Slim had an extremely rare and unique delivery Known as the “cross-fire.” Wearing his cap yanked low over his eyes, he went through a slow motion procedure that hypnotized batters and exasperated umpires. Placing his right foot to the third base side of the rubber, while keeping his left foot on the rubber at the extreme first base side, he cranked his arms straight up behind his head, leaning far back as he threw his right leg skyward to the set position. Then in a burst he would step or plant the right leg at a 45-degree angle between first base and home plate, finishing his follow-through on the extreme first base side of the pitching mound, delivering the ball from every possible arm angle. Batters constantly complained that it looked as if the ball was arriving from first base.
It was an accident that first boosted Slim into the limelight. The pitcher of the Higginsport team had failed to show up for a much-anticipated game against the team from Augusta, Kentucky. As the coach searched through the town trying to find a replacement, he stumbled upon Slim sleeping on a soapbox in a livery stable. Wearing a torn flannel shirt and apparently bored to death, he agreed to pitch. Even though he was the best of the town’s kid ballplayers, the coach hoped for only a passable showing. He not only easily won the game, but the skill with which he pitched astonished the Augusta players and the Higginsport people.
The nearby Georgetown, Ohio team would often “borrow” Slim for important games against touring ball teams. Eventually becoming their regular pitchers, he developed so rapidly that Pittsburgh pitcher Charley Case, a Georgetown resident, recommended him to Dick Kinsella, who got Slim a spot on a semi-professional team in Clinton, Iowa. But the team folded in July and Slim was again pitching for Georgetown.
The following year, Slim signed with the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association. In his first professional start during spring training, the 20-year-old hurled an 11-inning complete game, defeating the visiting Cleveland Naps. After allowing only two hits over the final eight innings, star Napoleon Lajoie “thought Sallee’s actions in delivering a ball when there was a runner on first was a balk, but when he looked it over, he declared it was something marvelous.”
A few weeks later, a broken hand forced Slim to sit out a month. Sent to Meridian, Mississippi, of the Cotton States League, he led the league in wins and winning percentage before the league shut down and the town quarantined due to an epidemic of yellow fever.
Returning for a second year with the Barons, his 17 wins helped win Birmingham its first pennant. Clark Griffith of the New York Highlanders drafted him, but with an abundance of pitchers, Slim was released to Williamsport of the Tri-State League in early 1907. The “Millionaires” easily won the championship as Slim led the league with a 22-5 record.
After 57 wins and two minor league championships, the St. Louis Cardinals purchased Slim. Although he pitched extremely well in spring training, even pitching 7 innings of a combined no-hitter, his first start wasn’t until late May, a four-hit shutout of the New York Giants. He defeated the Giants for a second time in only his third start, earning another nickname, “The Giant Killer.” The Cardinals however, not only led the league in errors, leading the next highest by 93, but scored the fewest runs while allowing the most. During a 4-week period, the team scored only 5 runs in 45 innings that Slim pitched. In two consecutive pitching duels against Christy Mathewson, he lost both games because of infield errors, one in the 12th inning of a 2-2 game, the other resulting in a 1-0 loss.
It was during this time that the 23-year-old rookie began drinking and developed bad training habits. When the routine of practice got too strenuous, he would walk across the street to a social club known as the “Grass Eaters”. Housed only 100 feet away from the clubhouse, Slim often “exercised his rights as a member” of this social club. One clubhouse boy said he would lower a bucket over the fence on a rope to a confederate who would fill it at the social club. Slim would then find it necessary to “change shirts” during the course of a game, walking to the clubhouse in center field. Once, after disappearing for 10 days, it was learned upon his return that he had become interested in river navigation and was serving as a deckhand on a boat travelling between St. Louis and Memphis.
Having traded away three of their top starters in acquiring new manager Roger Bresnahan, the 1909 pitching staff was very inexperienced. With Sallee as one of the team’s young “promising sensations,” who “looked to have a world of speed,” Bresnahan began to develop his staff into major league caliber pitchers. On the first day of spring training, a small fire broke out at the hotel the team was staying. After the hall was filled with smoke, Slim rushed madly from his room in his underclothes to the top of the stairs before a fireman turned him around and suggested that “there was time to don trousers.”
Slim demonstrated his incredible control during his first start of the year, a four hit victory over the Cubs, by throwing a first pitch strike to every batter. As in 1908, the Cardinal defense was poor, and 4 or more errors in a game were not uncommon. In a doubleheader loss to Cincinnati, the Cardinals made 17 errors. After 12 appearances and a 4-6 record, Slim had allowed 35 runs, but only 20 earned runs. Slim also got his first hit of the year after 30 at bats. As he reached first, he smiled and jumped on the base, only to be lifted for a pinch runner.
