Monday, July , 1947 - Chattanooga Times - Mawnin'
MAWNIN'! By Buss Walker
Source: Scanned from copy of Chattanooga Times: Monday, July , 1947
The Tobasco Kid and a Pennant
Bucking the Whole League
Announcement of the unveiling of the memorial plaque for Kid Elberfeld at Engel Stadium this afternoon has caused quite a bit of memory tickling around and about.
Everyone, it seems, has some pet tale of the antics or troubles of the Tobasco Kid during his many colorful years in the pastime, and you have only to mention his name to open the floodgates.
It was so with Edgar Allen, president of the Mobile Bears. We'd met Edgar down in his hotel the other day to ask him how it felt to be sitting on top of the world, a la Southern League His answer was brief and to the point: "It feels a lot better than being on the bottom."
Then, in the same breath, he wanted to know all the details of the business about the memorial for Elberfeld.
"The Kid was pretty close to our family out at Little Rock," Edgar. said later, "and my father (Col. Bob Allen) thought he was one of the greatest chaps ever to play baseball.
"I'll never forget the year (1920) he managed our club to our club to a pennant. That was one hectic season, and a battle all the way.
"The Kid won the flag with a five-man pitching staff-Rube Robinson, Mose Yellowhorse, Bubba Jonnard, Connie Fields and Lefty Matthews. You remember Rube. He beat Chattanooga for eight years before the Lookouts ever won a game from him, and in Atlanta, all he had to do was throw his glove on the field and the Crackers were licked.
"Then there was that Yellow-horse. He was a character. During the spring an old catcher friend of my father's phoned him from Pohuskie, Okla., that he'd found the greatest young pitching prospect of all time and wanted to send. him over to us for spring training. It turned out to be Yellowhorse, a full blooded Indian. He reported to dad, and was sent out on the field to join the club. Dad had forgotten to say anything to Elberfeld about it, and the first the Kid knew about Yellowhorse being there, he heard a ball pop-ping into a catcher's mitt so loudly that he stopped hitting to the infield and went over to see what was going on.
"He asked Yellowhorse where he came from and why. The Indian told him, then the Kid said for him not to be pitching so hard, to throw them easier for a while. Yellowhorse told him he wasn't throwing hard, that he was just warming up.
"We opened with Memphis that year, then hit the road for New Orleans. The first night down there Yellowhorse stayed out drunk all night, and showed up around noon next day with the worst hangover you've ever seen. It burned the Kid down, so -he told the Indian that just to punish him he was going to make him pitch that afternoon and go the full route if they murdered him.
"It was the Yellowhorse's first game in professional ball, and he shut out New Orleans with a four-hitter, hangover and all.
"We had another Indian at first base, Bill Wano. George Distell was at second, Rabbit McGuinness was at short, and t he old Vanderbilt Scrappy Moore was at third. In the Out-field were Frankie Zoeller, Bing Miller and Harry Harper, and our catchers were Tony Brottem and Frank Kohlbecker.
"The Kid battled Atlanta neck-and-neck all season, fighting every step of the way with the other clubs and the umpires. Memphis was so mad at him that late in the year they sold Dazzy Vance to New Orleans just before a series with us, to try and help the Pelicans knock us out of first place. We finally won the pennant, although the Kid was in hot. water all year and his fines totaled more than $500.
"I think it's a great thing you folks are doing here in honoring the memory of Elberfeld, and I'm sorry that our team won't be here to share- in the ceremony."
In Appreciation
We should like to- thank the many friends of the Kid, and of baseball, who so generously contributed toward the memorial plaque.
It started as a half-formed wish after the Kid's death several years ago. A. mention of the idea in the paper set the ball rolling, and Associated Press passed it along.
It wasn't a question of raising the money needed. Joe Engel would gladly have given the entire amount because of his long-standing friendship for Elberfeld. The Elks Club, where the Kid was a member, voluntarily offered to take care of it. But we had an idea there were a. lot of folks who had admired the scrappy little ball player and manager who would want to be represented in the placing of a memorial for him. It turned out we weren't far wrong.
Donations started piling in from all over the league, and as far away as St. Louis. People in automobiles stopped you on the street to pass along their share. They came to your table in restaurants for the same purpose, and every mail brought more checks. Dutch Hassig set up a downtown receiving station at the Hamilton Bank and accepted personal responsibility for the funds. And before the deluge of donations could be stopped, the amount received had passed far beyond the sum needed.
It was found then that metal for casting the plaque could not be obtained until after the war, and so the unveiling had of necessity to be postponed.
Elberfeld Trophy
It was decided by the committee to present the amount left over from actual cost of the plaque to Mrs. Elberfeld to use in any manner that she should see fit. And that little lady came through like the champion she is.
Mrs. Elberfeld has asked that the sum be put into a permanent Elberfeld rotating trophy, to be given each year to the standout amateur baseball team in Chattanooga, to help create continued interest in the work to which the Kid devoted his life-that of developing young ball players.
Sentiment of the right kind is a rather beautiful thing. And it is the sentiment in baseball that has given us our national Hall of Fame, also the little Hall of Fame at Engel Stadium that will be enriched by the memorial plaque of Elberfeld, and that has kept the pastime on the high level that has made the game our chief national sport.
