Ted Odenwald

Ted Odenwald was a relief pitcher for the 1921-22 Cleveland Indians.

Theodore Joseph Odenwald was born January 4, 1902, in Hudson, Wisconsin, just across the St. Croix River from Minnesota. He was the youngest of four children (eight were born, four survived) of Charles and Lena, both German immigrants. The 1910 census shows the family living on 10^th Street in Hudson, in a home they own; Charles is a self-employed house painter, 21-year-old Frank is also a house painter, presumably working for Charles, and Augusta (16), Edward (11), and Theodore (8) are in school.

Charles passed away in 1913, at the age of 50. The 1920 census shows Lena owning a house at 221 St. Croix Street in Hudson; Frank is out on his own, but Augusta (24, occupation illegible), Eddie (20, occupation illegible but in a lumberyard), and Ted (listed as 17 but actually having just turned 18) still at home.

Ted was a star high school pitcher, known for his high strikeout totals. In 1919, after his junior year, one of his brothers staged a letter-writing campaign, sending Ted’s stats to every major league team. Supposedly the Indians signed him on that basis, and after Ted graduated in 1920 he immediately joined the major league team. On June 10 he made the front page of the Sporting News:

ROOKIE THINKS IT’S REALLY SCANDALOUS

HE NEVER SAW SUCH HITTING WHERE HE CAME FROM.

Cleveland, Too, Marvels at Rage of Men with Bats, but Can’t Say That it Doesn’t Like It.

CLEVELAND, O., June 7.—“Gosh ding it all,” remarked Ted Odenwald, the Wisconsin strike-out marvel who joined the Indians ten days or so ago. “I never saw so many runs and base hits as I’ve lamped around here. I never thought big league ball games were such slambang affairs.” Young Ted is new to the big ring and its ways, but just about every one else around these diggings will agree with him as to the slugging Saturnalia that has held sway during the week of which we write…

On June 7 Ted pitched an exhibition game against Pittsburgh, here described in the Stillwater, Minnesota, Mirror of June 24 (the first part of the article is evidently quoting another source, but that source is not identified):

ODENWALD PLEASES SPEAKER

“Speaker, the Cleveland manager intends to retain Ted Odenwald the eighteen year old south paw from the wilds of Wisconsin. Ted got his first chance to show his wares against a big league club in an exhibition game against Pittsburg in Cleveland last week. He held the Pirates to eight blows and went over the top in a 5 to 3 victory, working the full nine frames.”

“This young man came to the Indians with an average of twenty strikeouts a game on his native heath and it might of [sic] been expected he would try to throw the ball past the enemy batters, a common failing on the part of juvenile strikeout wonders. But Odenwald showed he had more sense than the average youngster by not only listening to Chet Thomas’s advice but acting upon it. Instead of trying to “smoke ‘em” by the enemy batters he dished up just what Thomas called for and as he has plenty of stuff and good control he got by nicely.”

Odenwald made his first appearance upon the local diamond here three years ago. In that game he pitched for the Hudson high school and was defeated by 6 to 0, a complete shut out. Later in the same season he came back and pitched a game against the locals for the Hudson Interstate team. In this game he showed a wonderful improvement and got by with a 5 to 2 victory. Last year he made his appearance here with a pick up team from Hudson and he got by again. Early in May, this season, he came again with the Hudson high school team and he had a regular picnic with the locals. He retired eighteen men by the strikeout route and had no trouble at all capping the game. During his last performance here upon the mound he showed wonderful strides of advancement over his first exhibition here. The local fans are well pleased with his advancement and they sincerely hope that he will succeed and be able to tack many a victory “under his belt” ere the season closes.

Ted was optioned to the Des Moines Boosters of the Class A Western League without getting into a regular season game for the Indians. He had a 4-5 record in 13 games, allowing 72 hits, 34 walks, and 58 strikeouts in 86 innings—ERA was not part of the official stats. After the Western League season ended he was recalled by the Indians, on their way to a World Series victory, but again he did not pitch in any official games—though he did get included in the team’s post-championship White House visit. On November 3 the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Ted would be invited to spring training, saying “Speaker likes Odenwald and believes him to be a future big leaguer of ability.”

