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Skeets Killed by Pitch

By Tom Hawthorn

In the bottom of the first inning, Grand Forks pitcher Vince "Dutch" Clawson retired the first two Winnipeg batters with ease. Next up was Linus Ebnet, the Maroons' shortstop, better known as Skeets or Skeeter. It was another summer Saturday doubleheader at 3,500-seat Sherburn Park, during which an afternoon tilt was followed by a second game squeezed in at twilight.  Collecting admission to entertainments such as baseball was forbidden on the Sunday Sabbath, Depression or no Depression, so the Maroons had to earn money when they could. 

On the mound at 6:45 P.M. on July 16, 1938, a pitcher was about to unleash a pitch which he undoubtedly would wish to have back; on the Winnipeg bench, a manager was about to witness yet another horrifying beaning; at the plate, a young infielder who had been playing professional baseball since age 17 was about to see the final pitch of his life. 

Skeeter Ebnet was a 23-year-old teacher who had only been able to join teammates at the end of the school year.  Earlier in the semester, he had replaced Fr. Dunstan Tucker, a Benedictine priest, as baseball coach at St. John's University at Collegeville, Minn., leading the Johnnies to an 8-3 record.

Jobs of any kind were tough to come by in the Depression. Ebnet was fortunate that his skill with the glove, and a talent for slapping singles, won him work in the Class D Northern League. 

Memories would later differ as to the count on Ebnet -- the pitcher recalled it as 2-0, while most others remembered it as the batter's first pitch. In any case, all agreed on what happened.  An inside fastball rode in on Ebnet, breaking ever sharper as he ducked back, the ball "hitting the Maroon infield ace with a dull, ominous thud." 

The reporter covering the game for the Winnipeg Free Press was Scott Young, at 21 already a three-year veteran with the daily. (He would become one of Canada's best-known sports writers as a columnist, biographer, and author of juvenile fiction. He died on June 12 this year [2005] at age 87. Music fans knew him as the father of rocker Neil Young.) 

"Players of both teams crowded around the prostrate, twitching figure at home plate," Young reported. "Johnny Mostil, Grand Forks manager, forced them back, asking for air.  Water was brought, and towels.  Skeeter, a favourite with fans and players alike, regained consciousness for a fleeting instant, then again his head fell back, he went limp. Four of his teammates carried him from the field to a waiting ambulance, called less than a minute after the accident." 

The scene must have been sickeningly familiar to Bruno Haas, the Maroons' owner and manager.  Two years earlier, on August 27, 1936, at the same park, he saw an infielder with the Superior (Wis.) Blues take a pitch in the face.   George Tkach "dropped like an ox," the Free Press reported, after being struck by Alex Uffelman's fastball. 

Tkach, of Streator, Ill., was taken to Winnipeg General Hospital.   Prospects for his recovery were thought to be bright until facial paralysis developed a few days later.  An emergency operation removed a blood clot from his brain, but he died shortly after noon on September 2. 

The unhappy task of informing his family fell to park manager Arthur Morrison, whose telegram arrived after the player's mother and sister had already left Illinois for Winnipeg. 

As fate would have it, Uffelman was the starting pitcher the day after Tkach's death.  He did not get out of the first inning, as the Fargo-Moorhead Twins romped to a 19-0 victory at Fargo, N.D. 

A coroner's jury examined the body of the second baseman before hearing testimony from the surgeons who treated him.  The doctors concurred he was doomed by swelling after being struck in the upper left jaw.  The coroner's jury ruled the death to be accidental and assigned no blame. 

Uffelman, the pitcher responsible for the fatal pitch, attended the inquiry, but was not called to testify, although his batterymate, Alvin Bennett, did so.  In answering a question from the jury foreman, the catcher said Tkach crowded the plate and, with the count 0 and 2, was likely expecting a curve or slow pitch.  Bennett said the batter seemed to "step into" the pitch as it neared the plate. 

Morrison, the park manager, told the jury he had asked the player in hospital what had happened.  "I guess I forgot to duck," Tkach replied. 

A benefit for the player's family was rained out, so fans were asked to contribute to a fund.  The player was to be buried by his family in Streator. 

For the players on the field when Tkach was beaned, the tragic incident must have seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Two years later, two of those men--Haas and Maroons first baseman Hugh Gustafson--would see another young infielder felled by a pitch. 

The Maroons were a star-crossed team in 1938, suffering from injuries and poor play.  Even Skeeter was not immune. Though he had committed only a single error in his 32 previous games, he bobbled two plays in the opening game of the doubleheader on July 16. The Maroons lost 11-8.  It was not his day, although he did manage two singles in five at-bats to push his average to .280. 

After Ebnet was taken away in an ambulance, Gaylen Schupe, who had been the losing pitcher in the first game of the doubleheader, took his place in the lineup and a spot at third base, while Walter Gilbert filled in at shortstop. (Gilbert would be traded to Superior before the season ended.)  The Maroons scored seven runs in the bottom of the fourth to record an 8-4 win. 

By then, Ebnet had been admitted to Grace General Hospital, operated by the Salvation Army, where he regained consciousness.  "I know what this means," Ebnet told Grace medical superintendent Dr. F. A. Benner, "a fractured skull."

