Chapter Two: The Tabasco Kid
As far as baseball nicknames go, no player ever lived up to his moniker like one Norman Arthur Elberfeld, aka "The Tabasco Kid."
A member of the first-ever Yankees team in 1903—back when they were known as the Highlanders—Elberfeld was undoubtedly the toughest, orneriest ballplayer of his or any era. A shortstop who stood just 5' 7" and weighed barely 160 pounds, he forged a reputation as a fearless, aggressive competitor who was famously described as the "dirtiest, scrappiest, most pestiferous, most rantankerous, most rambunctious ball player that ever stood on spikes."
No, going by Norman just wouldn't do for a player of his ill-tempered ilk, which is why another Deadball Era scribe slapped Elberfeld with the "Tabasco" sobriquet in honor of his "peppery" style of play.
Just how dirty, scrappy and pestiferous was the Kid? It's said he once gave a rookie a lesson in the dangers of sliding into a base face-first the youngster never forgot. As the player plowed into second, Elberfeld buried his knee into the back of his neck and ground his face in the dirt.
The rookie, a Detroit Tiger outfielder named Ty Cobb - who would eventually prove to be no shrinking violet himself—would never again slide headfirst into a base.
Putting a rookie in his place was just routine baseball business compared to some of Elberfeld's more legendary antics. The Kid, an Ohio native who broke in with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1898, had an his instant dislike for anyone wearing the uniform of the opposing team that was only surpassed by his hatred for the men in blue.
As a minor leaguer, he once ended an argument with an umpire by tossing dirt into the ump's open mouth. As a member of the Tigers in 1900, a year before the team joined the nascent American League, the hot-tempered shortstop was given the thumb three times in a span of eight games.
Elberfeld wasn't all mouth, though. By all accounts, he had a cannon for an arm and an inherent fearlessness when it came to turning the double play. He missed most of the 1908 season with the Highlanders after getting spiked, and would spend the last years of his career wearing shin guards made of whalebone to protect legs shredded by opponents tearing into second with spikes high and sharpened.
He also wasn't afraid to take one for the team—getting hit by a pitch was a big part of Elberfeld's arsenal. When he retired in 1914, he was sixth on the all-time list with 165 HBP (another Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter, has since passed him).
Elberfeld may have been small and scrappy, but he would also develop into one of the best-hitting shortstops in any league, with only the immortal Honus Wagner considered a bigger threat at the plate at that position.
Yet as colorful as the Kid was. he had plenty of dog in him. When things didn't go his way—like, say, when he didn't like his manager, which happened often--Elberfeld's behavior could make Manny Ramirez look like the ultimate team player. Suspected of loafing by his manager in Detroit in order to force a trade, Elberfeld was fined, suspended and eventually sent packing to the brand-new New York Highlanders in the middle of the 1903 season.
While the fledgling A.L. team played in the shadow of the powerful Giants, Elberfeld flourished in the New York spotlight, his exploits chronicled by the huge and highly competitive newspaper industry—it was there that a writer dubbed him the Tabasco Kid, a nickname reminiscent of a Mexican bandido. An arrest for throwing a bottle—or a knife, depending on which paper you read—at a hotel waiter only added to Elberfeld's rough-and-tumble reputation.
His occasional on-field tirades weren't limited to the men in blue. The Kid fought openly with several teammates, Highlanders outfielder Wid Conroy being a particular nemesis and frequent target of Elberfeld's quick fists.
That feistiness, though, would end up helping to cost the young Highlander team a shot at their first pennant in 1906. With the team in a tight race for first place with the Chicago White Sox, Elberfeld—who, by the way, was named team captain that year, the second in Yankees history—got into a memorable scrap with home plate umpire Silk O'Loughlin the papers could only describe as "disgraceful."
Elberfeld, upset over O'Loughlin's having called a runner safe in an early September gains against the Philadelphia Athletics, took his disagreement with the call a bit too far—he repeatedly tried to spike the umpire with his baseball shoes. It took a trio of city cops to get Elberfeld off the field, who then refused to leave the Highlanders' Hilltop Park until he was made to realize his team would lose by forfeit.
