Norman Arthur "Kid" Elberfeld (April 13, 1875 – January 13, 1944), nicknamed "The Tabasco Kid,"^[1] was a shortstop in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies (1898), Cincinnati Reds (1899), Detroit Tigers (1901–1903), New York Highlanders (1903–1909), Washington Senators (1910–1911), and Brooklyn Robins (1914). Elberfled also managed the New York Highlanders for the last half of the 1908 season.

Elberfeld was given the nickname "The Tabasco Kid" because of his fiery temper. Elberfeld was known for his ferocious verbal, and sometimes physical, assaults on umpires. On one occasion, while in the minors, Elberfeld threw a lump of mud into the umpire's open mouth.^[2] Later in his career, Elberfeld assaulted umpire Silk O'Loughlin and had to be forcibly removed by police; Elberfeld was suspended for just 8 games.^[3] Although records were not kept, it was said that Elberfeld was thrown out of more games than any other player of his era.

Aside from his temper, Elberfeld became known as one of the best shortstops in the early years of the 20th Century. He was known as a tough competitor who challenged baserunners to slash him out of their way. They sometimes did precisely that. On May 1, 1908, Elberfeld was severely spiked in the foot by Bob Ganley‚ essentially ending his season. Elberfeld batted only 56 times in 1908. During Ty Cobb's rookie season, he had a basepath meeting with the Tabasco Kid. Cobb slid head first into second base, only to have Elberfeld dig his knee into the back of Cobb's neck, grinding his face in the dirt. According to a Cobb biographer, that was the last time Cobb slid headfirst into a base.^[4] Shortly before his death, Elberfeld was quoted as saying "Ty found out my feet were harder than his head. Then he started coming in spikes first. I had to protect myself."^[5] Elberfeld's legs were badly scarred from years of highly flying spikes, and he reportedly poured raw whisky into spike wounds to cauterize them.^[6]

Further showing his toughness as a ballplayer, Elberfeld was not afraid of being hit by a pitch. He led the American League in being hit by a pitch in 1903 and 1911 and was among the league leaders in the category nine times. In 1911, he was hit by a pitch 25 times, setting an American League record that was not broken until 1986 when Don Baylor was hit by a pitch 35 times. In his career, Elberfeld was hit by a pitch 165 times—13th most in the history of Major League Baseball.

Despite 458 errors at the shortstop position, Elberfeld had great range in his early years. In 1901, Elberfeld made 332 putouts and had a range factor rating of 6.14—87 points higher than the league average for shortstops. He also had a career best 459 assists at shortstop the following season with the Tigers. He once collected 12 assists in a single game in 1901. As injuries and age slowed him down, Elberfeld's range was more limited later in his career.

Early years[link]

Elberfeld broke into organized baseball in 1892 in Clarkson, Tennessee.^[7] He was so highly regarded as a prospect that a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies recommended signing him over another shortstop prospect, Honus Wagner.^[5] Elberfeld played only 14 games for the Phillies in 1898 before being sent to the Detroit Tigers, then a minor league team in the Western Conference. A year later, Elberfeld was purchased from Detroit by the Cincinnati Reds. Elberfeld lasted only 41 games in Cincinnati.

The Detroit Tigers: 1900-1903[link]

Prior to the 1900 season, the Reds sent Elberfeld back to Detroit, then still part of the Western League. Elberfeld remained with Detroit when they joined the newly formed American League in 1901. He was the Tigers' starting shortstop during their first two seasons as a Major League team. In the team's debut, on April 25, 1901, the Tigers committed 7 errors, including 3 by Elberfeld. Later in the season, Elberfeld had 12 assists in a game on September 2, 1901.^[3] Elberfeld went on to bat .308 (with 76 RBIs and a .397 On Base Percentage) in the Tigers' inaugural season, becoming the Tigers' first team batting leader and its first .300 hitter.

