boys of summer Mel Harder

Melvin Leroy Harder (October 15, 1909 - October 20, 2002), nicknamed "Chief", was an American right-handed starting pitcher and coach in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the Cleveland Indians. He spent 36 seasons overall with the Indians, as a player from 1928 to 1947 and as one of the game's most highly regarded pitching coaches from 1949-64. He set franchise records for wins (223), games started (433) and innings pitched (3426-1/3) which were later broken by Bob Feller, and still holds the club record of 582 career games pitched; he was among the American League's career leaders in wins (9th), games (8th) and starts (10th) when he retired. He was also an excellent fielder, leading the AL in putouts four times, then a record.

Pitching Statistics
Year Team W L G CG H R ER HR BB SO ERA
1928 Cleveland 0 2 23 0 64 42 36 4 32 15 6.61
1929 Cleveland 1 0 11 0 24 15 11 2 5 4 5.60
1930 Cleveland 11 10 36 7 205 108 82 9 68 44 4.21
1931 Cleveland 13 14 40 9 229 119 94 8 72 63 4.36
1932 Cleveland 15 13 39 17 277 125 106 9 68 90 3.75
1933 Cleveland 15 17 43 14 254 113 83 10 67 81 2.95
1934 Cleveland 20 12 44 17 246 97 74 6 81 91 2.61
1935 Cleveland 22 11 42 17 313 120 105 6 53 95 3.29
1936 Cleveland 15 15 36 13 294 155 129 13 71 84 5.17
1937 Cleveland 15 12 38 13 269 127 111 9 86 95 4.28
1938 Cleveland 17 10 38 15 257 115 102 16 62 102 3.83
1939 Cleveland 15 9 29 12 213 89 81 15 64 67 3.50
1940 Cleveland 12 11 31 5 200 96 84 16 59 76 4.06
1941 Cleveland 5 4 15 1 76 43 40 8 37 21 5.24
1942 Cleveland 13 14 29 13 179 83 76 8 82 74 3.44
1943 Cleveland 8 7 19 6 126 57 46 7 61 40 3.06
1944 Cleveland 12 10 30 12 211 95 81 5 69 64 3.71
1945 Cleveland 3 7 11 2 93 37 31 3 23 16 3.67
1946 Cleveland 5 4 13 4 85 37 35 4 31 21 3.41
1947 Cleveland 6 4 15 4 91 41 40 3 27 17 4.50

Career statistics
ERA  3.80
Wins  223
Complete Games  181
Strike Outs  1160