Russ Ellison pitched one inning for the Cleveland Indians in
1920.
George Russell Ellison was born January 24, 1897, in San
Francisco, the only child of James and Alice Ellison. (Baseball Reference and
other websites list him as George Ellison, but he was overwhelmingly called
Russ or Russell.) In the 1900 census the Ellisons are living at 5 ½ Camp Street
in San Francisco; James is 29 and a “brass moulder,” Alice is 25, and James’
18-year-old sister, Lillie, is living with them. In 1910 they’re at 569 41st
Street in Oakland, a house that they own, James is a laundry proprietor, and
Lillie has moved on.
Russ attended Oakland High School, where he was a star
pitcher. In his junior year the Oakland Tribune mentioned him on March
2, 1915: “Russ Ellison is the one seasoned player and he will probably do the
brunt of the pitching this year. Russ has speed to burn, has a wonderful set of
curves and besides can hit the ball.” He was the team’s top pitcher again in
1916, then he graduated and played semipro ball over the summer, for the
Ambrose Tailors. I don’t know whether he started college that fall, as I didn’t
find any references to him playing college baseball in 1917; he did play semipro
again that summer, for the Chamber of Commerce team in the Bay Cities
Commercial Baseball league, plus at least one game for Great Western Power. The
Oakland Tribune described him as “pitching the most sensational ball of
the league.”
In 1918 Russ pitched for the University of California. On
April 16 he pitched the deciding game of the yearly series with Stanford,
winning 4 to 2; he only allowed two hits but walked seven and threw four wild
pitches while striking out seven—he was not known for his control. In May he
was mentioned as pitching for Alameda in the semipro Mission League. On June 5
he filled out his draft registration, which lists him as a student, living with
his parents on 41st Street, tall and slender with blue eyes and
brown hair. Later there are references to Russ having served in the navy during
the war; if so, it must have happened quickly after that, as the war ended in
November. There is a gap in the newspaper mentions of him until March 1919.
In 1919 Russ pitched for California again. On April 11 the Stanford
Daily reported:
Coach Carl Zamlock of the California Bears has been teaching Russ Ellison, his big pitcher, a few new tricks, according to reports from the Berkeley diamond. Ellison has been developing a new curve ball which is said to be better than the one he had last season. The big Blue and Gold hurler is pitching a high class brand of baseball this year, and Zamlock is counting upon him to start the California-Stanford series.
Russ was often referred to as big, tall, or other similar
adjectives—he is today listed as having been 6-3, 185. Over the summer of 1919
he again pitched in semipro baseball, appearing with both the Crockett
Sugarites and the Fruitvale Natives.
The 1920 census was taken in January, and it shows Russ
living with his parents on 41st Street, in school, no occupation.
James is now listed as an agent in the laundry field. That spring Russ spent
his third season with the California team; he was described as a senior, though
he will tell a later census-taker that he completed two years of college. The
team had a good year and he was their top pitcher. In May they left on a tour,
playing their way across the country to Massachusetts and winning most of the
games along the way. This attracted the attention of major league teams, and
Russ chose an offer from the Cleveland Indians and reported to them in Boston,
where he signed a contract with them on June 24 and left with the team for
Chicago. The Oakland Tribune reported on July 4:
LOCAL FANS PULLING FOR RUSS ELLISON
Local fans are pulling strong for Russ Ellison, University of California pitcher, to make good with the Cleveland Indians. Russ writes that he is certain he can make the grade with some schooling from the veteran pitchers of the Indians, and he expects to pitch for his new club soon. Ellison pitched some smart games for the U.C. nine and has a pair of no-hit combats to his credit. He is a big fellow with a nice assortment of curves and a change of pace. Before signing with the Cleveland club Ellison turned down offers from the Red Sox and Braves.
Russ did not in fact pitch for his new club soon, except in
batting practice. On July 26 Manager Tris Speaker allowed him to start an
exhibition game against the Reds; he pitched five innings and lost, 4-3. On
August 21—five days after teammate Ray Chapman was hit by a pitch and killed--he
finally got into a real game, pitching the eighth inning in a 12-0 loss at
Boston. Eddie Foster grounded out, Mike Menosky walked and Russ picked him off
first, Tim Hendryx walked, and Stuffy McInnis struck out. Then it was back to
batting practice.
