Hot and Bothered: Kid Elberfeld 1900 to 1910 

The worst thing that shortstop Norman "the Tabasco Kid" Elberfeld ever did on a ball field was scoop up a large handful of mud and throw it into the mouth of an umpire. This followed a dubious call by the ump on a play at second base, and Elberfeld knew enough to walk off the field without waiting to be ejected. He sat out the next ten games. He thought it was the funniest thing he ever did in baseball. At a time when John McGraw made important advances in the science of umpire abuse, Elberfeld conducted his own original research. He once said he would "walk through Hades" to win a game, a sentiment that must have appealed to McGraw, who wanted Elberfeld for the Giants but never got him. 

He came close in 1903, when Elberfeld signed contracts with both the National League Giants and the American League Tigers. In the interest of peace with Ban Johnson's new league, Giants owner John T. Brush gave up his rights to Mr. Tabasco and let him go to Detroit. Johnson then double-crossed Brush by arranging Elberfeld's transfer to the New York Highlanders, where he helped that club challenge Brush's Giants at the gate. The Kid, a .271 career hitter, was called "the hardest man to manage in the world of baseball." 

A self-described "runt" at five feet seven inches, he poked umpire Timothy Hurst so many times in the gut that Hurst removed his mask and smashed it over Elberfeld's head. He was not infrequently escorted from the field by police. He was another little man who carried the concept of aggressive play to extremes: intentionally, crowding the plate, he was hit three times in the head by pitches in a single game. He expressed the highest admiration for Cleveland's Napoleon Lajoie, whose spikes left a four-inch gash in Elberfeld's foot. After Ty Cobb spiked Philadelphia third baseman Frank Baker, igniting complaints in Philly about Tyrus's intentional cruelty, one Detroit columnist said "soft-fleshed darlings" like Baker would profit by learning to accept pain like the Tabasco Kid. 

Elberfeld never played for a pennant winner, and maybe this is why he broke up restaurants. slamming bottles over waiters' heads and so on. He was frustrated. The Highlanders included future Hall of Famers Willie Keeler, Jack Chesbro, and Clark Griffith, but the team "didn't have enough fight on it." Elberfeld analyzed. "We didn't have many ... mean players who fought for everything, the way the old Orioles used to fight and the way the Giants then were fighting and scrapping in the National League. Jack Kleinow, our first-string catcher, would flare up once in a while, but the rest of the club was pretty quiet. Willie Keeler was a great player, but he didn't have the fight of the old Orioles.... Why, it used to burn me up, when we were hustling and fighting for games, to hear Willie singing to himself in the outfield." For shame, Wee Willie.

 Let's finish with this image of Norman Elberfeld: Escorted from the field by police after heaping abuse on sonic helpless umpire in St. Louis, Elberfeld passed the press box and quietly asked a reporter to take a message to his parents in the grandstand: "Tell nippy and Mammy ifs all right.- Elberfeld said. "I'll be up to the house for early dinner tonight." 

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'''Field Of Screams''' by Richard Scheinin '''Overview''' Field of Screams is an anecdote-filled romp that unearths all the funny, bizarre, off-the-wall personalities and incidents that don’t fit in the official baseball picture. From violent and vengeful Ty Cobb and skinflint owner Charles Comiskey to such specimens of contemporary manhood as Pete Rose, Jose Canseco, George Steinbrenner, Darryl Strawberry, and, yes, Vince “Family Man” Coleman, Field of Screams definitely highlights the men who will never ever be presented as role models again. Kevin Costner wept. Sorry, Kev. For people who have had it up to here with the endless nostalgia about "The Summer Game" on a "Field of Dreams," here is a bracing antidote: baseball history with an attitude. From baseball’s rough-and-tumble origins in the nineteenth century to today’s spoiled megamillionaire players and corporate shark owners, Field of Screams provides an entertaining and blackly funny reality check. It is a crowded rogues’ gallery of the cheats, misers, sadists, head cases, cheeseballs, chiselers, perverts, egomaniacs, beanballers, slobs, substance abusers, gamblers, game throwers, and violent criminals who have so enlivened the game. Not to mention the sullen, bloodthirsty fans. For those who have had it with the "Boys of Summer" playing "The Summer Game" on a "Field of Dreams, " here is a blackly funny reality check--featuring a rogue's gallery of cheats, misers, sadists, racists, egomaniacs, substance abusers, gamblers, and criminals who have participated in America's favorite sport.