In 1902, Elberfeld's batting average dropped to .260, but he started the 1903 season on a hitting tear. In June 1903, with Elberfeld hitting .341 for the Tigers, he was traded to the New York Highlanders for Herman Long and Ernie Courtney. Despite his hot hitting, Elberfeld had fallen out of favor in Detroit after being suspended for abusing an umpire. Tiger manager Ed Barrow accused Elberfeld of deliberately throwing games to get himself traded.^[3]

The New York Highlanders: 1903-1909[link]

Elbefeld was with the Highlanders from 1903 to 1909. During that time, he broke the .300 mark only once, batting. 306 in 1906. Nevertheless, he was considered an integral part of the Highlanders teams, contributing in many small ways. For example, on May 20, 1907, Elberfeld stole home twice in the same game, the first American League player to accomplish that feat.

In late June 1908, New York manager Clark Griffith resigned, and Elberfeld took over as the manager. The Highlanders finished the 1908 season, Elberfeld's only season as a Major League manager, in last place having gone 27–71 (a .276 winning percentage) under Elberfeld.

Washington Senators and Brooklyn Robins: 1910-1914[link]

In December 1909, Elberfeld was sold to the Washington Senators for $5,000. He played two seasons for the Senators before being released. He signed with Montgomery in the Southern League where he befriended a young Casey Stengel. According to Stengel biographer, Maury Allen, in his 1979 book, "'You Could Look It Up: The Life of Casey Stengel'," Elberfeld was generous with his time and his wisdom. The grizzled veteran and the 22-year-old youngster sat together on trains, roomed together in hotels, dined together in restaurants, shared thoughts on the bench, and talked for hours about baseball. On September 15, 1912, Stengel was called up to Brooklyn. Elberfeld threw a farewell party for Stengel, ordering him to buy a new suit ("You gotta dress like a big leaguer before they believe you are one," Elberfeld said) for $22.00, and a new suitcase for $17.50. After a long night of drinking, Elberfeld walked with Stengel to the train station, and advised Stengel: "Keep your ears open and your mouth shut up there." While good advice for most players, Stengel didn't follow it and became known as much for his mouth as his baseball talent.

Elberfeld returned briefly to the Major Leagues in 1914, where he played with the Brooklyn Robins.

Minor league manager and life after baseball on Signal Mountain[link]

Elberfeld remained active in major and minor league baseball for 30 years. From 1915 to 1917, Elberfeld managed the Chattanooga Lookouts, then went on to the Little Rock Travelers, where he managed for several years, winning a pennant in 1920.^[7]

Early in his baseball career, Elberfeld bought an apple orchard on Signal Mountain, near Chattanooga. Elberfeld built his home and raised a family of five girls and a boy on Signal Mountain. His girls formed a basketball team that played as "The Elberfeld Girls" and appeared on many Southern programs for several years. Elberfeld lived at his Signal Mountain home until his death in 1944.

See also[link]

• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases
• List of Major League Baseball player–managers

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Kid Elberfeld's page on Yankees Extreme
• Bio at BaseballLibrary.com
• Obituary at TheDeadBallEra.com
• A page with images of Kid
• Collection of Articles about Elberfeld collected by a family member
• Biography from Beckett.com
• Kid Elberfeld's page on Yankees baseball cards

See also Elberfeld, Indiana. For the baseball player with this name, see Kid Elberfeld.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia. (July 2011) Don't speak German? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the German article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|de|Elberfeld}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Coat of arms

The suspension railway of Elberfeld was built over the canal in order to keep the streets unobstructed

Elberfeld ca 1899

Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929.

History[link]

The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "elverfelde" was in a document of 1161. Etymologically, elver is derived from the old Low German word for "river." (See etymology of the name of the German Elbe River; cf. Scandinavian älv.) Therefore the original meaning of "elverfelde" can be understood as "field on the river." Elverfelde received its town charter in 1610.

In 1726 Elias Eller and the pastor Daniel Schleyermacher founded a Philadelphian society. They later moved to Ronsdorf in the Duchy of Berg, becoming the Zionites, a fringe sect.

