Vitt had a career batting average of .238, and was a talented third baseman with range and a good throwing arm.

He led all American League third basemen in consecutive years (1915 and 1916) in putouts, assists and fielding percentage.

In 1918, his at bat per strikeout ratio was 44.5, 2nd best in the AL. On August 10, 1915, Vitt was hit in the head by a Walter Johnson fastball.

On January 17, 1919, Vitt was traded by the Tigers to the Boston Red Sox for Eddie Ainsmith, Chick Shorten, and Slim Love.

He was then hired by the Cleveland Indians in 1938 to replace Steve O'Neil as manager and instill new life into their team.

After the incident with Harder, a dozen Indians met with owner Alva Bradley to state their grievances against Vitt, whom they described as a "wild man."

Bradley sought to keep the controversy quiet, but the story quickly got out, and newspaper headlines all over the nation referred gleefully to the Indians as the "Cleveland Crybabies."

Despite the hullabaloo and ridicule, the Indians, with Vitt hanging on to his job, battled the Detroit Tigers for the pennant to the last day of the 1940 season.

After June, with the "Crybabies" harangue clanging in the papers and from the stands, they went 47–40, not a collapse, but not good enough to stay ahead of the Tigers who won the pennant by a single game over the Tribe.