Pryor “Humpy” “Humpty” McElveen played for the Brooklyn
Dodgers from 1909-1911.
Pryor Mynatt McElveen was born November 5, 1881, in Atlanta,
to Robert and Anna McElveen. In the 1880 census Robert had been a drug store
clerk in Jefferson County, Tennessee, where he and Anna had lived with oldest
child Hugh, seven months old.
Robert passed away after a long illness in February, 1899.
The 1900 census shows Anna living on a farm in Jefferson County with her mother
and brother, along with sons Hugh, 20, Pryor, 18, and Lee, 10, all three listed
as farm laborers.
In December 1901 noted outlaw Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan,
formerly of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, was captured by a posse in Jefferson
County. An account that appeared in the Knoxville Daily Times in 1911 credited
20-year-old Pryor and his friend Frank Rhoton, a future minor league baseball
player, with getting out ahead of the rest of the posse and capturing Logan by
themselves. News stories from 1901, though, named Rhoton as one of the posse
members but not McElveen, so I can’t be sure if he deserves credit.
In 1904 Pryor began his professional baseball career,
playing for Knoxville in the independent Tennessee-Alabama League and for
Brevard in the independent Carolina Interstate League. On April 5, 1905, he got
a mention in the Knoxville Journal & Tribune:
“Humpy” McElveen made his debut in fast company Monday when
he played second for Lew Whistler’s Memphis in a game with the Cincinnati
Colts. The next morning’s Memphis paper tossed a bouquet at McElveen for a fast
double in which he starred after a sensational one-hand stop of a hot liner. He
failed to do anything with the willow, but those who watched him send the
gardeners to the timber at Chilhowee last summer know what he can do along that
line, and if he can keep the pace set Monday there need be no cause for anxiety
regarding his baseball future.
This was the first instance I found of his being called
“Humpy,” and since there were many more search results for Humpy than Humpty or
Pryor, that’s what I’ll be calling him here. Chilhowee Park was a baseball
field in Knoxville, and Lew Whistler’s Memphis was the Memphis Egyptians of the
Class A Southern Association. He didn’t stick there, though, and wound up with
the Meridian Ribboners of the Class D Cotton States League. The league folded
for the year on July 31, due to yellow fever quarantine restrictions, but by
then Humpy had already bolted. From the July 24 Knoxville Journal &
Tribune:
“Humpy” McElveen has come to town. This simple announcement will
bring joy to the Knoxville fans, for well do they remember how the shortstop of
the Knoxville, 1904, team laid on the ball and pasted it far back into the
pines as Whitaker has been wont to do, during the present season. “Humpy”
jumped the Meridian Cotton States League team and yesterday afternoon drove
into Knoxville. Moffett welcomed him with open arms and a smile that extended
from ear to ear. McElveen has been dissatisfied with Meridian ever since he
went with Tommy Stouch principally on account of the health conditions of the
community. Then, too, he received a couple of Southern league offers and Tommy
Stouch refused to give him a release. “Humpy” brooded over his trouble and
finally concluded to return to the fold of “Foxy Grandpa,” and that is just
what he did.
That “Humpy” will be in the game today will be a source of
pleasure to his last season admirers. He will play in the outfield today, he
having been playing in the garden for some time down in Mississippi, but there
will remain only a short time and will then return to his old camping spot,
short.
Humpy played for Knoxville, which seems to have been an
independent team, not in any league that season, the rest of the year. On
August 14 the Journal & Tribune reported:
“Humpy” McElveen spent Sunday at his Jefferson City home. It
was his first visit back to his home stamping ground since the middle of March,
when he went down to Memphis for his try out. He was probably accompanied by
Rhoton, who has been away from home almost the same length of time.
In their Jefferson City news column, the Knoxville
Sentinel mentioned on October 9 that “Frank Rhoton and Pryor McElveen have
returned to their homes at Jefferson City for the winter, after a prosperous
season on the diamond with Frank Moffett.”
For 1906 Humpy went to the Jacksonville Jays of the Class C
South Atlantic League. The Journal & Tribune reported on April 2:
Down in Jacksonville in the South Atlantic league, “Humpy”
McElveen is a large slice of the money. At third he is playing a very fast game
and he gets his hits in nearly every game and sometimes two, and often they are
for extra bases.
Same paper, July 16:
“Humpy” McElveen, the old Knoxville star short stop who is
playing with Jacksonville in the South Atlantic league, is wanted by Connie
Mack of the Athletics. “Humpy” is wanted for third base with the Athletics,
having released Brouthers, the Southern league infielder drafted by him last
fall, to New Orleans.
No more was said about that, and Humpy played the whole
season with the Jays. He played 119 games, all at third base, and hit .240 and
slugged .363 with 27 stolen bases, leading the league in at-bats and total
bases, and in putouts and assists at third.
After the season he was drafted by
Portland, Little Rock, and Newark, and was awarded randomly to Portland.
Humpy didn’t want to go to the west coast, though, and he
bought his own release and signed with the Nashville Volunteers of the Class A
Southern Association for 1907. Sporting Life observed on May 25 that
“Third baseman McElveen, of the Nashville team, is playing a wonderful game for
his team and hitting the ball for keeps.” On July 6 Humpy found himself in trouble,
as recorded in the 1908 Reach Guide:
On July 6, 1907, six members of the Nashville Team of the
Southern League were fined $1 and costs each by Mayor Smith, of Elyton, as
result of a disturbance at the ball park after the preceding day’s
Birminghan-Nashville game. Those fined were: Persons, Wiseman, McCormick,
Perdue, E. Duggan and McElveen. The total amount paid was $21. Elyton is a
newly incorporated suburb in which the league park is located. To avoid trouble
the hearing was held in the office of President R. H Baugh, of the Birmingham
Base Ball Association, where a plea of guilty was entered by six of the men
before Mayor Smith. The others were dismissed. The Nashville players were
leaving the park in their tally-ho. The driver drove through the crowd, forcing
a lady, it was claimed, to step into a ditch. When the town marshal
remonstrated the players took the matter up and defied the marshal, ordering
the driver to go on. Additional officers were called to run down the players.
Manager Vaughn, of the Birmingham team, stepped in and said he would be
responsible for their appearance before the Mayor of Elyton. However, the
tally-ho was stopped and the players required to give bond, which Vaughn made
for them.
Humpy hit .286 and slugged .371 for Nashville in 141 games.
He appeared on the Volunteers’ reserve list over the off-season. On March 22,
1908, the Birmingham Age-Herald ran the following, mostly reprinted from
the Nashville American:
“Humpty” McElveen does not like the idea of going to the
outfield. “Not going to play in the garden, either,” was the way McElveen put
it. “I never played the outfield [not true], and do not want to, and I am not
going to. I had much rather return to the farm.”
McElveen would doubtless prove a fairly good man on the
outskirts. He is, though, a better infielder. He can hold down third O.K. and
probably fill in at short, but shift him to the other side of second base he
would not do so well.
The team will practice twice today if it is not too
cold.—Nashville American.
“Humpty,” as you call him, was discontented last year. He
will be more so this season.
He wound up back at third base, though, and the Nashville
Banner reported on April 24:
“Humpy” McElveen is about as good a third sacker as any team
can boast of. He covered ground all around his base yesterday, making several
difficult catches.
They added on June 6:
If “Humpy” McElveen keeps up the brand of work he has been
handing out the past four games he will be found in faster company next season.
