1901 Richmond Bluebirds, Detroit Tigers
1901 - Spalding Offical Base Ball Guide 1901 - Elberfeld's batting average for Detroit in the AmericanLeague is listed: 309
February 4, 1901 - The Inter Ocean - Chicago, IL - Do you know what I would do if I were in charge of the Chicago club?" said Dick Harley to a friend the other day. "I'd make Doyle captain, put McCormick at second base, get Norman Elberfeld for shortstop, and make young Delehanty the utility man. Fact. Look it over before you laugh. You may say Elberfeld's a kicker and a disorganizer. Nonsense. He was spurred on by a lot of nagging little happenings, a run of them, and, being naturally a high-spirited lad, went a little off the road. Why, Elberfeld and Doyle would change tat Chicago team so you'd never know it. He is not a slugger, this Elberfeld, but he is a timely hitter, a hard man to pitch at, gets to the hases all the time, and runs like a deer. At short, he is a wonder, not only in mere mechanical fielding, but in heady plays. He can back up the second bag better than almost any other man living. Get him, let DOye run things on the field, and that club would play good old Baltimore ball. Elberfeld could be grabbed easily enough, now that the two leagues are at war.
April 25, 1901 - In their very first game in the American League in 1901 on April 25, the Tigers scored 10 runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Milwaukee Brewers. They’ve played more than 17,000 games since then, but the Detroiters have never had a bigger ninth inning comeback. The star of that 1901 Detroit team was Kid Elberfeld, a shortstop who was known as “the dirtiest, scrappiest, most pestiferous, most rantankerous [sic], most rambunctious ball player that ever stood on spikes.” So there.
April 25, 1901 - In its AL debut before 10‚023‚ Detroit scores the greatest Opening Day rally with 10 runs in the bottom of the 9th for a 14-13 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. Detroit spots the Brewers a 13-3 lead-7-0 after 3 innings-by making 7 errors‚ including three by SS Kid Elberfeld. Tiger 1B Pop Dillon hits 4 doubles‚ tying the ML record‚ including a pair in the record 9th inning‚ the last is the game-winner off reliever Bert Husting. Dillon's four doubles is an opening day record that will be matched by Jim Greengrass in 1954..
April 25, 1901 - Kid Elberfeld sets a new season Team-Record for Doubles with 6 !!! - No Details
April 27, 1901 -Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) - The player of the Detroit team have all agreed that Brownie Elberfeld deserves a home run for his timely drive which won the game, and have pledged themselves to turn all the gifts to him which will go to the man making his first home run.
April 27, 1901 - The Indianapolis News, IN - On April 26, Elberfeld won the second game of the season at Detroit by his drive to the club house when there were two out and two on base in the ninth.
April 29, 1901 - Home runs Did you know that the first franchise to ever have back-to-back franchise home runs was the Detroit Tigers? After Pop Dillon went deep on April 29, 1901, Kid Elberfeld homered also. - no details
May 1, 1901 - The Indianapolis News, IN - Elberfeld, the pugnacious Detroit shortstop, broke loose for the first time this season in the game with Chicago yesterday and mixed it up with "Dummy" Hoy, the silent man on the CHicago team. Elberfeld pushed Hoy off second base and touched him with the ball. Umpire Connelly allowed the play. Later in the Game, Elberfeld tried the same trick and struck Hoy, who went after him and had the best of the mix-up. President Johnson will be asked to act on the matter.
May 20, 1901 - Had 22-game hitting streak snapped - No Details
June 11, 1901 - The Times - Philadelphia, PA - Elberfeld has nasty habit of running up on the ball and meeting it before the curve breaks across the plate. If the umpire rigidly enforced the rules, the little short stop would be called out for being out of the box.
June 16, 1901 - Boston Post MA - The rheumatism, that kept Elberfeld on the Detroit bench during the entire series, seems to have extended its grasp in the final game so as to incapacitate the whole team from putting forth its best efforts. Numerous errors characterized their playing, and after Boston secured a lead of half a dozen runs in the second the Detroits displayed a woeful lack of spirit.
June 20, 1901 - The Cincinnati Enquirer OH - Manager Elberfeld [Wesley Elberfeld, Kid's brother] of Bond Hill [team Kid played on in Cincinnati] has secured the Norwood Browns, one of Cincinnati's strongest amateur organizations, to oppose his hilltop boys Sunday. This game will certainly attract on of the largest crowds of the season as both teams are from the same locality and each will try hard to win.
June 23, 1901 - Kid Elberfeld sets a new season Team-Record for Stolen Bases with 30 !!! - No Details
July 16, 1901 - Hit first career homerun on 7/16/1901, off Jerry Nops - No Details
July 28, 1901 - The Washington Times, DC - Detroit, July 28 - By defeating Baltimore today, Detroit gained third place by a fraction of a point, from Baltimore. The batting of Elberfeld, Buelow and Seymour, and the fielding of Elberfeld, Gleason and Donlin were the features.