Dr. Benner twice tested fluid from the player's spinal column before an operation was performed by Dr. Oliver Waugh to relieve pressure on the brain.  The beaning occurred on Saturday evening; by early Tuesday morning Ebnet's condition was described as grave.  He was unconscious again. 

That night at Sherburn Park, the umpire, a man named Blieding, called the game for darkness just 65 minutes after the first pitch. The decision, with Superior leading 3-0 in the top of the seventh, was unpopular with the hometown crowd, some of whom heckled the official as he left the field.  The abuse continued after he left the clubhouse to catch a streetcar home.

At least one of the Maroons agreed with the decision.  "It is all right in the field in that kind of light," third baseman Wally Gilbert told reporter Scott Young, "but it's tough batting. I think Blieding had the right idea." 

Austin McCarthy, who had been Ebnet's roommate at college, was saddled with the loss.  He gave up just six hits, although one of those was a two-run homer by 19-year-old leadoff batter Pete Reiser, an up-and-comer who would win the National League batting crown three seasons later with a .343 average for the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

The next day's game was a 11-10 roller-coaster in which the Wausau Lumberjacks survived several comeback attempts before recording the final out with the tying and winning runs on base.  Among those in the stands was Bill Essick, the famed scout whose persistence convinced the New York Yankees to purchase Joe DiMaggio. 

On Thursday evening, as rain cancelled play at Sherburn Park, Linus Ebnet died in hospital.  His passing came at 7:20 P.M.  At his bedside were his parents, Michael and Mayme Ebnet, who had arrived in the Manitoba capital on Monday, as well as this hometown girlfriend, Lorraine (Honey) Wester.   They were consoled by Morrison, the ballpark manager; teammate Wally Gilbert; and owner Haas and his wife, Martha.  A Catholic priest administered last rites.  

A game at Grand Forks against Duluth was interrupted by news of the death, as fans and players stood at attention to observe a moment's silence. 

Back at the Ebnet home in Albany, Minn., Skeeter's siblings--two brothers and three sisters--awaited the return of their parents. "My folks came home with the body," recalled Vernon (Chub) Ebnet, who was seven years younger than the brother he idolized.  "We held a wake at my folks' home.  My dad was very generous with his beer and liquor for the men who joined him in the basement.  That was an agonizing time." 

Michael Ebnet ran several small business ventures, some successful, others less so, to support his family.  His main enterprise was a meat market, where Linus (born April 1, 1915) once injured his left leg with an axe while chopping wood for a fire needed for preparing sausage. 

A growth spurt in the summer between junior and senior year in high school saw a scrawny, pint-sized Linus stretched into a gangly, 6-foot-2 frame. His fielding reflected some of his ungainliness, as he committed 40 errors in 106 games at second base for a .940 fielding percentage in 1933. 

He joined the East Grand Forks (Minn.) Colts in the Northern League's inaugural season at age 17.  He had 81 hits, including a dozen doubles and a triple, in 363 at-bats for a .223 average. 

He had family along the Manitoba-Minnesota-Wisconsin-South Dakota circuit, and a cousin, Ambrose "Lefty" Ebnet, pitched for the Maroons. They played together in Winnipeg in 1937. 

As he matured, growing into his body, Skeeter displayed the good range and true arm that would be his trademarks.  Despite his height, he rarely displayed power of any kind. 

Baseball was a summer job for a St. John's student whose dream was to be a dentist.  Skeeter had "a nice, easygoing personality," remembers brother Chub, and "didn't have an enemy in this world." 

Similar tributes were received as word spread of the death. "Skeets Ebnet, whose tragic death is so greatly deplored, was the type of player who has made baseball so popular," Free Press sports editor Bill Alien wrote in his "Snapshots on Sport"  column.  "A hustler and hard fighter every minute he was on the field, he never forgot his early training, and his demeanor was such as to make him a general favourite." 

"He was a really good ball player and genuinely fine chap," E. A. Armstrong wrote in his column, "In the Realm of Sport," on the same page. 

At Sherburn Park, flags were lowered to half-staff, while the Maroons cancelled a Friday game against the Duluth Dukes.  At Grand Forks, players from the home team and the visiting Superior' Blues joined a crowd of 2,000, the largest of the season, in standing at attention for a brief memorial service. 

Grand Forks manager Johnny Mostil, a former Chicago White Sox centre fielder so fast he once caught a foul ball, said of Ebnet: "He was a gentleman, both on and off the field." (The same could not be said of Mostil, who had an affair with the wife of teammate Red Faber, a future member of the Hall of Fame.  The affair led to Mostil's attempting suicide by slashing himself with a razor during spring training in 1927.) 

Dutch Clawson spoke about the fatal pitch.  "It was entirely an accident and unavoidable," he said.  "There were two balls called on Skeets at the time, and my only thought on the third pitch was to get the ball over the plate--but it broke inside and Ebnet ducked into it." 

Chub Ebnet, who was 16 at the time of his brother's death, remembers his mother being devastated by the loss of her middle son. 