The 1820s saw the commencement of the Plymouth Brethren in Dublin, Ireland and Georgetown, British Guyana. This evangelical religious movement spread to the Continent and emerged in Germany chiefly out of Pietist groups through the work of Julius Anton von Poseck, William Henry Darby and Carl Brockhaus. By the 1850s the resultant group had a focal point in Elberfeld and are known to the present as the Elberfelder Brethren. They have branches throughout Germany and Switzerland and beyond. A translation of the Darby Bible into German was produced by this group and is known as the Elberfelder Bibel.

In 1826 Friedrich Harkort, a famous German industrialist and politician, had a type of suspension railway built as a trial and ran it on the grounds of what is today the tax office at Elberfeld. In fact the railway, the Schwebebahn Wuppertal, was eventually built between Oberbarmen and Vohwinkel and runs through Elberfeld.

In 1888 the district of Sonnborn was incorporated into Elberfeld. In 1929 the towns of Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg and Ronsdorf became a municipal entity officially called "Barmen-Elberfeld;" in the same year, the unified city administration through a vote of its council members decided to rename the newly-incorporated city "Wuppertal." This took place in 1930. Today Elberfeld is the largest municipal subdivision of Wuppertal.

Notable residents[link]

• Arno Breker, sculptor
• Wilhelm Busch (clergyman), Lutheran minister
• Werner Eggerath, East German politician
• Karl Germer, Outer Head of the Ordo Templi Orientis (1947-1962)
• Carl Grossberg, artist
• Walter Kaufmann (physicist), physicist
• Hans Knappertsbusch, conductor
• Erich Koch, NSDAP Gauleiter of East Prussia, Reichskommissar of Ukraine
• Johann Peter Lange, Protestant theologian
• Else Lasker-Schüler, poet
• Julius Pluecker, mathematician and physicist
• Sigurd Raschèr, saxophonist
• Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer, economist
• Horst Stein, conductor
• Horst Tappert, actor
• Günter Wand, Conductor
• Carl Wirths, politician

See also[link]

• Elberfeld system

Coordinates: 51°16′N 7°08′E / 51.267°N 7.133°E / 51.267; 7.133

Jon Hamm
Hamm at the Vancouver Olympics in February 2010
Born	Jonathan Daniel Hamm (1971-03-10) March 10, 1971 (age 41) St. Louis, Missouri United States
Alma mater	University of Missouri
Occupation	Actor, Director
Years active	2000–present
Partner	Jennifer Westfeldt (1997–present)

Jonathan Daniel "Jon" Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor best known for playing advertising executive Don Draper in the AMC drama series Mad Men, which premiered in July 2007. His performance on the show earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 2008.

Early life[link]

Hamm was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Daniel and Deborah Hamm. His father ran a family trucking company and his mother was a secretary.^[1][2] Hamm's parents divorced when he was two, and he lived with his mother in Creve Coeur, Missouri,^[2] until she was diagnosed with terminal abdominal cancer when he was 10.^[3] Hamm then moved in with his father,^[4] who died when Hamm was 20.

Hamm's first acting role was as Winnie-the-Pooh in first grade. At 16, he was cast as Judas in Godspell.^[5] Although he enjoyed the experience, he did not take acting seriously. Hamm attended John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri, where he was a member of the football, baseball, and swim teams.^[6] Following graduation in 1989, Hamm enrolled at the University of Texas,^[7] where he was a member of the Upsilon Chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity.^[8] Hamm returned home to attend the University of Missouri after his father's death.^[7] At Missouri, he auditioned for and won a role in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[4] Other roles followed, including Leon Czolgosz in Assassins.

After graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English,^[9] Hamm returned to his high school to teach eighth-grade acting.^[2][4][10] One of his students was Ellie Kemper, an actress best known for her role on The Office and as Hamm's co-star in Bridesmaids.^[11]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Hamm relocated to Los Angeles in 1995.^[12] He moved into a house with four other aspiring actors and began waiting tables while attending auditions.^[4]

He found employment as an actor difficult despite representation by the William Morris Endeavor.^[13] In 1998, having failed to obtain any acting jobs after three years,^[1] he was dropped by William Morris. Hamm continued working as a waiter,^[4] and briefly took a job as a set designer for a softcore pornography film.^[14] After repeatedly failing to find acting jobs, he set his thirtieth birthday as a deadline to succeed in Hollywood,^[5] observing that:

You either suck that up and find another agent, or you go home and say you gave it a shot, but that's the end of that. The last thing I wanted to be out here was one of those actors who's 45 years old, with a tenuous grasp of their own reality, and not really working much. So I gave myself five years. I said, if I can't get it going by the time I'm 30, I'm in the wrong place. And as soon as I said that, it's like I started working right away.^[4]

In 2000, Hamm was cast as firefighter Burt Ridley on NBC's drama series Providence.^[15][16] Hamm made his feature film debut in Clint Eastwood's 2000 space adventure Space Cowboys. His role consisted of one line. More substantial roles followed in the independent comedy Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)^[17] and the war film We Were Soldiers (2002).^[18] Hamm played the recurring role of police inspector Nate Basso on Lifetime's television series The Division from 2002 to 2004.^[15][16] Other television appearances included roles in What About Brian, CSI: Miami, Related, Numb3rs, The Unit, and The Sarah Silverman Program.^[15][16]

Breakthrough role[link]

Hamm's breakthrough role came in 2007 when he was chosen from more than 80 candidates^[14] to portray protagonist Don Draper in AMC's drama series Mad Men, despite initial concerns by director Alan Taylor and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner that he was too handsome for the role. In the series, set in a fictional 1960s advertising agency, he plays a suave advertising executive with a mysterious past.^[19] Hamm recalled, "I read the script for Mad Men and I loved it. I never thought they'd cast me. I mean, I thought they'd go with one of the five guys who look like me, but are movie stars."^[20]

Hamm in November 2008

Mad Men debuted July 19, 2007, with almost 1.4 million viewers.^[21] It quickly developed a loyal audience, with both the show and Hamm receiving strong reviews. Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Hamm, noting that his interpretation of Draper was a "star-making performance".^[22] The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert called Hamm a "brilliant lead".^[23]

Hamm appeared in the 2008 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name.^[24] Although the film received negative reviews,^[25] it was financially successful, earning $230 million worldwide at the box office.^[26] Hamm hosted Saturday Night Live on October 25, 2008,^[27] as well as on January 30 and October 30, 2010.^[28][29] In 2009, Hamm appeared in three episodes of the NBC comedy 30 Rock as Dr. Drew Baird, a neighbor and love interest of Liz Lemon, portrayed by Tina Fey.^[30] For his work on the sitcom, he received an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.^[31] On December 12, 2010, Hamm lent his voice to Fox's animated series The Simpsons, portraying an FBI supervisor.^[32]

Hamm's first leading film role was in 2009's Stolen, an independent mystery thriller in which he portrayed a father attempting to discover the circumstances surrounding his son's kidnapping.^[33][34] The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck stated that the feature never came together, and added that Hamm was unable to do much with his "underwritten role".^[35] Hamm had a voice cameo in the animated feature Shrek Forever After, released in May 2010, as an ogre named Brogan.^[36] Also in 2010, Hamm appeared opposite Ben Affleck as an FBI agent in The Town.^[37] Hamm was pleased that the film offered him a chance to play a role unlike that of Don Draper, explaining that he had received "about forty scripts that were all set in the 60s, or had me playing advertising guys."^[38] The film received generally favorable reviews^[39] and earned $144 million worldwide.^[40] Still another 2010 project found Hamm playing a defense attorney in Howl, based on Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem of the same name.^[41] 2011 projects included roles in Zack Snyder's action-fantasy movie Sucker Punch and the independent feature Friends with Kids, directed by real-life partner Jennifer Westfeldt, which he helped co-produce.^[42]

He has a recurring role in The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret as the servant of sociopathic billionaire Dave Mountford, the role of which is later revealed to in fact be a fictionalized version of Jon Hamm, complaining that being made into Dave's servant has made him need to be written out of the first four episodes of Mad Men.

