Major League Baseball Player. He played Major League baseball primarily as a first baseman for ten seasons (1909, 1911 to 1917, 1919 and 1922) for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. He made his debut with the Tigers at the end of the 1909 season, appearing in two games. After spending all of 1910 in the minor leagues he began the 1911 season as a starter with Detroit, and was batting .302 after seventy games before a pitch by the Philadelphia Athletic's Jack Coombs broke his wrist. He twice tried to return to the field after his wrist ostensibly healed, but complications would limit him the rest of the season as well as the 1912 season, which saw him only play in fifty-nine games. In 1913 he played in one hundred and five games as a starter, bit his hitting suffered and he his .267. Discouraged, he considered retirement in the offseason and even purchased a business in his hometown of Elkins, West Virginia. However, he remained with the Tigers at the start of the 1914 season. Tigers manager Hughie Jennings kept him on the bench for a full month, and then the team finally sold him in May 1914 to the Boston Red Sox. His arm troubles continued with the Red Sox that year, and he continued to consult with doctors about it. In 1915 he was put into a platoon situation at first base with Dick Hoblitzel, and the combination would produce the best first base position performance in the American League that year. Del Gainer would hit .295 and help the Red Sox win the American League pennant. In the subsequent World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, he contributed a hit and a run in the clinching Game 5 that won the Championship for Boston (his hit was off Phillies pitcher Eppa Rixey, and the run he scored was on a Harry Hooper home run, both future Hall of Famers). In 1916 he wasn't sure he would return to baseball, but decided on returning in May of that year. He again platooned with Hoblitzel, but only played in thirty-nine games. The Red Sox won the American League pennant for a second year in a row, and played the Brooklyn Robins (today known as the Dodgers) in the World Series. He only had a single at-bat in the series, but it was a historic one. Game 2 was tied 1-1 and had gone a then-record fourteen innings when he got a game-winning pinch hit single off Brooklyn's Sherry Smith to secure the victory for the Reds Sox. Boston would go on to win their second consecutive World Series with a 4 Games to 1 win over Brooklyn. In 1917 he was relegated to backing up Dick Hoblitzel, but hit .308 in his limited role. After the 1917 season ended he enlisted in the United States Navy to serve during World War I, and was assigned during his tenure to the Boston Navy Yard. After his honorably discharge in March 1919 he played one more year in a limited role, was sent to the minor league Milwaukee, Wisconsin team. After two years in the minors he was purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he played in forty-seven games in 1922. He was released after the season, but not before he hit a three-run home run in what would be his final Major League at-bat. He would continue to toil in the minor leagues until 1928, when he became a coach and manager. He retired from the game permanently in 1930, and he was a deputy United States Marshall in West Virginia in his later years. He passed away in his hometown of Elkins, West Virginia. His career numbers include 548 Games Played, 218 Runs, 438 Hits, 14 Home Runs, 190 Runs Batted In, 219 Strike Outs and a .272 lifetime Batting Average.