He is playing the game of his life at third and is hitting like a fiend. His
fielding is far superior to that of last year, and “Humpy” is working all the
time.
And June 11:
Humpy McElveen is certainly playing the game of his life in
every way. He is “everlastingly lambasting” the ball and fielding in great
style. If he goes at this gait all summer Nashville will not be able to keep
him next year. Humpy’s hit yesterday was a lucky home run, but it was clearly a
home run, and there was no other way to score it.
And June 17:
It is a continued source of gratification to the many
admirers of Humpy McElveen to note the great work that old boy is putting up at
third this year. Mac is without a doubt the peer of any third baseman in the
league, and it is doubtful if the Southern League will hold him another season.
Montgomery Times, June 19:
Humpy McElveen has been boosted up into McCormick’s vacated
post of team captain. Humpy has been playing the game of his brief career this
season and is always a hard worker and a hustler. He should make a first-class
man for the job in every way if he will get in there and keep the infield on
the hump.
I wonder if “keeping the infield on the hump” is a clue as
to the meaning of his nickname. On August 10 it was reported that he had been
sold to Brooklyn, to report in 1909, and on August 12 the Brooklyn Daily
Eagle introduced him to their readers:
“Humpy” McElveen, the Nashville, Tenn., third baser, has
come forward with a bound in the realm of balldom. Starting out as an amateur
on his farm team at Jefferson City, Tenn., a few years back, he has seen only
two full seasons’ service, and yet to-day is ranked as one of the top notch
infielders and ball players in Dixie…
McElveen is of the Tennessee mountaineer type, raw-boned,
husky and aggressive, although there is no touch of the rowdy or mucker to his
style of play. His work around third has been a big improvement over last
season’s form, for he is not only steadier, but plays a ground ball to either
side better, although he is still a bit weak at this angle of the position.
The Nashville Banner reported on August 24:
A NON-EXPERT TO JUDGE.
Capt. McElveen of Nashville Baseball Club to Pick Out the
Finest Chickens.
Capt. (Humpy) McElveen, the popular third baseman of the
Nashville Volunteers, who has recently been dubbed “chicken” by his associates,
has been appointed by the Tennessee State Fair Poultry Association to pick out
what he thinks is the finest exhibit in the big poultry show at the State Fair
next month. The cup for this particular prize has been presented by a number of
baseball enthusiasts and is a very valuable trophy. The particular point of
interest that attaches to the fact that Capt. McElveen is to be the judge is
that all Capt. McElveen knows about chickens or roosters is that the hind legs
appeal most strongly to his gastronomic susceptibilities if properly served
with the right kind of gravy.
On September 11 Humpy went 6-for-6 against Little Rock, with
two doubles, scoring five runs; Sporting Life called it “One of the
greatest hitting feats in the history of the Southern League.” Nashville won
the pennant, while Humpy’s season at the plate was amazingly similar to 1907—he
hit .284 and slugged .372, with three fewer at-bats, two fewer hits, and one
fewer total base than the year before. In the field, though, he improved his
fielding percentage from .914 to .951 and led the league’s third basemen in
that category. He made a play in the field that was credited with winning the
pennant, as told several years later in the Chattanooga News of April 2,
1913:
Return of Bob Tarleton Recalls Humpty McElveen’s Famous Play
The return to this league of Bobby Tarleton, former Pelican
first baseman, brings to mind the very important part that personage played in
the famous pennant-winning game between the Vols and Pels in 1908.
In this battle of wits, Tarleton figured in a play which
probably lost the game for the Pelicans and, as a result of his showing,
Charley Frank immediately asked waivers of Tarleton, which were granted by the
other clubs of the league. Bobby went from New Orleans to the Tri-State league,
where he has been ever since with the Allentown club.
Tarleton’s “bone” was not so much attributed to his lack of
wits as to the brilliant work of Humpty McElveen, of the Volunteers, who was at
that time by far the leading third-sacker of the league. This play was later
referred to by Pake [sic; actually Jake] Daubert as the greatest play he ever
saw.
With Tarleton on second and one down, one of the New Orleans
batters hit a hard one down the third-base line, which Humpty knocked down
behind the bag. Tarleton reached third base on the swat in safety, and it
looked like a sure hit for the runner. McElveen, without looking at Tarleton,
made a perfect bluff of a throw to first, and the New Orleans runner naturally
took a good-sized lead off the bag, to take advantage of any misplay.
But McElveen, instead of throwing the ball, as everybody on
the field thought he would do, suddenly turned and dived head first at
Tarleton, tagging that player before he could recover from his surprise and get
back to the bag in safety. This play turned the tide of the battle and saved
the day, as a New Orleans player afterwards delivered a hit that would have
scored Tarleton had he not been caught napping.
This play won for McElveen the reputation as being the
smartest infielder in the league, and it was the next season that he went to
the big leagues, signing with the Trolley Dodgers…
From the Jefferson City news column in the Knoxville
Sentinel, September 26:
Pryor M. (Humpy) McElveen, the south’s greatest ball player,
arrived at his home here from Nashville Thursday and was met at the train by a
host of his many admiring friends.
From the Brooklyn report in the October 31 Sporting Life:
Somebody has written a letter to Charles Ebbets and tells
the president that McElveen, the youngster who comes to the team from the
South, is really something of a prize package.
The correspondent who wrote to Mr. Ebbets and told him good
things about his new man, called attention, among other perfections, to the
habit which McElveen has of hitting the ball. This is one of the most welcome
bits of information which has jostled the ears of the Brooklyn owner all
season. If there was one thing in which the Brooklyn players did appear to be a
trifle shy it was in using the stick at the right time, but if all the
youngsters are able to bat the ball well next spring there will be no further
trouble on the scale of making runs.
Same correspondent, January 23, 1909:
McElveen, who is to play third base this year in place of
Sheehan, has also annexed his name to a contract for the year, and if the
reports which have been sent here about his prowess are true, he will play
third quite as well as George Cohan writes plays for the New York public. They
may not go as well in other places as they go in New York, but George is always
sure of making something at home, and we feel the same way about McElveen. If
he will only do well at home he is bound to give satisfaction, even though he
should have trouble in other places.
On February 13 the Montgomery Times mentioned Humpy
in passing:
…The Southern League, though a peaceful organization, has
its scrappers and its scraps. Otto Jordan, of the local team, is about the best
man of his inches, knowing the boxing game and having a powerful physique.
Speaker, of Little Rock, a mighty chap, and a good reputation as a
rough-and-tumble performer, and they do tell “Humpty” McElveen, of Nashville,
was handy enough with his fists…
From the March 9 Knoxville Journal & Tribune:
Pryor McElveen and Frank Rhoton, the professional ball
players leave on Monday to join their respective teams. McElveen goes to
Jacksonville where the Brooklyn team begins hard practice before the real
opening of the season. Rhoton goes to Mobile, Ala., where he has signed for the
season with the Southern league.
Sporting Life, March 27:
Brooklyn’s third sack is likely to be guarded this season by
P.M. McElveen, who was purchased from the champion Nashville Club, of the
Southern League. McElveen is touted as another Arthur Devlin. He not only
resembles the Giants’ third sacker, but has many of his movements down pat, and
besides is a great sticker.
Knoxville Sentinel, April 7:
HUMPY M’ELVEEN NOSED FROM MAJOR LEAGUE BY ED LENNOX
It now looks as if Humpy McElveen is either to warm the
bench for the Brooklynites or go back to the brushes. Humpy has not had much of
a showing but Lennox probably has a shade on the East Tennessee lad when it
comes to fielding his position and Manager Lumley probably thought that McElveen
could well stand one more season in the small league.
