tells the story of the unlikely identity that a person might
Philly batboy, but summarizes have. Its bearer, to the super-
the outsized role superstition stitious, became the karmic played in early major league equal of a shaman or a Gypsy baseball, the opportunities or a Hindu fakir." Combined granted to the physically dis- with the natural superstitions abled in that era, public health of turn-of-the-century scares (including infantile ballplayers, hunchbacks be- paralysis and the 1918 Spanish came a precious commodity in flu outbreak), and the compar- the early major leagues. The atively modern creation of the Athletics of the "$100,000 In- mascot. field" era kept a hunchback, Louis Van Zeldt, as a batboy, Abel begins the book by ac- and A's players would routinely knowledging the lack of a rub his hump for luck before proper paper trail. "His were stepping to the plate. Van not the people that posterity Zeldt's death in 1915 coincided cherishes," he writes about his with Connie Mack selling most subject. "Fifteen years of of his champion players, and THE SHORT LIFE OF searching have turned up no by the next season the last- HUGHIE McLOON: letters, no diary, no memoir, place team needed a good-luck and no offspring of Hughie A TRUE STORY charm. A 14-year-old McLoon, McLoon. This story is based on OF BASEBALL, MAGIC who six years earlier had won what was reported publicly at AND MURDER the Philadelphia Inquirer's the time, which may or may "Scholars' Popularity Contest," not be truth. ... The Front By Allen Abel Page, Ben Hecht's epic smack- joined the squad as a mascot that July, and while the 1916 down of creative, cutthroat 2020, Sutherland House A's would lose a league-record newspapering, debuted on [ISBN: 978-1989555217. 220 117 games, McLoon became a Broadway the day of Hughie's pp. $22.95 USD. Hardcover] fan and media favorite. funeral, after all." Reviewed by Abel offers many examples of According to Abel, the notion Andrew Milner the condescending way re- of the mascot first captured the [email protected] porters quoted McLoon's public's imagination with an speech, making him sound like 1880 French comic opera (La "Rollicking" might not be the the comic strip character Slug- Mascotte). Baseball teams in first adjective that instantly go: "'Some of 'em want yuh ta' the states began seeking out comes to mind to summarize a give 'em the bat with thuh people having dwarfism, physi- biography of a man rendered a handle t'wards the dugout,' cally handicapped boys, or hunchback after a childhood said Hughie, explaining his du- Blacks to use as mascots to im- playground accident and a ties, "an' others want the big prove their fortunes. mascot for the desultory 1916 end pointed that ways, an' still Philadelphia A's only to be shot McLoon became a hunchback others want 'a pick up their dead outside a speakeasy the at the age of three by falling off own — it's funny.'" following decade at age 26. Yet a seesaw at a South Phil- After his stint with the Athlet- that's indeed the perfect word adelphia playground. Abel ics, McLoon tried his hand as a for The Short Life of Hughie writes, "[B]eing a hunchback a sportswriter and later as a McLoon. Veteran sportswriter century and more ago sub- promoter and manager in the Allen Abel's new book not only sumed all the other types of local boxing scene — at the
PAGE 13 - THE INSIDE GAME — Vol. XXII, No. 2
1926 Dempsey/Tunney fight in Philadelphia, McLoon held up the round cards before a crowd of 130,000 — and a café opera- tor. In Prohibition-era Philly, he inevitably found himself in the company of bootleggers. One evening in August 1928, McLoon made a pass at one gangster's girlfriend, who re- buffed him. In retaliation he trashed her apartment. "In daring to imagine himself in the arms of a whole man's woman," Abel writes, "he had gone too far. He had tried to climb through the one-way glass into a world only able to see him as a freak. ... But never had there been an insult like this and it got the better of him." Four days later, McLoon was gunned down in Center City Philadelphia, reputedly by the woman's boyfriend (though nobody would ever be convict- ed in the murder). An estimat- ed 15,000 Philadelphians at- tended his viewing. With cameos from ballplayer- turned-evangelist Billy Sunday, New York Giants mascot Charles Victory Faust, and Ma- rine Corps Brigadier General Smedley Butler, The Short Life of Hughie McLoon conveys the energy of early 20th century ur- ban life and Deadball Era sportswriting. It is an excellent read and would make a heck of a screenplay. Andrew Milner joined SABR in 1984 and has contributed to Baseball’s Biggest Blowout Games and SABR’s forthcom- ing Shibe Park book. He lives in suburban Philadelphia.