From the September 22 Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Manager Speaker yesterday permitted pitcher Russell Ellison, the tall boy from the University of California, to return home. He is to report at the training camp in the spring. Manager Speaker is much impressed with his ability, Ellison getting the chance to work on the mound in batting practice almost daily…
This cost Russ a shot at appearing in the World Series,
which the Indians won, though it probably wasn’t likely that he would have been
put into a game. In November he left on a ship bound for Japan with other
lesser-known professional players for a barnstorming tour; about half of the
players, Russ included, came home earlier than planned after some unspecified
scandalous behavior that led to Commissioner Landis decreeing that players’
wives be included on future tours.
In February 1921, before spring training, it was announced
that Speaker had farmed Russ out to the Joplin Miners of the Western League.
However, I found no indication that he ever reported to Joplin, and the next
mention of him comes in the Portland Oregonian of July 22:
Portland Gets Ellison.
OAKLAND, Cal., July 21.—Russell Ellison, ex-University of California pitcher, and who went to the Cleveland Indians, in the American league, and remained with that club a few months, today signed a contract with the Portland club, in the Pacific Coast league, and was immediately pressed into service by Manager Walter McCredie. He appeared on the hill in the game against the San Francisco Seals.
From the San Francisco Chronicle’s game story, the
same day:
California’s Star Hurler Gets Rough Treatment in Trying to Beat the Seals
Russ Ellison Has World of Stuff, but No Control, and Ten Runs Are Scored Off Him in the Two Innings and a Third That He is On the Hill
By Ed R. Hughes
Russ Ellison, the big pitcher of the University of California, tried to win a game for Portland yesterday at Oakland, and he is now convinced that the Seals are a good deal like the marines in treating ‘em rough. Russ has a lot of smoke, but poor control, and in the short time he worked the Seals got runs enough to win a couple of ball games. He toiled two innings and a third, and in that time he was nicked for ten runs. Walt McCredie finally had compassion on him and sent in Coleman, another collegian, who pitched splendid ball, but the damage had already been done.
Ellison belongs to the Cleveland American League club, and he made the trip to Japan with Jack Doyle’s troupe. He did not stay there long, for he soon tired of the Mikado land and he came home long before the other barnstormers.
Ellison may make a good pitcher some day, for he has the size and has a lot of natural stuff; but unless he can control the ball better than he did yesterday his opponents will beat him without taking the trouble to swing at the ball. In the first inning yesterday Fitz beat out a hit, and then Ellison walked Rath and Caveney, hit O’Connell with an untamed pitch, walked Bert Ellison, and that mess, with a couple of outs, scored four runs on only one scratch hit…
On July 31 Russ won a game against Vernon, and the Oregon
Journal reported the next day:
In the second game Russ Ellison breezed the pill over in great style and retired the Tigers in the first three frames without allowing a ball to be hit out of the infield. There is only one fault with Ellison’s pitching—he is inclined to work too fast. The big fellow looked good and with careful coaching ought to develop into a comer…
August was a bad month for Russ, though, and it ended with a
game on the 29th that was described in the next day’s San
Francisco Chronicle:
In the afternoon Russ Ellison, former University of California pitcher, worked for Portland and the game was wrecked in the first inning, when the Oaks massed six hits good for six runs. Ellison’s support was awful in that round, King making a double-barreled error and others failing to handle the ball cleanly.
Ellison was with Cleveland a brief while. He came back home and said: “What do you think? Tris Speaker tried to tell me how to pitch, and he’s an outfielder. What does he know about pitching?”
Russ ought to be glad to have some one like Speaker tell him how to pitch if he is going to stay in baseball. For one thing, Speaker would tell him to forget trying to throw his fast one past the batsmen. That information would be valuable to Russ if he would heed it.
The Oaks hammered Russell for sixteen hits in the afternoon, and they lost several others because of good catches. Some one ought to be able to tell Russ how to pitch.