The local favorite will probably go to the Eastern or the
American association. It may be that he will be utility man, but as Humpy
doesn’t particularly like the bench, he will try to get back to where he can
get plenty of action.
Humpy did lose out to Ed Lennox at third base, but he stayed
with Brooklyn as a utility man. He made his major league debut in the team’s
eighth game of the season, April 26 in Philadelphia, pinch hitting in the ninth
inning of a 6-4 loss and making an out against Harry Coveleski. The next day he
came in at shortstop after John Hummel was ejected and had a single and a
strikeout, again against Coveleski.
Humpy got his first start on May 10, the first of six
straight games, all at home, in which he played third in place of Lennox, who
had been suspended for fighting. On the 14th he went to a wrestling
match, as reported in the next day’s Brooklyn Times:
OLSEN THE WINNER
Big Danish Wrestler Again Scores Over Ignatz Polonski.
Harry McIntire, Pryor McElveen and Edgar Lennox, three of
Charlie Ebbets’ collection of ballflingers, saw the wrestling bouts at the Star
Theatre last night from a box. As soon as Johnny Dunn announced their presence
they bolted for the rear of the house, and although urged by the crowd to show
themselves they refused. This demonstration showed how popular the Superbas
are.
From early June onwards Humpy was in the starting lineup
more often than he came off the bench, whether at third, shortstop, second,
first, or in the outfield. On July 20 he hit his first home run, against Jack
Pfiester of the Cubs. The Arkansas Democrat reported on July 26:
M’ELVEEN MADE GOOD
Crack Southerner Is Getting Applause With Brooklyn Trolley
Dodgers.
When “Humpy” McElveen, the star third sacker of the
championship Nashville team last season, went up to do the bench warming stunt
for the Brooklyn team of the National League all sorts of prophecies were made
that he would soon go the farm route and would not be able to stick.
McElveen did the bench warming stunt with a vengeance for a
time, but injuries soon gave him a chance, and he is now in the thick of the
fight, playing regularly and delivering the goods. J.W. McConaughy, one of the
sporting writers of the New York Journal, has the following to say concerning
McElveen:
Charley Murphy, the president of the Cubs, who isn’t the
best judge of a ball player in the world, says that McElveen is the best man on
the Brooklyn team. Charley is a great man to paddle around the circuit and say
nice things about teams that his own club is handing an awful lacing, so you
mustn’t figure that he means everything that he says.
But in this case he came just this close to the truth:
McElveen and McMillan, two new men in the league, is a pretty good bet that the
Dodgers have set the pace for the Dodgers in this series with the Cubs, and if
the rest of the team had played up to it, it wouldn’t have lost the odd game.
[sic]
These two children in the league uncorked the biggest bottle
of ginger in this series that has astonished Washington Park since the days of
the old Superbas. And about nine-tenths of the fire that broke out against the
Cubs in this campaign you can lay to McElveen and McMillan.
Not forgetting that this is all about the two young infielders
maybe you would like to know what Mr. Murphy thinks of McElveen. If you feel,
after reading it, that you want to rush to a typewriter and file a denial,
remember that Chance picks the ballplayers for the Cubs.
“I think that McElveen is the best ballplayer on the
Brooklyn team,” said Mr. Murphy. “He is a better third baseman than Lennox. The
records so far show that he isn’t as good a hitter, but he has certainly hit
hard enough against us. I think he is a faster man than Lennox at running up on
slow ones.
“But the best thing about him is that he plays baseball with
his head. You have only to watch him through a game or so to see that he is
thinking all the time. He is trying to outguess the batter or baserunner every
second, and he never loses his head. Many a veteran third baseman, after making
a phenomenal pickup like that one hand lift he made on Schulte the other day
would have snapped the ball to first without taking a look. But this kid saw
that he hadn’t the slightest chance to get Schulte, and a slightly wild throw
would have let in a run.
“I think that is where he has it on Lennox—the headwork. He
uses better judgment on the bases. There is no comparison of the two men as
baserunners.”
All of which probably means in a roundabout way that Murphy
would like to get Lennox. Lennox’s main trouble on the bases this year has been
a bad hip, and most of his other troubles can be laid to a rather noticeable
attack of ingrowing self-esteem. He is one of the finds of the year.
If you didn’t see the two Macs guard the left wing of the
Dodgers’ first line of defense in the series against the world’s champions you
missed something. They did not miss a thing. “Mac” McElveen made a wild chuck
the other day and let the Cubs tie the score, but he broke up the game a little
later. “Mac” Millan muffed a liner yesterday, but it didn’t do any harm, and
you should have seen some of the things he didn’t muff.
McElveen is about as vivid a piece of work in getting a slow
baseline twister across to first as we have around here just now. He puts his
glove hand inside of his shirt when one of those comes along and plays third
base with one hand. When things are dull on that side of him he leans over in
front of McMillan and takes all sorts of things away from “Little Mac,” who is
too good natured to squeal. And a third baseman is entitled to all the
territory he can grab, anyway.
From the Knoxville Sentinel, September 10:
Listen to this one on Humpy McElveen, our Humpy. In a recent
game in New York Humpy was rushed to the club house. As Umpire Kane was
applying the kibosh sign to the local favorite, Umpire Reigler [Rigler] rushed
up and cried, in a voice that shook the rafters of the grandstand: “Yes, that’s
right. He asked me to can him a half hour ago, over the side lines.” Humpy,
just a word with yuh. Don’t trust any more secrets to the umpire, especially
when the president of your club is around. You haven’t all the long green
cornered, you know.
Humpy hit .198/.242/.271 in 258 at-bats in 81 games and was
nowhere near the best player on the team.
Humpy re-signed with Brooklyn for 1910. The highlight of his
spring training was on April 2, when the Dodgers played a game against the
University of Tennessee in Knoxville. From the Knoxville Sentinel, March
30:
From present indications one of the largest crowds that ever
witnessed an exhibition game in the city will see the Vol-Brooklyn game next
Saturday. Hundreds of fans from Morristown and vicinity are coming down to see
Humpy McElveen, while the city fans are anxious to see Bergen, Rucker, Jordan,
et al., in action.
Knoxville Journal & Tribune, April 4:
“Humpy” McElveen, who was kept busy shaking hands and
exchanging greetings with his old friends Saturday afternoon and night, left
the city at 5:30 a.m. for Jefferson City, where he expected to spend yesterday
with homefolks. He will rejoin his team mates at Washington Tuesday morning.
According to the talk of the Brooklyn players, who were here for three days,
“Humpy” will be a “regular” on the team this year.
On April 19 the census was taken in Jefferson City. Humpy is
living on Branner Avenue with Anna, brothers Hugh (farmer) and Lee (no
occupation), and Hugh’s wife of one year Minna and their daughter Annetta.
Humpy actually started the season on the bench again, but he
did play a lot of third base in May due to an injury to Lennox. On May 2 he
singled in the eighth to break up a no-hitter by the Giants’ Christy Mathewson;
on the 4th the Brooklyn Times-Union reported:
Emslie Says McElveen Got Hit
Many of the New York baseball writers had unkind things to
say about Brooklyn’s official scorer for giving “Humpty” McElveen a hit in the
New York-Brooklyn game on Monday, which they declared cheated Mathewson of a
no-hit game. According to Robert D. Emslie, who made the base decisions, the
scorer was justified in giving McElveen a hit on his grasser to Devlin in the
eighth inning. Emslie was the nearest man to the initial sack when the play was
made, outside of the players themselves, and was in a position to decide
whether or not Mathewson should have been credited with a no-hit game.
