We’re looking forward to the Cleveland Guardians home opener next Monday, April 8^th,   and hope you are too.  But before that game, we want to take you back to the 1929 Cleveland Indians, and one player in particular.  He was a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians who struck out “The Babe’ in his Indians professional debut. 

 In 1929, the Indians played at League Park, at the corner of East 66^th and Lexington, and seated around 21,000 fans.  The ‘new’ Cleveland Municipal Stadium was under construction, and the Indians wouldn’t take the field there until late July 1932.  Going to a baseball game was a real event, with men in suits, women in dresses, and nearly everyone sitting in the sunny side of the ballpark wearing hats. Milt (Milburn James) ‘Pinky’ Shoffner was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He played seven years in the majors, from 1929 until 1931, then again from 1937 until 1940.

Shoffner was born in November 1905 in Sherman, Texas; the only child of minor-league pitcher Herman Shoffner and his wife Jessie.  Herman, with his wife and son following, played throughout Texas and Oklahoma; and on to Memphis TN, Aurora IL, finally settling near Utica NY.  When Milt attended high school near Utica, he was baseball team captain at age 15.  He pitched, played first base, and outfield.  After graduation he passed up a recruiting effort by Colgate University to work in nearby Ilion NY, and hired himself out to semi-pro baseball teams on the weekends.  It was at one of the weekend baseball games where Milt was scouted by a representative of the Rochester Tribe minor league team; who convinced him to sign as a left-handed pitcher with the Tribe in 1926.  From there, he played for a number of Class A, AA, and B minor league teams.  It was while playing with the Jersey City team in 1929 that the Cleveland Indians noticed him.

Shoffner officially joined the Cleveland Indians on July 13th, 1929 with a $1,500 signing bonus, as a relief pitcher and spot starter.  His debut was at the second game of a double header on July 20th against the New York Yankees.  The Yankees were up 8-5 in the seventh inning when Babe Ruth was sent to pinch hit for Leo Durocher; and Cleveland Manager Roger Peckingpaugh put Milt on the mound.  Milt threw (in his own words) “a damn good curve,” and retired the Babe!  Milt went on to finish the season with the Indians, and earned an invitation to spring training for 1930.

The role of reliever and spot starter was handed to Milt for the 1930 season. According to Shoffner’s interview with Gene Murdock, GM Billy Evans considered Milt’s stuff to be the best of any lefty except Grove. In 24 games, 10 of them starts, he posted a 7.97 ERA, thanks largely to allowing an average of 13.5 hits and over 5 walks per 9 innings. Manager Peckinpaugh and the Cleveland front office still believed in Shoffner’s potential and brought him back for the 1931 season. It did not hurt Milt’s cause to be the only lefty on the staff. He appeared in relief with varying results; and management finally gave up on him on July 21, 1931. He was shipped to the Toledo Mud Hens. 

In the minor leagues, Shoffner played with Toledo, Newark, Nashville, Albany, and Scranton over a six-year period.  He did not return to the major leagues until 1937, with the Boston Bees. That season, he made six appearances—five of them starts—with an impressive 2.53 ERA.  He was with Boston until 1939, when the Cincinnati Reds picked him up off waivers.  Overall that season, Shoffner finished 6th in the league in ERA at 3.18 in 170 innings (a career high). Despite this, he did not appear in the 1939 World Series for the Reds. The following season, Shoffner had a rougher go, as his ERA slipped back to 5.63 and he was mostly limited to mop-up duty. Once again, he did not appear in the 1940 World Series, which the Reds won. During the offseason, Shoffner was traded to the New York Giants, and after pitching one last season in the minors he retired in 1941.

Milt was inducted into the military in June 1942, and he served as a Warrant Officer until after the war ended in 1945.  In the Army, he listed himself as separated. Milt and his first wife Mary had no children. There is evidence of other weddings in the mid-50’s, 1968 (Rogene), and the mid-70’s (Janice). None of his biographies list any chldren.

Following his playing days, Shoffner worked as a minor league baseball umpire in the late 1940s and as a bar owner in Utica NY in the early 1950s.  At some point, Milt returned to Ohio, where he lived on Grand Avenue in North Madison, Ohio.   He died in Madison on January 19, 1978.  Milt is buried in Madison Memorial Cemetery on Arcola Rd. in Madison Township.