Russ ended the season with a 3-7 record and a 5.57 ERA in
118 innings in 18 games, and he appeared on Portland’s reserve list over the
off-season. Meanwhile, on October 26, the following story appeared on the
society page of the Berkeley Daily Gazette:
Miss Ramselius Betrothed.
The betrothal of Miss Elna Ramselius, daughter of Captain and Mrs. John Ramselius of Alameda, and George Russell Ellison, a former university man, was made known this afternoon at a daintily appointed luncheon given by the bride-elect in compliment to Mrs. Frederick Eilers (Alberta Foute). The Palace Hotel, across the bay, was the setting for the interesting party, to which about a score of the intimate friends of the hostess and honor guest were bidden.
Miss Ramselius is a graduate of Miss Head’s School and one of the favorites in the younger exclusive set on this side of the bay. Ellison is the son of the James Ellisons of Piedmont and a member of the Delta Chi fraternity, the Winged Helmet and Big C honor societies. He won distinction on the varsity baseball team in college and took an active part in all campus affairs. The wedding is planned to be an event of the New Year.
Mr. and Mrs. James Ellison are entertaining a group of young people at a dinner dance at the Palace Hotel this evening in honor of their son and his fiancée.
I don’t know whether Russ was out of his league socially
here, or whether his father was actually a prominent laundry agent, but I find
it interesting that this story and the similar ones run in the Oakland and San
Francisco papers left out the fact that he was a professional baseball player.
The Daily Gazette followed up on November 11:
Miss Ramselius Honored.
Miss Elna Ramselius, one of the season’s most popular brides-elect, was honored at a luncheon given today by Miss Ramona Schacht at the Woman’s Athletic Club in San Francisco. The engagement announcement of Miss Ramselius to Russell Ellison was made recently and the luncheon today was one of the many smart affairs planned for her by friends…
Russ and Elna were married on February 25, 1922. A story in
that day’s Oakland Tribune mentioned that “Ellison and his bride will go
south for six weeks and then to Portland for an indefinite stay”—leaving out
the details that the six weeks would include spring training in Pasadena and
that the indefinite stay in Portland would be to pitch for the Beavers. From
the same paper, two days later:
HONEYMOON IN THE SOUTH.
George Russell Ellison and his bride have left for the southern part of the state, where they will travel for about two weeks, and will then return here for a few days before going to Portland. The young people will reside in the north for a while and later will come back to the bay region to establish their home…
On March 5 the society page of the San Francisco
Chronicle ran this item:
Mr. and Mrs. George Russell Ellison are motoring in the southern part of the state, where they will travel for about six weeks. They will return here for a brief visit with Mrs. Ellison’s parents, Captain and Mrs. John Ramselius, and will then go north. Mrs. Ellison was Miss Elna Ramselius before her marriage, which took place a week ago at the home of her parents in this city. Ellison belongs to a well-known family in Oakland.
And the same day the Oregonian showed Russ on the
Beaver training camp roster.
The March 15 Seattle Times reported that “Ellison,
who is one of the two holdover pitchers, who will be retained for the first
part of the season, appears to have loosened up a great deal, and he may come
through and be a winner.” From the March 19 Oregonian:
It is almost certain now that the club will carry all its present pitchers up to May 15, when coast league rules require all teams to cut down to 20 men. That means that Russ Ellison and Walberg, the towering kid southpaw from Seattle with the zipping fast ball, are certain of berths until then. Ellison is rapidly becoming a finished pitcher, so he may hold his job as one of the regulars.
The PCL season began in early April, and on the 9th
Russ was removed from the game in the 6th inning after failing to
cover home plate. On April 30 the Oregonian ran a short item about the
Beavers having eleven players who had served in the World War, including Russ
in the navy; this item was reprinted in many newspapers in May and June. That
total didn’t hold up for long, though, as the Oregonian reported on May
3:
Russ Ellison, the Beavers’ tall pitcher from the University of California, has gone home rather than be shipped to Tacoma. Informed that he wasn’t quite ripe for Pacific Coast league flinging, but that a few months’ steady work on a Class B club might be the making of him, Ellison told Tom Turner he would quit baseball first. He hopped a train for Berkeley Monday night.
