February 18, 1906 - The Scranton Republican, PA - Scrappy Elberfeld
THE SCRANTON REPUBLICAN, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1906
SCRAPPY ELBERFELD
Detroit Fans Still Long for the Great Shortstop - Has His Faults, But Fights Hard.
EARNEST AND AGGRESSIVE
Ask the well posted Detroit baseball fan what player of all the many who have been released, sold or traded, he has missed the most and it a sealskin cap and a pair of downy ear muffs to a straw hat of the vintage of 1903
that he'll answer "Kid Elberfeld."
People haven't yet quite forgiven the former management of the team for accepting that offer of $5,000 and Herman Long for the scrappy little kid, and although Charley O'Leary is an acceptable little shortstop and Manager Armour would probably refuse to trade him for Elberfeld right now, Charley will never take Elberfeld's place in popular affection. His peaceable personal characteristics stand in the way.
As for Elberfeld he is fast showing the results of the years spent in strenuous effort spent on the diamond, Annually his absence from the game becomes more prolonged and he has trouble with his throwing wing and that bad knee. The kid has taken too many chances on the bases and in blocking runners to stay good long with Detroit, which saw him in his prime, notes his decadence as he appears, and notes it with genuine regret.
EARNEST AND AGGRESSIVE.
Detroit loved the kid because of his great and earnest desire to win. It loved him because it knew he was there fighting every minute: fighting the umpire, if he believed that worthy to blame: fighting the opposing team by methods fair or foul as the case might be, but fighting all the time. And, for the same reason, it liked Kid Gleason, Elberfeld's venerable side partner, who was let go outright in one of the changes in management which the tempestuous history of the local aggregation has experienced before drifting into the Yankee haven. Gleason is playing great ball still and last year, by the same coaching which made Elberfeld the ball player he was. the venerable kid inspired Philadelphia in the National league to a finish that astonished everyone. It has taken the Detroit club many a long year to fill the places of this pair and it has cost a pretty penny.
HARD MAN TO HANDLE.
Elberfeld is probably the hardest man to manage in the world of base ball. It is not through any fault in his training habits, either, for since the kid became a man of family he has settled down and tended conscientiously to his knitting. His is indeed a complex nature. A little demon in the field, he is a veritable child of nature off it. Sometimes the changes come in flashes.
I recall one year that Detroit opened the season at St. Louis when the Kid was in all his glory. During the progress of the game Elberfeld became incensed at the umpire and made a hostile demonstration for which he was promptly banished from the grounds, gentlemen in brass-buttoned blue suits acting as escorts. The press box is near the ground and Elberfeld passed by, answering the gibes of the rooters with ready wit and maintaining his ground manfully, As he passed the box he looked up to the only Detroit newspaper man who happened to be there. Glancing to where his father and mother were sitting--Elberfeld's parents live in the Brown's town—the Kid remarked, in an undertone, "Tell Pappy and Mammy its all right: I'll be up to the house for early dinner tonight."
He didn't want his folks to think there was any disgrace connected with the affair, or any danger that he might spend the evening behind the bars,
ELBERFELD'S HOT RETORT TO A ROOTER.
When Elberfeld comes to Detroit to play these days, he is the most hostile of the hostile. In uniform, he hardly recognizes even one of his oldest friends and his one desire to give the fans of the city that threw him down. a taste of the bitter dregs of defeat.,
The fans delight to hiss and goad, too, deep as is their affection for the player in their heart of hearts.
One day a rooter from the mourner's bench down under the grandstand had been making Elberfeld's life a
burden for several innings and finally topped it all off with the statement that Charley O'Leary was making him look like a has-been, which was pretty nearly true,
Elberfeld gave a scornful glance in the director of his tormentor. In his peculiarly nasty tone. he remarked: "Aw go home and beat your wife."
Nothing more was heard from that rooter. The Kid hadn't scored often, but when he did land it was a knockout,
SCRAPPY ELBERFELD
Detroit Fans Still Long for the Great Shortstop - Has His Faults, But Fights Hard.
EARNEST AND AGGRESSIVE
Ask the well posted Detroit baseball fan what player of all the many who have been released, sold or traded, he has missed the most and it a sealskin cap and a pair of downy ear muffs to a straw hat of the vintage of 1903
that he'll answer "Kid Elberfeld."
People haven't yet quite forgiven the former management of the team for accepting that offer of $5,000 and Herman Long for the scrappy little kid, and although Charley O'Leary is an acceptable little shortstop and Manager Armour would probably refuse to trade him for Elberfeld right now, Charley will never take Elberfeld's place in popular affection. His peaceable personal characteristics stand in the way.
As for Elberfeld he is fast showing the results of the years spent in strenuous effort spent on the diamond, Annually his absence from the game becomes more prolonged and he has trouble with his throwing wing and that bad knee. The kid has taken too many chances on the bases and in blocking runners to stay good long with Detroit, which saw him in his prime, notes his decadence as he appears, and notes it with genuine regret.
EARNEST AND AGGRESSIVE.
Detroit loved the kid because of his great and earnest desire to win. It loved him because it knew he was there fighting every minute: fighting the umpire, if he believed that worthy to blame: fighting the opposing team by methods fair or foul as the case might be, but fighting all the time. And, for the same reason, it liked Kid Gleason, Elberfeld's venerable side partner, who was let go outright in one of the changes in management which the tempestuous history of the local aggregation has experienced before drifting into the Yankee haven. Gleason is playing great ball still and last year, by the same coaching which made Elberfeld the ball player he was. the venerable kid inspired Philadelphia in the National league to a finish that astonished everyone. It has taken the Detroit club many a long year to fill the places of this pair and it has cost a pretty penny.
HARD MAN TO HANDLE.
Elberfeld is probably the hardest man to manage in the world of base ball. It is not through any fault in his training habits, either, for since the kid became a man of family he has settled down and tended conscientiously to his knitting. His is indeed a complex nature. A little demon in the field, he is a veritable child of nature off it. Sometimes the changes come in flashes.
I recall one year that Detroit opened the season at St. Louis when the Kid was in all his glory. During the progress of the game Elberfeld became incensed at the umpire and made a hostile demonstration for which he was promptly banished from the grounds, gentlemen in brass-buttoned blue suits acting as escorts. The press box is near the ground and Elberfeld passed by, answering the gibes of the rooters with ready wit and maintaining his ground manfully, As he passed the box he looked up to the only Detroit newspaper man who happened to be there. Glancing to where his father and mother were sitting--Elberfeld's parents live in the Brown's town—the Kid remarked, in an undertone, "Tell Pappy and Mammy its all right: I'll be up to the house for early dinner tonight."
He didn't want his folks to think there was any disgrace connected with the affair, or any danger that he might spend the evening behind the bars,
ELBERFELD'S HOT RETORT TO A ROOTER.
When Elberfeld comes to Detroit to play these days, he is the most hostile of the hostile. In uniform, he hardly recognizes even one of his oldest friends and his one desire to give the fans of the city that threw him down. a taste of the bitter dregs of defeat.,
The fans delight to hiss and goad, too, deep as is their affection for the player in their heart of hearts.
One day a rooter from the mourner's bench down under the grandstand had been making Elberfeld's life a
burden for several innings and finally topped it all off with the statement that Charley O'Leary was making him look like a has-been, which was pretty nearly true,
Elberfeld gave a scornful glance in the director of his tormentor. In his peculiarly nasty tone. he remarked: "Aw go home and beat your wife."
Nothing more was heard from that rooter. The Kid hadn't scored often, but when he did land it was a knockout,