The Tobasco Kid was an institution.
May his memory never grow dim!
Source: Scanned from copy of Chattanooga Times: Monday, July , 1947
The Tobasco Kid and a Pennant
Bucking the Whole League
Announcement of the unveiling of the memorial plaque for Kid Elberfeld at Engel Stadium this afternoon has caused quite a bit of memory tickling around and about.
Everyone, it seems, has some pet tale of the antics or troubles of the Tobasco Kid during his many colorful years in the pastime, and you have only to mention his name to open the floodgates.
It was so with Edgar Allen, president of the Mobile Bears. We'd met Edgar down in his hotel the other day to ask him how it felt to be sitting on top of the world, a la Southern League His answer was brief and to the point: "It feels a lot better than being on the bottom."
Then, in the same breath, he wanted to know all the details of the business about the memorial for Elberfeld.
"The Kid was pretty close to our family out at Little Rock," Edgar. said later, "and my father (Col. Bob Allen) thought he was one of the greatest chaps ever to play baseball.
"I'll never forget the year (1920) he managed our club to our club to a pennant. That was one hectic season, and a battle all the way.
"The Kid won the flag with a five-man pitching staff-Rube Robinson, Mose Yellowhorse, Bubba Jonnard, Connie Fields and Lefty Matthews. You remember Rube. He beat Chattanooga for eight years before the Lookouts ever won a game from him, and in Atlanta, all he had to do was throw his glove on the field and the Crackers were licked.
"Then there was that Yellow-horse. He was a character. During the spring an old catcher friend of my father's phoned him from Pohuskie, Okla., that he'd found the greatest young pitching prospect of all time and wanted to send. him over to us for spring training. It turned out to be Yellowhorse, a full blooded Indian. He reported to dad, and was sent out on the field to join the club. Dad had forgotten to say anything to Elberfeld about it, and the first the Kid knew about Yellowhorse being there, he heard a ball pop-ping into a catcher's mitt so loudly that he stopped hitting to the infield and went over to see what was going on.
"He asked Yellowhorse where he came from and why. The Indian told him, then the Kid said for him not to be pitching so hard, to throw them easier for a while. Yellowhorse told him he wasn't throwing hard, that he was just warming up.
"We opened with Memphis that year, then hit the road for New Orleans. The first night down there Yellowhorse stayed out drunk all night, and showed up around noon next day with the worst hangover you've ever seen. It burned the Kid down, so -he told the Indian that just to punish him he was going to make him pitch that afternoon and go the full route if they murdered him.
"It was the Yellowhorse's first game in professional ball, and he shut out New Orleans with a four-hitter, hangover and all.
"We had another Indian at first base, Bill Wano. George Distell was at second, Rabbit McGuinness was at short, and t he old Vanderbilt Scrappy Moore was at third. In the Out-field were Frankie Zoeller, Bing Miller and Harry Harper, and our catchers were Tony Brottem and Frank Kohlbecker.
"The Kid battled Atlanta neck-and-neck all season, fighting every step of the way with the other clubs and the umpires. Memphis was so mad at him that late in the year they sold Dazzy Vance to New Orleans just before a series with us, to try and help the Pelicans knock us out of first place. We finally won the pennant, although the Kid was in hot. water all year and his fines totaled more than $500.
"I think it's a great thing you folks are doing here in honoring the memory of Elberfeld, and I'm sorry that our team won't be here to share- in the ceremony."
In Appreciation
We should like to- thank the many friends of the Kid, and of baseball, who so generously contributed toward the memorial plaque.
It started as a half-formed wish after the Kid's death several years ago. A. mention of the idea in the paper set the ball rolling, and Associated Press passed it along.
It wasn't a question of raising the money needed. Joe Engel would gladly have given the entire amount because of his long-standing friendship for Elberfeld. The Elks Club, where the Kid was a member, voluntarily offered to take care of it. But we had an idea there were a. lot of folks who had admired the scrappy little ball player and manager who would want to be represented in the placing of a memorial for him. It turned out we weren't far wrong.
Donations started piling in from all over the league, and as far away as St. Louis. People in automobiles stopped you on the street to pass along their share. They came to your table in restaurants for the same purpose, and every mail brought more checks. Dutch Hassig set up a downtown receiving station at the Hamilton Bank and accepted personal responsibility for the funds. And before the deluge of donations could be stopped, the amount received had passed far beyond the sum needed.
It was found then that metal for casting the plaque could not be obtained until after the war, and so the unveiling had of necessity to be postponed.
Elberfeld Trophy
It was decided by the committee to present the amount left over from actual cost of the plaque to Mrs. Elberfeld to use in any manner that she should see fit. And that little lady came through like the champion she is.
Mrs. Elberfeld has asked that the sum be put into a permanent Elberfeld rotating trophy, to be given each year to the standout amateur baseball team in Chattanooga, to help create continued interest in the work to which the Kid devoted his life-that of developing young ball players.
Sentiment of the right kind is a rather beautiful thing. And it is the sentiment in baseball that has given us our national Hall of Fame, also the little Hall of Fame at Engel Stadium that will be enriched by the memorial plaque of Elberfeld, and that has kept the pastime on the high level that has made the game our chief national sport.
The Tobasco Kid was an institution.
May his memory never grow dim!