Baseball Legend Kid Elberfeld and His Famous Athlete Daughters — The Elberfeld Girls
The Tobasco Kid trained his daughters to be athletic phenoms who traveled the country displaying their abilities
Norman “Kid” Elberfeld was small and scrappy — the epitome of the stereotype that has described many baseball players over the year. He was also nicknamed the Tobasco Kid because of a smoldering temper that saw him get into numerous conflicts, both verbal and physical, during a 14-year big-league playing career. Once his days on the diamond were over, he turned his attention squarely to his children; particularly his five daughters, who he trained into superior athletes and were made famous as the Elberfeld Girls for their feats of athletic prowess.
At just 5’7” and barely exceeding 150 pounds, Elberfeld was a highly regarded infield prospect, who started playing pro baseball in 1892 when he was just 17. In a story that msy be apocryphal, he was so coveted that one scout for the Philadelphia Phillies even recommended his team sign him over another youngster named Honus Wagner. The scorned shortstop went on to have a Hall-of-Fame career with the Pittsburgh Pirates while the player preferred by Philly played a total of 14 games for them before being traded.