On January 12, 1921, the Plain Dealer mentioned Ted again:

Practically all Western League clubs want to buy Pitcher Ted Odenwald, farmed out to Des Moines last season. They have little chance to make an outright purchase as Speaker has a pretty good idea that Odenwald will make a real big league pitcher in a year or so. He may farm him out another year.

In late March and early April various newspapers published short blurbs on some of the young players in the Indians’ camp:

TED ODENWALD—Southpaw. Age 19. Came up to Indians last year and farmed to Des Moines Club. Looks good enough to stick. Weighs 147. Height 5 feet 10 inches. Bats right-handed.

The 5 foot 10 seems to have been generous; Ted would list himself as 5-7 ½ on his 1942 draft registration. And the 147 pounds may have been accurate at the time, but he would battle his weight in years to come. On April 2 he got the win in relief in an exhibition game against the Houston Buffaloes, as reported in the following day’s Plain Dealer:

Odenwald Hurls Tribe to 9-6 Victory Over Houston After Mails is Routed

ALLOWS ONE HIT IN FOUR INNINGS, DRIVES IN TALLY

Gets Out of Bad Hole in the First Session He Works; Predecessor Used Roughly.

By Henry P. Edwards

HOUSTON, Tex., April 2.—Little Ted Odenwald saved the day for Cleveland today and was the big factor in the 9 to 6 victory of the world champions over the Houston Texas leaguers.

When little Ted arrived on the mound, Houston was leading, 6 to 0, the Texans having been able to find Walter Mails whenever a hit meant a run.

The sawed off hurler passed Pitcher Barfoot, a weak batter, as a starter. He next passed Baggan which gave the Buffs two men on and none out.

“Give us a real pitcher,” yelled the fans to Tris Speaker. “Give us Coveleskie or Bagby.”

You really have to get Ted Odenwald mad to make him pitch his best. When he heard the razzing the fans were giving him he shut his lips tightly, stuck out his jaw and began to pitch. The next man sacrificed and Houston had runners on third and second. Manager George Whiteman, one of the heroes of world series of 1918, drove a hot one back to Ted. Odenwald knocked it down, picked it up, drove Barfoot back to third and then tossed out Whiteman. He fanned the next batsman.

He never was in trouble again. Weimer singled through the box in the seventh, but there were two out. Bailey was safe on Sewell’s error in the eighth, but the misplay caused no damage. In the ninth Whiteman called on two pinch hitters and Ted fanned them both.

It was not only in the box that the Wisconsin lad distinguished himself. He was a big factor in the Indians rally in the seventh inning, the one that tied the count. He slapped a clean single to right that drove in a run, later scoring himself. He drew a pass on his other trip to the plate.

Ted made his major league debut on opening day in St. Louis, pitching the bottom of the eighth in a 4-2 loss to the Browns, and retiring the side in order. The next day he pitched again, coming in to start the fourth down 9-5 and getting the win as the Indians came back for a 12-9 victory. He allowed three hits and three walks in four scoreless innings. On the 17^th he got a feature article in the Plain Dealer:

He's a Cool ‘Un, Is Ted Odenwald, Indians’ 19-Year-Old Pitching “Veteran”

Wisconsin Boy Started to Hurl for School Nine in ‘17

By Henry P. Edwards

ST. LOUIS, April 16.—In Ted Odenwald the Cleveland Indians can boast of the youngest pitcher and probably one of the best relief hurlers in the American league. Ted is the real boy wonder of the circuit, being but a few months past 19. He pitches with such self-assurance, however, that one would think he had had the advantage of pitching in fast company for several seasons.

“I cannot believe Ted is the same youngster who joined us fresh from high school last June,” said Jim Bagby yesterday. “I never saw a youngster before who had so much stuff, knew how to use it and was so cool under fire. I’ll bet he has been pitching seven or eight years.”

I asked Ted how long he has been pitching. His answer was:

“I started pitching when I went to high school. That was in 1917. I think I had a better curve ball then than I have now, but I could not control it as well. I also pitched in the county semi-pro league in 1919, and that is all until I joined Cleveland and Mr. Speaker sent me to Des Moines.”

