page_title: 1921 Detroit Tigers season
section_title: Pitching: Leonard, Dauss, Ehmke, Oldham and Sutherland
hierarchical_section_title: 1921 Detroit Tigers season / The Players / Pitching: Leonard, Dauss, Ehmke, Oldham and Sutherland
caption_attribution_description: English: Baseball postcard, circa 1911, Hooks Dauss
context_page_description: The 1921 Detroit Tigers finished in sixth place in the American League, 27 games behind the Yankees, with a record of 71–82. Despite their sixth-place finish, the 1921 Tigers amassed 1,724 hits and a team batting average of .316—the highest team hit total and batting average in American League history. Detroit outfielders Harry Heilmann and Ty Cobb finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the American League batting race with batting averages of .394 and .389, and all three Detroit outfielders ranked among the league leaders in batting average and RBIs. As early proof of the baseball adage that "Good Pitching Beats Good Hitting", the downfall of the 1921 Tigers was the absence of good pitching. The team ERA was 4.40, they allowed nine or more runs 28 times, and only one pitcher had an ERA below 4.24.
context_section_description: Dutch Leonard was the "ace" of the Tigers' pitching staff in 1921 with a 3.75 ERA—the only pitcher with an ERA below 4.00.  In 1914, Leonard set the major league record for the lowest single-season ERA of all time–0.96.
  Through his years in Detroit, Leonard fought with manager Ty Cobb.  Even before their player-manager feud, Leonard and Cobb had a history.  In 1914, Leonard hit Cobb in the ribs with a fastball.  In the next at bat, Cobb dragged a bunt down the first base line and ran directly at Leonard who was covering the bag.  Cobb later called Leonard a "damned coward" for running toward the dugout to avoid being cut by Cobb's spikes.  During a 1922 argument, Leonard cursed Cobb to his face and ended up quitting the team, calling Cobb a "horse's ass."  When Leonard returned to the Tigers in 1924, the feud resumed.  In 1925, Leonard had an 11–3 record, but Cobb called him shirker.  Leonard accused Cobb of over-working him, and Cobb responded in July 1925 by leaving Leonard on the mound for an entire game despite Leonard's giving up 20 hits and taking a 12–4 beating.  After that, Leonard refused to pitch for Cobb, and the Tigers put Leonard on waivers, ending Leonard's career.
  In 1926, Leonard sought his revenge, accusing Cobb of being involved in fixing games with Tris Speaker. To corroborate his story, Leonard produced letters (including one written by Cobb) that obliquely referred to gambling or game fixing.  When Judge Landis made Leonard's letters public, it touched off a scandal.  However, Leonard declined to appear and testify at a hearing called by Judge Landis, saying he feared a physical attack from "that wild man."  In the absence of Leonard's testimony, Landis found Cobb and Speaker not guilty.
  Hooks Dauss played his entire fifteen-year career with the Tigers and is the team's all time wins leader.  Though he was among top five in wins five times, Dauss had a 10–15 record in 1921 with a 4.33 ERA.  Dauss was an excellent fielding pitcher. His career range factor of 2.28 is 0.65 points higher than the average pitcher of his era. He had 1128 assists in his career, and is career fielding percentage of .968 was also 20 points higher than the average pitcher of his era.  Dauss committed only one error in the combined 1923 and 1924 seasons in nearly 100 games pitched.
  Howard Ehmke led the 1921 team with 13 wins but had an overall record of 13–14 with a 4.54 ERA.  Ehmke ranks No. 16 on the all time major league list for hitting batsmen with a pitch.  He hit 137 batters in his career and led the AL in the category in 1921 and six other times, including a career-high 23 in 1922.  On August 8, 1920, Ehmke shut out the Yankees 1–0 in one of the shortest games in AL history, lasting only 1 hour‚ 13 minutes.  In 1923, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox, where he won 20 games and set the AL record (still standing) for allowing the fewest hits (one) in two consecutive starts.
  The team's fourth starter, Red Oldham, had an 11–14 record.  As an indicator of how bad the team's pitching was in 1921, Oldham's 4.27 ERA was the second lowest on the team.  Shortly after an interview in which new manager Ty Cobb told a reporter that "his aim was to use tact and diplomacy" in dealing with players, Cobb publicly embarrassed Oldham, as he called time-out from his position in center field, "ran in, wrested the ball from Oldham's hand, and gave him a dressing-down before calling in a reliever."  Oldham appeared in the final inning of the 1925 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching a masterful 1–2–3 inning against three future Hall of Famers: Sam Rice (strikeout), Bucky Harris, and Goose Goslin (strikeout).  The Pirates won the game and the World Series with Oldham on the mound.
  Suds Sutherland was one of the most interesting stories of the Tigers' 1921 season.  Sutherland had pitched a no-hitter in the Pacific Coast League and made the Tigers' team in 1921.  One month into the season, he had a record of 5–0.  He was 6–2 in his first eight starts.  On top of his fine pitching, Sutherland was batting .407 in the first two months
caption: Hooks Dauss
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