On July 3 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran a feature in
which they asked local sports figures to predict the outcome of the next day’s
Jack Johnson/Jim Jeffries “Great White Hope” heavyweight championship boxing
match; Humpy was one of those polled:
JEFFRIES THE FAVORITE AMONG BROOKLYN SPORTS
White Man Is Almost Unanimous Choice of Local Sporting Men.
VERY FEW PICK JOHNSON.
Most of the Men Who Follow Fights Expect Quick Defeat for
Negro.
…Pryor McElveen—I hope that Johnson gets an awful beating. I
think that Jeffries will turn the trick…
Brooklyn Citizen, August 3:
“Humpy” McElveen was the only Superba who didn’t enjoy the
day’s doings. A vicious line drive from Ed Konetchy’s bat landed on the “Night
Rider’s” solar plexus and “Humpy” had to be carried off the field by the Red
Cross brigade, headed by Doc Scanlan. It was some time before “Mac” came to.
According to George Bell “Humpy” didn’t know what had happened to him when he
recovered. Big George is somewhat of a jollier, so he told “Mac” that a horse
had kicked him.
“How did the horse get on the field?” asked McElveen.
“He just ran through the gate and seeing you at third base
gave you a kick,” declared Bell.
“That’s funny. I don’t remember any horse kicking me,”
replied McElveen.
After a while the other players told McElveen how he had
been knocked out by Konetchy’s line drive.
In their August 6 issue Sporting Life started running an ad
for sets of “Picture Cards of Base Ball Players;” Humpy was one of the players
listed, and would remain so for the next year. On September 29 the Brooklyn
Times reported:
There being no game between the Brooklyns and Chicagos
yesterday, the players amused themselves in various ways. A quartet of
Superbas—Pryor McElveen, Cy Barger, Jack Dalton and Bob Coulson—ran over to the
Grand Central alleys to shoot the ducks. While they were practising curves,
hooks and straights to put the little pins out of commission, in strolled Pop
Anson. None of the youthful Brooklyn heroes ever had had the pleasure of
meeting the grizzled veteran who had laid aside the spangles ere they were in
their teens, and it pleased them mightily to get acquainted with the greatest
baseball player of his day. While the horsehide tossers were engaged mowing down
the ducks on one set of alleys, Gene Finnegan and Tim Donohue, the steeplechase
jockeys who have nothing to do these autumnal days since the reformers, real
and otherwise, have put the kibosh on racing, and Puddin’ McDaniel, the flat
rider, were working overtime on another brace of maple strips. It was close
scoring between the ball fingers [sic] and the pigskin artists, and after
totals had been compared, and it was found the diamond stars had done the most
effective execution, the saddle mechanics declared it was only natural they
should be the better pinners since curving and hooking bowling balls was second
nature to a baseball exponent. They pine for a match, and Billy Cordes will
arrange it for them, and have Anson umpire it. There will be tall doings when
the event comes off.
Humpy played third base regularly for the final five weeks
of the season, while Lennox was only being used as a pinch-hitter. He hit
.227/.307/.305 in 213 at-bats in 74 games, mostly at third base. After the
season he signed a 1911 contract and returned to Jefferson City.
Ed Lennox was sold to Louisville over the off-season, so
Humpy went into spring training 1911 expecting to be the third baseman.
Sporting Life reported in their March 11 issue:
The principal tasks to which [Manager Bill] Dahlen fell heir
was [sic] to reconstruct an infield that was as full of holes as the top of a
pepper can. There are other ball players than McElveen who are looking for a
chance to play third, and possibly some of them will get the opportunity, but
McElveen is not worrying, for it is about two to one that he will stay with the
team all of the year, as he is valuable in an emergency, and there may be
emergencies this year as there have been in the past.
However, as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on
March 25:
The other old timer, so to speak, who is in danger of being
crowded out by a new comer is Pryor McElveen. “Heine” Zimmerman seems to have
it on Mac in the race for the third base job; at any rate, Dahlen is using Zim
regularly in the exhibition games, to the apparent exclusion of McElveen. Zim
appears to outclass Mac in fielding the far corner, being able to cover more
ground and judge plays better. Mac can simply murder speed, a fact shown by his
slugging at Hot Springs; but the big league pitchers are not serving up that
sort of stuff during the championship games, so Pryor is a bit handicapped.
Zimmerman has been clouting the ball regularly against good pitching in the
exhibition games so far, and appears to have third base clinched. He has
crowded out Lee Quillan, too, although the latter may perk up and show
something when the real campaign begins. He had better move fast, however, if
he hopes to displace the Newark recruit, who is not only there with the goods,
but is full of ambition and ginger as well. That sort of thing counts with Bill
Dahlen.
This “Heine” Zimmerman was not the well-known Henry “Heinie”
Zimmerman, who was already a star with the Cubs, but rookie Eddie Zimmerman,
who would hold the third base job until, hitting .185, being replaced by Red
Smith in early September and not playing in the majors again. Humpy, meanwhile,
made the team as a utility infielder. He was used mostly as a pinch hitter
until he got a few starts in late May at second base; the Atlanta Journal
reported on May 27:
“Humpty” McElveen, according to reports from Brooklyn, is to
be sent to Indianapolis in the American association, the Brooklyn management
finally deciding that McElveen was not fast enough for that club. Now to have
it reported that you are not fast enough for the Brooklyn club is handing it
pretty rough to a ball player, at the same time McElveen is probably glad of
the opportunity to get away from the Superbas. He will, no doubt, play good
ball in the American association and in the event that he does show the class
in that strong minor organization he will doubtless be recalled by some other
major league club, and, no doubt, “Mack” will pray that it be some other club
than Brooklyn.
Humpy in fact did not go to Indianapolis, but on June 5 he
was traded to the Montgomery Billikens, returning him to the Southern
Association. Grantland Rice wrote in his Atlanta Journal column of June
11:
McElveen Goes Back.
Only one defect has prevented Humpy McElveen, the
ex-Volunteer third sacker who has been with Brooklyn since he helped Bill
Bernhard trim New Orleans out of a pennant, from ranking among the best. This
defect was lack of speed.
So the tip has been flashed that Humpy goes back to Dixie in
exchange for Jud Daley. The chances are the hard-hitting Tennessean will not come
back up again, for while he can still hit and field up with any of them, his
inability to start quickly and cover enough ground will work against him.
Speed is the leading factor beneath the big tent.
Speed-speed-and still more speed, is the daily cry. Cobb, Speaker, Jackson,
Milan, all are like gray streaks and this fact has more than tripled their
effectiveness.
This spring Humpy has broken up several games for Brooklyn
by his hard and timely batting but to ever get back up he must develop the
knack of faster foot work and especially quicker starting.
If Humpy can develop this part of the game there is no
reason why he shouldn’t come back up again.
A couple days before, on the 9th, the Birmingham
News had passed this along:
“Humpty” McElveen didn’t play yesterday afternoon, but will
probably be in the game, according to a statement this morning by Manager
Dobbs, today. However, the old Volunteer gave the fans an exhibition of
knocking out flies before the game that beat anything that has ever been seen in
these parts. “Humpty” repeatedly stood at the plate and knocked flies over the
scoreboard and the bull, and on one occasion he shoved one up against the
center field fence. If he hits pitchers like he knocks out flies, he will have
scored about three dozen home runs before the season is far advanced.—Nashville
Banner.
