January 21, 1944 -The Birmingham News (Birmingham, Alabama) - Tea Party Story
Elberfeld
BY WM. McG. KEEFE
The Times-Picayune
Norman Elberfeld, better known through a long and fiery baseball career as Kid Elberfeld, is dead. But until every baseball fan who ever saw the "Tabasco Kid" in action passes on to join him in that hereafter where he may have tamed down a lot, Kid Elberfeld still will be talked about. He was, perhaps, the original and most persistent umpire baiter of baseball. No record has been kept of it. but I daresay Kid Elberfeld was put out of more games and fined more times than any man that ever wore a baseball uniform.
I remember once asking him: "How's everything?" Without the bat of an eye he shot back: "Everything's fine." And he handed over I a telegram from the late Judge I Kavanaugh, who was then president of the Southern League, notifying him that he would be called upon to pay three separate fines for misdemeanors the week before.
Umpires had their troubles with the "Tabasco Kid," but they liked him and used to laugh, nights, telling about him. They all agreed it was a wonder the Kid hadn't been born a left- hander; he certainty acted screwy at times.
I was up in Chattanooga once with the Pelicans when the Kid was managing the Lookouts and just after Judge Martin had sent him word that if he got out of bounds once more he'd be suspended for the rest of the season. Nobody saw Elberfeld that afternoon. He sent one of his men out to give the umps his lineups.
At the end of the fifth inning two white-coated Negro boys, each carrying a tray on which was a pink teapot and about a dozen little tea cups, appeared on the field, coming out of the home team's gate. They walked to the plate and offered the tea and tiny crackers to the umpires, the battery men and any of the players who were standing about, and then came up to the press box, which was on the ground directly behind the catcher's box, and passed the tea around. It was O. K., too. though I never have been a stickler for tea. It was at. least stronger than the coffee you could get in Chattanooga.
Well, that burned Judge Martin up. He couldn't very well charge the Kid with violating the rules. as there was no rule in baseball prohibiting a pink tea party. I saw the Kid after the game and he actually was smiling between the vicious chaws" he have to the big quid of tobacco which was so much a part of him that most of us believed he went to sleep with a "chaw" in his mouth.
It was about during that time that Elberfeld told his ball players he didn't consider umpires fit to be spoken to and he said he would fine any of his players who said one word to an umpire, pleasant or in complaint.
He was a character, the Kid was, and a great drawing card. The late A. J. Heinemann used to rib him up, because every time Elberfeld got in a battle with an umpire and was chased, the next day's crowd picked up. Elberfeld was a great ball player, too. He and Johnny Evers were among the best men of their size in the game. He played short- stop deep toward left field and, while he wasn't fast, he could skim over the ground with remarkable speed, his arms dragging like those of a monkey. He was so short and his arms so long that many of the ball players joshed him about having to keep his gloved hand closed to keep the finger tips of the glove from dragging the ground.
And he could hit, too.
But most of all, he was The Kid.
BY WM. McG. KEEFE
The Times-Picayune
Norman Elberfeld, better known through a long and fiery baseball career as Kid Elberfeld, is dead. But until every baseball fan who ever saw the "Tabasco Kid" in action passes on to join him in that hereafter where he may have tamed down a lot, Kid Elberfeld still will be talked about. He was, perhaps, the original and most persistent umpire baiter of baseball. No record has been kept of it. but I daresay Kid Elberfeld was put out of more games and fined more times than any man that ever wore a baseball uniform.
I remember once asking him: "How's everything?" Without the bat of an eye he shot back: "Everything's fine." And he handed over I a telegram from the late Judge I Kavanaugh, who was then president of the Southern League, notifying him that he would be called upon to pay three separate fines for misdemeanors the week before.
Umpires had their troubles with the "Tabasco Kid," but they liked him and used to laugh, nights, telling about him. They all agreed it was a wonder the Kid hadn't been born a left- hander; he certainty acted screwy at times.
I was up in Chattanooga once with the Pelicans when the Kid was managing the Lookouts and just after Judge Martin had sent him word that if he got out of bounds once more he'd be suspended for the rest of the season. Nobody saw Elberfeld that afternoon. He sent one of his men out to give the umps his lineups.
At the end of the fifth inning two white-coated Negro boys, each carrying a tray on which was a pink teapot and about a dozen little tea cups, appeared on the field, coming out of the home team's gate. They walked to the plate and offered the tea and tiny crackers to the umpires, the battery men and any of the players who were standing about, and then came up to the press box, which was on the ground directly behind the catcher's box, and passed the tea around. It was O. K., too. though I never have been a stickler for tea. It was at. least stronger than the coffee you could get in Chattanooga.
Well, that burned Judge Martin up. He couldn't very well charge the Kid with violating the rules. as there was no rule in baseball prohibiting a pink tea party. I saw the Kid after the game and he actually was smiling between the vicious chaws" he have to the big quid of tobacco which was so much a part of him that most of us believed he went to sleep with a "chaw" in his mouth.
It was about during that time that Elberfeld told his ball players he didn't consider umpires fit to be spoken to and he said he would fine any of his players who said one word to an umpire, pleasant or in complaint.
He was a character, the Kid was, and a great drawing card. The late A. J. Heinemann used to rib him up, because every time Elberfeld got in a battle with an umpire and was chased, the next day's crowd picked up. Elberfeld was a great ball player, too. He and Johnny Evers were among the best men of their size in the game. He played short- stop deep toward left field and, while he wasn't fast, he could skim over the ground with remarkable speed, his arms dragging like those of a monkey. He was so short and his arms so long that many of the ball players joshed him about having to keep his gloved hand closed to keep the finger tips of the glove from dragging the ground.
And he could hit, too.
But most of all, he was The Kid.