After defeating the Giants twice in one series, Slim evened his record to 9-9. But on August 9th, Bresnahan placed Sallee on the suspended list and fined him after vanishing for a week. When he finally returned, it was learned that he had been only a mere two blocks away the whole time. After pitching poorly in his next several starts, including two games in a row that he couldn’t hold large leads, he quit the team. He told a friend, “I’ll admit that I’ve done a few things I shouldn’t have done, but who hasn’t? It was bad enough for them to suspend me, but when they bunched that with the fines of almost $600 this season, why I come to the conclusion that I’m almost through with the gang. I have several offers to play elsewhere and may possibly take one of them if I can get released honorably by Bresnahan. I’m going up to Higginsport, and I’ll stay there the rest of this season. And what is more, I’ll never go back to St. Louis.”
After showing up a week late to spring training in 1910, Slim severely twisted his ankle, missing most of spring training and requiring the use of a cane. Just before opening day, he disappeared for over a week. Upon his return and a promise to behave, he defeated the Giants in his first start. Later in July, he again disappeared for 2 days and was suspended for drinking, but once again was reinstated to shut out the Giants 2-0. Bresnahan desperately tried to trade Slim to another team. Manager Clarke of Pittsburgh said, “Sallee is a great pitcher, but he has very bad habits and for this reason I could not be induced to have him on my team. No, not even if Bresnahan would give him to me for nothing.” Two weeks later, he was missing again and was finally placed on indefinite suspension. Making no effort to get back, he picked up a living as best he could pitching games for local teams around St. Louis, and was even found helping a huckster selling vegetables from his cart.
After getting in shape and promising to behave, Bresnahan declared that in 1911, Slim would be the best lefthander in the National League. As the ace of the Cardinals staff, his 15 wins helped the Cardinals to their first winning record since 1901. In July, the team was involved in a tragic train wreck, claiming the lives of 12 passengers. Slim and his teammates received many accolades for their part in the rescue efforts. While in New York in late August, Slim again “fell off the water wagon” and was unable to pitch. He was fined and suspended for the remainder of the season.
With a new wife and completely sober, Slim finally lived up to his ability. In 1912, he was the first to show up to spring training, was named Assistant Manager, taking a squad of pitchers and catchers for extra workouts in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and even optimistically predicted a second place finish. Claiming he “never felt so nearly perfect this early in the season”, Slim pitched a career high 294 innings, winning 16 games. He also established himself as a “rescue artist,” with 4 relief wins and a league leading 6 saves.
His 1913 season was probably his finest effort in all his years in baseball. Slim won 19 games for a last place team that had a grand total of 51 wins and finished last or next to last in every offensive category. Slim pitched in 50 games and had an ERA of 2.71, well below the team and league average. He even slugged his only two career home runs. The 1944 book Kings of the Mound: A Pitcher’s Rating Manual, rated Slim’s pitching of 1913 as one of the best seasons ever.
After several off-season trades and Federal League desertions, Slim became the only remaining member of the original 1908 team. Manager Miller Huggins led the 1914 Cardinals to an unheard of third place finish at 81-72 while Slim, an 18 game winner with an ERA of 2.10, led the league with six saves.
During his 8-year tenure with St. Louis, Slim won 106 games for a team that finished last three times and had only 2 winning seasons. His .498 winning percentage was almost 100 points better than the team when he did not pitch. His earned run average of 2.67 is the third lowest ERA in Cardinals history, while ranking in the top ten for games pitched, innings pitched, and complete games.
Yet on June 16, 1916, while in New York, Slim tore up his $6000 per year contract and announced to Miller Huggins that he would no longer play for the Cardinals, claiming to be “through with baseball.” He was subsequently suspended and fined as he returned home to Higginsport. No one took his retirement seriously, however, and it was figured that he was trying to force the Cardinals to trade him. Team owners insisted that they would not be forced into a trade, and turned down several offers. A few weeks later, John McGraw convinced Slim to come out of retirement, and he was eventually sold to the New York Giants for $10,000. While Huggins claimed he knew of no wrong doing, it was widely believed the Giants tampered with Slim. League President John Tener said, “ No other deal like that will be sanctioned while I am in office,” and rules were established to prevent a player’s retirement being held over a team’s head in order to force a trade. Joining the Giants in late July, Slim contributed several wins to the Giants 26 game win streak, finishing 9-4, with a microscopic 1.37 ERA.