Humpy played right field for his first week in Montgomery,
then settled in at shortstop, missing about a week after an opposing player’s
spikes opened up a long gash in his leg on June 27. He hit .276 and slugged
.399 in 308 at-bats in 88 games. A Montgomery Journal article on the
team’s prospects for 1912, reprinted in the September 20 Birmingham
Age-Herald, said:
Humpty McElveen is reserved at short, and if he plays
baseball next season it will be in Montgomery. However, Humpty says he has
given up baseball and will engage in the automobile business next season in his
home town in Tennessee, but it is usually the case that the “next season” finds
the baseball player back at the old stand. If Humpty comes back next year he
will cover short and the position will be well taken care of.
In February 1912 it was reported that Humpy might be moved
to third base. The Brooklyn Citizen reported on March 24:
LOUISVILLE March 23.—It leaked out the other day that
“Humpy” McElveen got away with a fine little story in explaining to the natives
down here why he failed to stick in the big show. “Humpy,” it is said, told his
friends that he was “canned” because he had a run-in with Manager Dahlen and
“hung it on” “Bad Bill.” The Southern fans believed it, too.
Humpy started the season playing third for Montgomery and
batting fifth, but by the middle of May he was playing short and batting third.
On May 21 the Atlanta Georgian had this to say in its story on the
previous day’s Montgomery at Atlanta game:
There were several occasions when a little hot-footing might
have been useful, especially in the ninth inning when it took three clean
singles and a sacrifice fly to score one man. This man was “Humpty” McElveen.
“Mack” singled, went to second on Elwert’s single, to third on Danzig’s single
and home on Coles’ fly out to Bailey. There is something wrong with base
running like that.
In June Montgomery traded Humpy to Atlanta. Montgomery
Times, June 13:
McElveen Talks.
Humpy McElveen, the Billiken infielder, who has been traded
to the Atlanta club for Paige, Sykes and $1,000, was in Montgomery this
morning. Humpy will join the Atlanta club today in Atlanta. McElveen is one of
the best players who ever wore a Montgomery uniform, and there will be a large
number of baseball fans who will regret his departure. However, it is thought
in a number of quarters that the deal will strengthen the fading Billikens.
Danzig quit the team while on the road, according to McElveen, and Sykes will
replace him on first base. McElveen expressed himself as being satisfied with
the move and intimated that there is quite an amount of internal dissension in
the ranks of the Billikens.
Humpy played third for Atlanta; he started out batting fifth
but was moved to cleanup. The Atlanta Journal commented on this in their
June 29 edition:
Batting Order Given Change And Club Won
…Humpty McElveen lived up to what is expected of him in his
new position in the batting order and drove out three scorching singles. All
came at the right time and were of the undeniable kind. Humpty is a good hitter
and is proving that no mistake was made when he was bought.
In Atlanta on the evening of July 4, after a game between
the Billikens and the Crackers, Humpy was attacked by the Montgomery manager
and three of his players, as recounted here in the next day’s Atlanta
Journal:
McElveen Is Assaulted By Johnny Dobbs
Montgomery Manager Aided by Three Players in Fight With
Atlanta Player—All Are Placed Under Arrest
T.[sic]M. (Humpty) McElveen, third baseman for the Atlanta
ball club and formerly with the Montgomery Club, was assaulted in front of the
Aragon hotel Thursday evening at 8:30 o’clock by Manager Johnny Dobbs, Norman
Elberfeld, Joey Bills and Raleigh Aitchison, four members of the Montgomery
club. As a result the Atlanta player is badly beaten up and Manager Dobbs and
Elberfeld are out on bond to appear in police court Saturday morning while
Bills and Aitchison were served with copies of charges for their part in the assault.
The attack made on McElveen was entirely without
provocation, according to the Atlanta player, while the Montgomery manager
claims that he was forced to fight McElveen in view of the many vile stories he
had circulated in regard to him. The other Montgomery players were not
concerned in the rumors charged against McElveen, their part in the affair
being to help their manager whip the Atlanta player.
The fight first started as McElveen was seated in a chair in
front of the hotel. He was unaccompanied when suddenly Elberfeld snatched a
chair from under him and Dobbs struck him a stunning blow in the face as he
fell towards the sidewalk. McElveen at once arose, according to eye witnesses,
and knocked Dobbs to the pavement, when suddenly Elberfeld, Bills and Aitchison
all attacked him.
Seeing that he would be overpowered by the four Montgomery
players, McElveen fought his way back into the hotel with the Montgomery
players hot after him. In the hotel one of the proprietors attempted to
separate the combatants with the result that Elberfeld struck at him. The fight
continued until Joe Agler, another Atlanta player, arrived with a friend that
the fight was stopped and the Montgomery players beat a hasty retreat down
Peachtree street towards their hotel.
When seen Friday morning McElveen made the following
statement:
“Dobbs’ attack on me was entirely unwarranted and
unexpected. We had always been the best of friends. He approached me in front
of the hotel on Thursday evening and accused me of circulating vile rumors
regarding him, which I readily denied. A few words passed between us when
suddenly Elberfeld kicked the chair from beneath me and Dobbs struck me as I
was falling. Bills and Aitchison both took hands in the fight when I had
knocked Dobbs down and seeing that they outnumbered me four to one, I retreated
to the hotel.”
Here is what Dobbs says of the fight:
“McElveen has circulated so many vile rumors regarding me
that I just had to fight him and thought the best time and place was after the
game here. No one took a hand in the fight but myself, the Montgomery players
only being present to see that fair play was handed me.”
The fight has caused much talk in baseball circles and may
result in more trouble. Elberfeld has long been regarded as a “rowdy” player,
while the part of the other was quite a surprise, Dobbs, Bills and Aitchison
having previously conducted themselves properly. All of the Atlanta players are
wrought up over the fight and threaten to take the matter in their own hands,
believing that it was cowardly for four players to jump on one man and beat him
up.
The New Orleans Times-Democrat story stated
“McElveen’s nose was broken and both eyes blackened.” The Journal
followed up the next day:
DOBBS AND ELBERFELD FINED; SOME ONE IS DUE WHIPPING
On the charge of assaulting and beating up Humpty McElveen,
of the Atlanta club, in front of the Aragon hotel Thursday evening, Manager
Johnny Dobbs, of the Montgomery team, was fined $50.75 in police court Saturday
morning, and Kid Elberfeld, of the same club, assessed a fine of $25.75. Both
plead guilty to the charge, and though there was no one on hand to prosecute
them, the fine was stuck to them.
During Friday McElveen decided to drop all court proceedings
against the pair who attacked him, and make a personal affair of it. While he
did not appear in police court, he has not forgotten the trouble, and some one
is coming in for a sound beating, and that rather quickly…Not only is McElveen
sore over the way he was attacked, but all members of the Atlanta club and some
of their warmest personal friends are up in arms, and something is liable to
break loose at any time.
According to eye witnesses, the assault was the most brutal
imaginable, Dobbs taking three of his players to the hotel with him when he
started the attack on McElveen, when they all took a hand and badly beat up the
Atlanta third baseman. Kid Elberfeld, known over three leagues for his rowdy
work, was one of the ring leaders in the entire trouble.
