined; at that time he anglicized his name, changing it to Coveleskie, which it would remain throughout his professional career. During his first trip to Lancaster, he recalled that it was "the first time I ever rode on a train", and he added that he "was too shy to eat in the hotel with the rest of the team". In 272 innings of work his first season, Coveleski had a 23–11 win–loss record with an earned run average of 1.95. He pitched two more seasons for Lancaster, earning a record of 53–38 in 109 appearances through three seasons.
In 1912, he pitched for the relocated Lancaster team, the Atlantic City Lanks, where he had a 20–14 record with a 2.53 ERA in 40 appearances, 30 of them starts. In September 1912, manager Connie Mack signed him to a contract with the Philadelphia Athletics and brought him to the major leagues. By the time Coveleski made his debut for the Athletics on September 10, pitching one inning in relief in an 8–6 road loss to the Detroit Tigers, the two-time defending World Series champions were more than a dozen games out of first place – the only year between 1910 and 1914 they failed to win the pennant. Coveleski won his first game two days later in his first start, a 3–0 three-hit shutout of the Tigers, allowing only two singles and a double by Ty Cobb. He pitched in five games for the Athletics that season, starting two of them and finishing the season with a 2–1 record and a 3.43 ERA. After the season ended, Mack felt that Coveleski needed more seasoning, and sent him to the Spokane Indians of the Northwestern League. Coveleski finished the 1913 season with a 17–20 record and a 2.82 ERA. Around that time, he married Mary Stivetts, and the following season he went 20–15, pitched over 300 innings, and led the league in strikeouts.
At the time of his debut, the powerhouse Philadelphia club boasted a strong group of talented pitchers, including Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, and Jack Coombs. Coveleski admitted that he "[didn't] know if I could have beat them out for a spot in the rotation." After the 1914 season, the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League wanted Coveleski, and traded five players to Spokane to acquire him. While Mack had an agreement with Spokane that Coveleski would be promoted after playing there for a time, the Athletics fell under new ownership in 1913 and lost control of him due to the Athletics' rights expiring. Coveleski spent his time in Portland learning to throw the spitball; originally using chewing tobacco, he later used alum. In his lone season with Portland, he won and lost 17 games, and had a 2.67 ERA. After the season ended, the Cleveland Indians purchased Coveleski from Portland, and he joined the major league squad in 1916.
When Coveleski was brought up to the majors, the original intention was to use him as a relief pitcher. Due to an injury to Ed Klepfer, the Indians used him as a starter early on in the 1916 season, and kept him in the role when he performed well. He was scheduled to pitch in the first week of the season against his brother Harry, but the matchup never took place at Harry's behest. On May 30, Coveleski hit the only home run of his career in the first game of a road doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns; the three-run shot in the tenth inning gave Cleveland a 4–1 lead, but the Browns came back to win 5–4 in 15 innings. Coveleski fought health problems during the season, suffering from tonsillitis in the middle of the year and pitching one game with a fever of 102 °F (39 °C). He finished the season with a 15–13 record and a 3.41 ERA in 45 games, 27 of them starts. Coveleski had lost 10 pounds due to illness during 1916, but recovered during the offseason, gained 20 pounds, and appeared healthier by the time the season began.
Coveleski's status as the ace of the staff was demonstrated when he was named the starter for Opening Day of the 1917 season; he beat the Detroit Tigers 6–4 on April 11. He improved statistically during the 1917 season, winning 19 games and losing 14 with an ERA of 1.81 and a career-high 133 strikeouts. On September 19, Coveleski pitched the only one-hitter of his career, a 2–0 road win over the New York Yankees; the only hit came from Fritz Maisel in the seventh inning. Coveleski continued to improve during the 1918 season, which was ended on September 2 due to a preseason agreement among owners to shortened season due to World War I. His outings that year included 2–1 13-inning road loss to Philadelphia on May 15, in which he had a career-high ten strikeouts, and a 19-inning complete game on May 24 in New York as the Indians won 3–2. He finished the season with a 22–13 record, a 1.82 ERA, and 311 innings pitched in 38 games, 33 of them starts; his wins and ERA were both second in the American League to Walter Johnson. In 1919, Coveleski pitched in 43 games, starting 34, and had a 24–12 record and an ERA of 2.61.