Ellison could be put on the suspended list, but the Portland club is treating him with consideration. In place of being suspended he will be listed as “voluntarily retired.”
By mid-May Russ was back pitching semipro ball in the Bay
Area, for the Mayrose Butters. The October 1922 issue of the California Alumni Monthly mentioned his marriage to Elna and said that he was a securities salesman for Stephens and Company in Oakland. In December it was reported that the Beavers
were trying to deal his rights to another team, and in January 1923 it was
reported that he would join the San Francisco Olympic Club team, a team that
seems to have mainly played against colleges. From the February 2 Oregonian:
Another announcement made at baseball headquarters chronicled the passing of a big young pitcher who showed much promise, but not much performance, to a smaller league.
Russ Ellison, the University of California six-footer, whom Walter McCredie dug up in 1921 in Oakland, and who quit the club in a huff after training camp last spring when it was proposed to send him to Tacoma, has reconsidered his retirement from baseball.
Ellison has been sold to Shreveport in one of the southern leagues. He has the stuff and if he ever learns the fine points of hurling, may be heard from further.
The Shreveport Gassers were in the Class A Texas League, one
notch below the PCL. A preview of the team in the April 15 Beaumont
Enterprise mentioned Russ as one of the newcomers, but that’s the only
mention of him with the Gassers that I found. The Shreveport stats show someone
who may have been named Ellison (“Ellison?”) playing two games, so I presume
that’s him. Those two games seem to have been his final games of professional
baseball.
Russ was counted twice in the 1930 census. On April 2 they
counted him in the San Francisco City Prison, as a 33-year-old divorced World
War veteran who was 25 at the time of his first marriage; the next day he was
counted at 545 Post Street in San Francisco, as a 33-year-old divorced World
War veteran who was 25 at the time of his first marriage and who was employed
as a salesman of what looks like “investment securities.” He was listed as a
guest in the home of 68-year-old Robert Chilton, a manager of Personal Affairs
for the US Foreign Service, and his 24-year-old daughter Virginia. Elna was
living with her parents, but gave her status as married. Unfortunately I could
find nothing about the divorce, or about why Russ was in the city prison.
On August 7, 1931, the San Francisco Chronicle listed a
marriage application for George R. Ellison of 1200 Francisco Street and Beverly
S. Minns of Cupertino, near San Jose. Assuming this is Russ, the marriage didn’t
last long. By 1932 Elna was married to Ernest W. Von Der Mehden, a salesman,
and by 1935 they were living in Santa Rosa. In March of 1934 Russ was on the
list of invitees for an old-timers game in Oakland. On September 9, 1936, Russ
married Maude Josephine Whitman in Jackson County in southern Oregon; Maude’s
first husband Robert Whitman had been killed in 1934 in “an automobile collision
with a steer” on a highway east of Twin Falls, Idaho.
In the 1940 census Russ and Maude are renting an apartment
at 2710 Webster Street in San Francisco; they are listed as having lived at the
same place in 1935, though that would have been before they were married. Russ,
43, is a life insurance salesman who worked 12 weeks in 1939 and earned $200,
while Maude, 47, has an eighth grade education and is a receptionist who worked
20 weeks in 1939 and earned $320. She was not employed for pay during the week
of March 24-30, 1940, though.
In 1942 Russ again registered for the draft. He gave his
address as 1239 Francisco Street in San Francisco, and the “person who will
always know your address” is Maude, at the same address. His employer is the US
government, Army Transport Service, Fort Mason, San Francisco.
A 1953 city directory shows Russ and Maude living at 112
Laverne Avenue in San Rafael. However, on September 1, 1955, Maude married
William G. Rich in San Francisco; I didn’t find any information on her divorce
from Russ.
On January 20, 1978, Russ passed away in San Francisco, four
days short of his 81st birthday. On October 9, 1986, Elna Ramselius
Ellison Von Der Mehden Malloch passed away at age 88, and on February 22, 1992,
Maude J. Ratto Whitman Ellison Rice passed away at age 99.
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