Personal life[link]

Hamm with girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, 2008

Hamm has been in a romantic relationship with actress and screenwriter Jennifer Westfeldt since 1997.^[3] They own homes in Los Angeles and the Upper West Side of New York.^[3][17] In an interview, Hamm stated: "We may not have a piece of paper that says we're husband and wife, but after 10 years, Jennifer is more than just a girlfriend. What we have is much deeper and we both know that. To me, people [should] get married when they're ready to have kids, which I'm not ruling out."^[43] Hamm, along with Westfeldt, has appeared in Gap advertisements.^[44] In April 2009, Hamm and Westfeldt formed their own production company, Points West Pictures.^[45][46] The couple are advocates of animal rescue and adopted a dog named Cora from the Much Love Animal Shelter in California.^[47]

Although his role as Draper requires him to smoke, Hamm gave up smoking when he was 24.^[48][49] Due to laws regulating workplace safety, he does not smoke actual cigarettes, but rather herbal cigarettes that do not contain tobacco or nicotine.^[49][50]

Hamm was named Salon.com's Sexiest Man Living in 2007,^[51] and was named one of People magazine's Sexiest Men Alive in 2008.^[52] Hamm won GQ's 'International Man' award in September 2010^[53] and was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year in 2008 and 2010.^[54]

Hamm is an avid golfer^[55] and a devoted fan of both the NHL's St. Louis Blues (going as far as appearing in two television ads for the team)^[56] and the MLB's St. Louis Cardinals.^[57] He narrated the official highlight film for the 2011 World Series in which the Cardinals won. Growing up, Hamm was a fan of the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals, who in 1988 moved to Phoenix, eventually becoming the Arizona Cardinals. Hamm states, however, that given the Cardinals' dismal performance during the 1970s, he adopted the Pittsburgh Steelers as his fallback team. Hamm cites the Steelers' success during the 1970s and his distaste for the Cowboys' prowess over the Cardinals as a reason for choosing the Steelers.^[58]

In March 2010, Hamm replaced actor Richard Thomas as the voiceover for Mercedes-Benz' S400 Hybrid ad campaign.^[59]

Filmography[link]

Hamm on the set of The Town in September 2009

Feature films[link]

Television[link]

Music Videos[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Rochlin, Margy. "Those Were the Good Old Days? Hardly". The New York Times. September 30, 2007. Accessed February 12, 2009.
• Alston, Joshua. "Bryan Cranston and Jon Hamm: Get 'Bad,' Get 'Mad,' And You'll Get Glad". Newsweek. December 31, 2007. Accessed June 4, 2009.
• Hainey, Michael. "The Man In The Gray (Indestructible) Suit". GQ. January 1, 2008. Accessed June 18, 2009.
• Wilson, Benji. "Jon Hamm: Why Mad Men was an instant star". The Daily Telegraph. March 14, 2008. Accessed February 12, 2009.
• Seltzer, Ian. "Jon Hamm: Suave, Successful, Mad Man". ABC News. July 14, 2008. Accessed April 28, 2009.
• Ryan, Maureen. "'Mad Men' Calvacade of Stars, Part 2: Jon Hamm". Chicago Tribune. July 15, 2008. Accessed February 12, 2009.
• Guest, Jocelyn. "Jon Hamm of 'Mad Men' on the Future of Don Draper". New York Magazine. July 24, 2008. Accessed February 12, 2009.
• Neuman, Clayton. "Q&A – Jon Hamm". AMC. October 26, 2008. Accessed February 12, 2009.
• Wolf, Jeanne. "Jon Hamm's Sudden Fame". Parade Magazine. Accessed April 27, 2009.
• Hill, Erin. "Jon Hamm: 'Everyone Deserves a Little Good-Natured Ribbing'". Parade Magazine. March 11, 2010. Accessed March 11, 2010.
• Torvalds, Linus. "Pearls before swine..". LINUS' BLOG. February 28, 2011. Accessed May 24, 2011.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jon Hamm

• Jon Hamm at the Internet Movie Database
• Jon Hamm at Emmys.com

AMCtv.com - Jon Hamm Ultimate Fan Game