Control now is one of Ted’s long suits and he also has a habit of finishing a game he starts. He was in thirteen games at Des Moines. He started eleven, winning four and losing five. He was taken out in his last two starts. That was after he had injured his side and could not throw a ball without pain. In each instance he passed the first three batters, and out he came. In his thirteen games he walked thirty-four and fanned fifty-eight.

His work this spring consisted mostly in pitching in batting practice. He was first called on for actual competition in the game with the New York Giants. He went in with the score 2 to 1 in favor of New York.

He pitched one inning and blanked the Giants with one hit a single by Pitcher Nehf. The Indians scored twice in their half of the ninth and Ted was credited with the victory.

His next opportunity [was the game in Houston]…

That was his last appearance in a game until Wednesday [the 13^th] when Manager Speaker paid him the compliment of picking him to finish the inaugural contest after Coveleskie had retired to allow Graney to bat for him. Only three batters, two of them listed among the best hitters of the league, Jacobson and Williams, faced him. None reached first.

Control and nerve are now listed among Ted’s pitching assets. Stanley Coveleskie, who used to be known as a veritable iceberg among pitchers, is no cooler than the Wisconsin youth. He is deliberate in his motions, and I doubt if any amount of personal abuse showered from the coaching lines could get him fussed. In addition, he is a most likable chap, and Cleveland fans are sure to take to him.

Ted made two more relief appearances in April, five in May, and one on June 7; at this point he had a 1.56 ERA in 17 1/3 innings. Still, on June 19 he was sent to the Columbus Senators of the Class AA American Association. He got off to a good start there but couldn’t keep it up; in a mixture of starting and relieving he had an 0-9 record and 5.70 ERA in 90 innings in 21 games, walking 54. From the December 4 Plain Dealer:

…Odenwald appeared to have the makings of a first-class pitcher last spring. He did some splendid relief work at the outset of the campaign. Then he sort of flivvered [doesn’t seem fair, he pitched great for the Indians] and Spoke sent him down to Columbus also. Down in the A.A. his luck deserted him entirely and it was a case of just one defeat after another. As Odenwald has not reached his twenty-first birthday [or his twentieth], there ought to be a chance for him.

Ted didn’t pitch much for the Indians in spring training 1922 (when he did, one article referred to him as “the chubby southpaw”), but he made the team again. His first regular season appearance was in Cleveland’s eighth game, on April 21 in Detroit. He came in to start the fourth with the Indians down 8-3, and gave up six earned runs on six hits and two walks in an inning and a third. Five days later he was sent down to Des Moines; under a rule in place at the time that if a player was sent down to the minors for a second time he could not have an option kept on him, this made him Des Moines property.

This also concluded Ted’s major league career, at the age of twenty. His ERA in his one 1922 appearance for the Indians was 40.50; this made his career ERA, which had been 1.56 before that game, 4.34. He didn’t pitch well, or even adequately, for the Boosters, going 2-5 with a 10.37 ERA in 12 games and allowing 99 hits in 59 innings. The Neodosha (Kansas) Register reported on August 31 that:

Ted Odenwald, who once did some southpawing for the Cleveland Indians, is now on the suspended list of organized baseball. Odenwald was suspended by the Des Moines club of the Western League.

I found no further explanation of this.

Ted went back to Wisconsin, where he was scheduled to pitch for a town team in LaCrosse on September 4 but sent a telegram on the 3^rd saying that he had an injured finger. On December 9 he was somehow traded from Minneapolis to Omaha; the closest thing I found to an explanation was in the December 12 Minneapolis Star: “Odenwald was the property of the Des Moines club, too, but he got his unconditional release and the Millers made a deal with him whereby he was to cast his lot with Omaha.”

During 1923 spring training with Omaha, on March 22 the Omaha World-Herald mentioned: “The double was biffed off Ted Odenwald, who was south hereabouts [Dallas] with Tris Speaker a couple of years ago and who carries less weight now than then, feeding not being so good in the minors.” On May 21 Omaha released Ted on option to the Denver Bears of the same league; between the two teams he appeared in 12 games and had a 1-6 record. I don’t know what he did the rest of the year.

