[2][3] Dauss first gained note as a pitcher on the Manual High School baseball team.

[3] Dauss began his professional baseball career in 1908 with the South Bend, Indiana team in the Central League.

[5] Deacon McGuire, then a scout for the Detroit Tigers, saw Dauss pitch in St. Paul during the 1912 season.

[3] Detroit team president Frank Navin tried unsuccessfully to draft Dauss and ended up purchasing him from St. Paul in September 1912.

[6] Dauss made his major league debut on September 28, 1912, pitching a four-hit complete game victory over the Cleveland Naps despite giving up eight bases on balls and hitting three batsmen -- Shoeless Joe Jackson having been struck twice.

Clark Griffith, of the Nationals, was one of the first of opposing managers to recognize in Dauss a coming star.

In mid-January 1914, Dauss and Bush issued a joint statement that they had refused the Federal League offer and returned their signed contracts back to Detroit; both also indicated they had received increases in their 1913 salaries.

He finished among the American League's leaders with 22 complete games (3rd), 19 wins (4th), 302 innings pitched (4th), and 150 strikeouts (5th).

[12] In 1915, Hooks had the best season of his career, as the Tigers compiled a 100–54 record, narrowly losing the American League pennant to the Boston Red Sox.

For the second consecutive season, Dauss was among the American League's leaders in multiple categories with 24 wins (2nd), 3092⁄3 innings pitched (3rd), 27 complete games (3rd), and 132 strikeouts (8th).

[2] In a display of dedication to baseball, Dauss was married to Miss Ollie Speake in the morning of May 29, 1915, asked the clerk to delay making an entry in his books, and insisted that the Justice place newspapers over the windows in his office during the ceremony.

Dauss then pitched for the Tigers that afternoon, explaining his zest for privacy on the ground that he thought he would be nervous if the crowd knew he had just been married.

His playing time was reduced somewhat to 2382⁄3 innings pitched, but he still compiled a solid 19–12 record, and his 19 wins was fifth best in the American League.

Now and then he has shown his famous curve with as quick a break as it ever had, but he hasn't had a fast ball that would dent a felt hat.

"[14]Despite the concerns expressed in the spring, Dauss brought his ERA down to 2.43 in 1917 and won 17 games—the seventh highest tally in the American League.

During spring training in 1918, Detroit manager Hughie Jennings opined that lack of confidence and a "carefree manner" was holding Dauss back from stardom.

The Detroit Free Press reported: "Were George Dauss possessed of the proper spirit, it is Manager Jennings's profound belief that the little curver would take rank with the greatest hurlers that ever sunk a spiked shoe in the rubber of a major league pitching mound.

Dauss has held the Tigers record for pitcher wins ever since (98 years as of 2023), and is likely to continue to hold the mark for some time to come.

(The only pitcher to come close to Dauss in recent years is Justin Verlander, who won 183 games for the Tigers before being traded to the Houston Astros in 2017.)