Each of us can quickly offer names of people we would champion as 'great story-tellers.' Personally, I could mention four or five names from my life's journey who could mesmerize others with tales or have listeners in belly laughing-stitches with stories. One such fable fella was the late, Elvin Tappe. El was a Chicago Cubs' baseball catcher from 1954-to-1961 and from 1961-through-1962 he was one of the five 'rotating' mangers employed by club owner P. K. Wrigley. El retired from professional baseball and returned to his home-town, Quincy, Illinois to enter the sporting goods business with twin brother, Melvin. I became good friends with Elvin while I coached basketball at Jacksonville high school from 1977-to-1998. My wife Gerry and I dined with El and his wife, Donna on many occasions. Elvin died of pancreatic cancer in his early 70's, about four years after twin brother Mel succumb of the same disease.
When telling his many baseball stories, Elvin would take his time making special mention of intricate details. Once when elaborating on the pro baseball players' propensity for being superstitious, El told the following story on my WLDS Radio 'Sports Spotlight Show:' He was the starting catcher for the Cubs and Chicago pitcher, Glenn Hobbie was scheduled to pitch. Hobbie was on a win streak and during that win-streak, Elvin Tappe had been the guy behind the plate. On this particular day, Tappe was somewhat under the weather with a stomach flu, which had him running to the toilet instead of running the bases; Tap had a bad case of diarrhea. Hobbie, a most superstitious gent went 'nuts' when he learned that Tappe was not going the catch him this day. Hobbie pleaded his cause with the manager and with Tappe. Finally, Tappe reluctantly agreed to give it a try and be Hobbie's catcher.
Tappe's first at bat found him rounding first base and heading towards second stretching his clunker hit into a sliding double; problem was when Elvin slid into to second he said, "I 'messed' my pants." Elvin was convinced that the 'do-do' stains of the diarrhea would be noticeable in the 'home-white' uniforms. Perplexed, Tappe laid motionless at second base. His manager and team trainer rushed to his side anticipating that Elvin had injured his ankle. The manager quickly inquired, "Is it your bad ankle, Tap?" Tap relied, "No Skip, I 'pooped' my pants." Some 17,000 Cubbies' fans gave Tappe a standing ovation as he was carted from the field on a stretcher. The Chicago Tribune sports page captured the moment with a photo-caption: "X-rays of Tappe's ankle are negative."
When Elvin told me this story, I suggested that he was lucky the sports reporter did not interview the Cubs' equipment/laundry man. Tappe said, "Oh, he was a good friend of mine, he'd had 'no comment.'"
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