In 1924 Ted, still just 22 years old, wound up with the Albany Senators of the Eastern League, also Class A. He had a 3.65 ERA and 6-13 record in 190 innings in 31 games. He returned to Albany in 1925, and went 13-13, 3.97, in 213 innings in 34 games.

In February 1926 Ted returned his contract to Albany unsigned, wanting more money; I didn’t find any more information about this, but he did end up signing. On July 23 he pitched a four-hit shutout against Pittsfield, and the next day’s Springfield Republican reported:

Manager McCorry recently asked for waivers on Odenwald but he twirled so well today that he probably will hang on with the Lawmakers for the rest of the season. In fact, Odenwald has done his best work this year against Pittsfield.

Ted did hang on and had a 9-12 record and 3.51 ERA in 141 innings in 30 games. He signed with Albany again for 1927. On April 14 the Albany Times-Union reported that he would pitch part of that day’s exhibition game, adding: “Odenwald says he is not ready to pitch a full game and he will not be forced to.” On April 29 the same paper ran this:

Smith Pulled Good One On Odenwald

The Albany Eastern League club was engaged in an exhibition game with the Durham, N.C., club in that city on the return home and the fans and players got quite a laugh in the sixth inning.

Manager McCorry had decided to send Ted Odenwald to the box for the last innings and the umpire behind the plate asked Catcher Jack Smith who was the new hurler. Smith, always trying to put over a good laugh, sensed the chance and said “Hinkle.”

And the umpire went back to the stands and announced “Hinkle now pitching for Albany.” Odenwald tossed both his glove and ball far into the air and Hinkle, engaged in a pepper game in right field, did a back air-spring and stood on his head.

Odenwald afterwards remarked that he wouldn’t have cared if the umpire announced him as “Sandy [?, not fully legible], the Cat Man,” as long as he didn’t say Hinkle.

Ted pitched in nine regular season games for Albany before, as the Times-Union reported on June 16:

Ted Odenwald has been released by the Albany club. He has been made a free agent after having given the club four years’ service. Hartford likes Odenwald.

Hartford, in the same league as Albany and called the Senators like Albany, did like Ted enough to sign him. On June 25, after Ted won a game against Bridgeport, the Bridgeport Telegram called him “one of the star pitchers of the Senators.” However, Bridgeport released him on July 17. In his 15 games between the two teams, he went 2-5 with a 4.36 ERA in 64 innings.

That seems to have ended Ted’s pro baseball career, at the age of 25. I found a 1929 reference to him pitching a shutout for Deer Park, Wisconsin, against Somerset at the St. Croix County Fair. The 1930 census shows him living with his mother at 921 Oak Street in Hudson, along with Augusta, 34, a bookkeeper for an electric power company, and Edward, 29, a laborer for railroad shops. Ted is a laborer at an ice house.

From the Sporting News of July 2, 1931:

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Whereabouts of Bernie Starr and Ted Odenwald are asked for by J.A.A. of Brattleboro, Vt.

Bernie Starr was released recently by Elmira. Odenwald is not playing.

Not playing professionally, but 12 days later the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reported on his pitching for Hudson’s town team, which had won all ten of its games. On November 11, 1935, in Shakopee, Minnesota, southwest of Minneapolis, Ted married Lucille Hauer.

On March 11, 1937, son Theodore was born. The 1940 census shows the Odenwalds renting a house at 614 East 2^nd Street in Shakopee; Ted is shown as 37 (actually 38), working in the delivery department at a bottling works, and having earned $1200 in 1939. Lucille is 27.

On April 22, 1941, son Michael was born. On February 14, 1942, Ted filled out his draft registration card. They are living at the same house, his employer is the Jacob Reis Bottling Works, and his appearance is 5-7 ½, 205 pounds, gray eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion.

Ted lived the rest of his life in Shakopee, working for the bottling company. According to a 2011 article in the Red Wing Republican Eagle, he served “for many years on the Shakopee City Council.” He passed away on October 23, 1965, at age 63, following a stroke.

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