McElveen may be able to continue playing.
That same day, the New Orleans Picayune had a
different slant:
DOBBS AND MCELVEEN FORGIVE.
ATLANTA, GA., July 5.—Police cases resulting from the
fisticuff between Manager Johnny Dobbs, of the Montgomery club, and Third
Baseman McElveen, of the Atlanta club, last night at a local hotel, will not be
tried in court. The principals, it is stated, reached an agreement to-night to
bury the hatchet. Manager Hemphill, of Atlanta, declared no friction is
expected between the players of the two clubs in the remaining games of the
series.
On July 12 the Picayune ran the following brief item:
“Humpty” McElveen, of Atlanta, proposes to make it a
personal matter with Jawn Dobbs when he recovers from the beating received from
Dobbs et al.
Humpy returned to the lineup on July 13. On July 22 the two
teams started a series in Montgomery; that day the Atlanta Journal
reported:
Both clubs are mighty anxious to win this series, on account
of the row between certain of the Billiken players and Humpty McElveen when the
Pretzels played recently in Atlanta. There are no sore feelings at present, but
the trouble brought on a keen rivalry between the two clubs, which is expected
to evidence itself in the form of hard playing during the series.
On August 5 the teams began another series, this time back
in Atlanta. From that day’s Journal:
Crackers Will Open Series With Billikens Today
By Percy H. Whiting
…The Billikens open today. The suggestion that the entire
team be put under bond to keep the peace has been dismissed as unnecessary, but
Cracker players are likely to hunt in couples until the blood thirsty Dobbs and
his two-fisted cohorts have departed.
It will, of course, be recalled that the last time the
Billikens were here a mess of them jumped on “Humpty” McElveen and managed to
pound him a good bit before assistance arrived. There has been much talk of
revenge, but it is probable that the incident has been declared closed by all
concerned…
McElveen seems to be a shade slow for third base, and it is
likely that he will find himself in the outfield next year…
Between the two teams Humpy hit .237 and slugged .317 in 515
at-bats in 142 games, 110 at third and 30 at shortstop. On September 21 it was
reported that the Crackers had announced that Humpy would not be returning to
the team in 1913, and in mid-November he was sold to the Beaumont Oilers of the
Class B Texas League. On December 21 the Atlanta Georgian reported:
A couple of Southern League third basemen who looked like
wonders for a while were Humpty McElveen and George Manush. Both were strapping
big fellows [Humpy is listed as 5-10, 168], smacking hard hitters and afraid of
nothing. In 1907 and 1908 McElveen batted in the .280’s and fielded well,
“Humpty’s” disposition proved to be his worst enemy and, though he had a chance
in the big leagues, he couldn’t make a go of it…
When March came around, instead of heading for spring
training with Beaumont, Humpy stayed in Tennessee. From the March 13 Knoxville
Journal & Tribune:
PROSPECTS FOR BASEBALL
Are Bright With Carson and Newman College.
“Humpy” McElveen is Doing the Coaching Stunt—Season’s
Schedule Arranged.
Special to The Journal and Tribune.
Jefferson City, March 12.—The prospects for a good baseball
team at Carson-Newman look very pleasing. The college has been very fortunate
in securing as coach “Humphy” [sic] McElveen, the big leaguer. The team will be
picked this week from a large number of candidates, who show up well…
Two days later Humpy got a mention in F.J. Bendel’s “Diary
of a ‘Busher’” column in the Newark Star-Eagle:
…Prince Gaskell was telling about a funny one that happened
to Humpty McElveen, who used to play third base for Brooklyn. Humpty was sent
down to Nashville and shifted out to left field one afternoon. He wasn’t used
to the lay of the ground, which had a gentle swell toward the fence, breaking
into a downward slope about fifty feet from the wall. Somebody hit a line fly
and Humpty gave chase. He forgot to take into consideration the fact that he
was mounting higher with every step, and just as he turned to catch the ball it
struck him in the head and bounced over the fence for a home run.
Back to the Knoxville Journal & Tribune, April
20:
“HUMPY” M’ELVEEN IN ROLE OF PITCHER
Special to The Journal and Tribune.
Jefferson City, Tenn., April 19.—In a very interesting game
the Carson-Newman boys defeated the Central high boys by a score of four to
nothing.
“The big leaguer,” Humpy McElveen, pitched for the locals.
He seemed to have the visitors scared so badly that they were unable to connect
with the pill…
At some point Humpy joined the Knoxville Reds of the Class D
Appalachian League, the first time since 1905 that he had been at that low a
level. The first mention I found of his being with the Reds was in the June 13 Knoxville
Sentinel, which showed him playing shortstop and batting cleanup in the
previous day’s game. From the Sentinel of July 4:
“Humpy” McElveen, for some reason or another, is not in love
with Morristown. Recently a fan stated that the next time Knoxville played in
Morristown he intended to go with the team, whereupon “Humpty” replied as
follows:
“You can go along in my place. The farther from Morristown I
go the happier I am!”
The next day’s Sentinel had another Humpy story:
“Jimmy” Burke says that Umpire Brandon does not impose very
small fines. He cites the case of “Humpy” McElveen. When the Knoxville
shortstop got himself in bad with his umps at Chilhowee park Friday morning
Brandon benched him. “Humpy” says he was not fined at all, while Burke insists
that McElveen was fined one cigarette paper. Further mention as to whether the
fine has been paid is not made.
The Knoxville Sentinel’s Month of Humpy Stories
continued on the 17th:
Upon reaching Johnson City Thursday morning, “Humpy”
McElveen was in the midst of things, lending all assistance possible to the
flagman. “Humpy” called out to the station and told the fellows that all old
soldiers left the train at that place. When he made this latter remark he
looked in the general direction of Wallace, Hummell, Knox and other youngsters
on the Knoxville team.
And two days later, another train-related anecdote:
The train which was bringing the Knoxville players back to
this city from Bristol a few days ago halted at Johnson City a few moments,
then began to move back in the direction of Bristol. “Humpy” McElveen was right
on the job with an explanation:
“We are going back to Bristol so that when we start again we
can pass all those stations back there without stopping.”
July 22:
“Humpy” McElveen certainly did wallop that ball in the third
inning. He connected as solidly as the proverbial brick.
July 25:
When a pitcher slows up on “Humpy” McElveen that player just
walks right off the box and waits ‘em out as long as the pitcher in the case
desires. “Humpy” rather surprised Sanford, of Rome, Thursday, and the local
shortstop got an extra ball as a result.
During all this Humpy was playing excellent shortstop. From
the August 29 Columbia (TN) Herald:
M’ELVEEN MAKES FIELDING RECORD
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 26.—Shortstop Humpty McElveen, former
Atlanta and Nashville infielder, now with the Knoxville Appalachian league club
is believed to have established a world’s record for errorless fielding.
From June 21 to August 23 he took part in forty-two games,
during which time he did not make a single error. That Mack don’t shirk the
hard ones is evident from the fact that he accepted in all 250 chances.
Humpy played in 79 of the Reds’ 108 games, all at shortstop,
and led the league in fielding percentage at short. He hit .256 and slugged
.352 in 293 at-bats. On September 8 the Knoxville Journal & Tribune
reported:
Shortstop “Humpy” McElveen, who lives at Jefferson City, has
practically completed arrangements whereby he is to sell automobiles throughout
East Tennessee this winter, and he will probably enter upon his new duties
within the week. He went home Sunday morning, but expects to return to Knoxville
the first of the week.
