Ice Box Chamberlain

Chamberlain was born on November 5, 1867, in Warsaw, New York. Moving to Buffalo as a child, Chamberlain began to play organized baseball as a teenager. His early professional career included stints with a minor league team in Hamilton, Ontario, and with a Southern League team in Macon, Georgia. As a 17-year-old pitcher with Hamilton, he earned 18 wins and led the league in strikeouts. Chamberlain made his major league debut with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association on September 13, 1886. In early October, Chamberlain was pitching in a game against the Baltimore Orioles when Louisville players began to complain opposing pitcher Matt Kilroy was leaving the pitcher's box when he threw the ball. When the umpire did not respond to Louisville's complaints, Chamberlain's manager told him to run forward out of the box when he let go of his pitches. The move "scared the Baltimore batters out of their wits" and Kilroy did not deliver any more questionable pitches. In 1887, Chamberlain won 18 games for Louisville. The right-hander, who stood and weighed 168 lbs., earned the nickname "Ice Box". Some sources attribute the nickname to his ability to remain cool when facing tough opposition, On May 9, 1888, while pitching against the Kansas City Cowboys, Chamberlain pitched righthanded for the first seven innings and lefthanded for the last two innings. Louisville won the game by a score of 18–6. Chamberlain was traded to the St. Louis Browns in August 1888, having already registered 14 wins for the Colonels that year. He earned 11 more wins in the last six weeks of the season. The series was Chamberlain's last major league postseason playing appearance. ==Middle career==

The Cincinnati Reds talked to St. Louis about acquiring Chamberlain in 1889, but Cincinnati balked when St. Louis asked $8,000 for him. That year, Chamberlain pitched in a career-high 53 games and finished with 32 wins; his win total was the third highest in the league. Browns owner Chris von der Ahe was afraid that Chamberlain would jump to the Chicago team in the new league; the manager of the Browns from the previous season, Charles Comiskey, had been hired there. Von der Ahe agreed to match the $800 pay increase that Chamberlain would have gotten in Chicago. Chamberlain had appeared in five games for St. Louis and pitched in 25 more for Columbus by the end of the season. He finished the year with a league-leading six shutouts. Chamberlain earned a 22–23 win–loss record in 1891. He was the losing pitcher in the last of 485 shutouts recorded in the few seasons of American Association play. In August, he gave up the longest home run that had been hit at Boston's Congress Street Grounds. Chamberlain pitched for the NL's Cincinnati Reds in 1892, compiling a 19–23 record. The 1892 Reds finished with an overall record of 82–68. League officials split the season into two halves and the Reds finished fourth and eighth in the respective halves. Before the 1893 season, Chamberlain indicated his displeasure with the climate in Cincinnati and said that he hoped to pitch for New York or Philadelphia in the coming year. He also said that he would be happy to pitch in Buffalo if the city received a major league expansion team. Chamberlain stayed in Cincinnati for that season and the next one, earning 16–12 and 10–9 records. Two of Lowe's home runs came in the same inning. Lowe hit only 70 career home runs in an 18-year career. ==Later career and life==

Chamberlain had agreed to play for the Cleveland Spiders in 1895, He reported to the Spiders in 1896. The team featured Cy Young and young pitchers such as Cy Swaim and Zeke Wilson. Chamberlain was released after appearing in two games. Chamberlain did not ultimately work for the NL because he was unhappy with the salary that he was offered. He played local semi-amateur baseball in Buffalo and then announced that he was leaving baseball to become a boxer. He challenged Jack Baty, a black fighter, to a boxing match and posted a $500 bet on the fight. There is no record of Chamberlain boxing against Baty or anyone else, and little is known about his life after the major leagues. He did not win any games for Buffalo. In 1904, Sporting Life reported that the pitcher had a brother, F. Earl Chamberlain, who was named a Pacific Coast League umpire. Elton died of colon cancer on September 22, 1929, at the age of 61. He was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. ==See also==