Archie McKain

Archie McKain was born in Delphos in 1911.  As a teenager, he pitched for a Concordia town team against a professional team from Topeka.  McKain lost the game, but the Topeka manager asked him if he would like to try out.

McKain was signed and made his debut in Pueblo (CO) in 1930.  He won 18 games in 1931 and was sold to Louisville.  He spent seven years in the minor leagues before making the Boston Red Sox in 1937.

The lefthander went 8-8 in his rookie season and won five games the next year.  Following the 1938 season, he was traded to Detroit for three players, one of them Kansas Hall of Fame member Elden Auker.

McKain won five games for the Tigers in 1939.  In 1940 he was moved exclusively to the bullpen and responded with a 5-0 record with a 2.82 earned run average.  McKain pitched three innings in the World Series, which the Tigers lost to Cincinnati,

Detroit sold McKain to the St. Louis Browns in the middle of the 1941 season.  He appeared in only eight games for the Browns and another ten games in 1943.  and 1943. The Browns attempted to sell his contract to Brooklyn in 1943, but McKain chose to retire.

McKain returned home to Minneapolis, Kansas where he was a farmer and carpenter.  He continued to pitch for local teams that went to the NBC State and National tournaments in Wichita.  His son Jack pitched at Kansas State University and son Tom played basketball at Hutchinson Community College and Fort Hays State University.

He died in Salina in 1985 at the age of 74.  He is buried in Minneapolis.

For more, read Archie McKain’s Society for American Baseball Research bio.