Elmer Ponder, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetElmer Ponder
American baseball player
Date of Birth: 26-Jun-1893
Place of Birth: Reed, Oklahoma, United States
Date of Death: 20-Apr-1974
Profession: baseball player
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About Elmer Ponder
- Charles Elmer Ponder (June 26, 1893 – April 20, 1974) was a professional baseball player.
- Known as "Elmer Ponder", he was a right-handed major league pitcher (1917, 1919–21) with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs.
- With the Pittsburgh Pirates, he pitched a perfect 5 2/3 innings of relief in his first outing of the year, against the Philadelphia Phillies in the first game of a doubleheader on July 23rd; it would be 94 years until another member of the Pirates, Vin Mazzaro, threw as many as 5 perfect innings of relief, in 2013.
- In 1920, Ponder appeared in 33 games, with a record of 11-15.
- His ERA of 2.62, while not the best on the squad, was better than the team ERA of 2.89.
- He was an aviator and airplane mechanic in World War I in 1917 until the end of the war, and he returned to the Pirates a war hero. In 1921, he was doing well with an ERA of 2.19 in 24 2/3 innings, when he was traded to the Chicago Cubs.
- His ERA with them went up to 4.74.
- He was of Cherokee descent and played with other famous "Indian players" of his generation such as Ben Shaw, Moses Yellow Horse, Bill Marriot and Virgil Cheeves.
- He joined the Allied Forces in World War I and served for the U.S.
- when the Americans joined the war.
- For Elmer Ponder's baseball career, he compiled a 17-27 record, with a 3.21 earned run average, and 113 strikeouts in 378? innings pitched.
- Ponder recalled playing an exhibition game in Cuba with Babe Ruth as being a post-career highlight, along with his providing financing to former Indian ball players from his self started Ponder Finance company, during a time banks would not provide financing to minorities.
- His father had owned a bank in Magnum, OK. An alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, where he was a captain and second baseman, Ponder was born in Reed, Oklahoma.
- He married silent film organist, Zelpha Gledhill, in San Diego, and they had two children.
- Elmer Ponder had a successful automobile and finance company in Albuquerque, New Mexico and he lived there with his wife, Zelpha, until his death at the age of 80.
Read more at Wikipedia