1952 - Kid Elberfeld's Time Line
1936 - Manager of Fultonville Eagles
Fred Russell
SIDELINES
Hungry For Heroes
ON JUNE 11 the state of Utah, where Jack Dempsey grew up, is honoring him at a mammoth testimonial at Ogden. The Saturday Evening Post recently featured an article on this most
popular of all boxing champions. Next week there will be a story on Ty Cobb. Back in April there was an interview with Bobby Jones. Where are the present-day sports heroes with true magnetism?
The truth is, the supply has reached an all-time low. Never has the country been as hungry, it seems, for a new sports idol. You saw that in the case of Silky Sullivan, the "people's choice"
horse from Cold Harbor to Agua Caliente. There's no Ruth or Hagen or Grange in sight, no athlete with the crowd-capturing color they enjoyed. To some extent it may be affecting sports writing. At least, things are so bad in New Orleans that Bill Keefe, venerable sports editor of the Times-Picayune, recently spent an evening serving as one of the judges at a contest on Ponchartrain Beach to select—of all things—"Mr. New Orleans." Horrors!
Tough Little Villain
NOT TOO MANY years ago, some baseball players and managers didn't have to be heroes to excite the public. The villains lured customers, too. With Little Rock now playing the Vols, I'm reminded of the Travs of the 1920's, when Kid Elberfeld was their stormy manager. He was a bantam firebrand who never asked any favors on account of his size, and who always kept things lively.
Kid broke into baseball at Clarksville, Tenn., in 1892 and played in the big leagues with Detroit, Cincinnati, the old New York Highlanders and Washington. In 1913 he came to the Southern as manager at Chattanooga and managed or coached most of the next 25 years, one of his last jobs being at Fulton, Ky., in the Kitty League. He died in 1944 at the age of 69.
The high point of Elberfeld's career was in 1920, when he led Little Rock to its first pennant with such players as Bing Miller, pitchers Rube Robinson, Moses Yellowhorse and Nashville-born
Bubber Jonnard, Scrappy Moore, catcher Tony Brottem, et al. The Travs couldn't play any of their Sunday games at home in 1920, but they drew the astounding total of 165,127 fans at
home, mainly due to Elberfeld's scrapping nature.
Foiled By A "Stoop"
KID WAS the last of the old school in the Southern to bait umpires and fight rival players in their eagerness to win. One day in the late innings of a game against New Orleans, with his club one run behind and a runner on second, Elberfeld bunted down the first base line and deliberately ran into the pitcher fielding the ball. They started punching and during the fight Kid looked up
to see the runner had stopped at third instead of going on home. "You fool!" Kid yelled loud enough for most of the grandstand fans to hear. "Can't you see I'm doing this to get you
home?"
Tea Party At Home Plate
ONE AFTERNOON in Memphis, a fan was riding Elberfeld hard. Kid kept trying to find his heckler, and finally spotted him—a man with an unusually large nose. The fan was having a big time entertaining people around him when Kid walked up to the screen, pointed toward him, and hollered: "Shut up, horse nose!" Then he challenged him to come down on the field. Naturally Kid was fined often. After a particularly expensive stretch of being chased from games, he decided one afternoon in Chattanooga to show the fans what he thought about it
Suddenly there appeared on the field several Negro waiters in white coats rolling tea wagons, with pots of pink tea. His club's bats were tied in pink ribbons and Kid had a ribbon around his head. The players sipped for a few minutes, making it a point to stick out their little fingers prominently, and even one of the umpires joined in the mood of the occasion. President John D. Martin severely reprimanded all involved.
Elberfeld was The Kid" off the field, too. He always wore a. cap. And all his life he stuck to long black ribbed stockings with garters.
Thrifty
LITTLE ROCK has stayed in the Southern through the years, from Elberfeld to the present, drawing fewer fans than any club in the league. The late Bob Allen was a resourceful operator. By the way, his son Edgar is now the overseer of Brooklyn's spring training camp at Vero Beach, Fla., from January through April, and runs a boys' camp in the same quarters through the summer months. Bob Allen, Jr., for years a cotton factor in Boston and in France, is now semi-retired, living on the Riviera. Most of the credit for Little Rock's survival the past few
years goes to Ray Winder, general manager, who picks up a player here, another there, and usually winds up with a good combination. In Les Peden, former Texas A. & M. athlete and
one-time Vol, he now has one of the most serviceable managers in the minors.
