George Elder (baseball)

Elder was born in Lebanon, Kentucky on March 10, 1921, the youngest of four children of George Rezin Elder (1872-1957) and Mary Ellen "Lilly" Elder (1873-1922). His mother died when George Jr. was 1; the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky in the 1920s, then a few years later to Chicago and finally to Los Angeles.[1][2] He served as a Marine artilleryman in the Pacific theatre, including in the Battle of Iwo Jima.[3]

Elder was a running back for the Fordham University football team. He considered attending the University of Notre Dame, where his brother Jack had been a running back. Elder, who ran the 100-yard dash in 9.9 seconds, said that he chose Fordham to avoid comparisons to his brother.[4] Elder ended up playing for the freshman team in 1941 and the varsity team in 1942.[4][5] In October 1942, he sustained a broken foot in a game against West Virginia University.[6]

In the summer of 1943, Fordham shut down its football program.[7] Elder went to Dartmouth College that fall as part of the V-12 Navy College Training Program. When he arrived at Dartmouth, he was described as dealing with some chronic injuries, and he elected to play baseball instead of football.[8] Elder later played baseball at UCLA.[9]

In 1947 and 1948, Elder appeared with the Toledo Mud Hens, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Browns.[10] In the spring of 1948, he was also named to the UCLA baseball coaching staff.[11] He played for several other minor league teams before making his major league debut in July 1949.[10] He made his Major League debut as a pinch-runner on July 22, 1949, and two days later he made his debut at the plate with a single against Ellis Kinder, scoring Paul Lehner. It was the game-winning hit in a 9-8 Browns win.[12]

In Elder's lone major league season, he started seven games and appeared on defense in 10 games (all in left field). He was used as a pinch hitter 22 times, and he appeared as a pinch runner 11 times.[13] Elder spent only one more season in professional baseball. He tallied 11 hits in 44 official at bats for a .250 batting average, with 3 doubles and 2 RBI's.[14] He played for the Wichita Indians, a Browns affiliate, in 1950, hitting .284 in 144 games.[10]

Elder spent later years as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and as a bailiff in a court in Santa Monica, California. He was later married to Helen Bennett. He was married a second time, in 1985, to Mary Ann.[15] He started training horses with his wife Mary Ann. In 2005 they moved to Fruita, Colorado, where they live as of 2020.[16]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)