The Kid's childish behavior resulted in a relatively light eight-game suspension, but it was enough to stall the Highlanders' pennant push After having swept a record five doubleheaders in five games to that point, they just weren't the same team without their top-of-the-order sparkplug at short.
They finished the season three games behind the White Sox, and wouldn't even come close to sniffing first place for the next 15 seasons, when the arrival of Babe Ruth turned the franchise around.
Amazingly, it was Elberfeld's second run-in with O'Loughlin in less than a month. In an August 8 game, an irate Elberfeld had threatened the ump with his bat after O'Loughlin refused to reward him first base after the Kid insisted he had been hit by a pitch.
The fan favorite would become a pariah by the following season, when Elberfeld would once again be accused of laying down on his team. After a late July game in which he threw the ball away three times, a disgusted Highlander owner Frank Ferrell suspended his rogue shortstop.
Farrell, much like future Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was wont to do, took his complaints to the press. "For more than two weeks past, [Elberfeld] has refused to talk with other members of the team," said Farrell.
"He has declined to be rubbed by the trainer He has refused to play his best, as the public well knows. In short, he has acted in such a queer manner that if he had not been tampered with, he has gone daffy."
Not exactly the same as Boss George berating a lazy pitcher for being a "fat, pussy toad," but Farrell got his point across —and succeeded in getting the fans to turn against the former fan favorite. When the announcement of Elberfeld's suspension was made between games of a doubleheader, the crowd of 8,000 at Hilltop Park cheered heartily at the news.
Farrell, though, apparently had a soft spot for the fiery Elberfeld sort of how Steinbrenner felt for another troubled, feisty Yankee infielder named Billy Martin, who would end up managing the team five times despite his sordid history.
A year after insinuating Elberfeld was either throwing games or just plain nuts, Farrell named the Kid to be player-manager about a third of the way into the 1908 season. The Tabasco Kid responded with a horrendous 27-71 record at the helm, the first of only four last-place finishes in Highlander/Yankee history.
As far as baseball nicknames go, no player ever lived up to his moniker like one Norman Arthur Elberfeld, aka "The Tabasco Kid."
A member of the first-ever Yankees team in 1903—back when they were known as the Highlanders—Elberfeld was undoubtedly the toughest, orneriest ballplayer of his or any era. A shortstop who stood just 5' 7" and weighed barely 160 pounds, he forged a reputation as a fearless, aggressive competitor who was famously described as the "dirtiest, scrappiest, most pestiferous, most rantankerous, most rambunctious ball player that ever stood on spikes."
No, going by Norman just wouldn't do for a player of his ill-tempered ilk, which is why another Deadball Era scribe slapped Elberfeld with the "Tabasco" sobriquet in honor of his "peppery" style of play.
Just how dirty, scrappy and pestiferous was the Kid? It's said he once gave a rookie a lesson in the dangers of sliding into a base face-first the youngster never forgot. As the player plowed into second, Elberfeld buried his knee into the back of his neck and ground his face in the dirt.
The rookie, a Detroit Tiger outfielder named Ty Cobb - who would eventually prove to be no shrinking violet himself—would never again slide headfirst into a base.
Putting a rookie in his place was just routine baseball business compared to some of Elberfeld's more legendary antics. The Kid, an Ohio native who broke in with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1898, had an his instant dislike for anyone wearing the uniform of the opposing team that was only surpassed by his hatred for the men in blue.
As a minor leaguer, he once ended an argument with an umpire by tossing dirt into the ump's open mouth. As a member of the Tigers in 1900, a year before the team joined the nascent American League, the hot-tempered shortstop was given the thumb three times in a span of eight games.
Elberfeld wasn't all mouth, though. By all accounts, he had a cannon for an arm and an inherent fearlessness when it came to turning the double play. He missed most of the 1908 season with the Highlanders after getting spiked, and would spend the last years of his career wearing shin guards made of whalebone to protect legs shredded by opponents tearing into second with spikes high and sharpened.
He also wasn't afraid to take one for the team—getting hit by a pitch was a big part of Elberfeld's arsenal. When he retired in 1914, he was sixth on the all-time list with 165 HBP (another Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter, has since passed him).