"When they closed the casket, someone reminded my mother she had two other sons.  She couldn't be consoled, of course."

A requiem mass officiated by two of Skeeter's former St. John's teachers was held at the Church of the Seven Dolors, a magnificent building with carved oak pews facing a 37-foot butternut altar. 

Among the pallbearers was Austin McCarthy, his old roomie and Winnipeg teammate.  The day before, the Maroons had swept a Saturday double-header from the Dukes while wearing black crepe armbands out of respect for their fallen comrade. McCarthy's older brother Eugene would be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958 before campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination as a peace candidate in 1968 during the Vietnam War. 

Austin McCarthy was one of the stars of the Johnnies' 1936 rotation, joined by lefthander Ernie Sowada and fellow righty Vedie Himsl, all of whom were offered professional contracts. None made the majors as a player, although Himsl, who died March 15, 2004, at age 86, was part of the Chicago Cubs' notorious College of Coaches experiment of 1961, going 10-21.

The other Maroon in attendance at the funeral was owner Bruno Haas.  Back on June 23, 1915, the stocky pitcher hurled his way into the major-league record book while making his professional debut.  Haas, a recent graduate of Worcester (Mass.) Academy, pitched the second game of a double-header for the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park.  In nine innings of work for Connie Mack, Haas issued 16 walks to New York Yankees batters, a record-tying mark for incompetence. He also threw three wild pitches and committed an error in taking the 15-7 loss.  He only pitched another 5 1/3 innings that season, ending his big league career with a 11.93 earned-run average. 

He found redemption on the diamond as an outfielder, batting .323 over 11 seasons with the St. Paul (Minn.) Saints.  Haas, who stood just 5-foot-9 and weighed 190 pounds, also played pro football, scoring a touchdown as Jim Thorpe's teammate on the Cleveland Indians in 1921, as well as pro hockey, as a spare goaltender for St. Paul of the American Hockey Association. 

Haas brought the Northwestern [Northern] League to Winnipeg for the 1933 season, hitting .241 as owner, manager, and outfielder. He sold the club for just $12,000 in 1939. 

Manitoba coroner Dr. H. M. Speechly conducted an inquest in Winnipeg the day after Ebnet's funeral. A coroner's jury returned a verdict of accidental death, adding a recommendation that a doctor be present at all games at Sherburn Park.

It is not known if this second coroner's jury was aware of the similar incident two years earlier in which Tkach died after being struck by a pitch. 

In any case, on the same night as the inquest was held, Eau Claire manager Ed Gharitty was ejected from the game by umpire Blieding.  In the bottom of the tenth inning, with the score tied 1-1 and the bases loaded for the home side, the last of the game balls was fouled into the stands.  The umpire introduced a shiny, new ball, which Gharitty felt would be an advantage for the Winnipeg batters.  As he argued with the ump, one of the used game balls was tossed back onto the field. The manager tossed it to his pitcher, but the umpire ordered the pitcher to use the new ball. 

Gharitty was tossed from the game and, when he refused to leave, the umpire spun around to face the grandstand. "Ladies and gentlemen, I forfeit this game to the Winnipeg club," he said.  The manager was fined $15. 

Considering a two-minute silence in Ebnet's memory was observed by players and fans midway through the game, the dangers of pitching a soiled ball at dusk should have been obvious. 

At the end of the season, Clawson's record was 1-7 in 17 games. He recorded more bases on balls (51) than strikeouts (36). He also threw five wild pitches and plunked six batters. Ebnet's season totals included a lone hit by pitch, the final entry in an interrupted career. 

Sources:

Borgo, Anthony. "Mostil was the Mostest,"

            www.whiting.lib.in.us/Johnny%20Mostil.htm

Ebnet,Vernon "Chub." March 21, 2005 interview with the author.

Filichia, Peter. "Professional Baseball Franchises: From the Abbeville Athletics to the Zanesville Indians," New York,

            Facts on File, Inc., 1993.

Gorman, Bob. " 'I Guess I Forgot to Duck': On-Field Player Fatalities in the Minor Leagues."  Nine. Spring 2003, 11,

            no. 2, pp. 85-96.

Rogers, C. Paul III. "Of Outfield Walls and Concussions: The Pete Reiser Story." Elysian Fields Quarterly, Summer

            2002.

Spalding Official Base Ball Guide, 1934.

Spalding Official Base Ball Guide, 1939.

www.baseball-almanac.com/mgrtmcc.shtml

www.baseballlibrary.eom/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/M/Mostil Johnny.stm   

www.ggh.mb.ca/BlueHistory.html

www.mbhof.ca/inductees-1998.htm

www.minorleaguebaseball.com/pages/?id=38

www.stcdio.org/parishes/sevendolors/history/index.htm

www.users.csbsju.edu/physplant/baseball.html

[Tom Hawthorn is a reporter and magazine writer who lives in Victoria, B.C.   His nickname is E5.   You may visit his web site at:  www.tomhawthorn.com ]

[This essay originally appeared in the 2005 SABR publication "Dominionball - Baseball Above the 49^th" and it appears here with the consent of the author.]