July 29, 1901 - The Mineaplois Journal, MN - Norman Elberfeld has been quiet as a mouse this year, probably being afraid of expulsion.
August 21, 1901 - 08/21/1901 - Detroit at Baltimore - AL - Baltimore and their fans had been upset for a week because of some calls made by umpire Tommy Connolly. Management had warned the umpire before the game that there may be trouble and asked him to arrange for a substitute but he refused. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Detroit was leading 7 to 4. The lead-off batter for Baltimore was called out at first, although he clearly looked safe. The Orioles immediately surrounded the umpire arguing th e call. Players started fighting amongst themselves and Kid Elberfeld was arrested and escorted off the field. Fans poured onto the field and rushed the box office for refunds. Connolly escaped to the groundskeeper's office, but not without taking a couple stiff blows from some fans. He stayed in the office for over an hour before the crowd thinned out enough for him to leave. Club officials asked the police to keep Connolly away from the ballpark for the next game. - Washington Post, 08/22/1901, p 8 (Detroit)
August 21, 1901 - In Baltimore‚ Orioles pitcher Joe McGinnity is tossed for spitting in the face of umpire Tom Connally. When Detroit's Kid Elberfeld intervenes‚ he is decked by Baltimore's Mike Donlin. Bill Keister also gets involved‚ as do some fans‚ and the police‚ who arrest the players and a fan. Judge Harry Goldman‚ a part-owner of the O's‚ releases the players and fines the fan a $100. McGinnity is suspended for 10 days for the spitting‚ which he says was not spitting but throwing his tobacco quid at him. Ban Johnson will reduce the suspension after meeting with McGinnity and John McGraw (source: Terry Simpkins).
Aug 21, 1901 - John McGraw - Charles C. Alexander - The next day, August 21, he was at home, disabled, when the Orioles took on Detroit at Union Park. It was the sixth straight game that Tom Connally, another of Johnson's National League recruits, had umpired at Oriole Park, and plenty of ill feeling on the part of players and spectators had built up against him. In the fourth inning Connally called out Jack Dunn on a close play at first base. McGinnity charged over from the coaching box to stamp on the umpire's toes and spit tobacco juice in his face. Detroit's Norman "Kid" Elberfeld ran in from second to try to protect Connally, only to be knocked down by Donlin. Players, spectators, and police jammed the area between first and the grandstand. When the police tried to leave the park with Elberfeld under arrest, McGinnity and Keister went to the Kid's aid, apparently believing that it was all right for ballplayers to battle each other as long as outsiders kept out. All three were arrested, along with a spectator named Allen, and hustled off to Judge Harry Goldman's police court. Goldman quickly discharged the players but fined Allen twenty dollars. Meanwhile, at the ballpark, Connally forfeited the game to Detroit and got away in a closed carriage under mounted police escort. Johnson was furious when he heard about the brawl in Baltimore.
August 22, 1901 - The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) - Elberfeld Arrested
August 22, 1901 - The Boston Post, MA - Elberfeld Arrested
August 22, 1901 - The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) - Elberfeld Arrested
September 2, 1901 - Detroit sweeps a Labor Day doubleheader from Washington‚ picking up an AL record 21 infield assists in game 2. This is still the AL record. SS Kid Elberfeld has 12 assists to back up Roscoe Miller.
September 2, 1901 - Kid Elberfield Detroit Suspended - No Details
September 3, 1901 - The Washington Times, DC - Never has a shortstop been played here as Elberfeld played it in this game, with eleven assists and three put outs, and starting four double plays. (Playing for Detroit)
September 3, 1901 - Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) - Record Assists
September 3, 1901 - The Washington Times, DC - Never has shortstop been played here as Elberfeld played it in this game, with eleven assists and three put outs and starting four double plays....Foster had hit for two bases with one out in the second and Coughlin drove a hard one to Elberfeld, who got it on the jump and had the ball to Casey in time to head off Foster and cause him to be run down...In the fourth.. Foster slammed one to deep centre, but Elberfeld pounced on it and by a great throw made Clarke an easy out at the plate....Then came one of the funniest plays ever seen on a field. Elberfeld singled to right and Dungan (RF) threw to the plate to head off Casey, but failed. Elberfeld was going on to second and Clarke (C) passed the ball to Farrell (2B). Gleason, making a dash for home meantime and Farrel firing the ball back, again too late. Elberfeld kept on to third and beat Clarke's throw there and everybody was yelling. When this exhibition of sand lot playing was finished Detroit had five runs.
September 27, 1901 - Richmond Dispatch - Brownie One of the Best - (Washington Post) "The two best shortstops in the business," said George Stallings, of the the Detroit team, yesterday, "are Elberfeld, of Detroit, and Parent, of Boston. I make no exceptions. Elberfeld is a little better than Parent, and Parent is a little faster than Elberfeld, so it is about a toss-up between the two." NOTE: Brownie is a nick name for Elberfeld from his time in RIchmond.