On September 21 Humpy played shortstop and batted fifth for
Mt. View against the Red Seals in a Knoxville city league game. In October he
appeared on the Knoxville reserve list. The Jefferson City news column in the
December 21 Journal & Tribune listed him in a group of people who
went to Knoxville to see “Ben Hur.” (This was a stage production, not a movie.)
From the Sentinel, January 29, 1914:
It is rumored around here that “Humpy” McElveen has jumped
to the Federal League. “Humpy” is a well known player, and it is just possible
the Federals have made him an offer. McElveen was for many years a star in the
Southern league, and then he went to Brooklyn where he played very good ball.
“Humpy” became very well known around the National league circuit because of
his many clashes with John McGraw, of the Giants. Rarely ever did Brooklyn and
the Giants come together but that “Humpy” and McGraw came together also. Not in
the old fist and skull fashion—but in a war of words, so to speak.
I couldn’t find any contemporary mentions of anything
happening between Humpy and Muggsy. In February it was reported that Humpy had
not signed a Knoxville contract and would likely not play for them. In early
April there was still speculation that he might play in the Federal League,
which was then about to begin their first season as an attempted third major
league. On May 6 the Norfolk Ledger-Star reported:
The [Portsmouth,
Class C Virginia League] Pirate management have been dickering for the services
of “Humpy” McElveen, the former big leaguer who made the best shortstop in the
Appalachian League last season. McElveen played with the Brooklyn Nationals two
seasons ago, having gone up from the Southern League. If they can land him he
will be played on short and the infielder that is coming from Connie Mack will
be at the keystone. Caruthers is the youngster’s name and he may be in the game
this afternoon.
Same paper, two days later:
The Pirates have at last secured “Humpy” McElveen, who they
have been after all the season. Humpy refused to come at first saying he needed
more money, but finally came to terms. He was placed on second in yesterday’s
game. McElveen was in the big league two seasons ago and went to Knoxville in
the Appalachian owing to his inability to hit. He was the fielding sensation of
that League last year.
Portsmouth Star, May 18:
McElveen’s hidden ball trick seems a daily occurrence at the
ball park nowadays. He stung Walters, of Newport News, on it the first of the
week and pulled it on Simmons Saturday. They have got to watch Humpy and not go
asleep on him. He’s in the game all the time.
The newspapers sometimes called the Portsmouth team the
Pirates, sometimes the Truckers, and sometimes the Climbers. The Norfolk
Ledger-Dispatch reported on July 15:
Portsmouth Team Has Another New Manager
The Portsmouth Truckers have another new manager. His name
is “Humpty” McElveen and he plays shortstop. He takes command of the team this
afternoon.
At the meeting of the directors of the Portsmouth club, held
last night Joe Holland, who succeeded Jesse Tannehill as manager of the
Truckers several weeks ago, tendered his resignation and it was accepted.
McElveen was immediately appointed in his place.
Holland was well liked by the owners of the club and the
players, but had not accomplished at much as was expected of him and he
realized this. McElveen declined the management of the team when Tannehill was
in command, but the players like him and he is popular with the fans. He is
also a heady player of more than ordinary ability.
Same paper, next day:
McElveen Is Not Truckers’ Manager
It was reported yesterday that “Humpy” McElveen the
Truckers’ veteran shortstop had taken charge of the Portsmouth Baseball team,
but such is not the case. McElveen said this morning that he had not taken the
club and did not want it. The directors of the team have been trying to get him
as manager and the fans of Portsmouth have long wanted him as manager, but as
yet he has not accepted.
McElveen is one of the best ball players in the league and
has a good knowledge of the game, having been up in the big show with the
Brooklyn Dodgers a couple of years ago and was in the Southern Association for
a number of years being the best infielder on the Nashville team in the year ’08,
the year he went to the National League. If the directors can get Mac to take
the club he will no doubt make a winner of the team.
The directors of the club have no other man in mind yet to
take the club as they think there is a possible chance of McElveen taking
charge. He will act as manager until one can be obtained.
Humpy did finish the season as manager, though I never found
an announcement that he had accepted the job. However he did not make a winner
of the team, as they remained in last place. He played in 121 games, all at
shortstop, hitting .267/.320/.384, the best power season of his career, or at
least the part of his career for which we have stats, hitting 16 doubles, seven
triples and eight homers. After the season he led a team of Virginia Leaguers
against a hand-picked team in Knoxville, then played for league champions
Norfolk against Southern League winners Birmingham.
In October Humpy appeared on the Portsmouth reserve list; in
the December 5 issue of Sporting Life, under the heading of “Decisions
by Natl. Board,” was this: “Claim of P. McElveen vs. Portsmouth, Va., for $175,
allowed in full.”
The Shreveport report in the Sporting Life of March
6, 1915, included:
The contract of P.J. [sic] McElveen, formerly with Nashville
and Brooklyn, has been received. Last season McElveen was with the Portsmouth,
Va.. aggregation in the capacity of manager. He has been selected for the
infield…
Shreveport was in the Class B Texas League. Humpy played in
111 of their 147 games, hitting .255 and slugging .382, with 22 double, six
triples and five home runs. After the season he appeared on Shreveport’s
reserve list, but it seems that his pro career was over. On November 20 he was
mentioned in the Knoxville Journal & Tribune:
While in Knoxville yesterday, “Humpy” McElveen, the well
known baseball player, who is spending the winter at his home at Jefferson
City, received a letter from Dana X. Bible, also a Jefferson City product, but
now director of athletics at Mississippi College, Clinton, Miss.
According to Bible, his team has had a very successful
season…
Dana X, Bible would to on to coach football at LSU, Texas
A&M, Nebraska, and Texas, and is a member of the College Football Hall of
Fame. From the Jefferson City news column of the Granger County News,
August 2, 1917: “Mrs. Anna Lee and Pryor McElveen, Misses Berta Sunderland and
Mary Donahoo and H.R. McElveen and family of Mascot, motored to Tate, Sunday.”
On August 9, 1917, the Brooklyn Citizen had this to
say:
The Southern League, while it has given to the majors some
of their greatest stars, has also turned out some of the finest lemons ever
sprung on the folks in the big towns. Probably the biggest lemon handed the
Brooklyn Club from the Southern League was Humpy McElveen. When Humpy left the
South to join Brooklyn, Southern League fans really believed he was a wonder.
On September 12, 1918, Humpy filled out his draft
registration card. He gives his birth date as November 5, 1880, rather than
1881, which doesn’t match the earlier censuses, or his gravestone. He lists his
occupation as superintendent of mines for the American Zinc Company of
Jefferson City, his nearest relative as his mother, and his appearance as
medium height, medium build, blue eyes and dark hair.
On December 23 of that year, the Knoxville Sentinel
listed Humpy as among the guests at Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Houser’s house in Mascot,
and on November 30, 1919, the Knoxville Journal & Tribune reported
that he had attended a football game at Tusculum College.
The 1920 census was taken in Jefferson City on June 6, and
it shows Humpy living on Branner Avenue with his mother, brother Lee, and
lodger Bertie Sunderland. Humpy is the manager of his own store, Lee is a sales
manager for a grocery store, and Bertie is a bookkeeper. From the Knoxville
Sentinel, April 28, 1921:
“Humpty” McElveen, the former Knoxvillian, and who once
played with the Brooklyn Nationals, is expected in the city Saturday morning to
start his job as coach of the Pioneers. He will be the coach but Grover C.