Elberfeld may have been small and scrappy, but he would also develop into one of the best-hitting shortstops in any league, with only the immortal Honus Wagner considered a bigger threat at the plate at that position.
Yet as colorful as the Kid was. he had plenty of dog in him. When things didn't go his way—like, say, when he didn't like his manager, which happened often--Elberfeld's behavior could make Manny Ramirez look like the ultimate team player. Suspected of loafing by his manager in Detroit in order to force a trade, Elberfeld was fined, suspended and eventually sent packing to the brand-new New York Highlanders in the middle of the 1903 season.
While the fledgling A.L. team played in the shadow of the powerful Giants, Elberfeld flourished in the New York spotlight, his exploits chronicled by the huge and highly competitive newspaper industry—it was there that a writer dubbed him the Tabasco Kid, a nickname reminiscent of a Mexican bandido. An arrest for throwing a bottle—or a knife, depending on which paper you read—at a hotel waiter only added to Elberfeld's rough-and-tumble reputation.
His occasional on-field tirades weren't limited to the men in blue. The Kid fought openly with several teammates, Highlanders outfielder Wid Conroy being a particular nemesis and frequent target of Elberfeld's quick fists.
That feistiness, though, would end up helping to cost the young Highlander team a shot at their first pennant in 1906. With the team in a tight race for first place with the Chicago White Sox, Elberfeld—who, by the way, was named team captain that year, the second in Yankees history—got into a memorable scrap with home plate umpire Silk O'Loughlin the papers could only describe as "disgraceful."
Elberfeld, upset over O'Loughlin's having called a runner safe in an early September gains against the Philadelphia Athletics, took his disagreement with the call a bit too far—he repeatedly tried to spike the umpire with his baseball shoes. It took a trio of city cops to get Elberfeld off the field, who then refused to leave the Highlanders' Hilltop Park until he was made to realize his team would lose by forfeit.
The Kid's childish behavior resulted in a relatively light eight-game suspension, but it was enough to stall the Highlanders' pennant push After having swept a record five doubleheaders in five games to that point, they just weren't the same team without their top-of-the-order sparkplug at short.
They finished the season three games behind the White Sox, and wouldn't even come close to sniffing first place for the next 15 seasons, when the arrival of Babe Ruth turned the franchise around.
Amazingly, it was Elberfeld's second run-in with O'Loughlin in less than a month. In an August 8 game, an irate Elberfeld had threatened the ump with his bat after O'Loughlin refused to reward him first base after the Kid insisted he had been hit by a pitch.
The fan favorite would become a pariah by the following season, when Elberfeld would once again be accused of laying down on his team. After a late July game in which he threw the ball away three times, a disgusted Highlander owner Frank Ferrell suspended his rogue shortstop.
Farrell, much like future Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was wont to do, took his complaints to the press. "For more than two weeks past, [Elberfeld] has refused to talk with other members of the team," said Farrell.
"He has declined to be rubbed by the trainer He has refused to play his best, as the public well knows. In short, he has acted in such a queer manner that if he had not been tampered with, he has gone daffy."
Not exactly the same as Boss George berating a lazy pitcher for being a "fat, pussy toad," but Farrell got his point across —and succeeded in getting the fans to turn against the former fan favorite. When the announcement of Elberfeld's suspension was made between games of a doubleheader, the crowd of 8,000 at Hilltop Park cheered heartily at the news.
Farrell, though, apparently had a soft spot for the fiery Elberfeld sort of how Steinbrenner felt for another troubled, feisty Yankee infielder named Billy Martin, who would end up managing the team five times despite his sordid history.
A year after insinuating Elberfeld was either throwing games or just plain nuts, Farrell named the Kid to be player-manager about a third of the way into the 1908 season. The Tabasco Kid responded with a horrendous 27-71 record at the helm, the first of only four last-place finishes in Highlander/Yankee history.
Bronx Bummers: An Unofficial History of the New York Yankees’ Bad Boys, Blunders and Brawls
Robert Dominguez, David Hinckley
Riverdale Avenue Books LLC, Apr 4, 2016
Robert Dominguez, David Hinckley
Riverdale Avenue Books LLC, Apr 4, 2016
