The Saint Louis Browns Historical Society & Fan Club extends Happy Birthday wishes to George Elder the newest member of MLB’s Centenarian Club when he joins twenty-one other former players to reach the 100 year old mark on Wednesday March 10th. George played for the St. Louis Browns in 1949 and joins four other former Brownies: Red Huff, John F. Daley, Milt Gaston, and Rollie Stiles in this very elusive club.

How elusive is this milestone? George will be only the twenty-second of ~19,800 players in MLB history to reach that special birthday. It also means that 23% of the men who attained it played for the St. Louis Browns. Did the Browns’ losing ways ease the physical stress and wear and tear on their players allowing them to live long lives? George is currently the second oldest living MLBer behind Eddie Robinson who turned 100 this past December. The previous oldest former player was Tom Jordan, also a former Brown, who passed away just days shy of his 100th birthday in 2019. In 2018, another former Brownie, Chuck Stevens, wore the honor of oldest player when he passed away just a little over a month before his 100th birthday.

George’s athletic career began in football at Fordham University but was cut short by WWII. His Marine Corp enlistment soon had him headed to the Pacific Theatre where he waded ashore on Leyte, Philippine Islands just one day after General Douglas McArthur’s famous landing. From there he participated in the very horrific landing and fighting at Iwo Jima. As the war ended George began playing baseball on the U.S. Marines All-Star team. There the the left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing outfielder was befriended by Ted Williams. The splendid splinter liked what he saw and convinced George to stick with baseball. As George still says today, “if the last man to hit over .400 tells you to play ball, you play ball – end of discussion.”

Out of the service George enrolled and began playing baseball at UCLA when the Browns made him an offer in 1947. Older than most college players due to his service, he thought there was no use staying in college and took their offer and broke in with the Toledo Mudhens where he hit .312 in his first year. He continued his minor league journey through the minors before being called up to the big leagues in July 1949. George hung around on the team for the rest of the year and posted a .250 batting average. However, the next year he was back in the minors where he batted .284. As 1951 approached, the soon to be thirty year old George decided to hang up the spikes and put his boots back on.

George began a long standing career serving as a deputy sheriff and court bailiff in Santa Monica, California where he would have a presence in both the infamous Watts Riots and the Charles Manson murder trial. George’s other pursuit was horses. In his retirement he competed as a rider, handler, and trainer. Although his time in the big leagues was short, George has no regrets about what could have been. He got the chance that so many kids dream of and never get. He once was and still is a former Major League ballplayer who now resides in retirement on his horse farm in Colorado.