Slim began 1917 expelled from the Player’s Fraternity after breaking ranks and signing his contract without Fraternity permission. As one of the “big three” Giants left-handed starters that dominated the league in almost all categories, he won 18 games with 4 shutouts, including 10 games in a row, and again led the league with four saves. Slim had the honor of pitching the pennant clinching game on September 24, defeating his old Cardinal teammates, 2-1.
After losing Game One of the World Series to Chicago White Sox ace Eddie Cicotte 2-1, Slim was beating Cicotte in Game Five 5-2, until he tired in the seventh inning as the Sox tied the score. McGraw stayed with Slim in the eighth as the Sox scored three more runs, losing 8-5, a decision that was widely criticized.
Slim developed lower back pain that eventually became so bad, he was forced to call it quits for the year in July of 1918 after only 132 innings. During the off-season, Slim slowly rehabilitated his aching back, working his tobacco farm near Higginsport, and building a new house “with all modern conveniences, including electric lights and other features usually found only in city homes.” Despite a special trip by John McGraw, Slim refused to sign with the Giants for 1919 saying the only team he would consider playing for was the Cincinnati Reds, allowing him to live on his Ohio farm. McGraw reluctantly granted Slim’s wish, and the Reds claimed him off waivers.
Slim re-injured his back after his only spring training outing and didn’t return until May 4th. With a bad back, he took advantage of his unique control, and extensive knowledge of hitter’s weaknesses, walking only an astonishing 20 men while striking out a mere 24 batters in 228 innings. He once said, “My whole system is to make them hit, and keep them hitting, and try never to give the batter what he wants.” “It makes no difference how much speed a man has or what curves he has mastered. These things do him no good if he can’t get the ball over the plate. It doesn’t take any more exertion to put the ball over the plate than it does to miss it by a foot.”
After being honored on “Sallee Day” in late September, Slim then threw a record 65-pitch complete game, in only 55 minutes. Despite the late season start, he won 21 of the 29 games he appeared in, a record that lasted 25 years, as the Reds beat out the Giants for the pennant. He became only the second twenty game winner with more wins than walks in a season. When McGraw was asked why he didn’t resign Slim Sallee, he replied, “I knew what a good pitcher he was, but he wouldn’t play with me, so what could I do?”
Facing the Chicago White Sox in the infamous 1919 World Series, Slim pitched Game Two, defeating Lefty Williams, 4-2, and Game Seven, losing to Eddie Cicotte, 4-1. When it was later discovered that several members of the White Sox conspired to throw the World Series, Slim was asked about the fix. “I couldn’t believe it, although it was whispered around hotels and gambling headquarters that something underhanded was taking place.” “No one ever dreamed there would be anything shady in a World’s Series.”
In 1920, two days after a lengthy interview expressing his objections to Baseball’s new rules regarding substances on the ball, he was ejected from a game and subsequently suspended for ten days for using rosin to grip the ball. After being released by Cincinnati in August, John McGraw once again called on Slim to pitch for the Giants and in 1921 was used entirely in relief during the pennant-winning season, leading the league in relief wins with six. Slim did not pitch in the World Series and his 14-year major league career came to a close, finishing first in relief appearances, second in saves, third in games pitched, and seventh in wins during his career.
Former manager Roger Bresnahan, now owner of the minor league Toledo club, convinced Slim, now 37 years old, to pitch one final season in 1922. After a 2-9 record, he was released and returned to his home. He and his wife, Catherine, channeled his baseball earnings into various successful business enterprises, including a soda bottling company, an icehouse, and a restaurant. Slim also became an active member of a Cincinnati social group called The Ballplayers of Yesteryear.
The great Ohio River flood of 1937 wiped out all his businesses and eventual financial hardships forced them to move to Cincinnati where Slim worked as a bartender. Upon his return in 1947, Slim agreed to coach the Higginsport town team, leading them to an undefeated season and county champions. To this day, the team picture still adorns most town establishments.
On March 22, 1950, Harry Slim Sallee passed away in his home at 65 years old. Numerous former players including Eppa Rixey, Rube Bressler, “Bubbles” Hargrave, and Larry Kopf attended his funeral. In 1995, the town of Higginsport renamed its baseball diamond “Sallee Field”, dedicating a plaque commemorating his achievements. In 1999, he was inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall Of Fame.