SIDELINES
Hungry For Heroes
ON JUNE 11 the state of Utah, where Jack Dempsey grew up, is honoring him at a mammoth testimonial at Ogden. The Saturday Evening Post recently featured an article on this most
popular of all boxing champions. Next week there will be a story on Ty Cobb. Back in April there was an interview with Bobby Jones. Where are the present-day sports heroes with true magnetism?
The truth is, the supply has reached an all-time low. Never has the country been as hungry, it seems, for a new sports idol. You saw that in the case of Silky Sullivan, the "people's choice"
horse from Cold Harbor to Agua Caliente. There's no Ruth or Hagen or Grange in sight, no athlete with the crowd-capturing color they enjoyed. To some extent it may be affecting sports writing. At least, things are so bad in New Orleans that Bill Keefe, venerable sports editor of the Times-Picayune, recently spent an evening serving as one of the judges at a contest on Ponchartrain Beach to select—of all things—"Mr. New Orleans." Horrors!
Tough Little Villain
NOT TOO MANY years ago, some baseball players and managers didn't have to be heroes to excite the public. The villains lured customers, too. With Little Rock now playing the Vols, I'm reminded of the Travs of the 1920's, when Kid Elberfeld was their stormy manager. He was a bantam firebrand who never asked any favors on account of his size, and who always kept things lively.
Kid broke into baseball at Clarksville, Tenn., in 1892 and played in the big leagues with Detroit, Cincinnati, the old New York Highlanders and Washington. In 1913 he came to the Southern as manager at Chattanooga and managed or coached most of the next 25 years, one of his last jobs being at Fulton, Ky., in the Kitty League. He died in 1944 at the age of 69.
The high point of Elberfeld's career was in 1920, when he led Little Rock to its first pennant with such players as Bing Miller, pitchers Rube Robinson, Moses Yellowhorse and Nashville-born
Bubber Jonnard, Scrappy Moore, catcher Tony Brottem, et al. The Travs couldn't play any of their Sunday games at home in 1920, but they drew the astounding total of 165,127 fans at
home, mainly due to Elberfeld's scrapping nature.
Foiled By A "Stoop"
KID WAS the last of the old school in the Southern to bait umpires and fight rival players in their eagerness to win. One day in the late innings of a game against New Orleans, with his club one run behind and a runner on second, Elberfeld bunted down the first base line and deliberately ran into the pitcher fielding the ball. They started punching and during the fight Kid looked up
to see the runner had stopped at third instead of going on home. "You fool!" Kid yelled loud enough for most of the grandstand fans to hear. "Can't you see I'm doing this to get you
home?"
Tea Party At Home Plate
ONE AFTERNOON in Memphis, a fan was riding Elberfeld hard. Kid kept trying to find his heckler, and finally spotted him—a man with an unusually large nose. The fan was having a big time entertaining people around him when Kid walked up to the screen, pointed toward him, and hollered: "Shut up, horse nose!" Then he challenged him to come down on the field. Naturally Kid was fined often. After a particularly expensive stretch of being chased from games, he decided one afternoon in Chattanooga to show the fans what he thought about it
Suddenly there appeared on the field several Negro waiters in white coats rolling tea wagons, with pots of pink tea. His club's bats were tied in pink ribbons and Kid had a ribbon around his head. The players sipped for a few minutes, making it a point to stick out their little fingers prominently, and even one of the umpires joined in the mood of the occasion. President John D. Martin severely reprimanded all involved.
Elberfeld was The Kid" off the field, too. He always wore a. cap. And all his life he stuck to long black ribbed stockings with garters.
Thrifty
LITTLE ROCK has stayed in the Southern through the years, from Elberfeld to the present, drawing fewer fans than any club in the league. The late Bob Allen was a resourceful operator. By the way, his son Edgar is now the overseer of Brooklyn's spring training camp at Vero Beach, Fla., from January through April, and runs a boys' camp in the same quarters through the summer months. Bob Allen, Jr., for years a cotton factor in Boston and in France, is now semi-retired, living on the Riviera. Most of the credit for Little Rock's survival the past few
years goes to Ray Winder, general manager, who picks up a player here, another there, and usually winds up with a good combination. In Les Peden, former Texas A. & M. athlete and
one-time Vol, he now has one of the most serviceable managers in the minors.