Davis retains the reins as business manager. McElveen is the right chap for a
coach, knowing the game from all angles, and a fellow who easily makes friends
with ball players, without losing any of his discipline over them. When “Humpty”
arrives from his home at Jefferson City, intense training for the opening of
the Appalachian league season will commence…
I didn’t find anything more about Humpy coaching the
Knoxville Pioneers, and Baseball Reference lists Roy Clunk as manager, so I don’t
know what happened there. In September it was mentioned that he was the
football coach at Carson-Newman College, though at the end of the season a new
coach was announced for 1922. In January he was mentioned as their basketball
coach, and in February as the baseball coach, which he had been previously in
1913. From the Bristol Herald Courier of April 10:
Humpy McElveen, coach of the Carson-Newman team, is a baseball
player of reputation in times past—a former big-leaguer. He has been urged to
accept a post on President Smith’s umpiring staff in the Appalachian League,
but it is not known whether he is considering the proposition seriously or not.
Knoxville Journal & Tribune, May 3:
Humpty M’Elveen Has Resigned As Coach Of Parsons
“Humpty” McElveen has resigned as coach of the Carson-Newman
college baseball team, according to Dean J.I. Reece, chairman of the athletic
council.
Dean Reece stated last night in a long distance message to
The Journal and Tribune that Coach McElveen had not resigned under pressure
from the college.
Sam Doak, ex-Tusculum star athlete, has been appointed coach
of the team for the remainder of the baseball season.
According to Dean Reece, McElveen said that the Lee Sharp trouble
was one of his reasons for resigning. McElveen, however, told the athletic
council chairman that when he secured Sharp’s signature to a Detroit contract,
he did not know that Sharp had previously signed a Knoxville contract, Dean
Reece said.
This placed McElveen in an embarrassing situation, according
to Dean Reece, and the resignation followed…
I didn’t find anything about the “Lee Sharp trouble” previous
to this, but subsequent reports say that Sharp was a pitcher for Carson-Newman
who signed a contract with Knoxville in February. Three days later Humpy got
him to sign a Detroit contract and sent him to the Tigers’ spring training in
Augusta, where Ty Cobb raved about him. The matter was put before Commissioner
Landis, who felt Sharp was not being honest with him and let things hang until
Knoxville agreed to sell Sharp to the Tigers. I found no evidence that he ever
did play professional baseball.
In March 1926 it was announced that Humpy had been hired as
traveling secretary of the Knoxville Smokies of the Class B Sally League, and
was in uniform at their spring training, hitting grounders to the infielders; I
don’t know how long that job lasted. On June 20, 1928, the Knoxville
News-Sentinel reported:
BIG LEAGUE SCOUTS LOOK SMOKIES OVER
Two big league scouts, Bobby Wallace of the Cincinnati Reds,
and Billy Doyle of the Detroit Tigers, have been camping in Knoxville and East
Tennessee for the past several days, letting their peepers see the Sally League
prospects in action.
Doyle brought a promising young catcher, Thompson by name,
from Humpy McElveen, now managing the Pressmen’s Home team at Rogersville,
Tenn. Thompson was with the scout.
The 1930 census was taken April 3. It shows Humpy and brother
Lee, both single and both laborers, living with Anna on Branner Avenue. Anna
passed away on October 4.
The August 29, 1933, Knoxville News-Sentinel
mentioned Humpy as an umpire for the News-Sentinel Jefferson County League, and
the same paper reported on September 7:
Warrants Issued for State Officials in Fish Trap Row
Owner of Device Blown Up by Game Wardens Charges ‘Criminal Trespass’;
Papers for Two To Be Mailed To Nashville.
Deputy Sheriff E.M. Oakes was armed with warrants today
calling for the arrest of Damon Headden, state game warden, and four others who
blew up the Mascot fish trap Tuesday.
The warrants charge “criminal trespassing.”
They were sworn out before Squire Joe M. Logan by Rush S.
Monday, president of the Shearman Concrete Pipe Co., and part-owner and
operator of the trap.
Others named are Horace Lovell, deputy state game warden,
and L.J. Hazzard, state field deputy, both of Nashville; Earl Good, game warden
of Claiborne County; and Humpy McElveen, game warden of Jefferson County.
I couldn’t find any resolution to the fish trap row. On July
28, 1936, the Knoxville Journal mentioned that Humpy was the assistant coach of
“Company 3465, Camp Lynn W. Hoskins, located at the Buffalo Springs game and
fish farm”, which “clinched the baseball championship of sub-district No. 2.”
Apparently this was a unit of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal work
relief program; in early 1938 Humpy was coaching their basketball team.
The 1940 census seems to have missed Humpy and brother Lee.
Humpy next pops up in the Knoxville News-Sentinel of June 9, 1948, in Bob
Wilson’s Sport Talk column:
…Bumped into Humpy McElveen, the old major league star from
Jefferson County, hustling down Gay Street with Pittsburgh Scout Mickey O’Neil.
We stopped for a chat.
“What are you doing now?” I asked Humpy, who starred [?] for
Brooklyn 25 [37] years ago.
“I’m scouting for Billy Meyer,” he replied proudly.
Incidentally, the Pirate manager and McElveen have been
close friends for many years, so Meyer got a chance to put Humpy back into
baseball, the game that he dearly loves, he lost no time doing it.
McElveen, who is scouting in this section, has been on the
Pittsburgh payroll for a couple of months.
That was the only mention I found of Humpy scouting for the
Pirates.
On October 27, 1951, Humpy died of tuberculosis at the Uplands Sanitorium
in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, just short of his 70th birthday. He was
listed as a retired grain dealer; the informant was brother Hugh. The Knoxville
Journal ran an obituary the next day:
MCELVEEN, PRYOR MYNATT (HUMPY)
Age 69, passed away early Saturday after a lingering
illness. Survived by two brothers, Hugh R. McElveen and Lee McElveen, both of
Jefferson City; two nieces, Miss Annita McElveen, Jefferson City, Mrs. Margaret
Dublin of Oak Ridge; one great-niece, Rosa Lynn Dublin. Funeral services Sunday
2:30 p.m. at Farrar Chapel, the Rev. H.N. Barker and the Rev. E.R. Lewis
officiating. Interment in West View Cemetery. Farrar, Jefferson City, in
charge.
And in the November 7 Sporting News:
Pryor Mynatt (Humpy) McElveen, third baseman with the
Dodgers for three seasons and with eight minor league teams, died at Upland
Sanitorium, Pleasant Hill, Tenn., recently after illness of over two years. Two
brothers, Hugh and Lee, with whom he made his home at Jefferson City, Tenn.,
survive.
Born in Atlanta, Ga., November 5, 1880 [1881—his death
certificate said 1883], McElveen broke in with Meridian in 1905, played at
Jacksonville, Fla., in 1906 and Nashville in 1907 and 1908, before he was sold
to Brooklyn for 1909. He remained with the Dodgers until June, 1911, when he was
released to Montgomery. He joined Atlanta in the middle of the 1912 season, was
with Knoxville in 1913 and part of 1914, Portsmouth in 1914 and Shreveport in
1915.
Retiring from the game, McElveen returned to Jefferson City
to work with a zinc company. He also coached at Carson-Newman College.
Brother Lee, still living in the house on Branner Avenue,
passed away on July 9, 1953, and Hugh followed a few weeks later on August 3.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmcelp101.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcelvpr01.shtml
