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| Feb. 28, 2015 Mario Men's 50 451 posts | Tribute to one of the best!!! Just wanted show some respect for one of the greatest HR hitters of all time, RIP Craig Elliott. I remember one season his HR to AB ratio was 1.8 At the time I believe that was the best ever. That would have been around 1988 or so. I remember playing against him and Steele's in Oklahoma City at the Super Nationals in 89. The wind was gailing from left center to home plate 30-40 Mph. The only HR's hit that day was from right center to the right field foul pole. There were 10 HR's hit that day. Mighty Mikle Macenko hit 2 to right center, Craig Elliott hit 2 to right center, Steve Sharp and David Dale hit 2 to right field and I hit 2 to right center. After the game Craig came up to me and said something like "it took a real man to hit HR's today didn't Mayo." That was one only 2 times my team ever beat them guys. Craig was one of those rare atheletes that was able to handle the bat with power like only few could. Mighty Mike and his team mates could tell you the other "Crankerism." Prayers go out to the family in this time of loss. |
| March 1, 2015 stick8 1991 posts | Dale, my first encounter with Craig Elliot was memorable. My first year playing B in 1988 we had a round robin event with several,local Detroit teams along with Steeles. When it came our turn to play them I went out to take the coin toss. Out of their dugout comes this huge man, smiles and shakes my hand (nearly breaking it) and says "Craig Elliot". I froze and said "omg, I use your bat ". The umps go over the ground rules and Craig says to me to just have your pitcher throw it over the plate and they won't hit him. They do the toss and they win the toss. He elects to hit first. I yell back to our team (stroh's) "we got the hammer". After 24 straight home runs we got the first out of the game. That was a whole other level,of ball!! |
| March 2, 2015 grd8sbnut Men's 50 20 posts | Hello Dale, sorry to hear that OKI has broke up. I hope you find another team to compete on soon. also I hear you are a Dudley rep. is that true. good luck my friend. from Dale |
| March 2, 2015 Turbo 34 Men's 50 47 posts | Actually he hit 303 home runs in 390 at bats for a 1.29 ratio in 1983! He was playing for Elite Coating. I remember using the Green Elliott in 1985 and 1986. One heck of a bat at that time. |
| March 2, 2015 Nancy Allen Men's 55 1438 posts | Turbo, I did not know Craig, and I mean no disrespect to him or you, but that means that he was batting just under 80 percent home runs which is still very impressive and bests most people's on base percentage. I hope he hits even more in that big game upstairs. He is definitely in good company there. |
| March 2, 2015 Mario Men's 50 451 posts | Dale yes I am. |
| March 2, 2015 Graphite 56 posts | As a 73 yr. old,I had the pleasure of pitching against Craig in the beginning of his playing days. I've thrown many h.r. balls but never one farther than he hit in Tallahassee sometimes in the 70's. His death makes us Georgians sad. |
| March 3, 2015 Turbo 34 Men's 50 47 posts | No disrespect taken Nancy. When you figure home run frequency you divide the total number of AT BATS by the number of Home Runs hit. No one can have a ratio better than 1.000 since that means you are hitting it over the fence every single at bat. His frequency of home runs was 1 in every 1.29 at bats. When doing batting averages and on base percentages you divide hits by at bats. |
| March 3, 2015 Perl 212 posts | The last time I saw Craig was at the Bowlegs in 2000. He was playing with his son John and they were both hitting it. Craig was pitching, talking trash and at 47 still playing at the highest level. Hard to believe both Craig and his son have passed. Definitely one of the best of all time. RIP. |
| March 3, 2015 twins25 20 posts | Played against Craig at 1985 World Series in Greensboro when he was with Elite Coatings with Freddie Trice, Bill Gatti, Bill Pollack and Charles Wright. As good of a collection of players I've ever seen. We Capitol Insulation beat them but they did come back and double dip us to win the W/S lead by MVP and former Capitol teammate Rick Wheeler. Craig was the most competitive player I ever saw and a true gentleman. RIP |
| March 3, 2015 Nancy Allen Men's 55 1438 posts | Turbo, thanks for explaining. Now I know where you were going with that. I guess that means that my personal HRF is still zero. ;-) I also looked up his obituary, and there are some very nice softball memories listed in the condolences if anyone wants to look at or post to them http://quattlebaumfuneralhome.com/tribute/details/1258/John_Elliott/obituary.html#content-start. Too bad I never had the opportunity to meet him, but I will in the big game upstairs some day. |
| March 3, 2015 softball4b Men's 70 1248 posts | I was playing for a small team out of Rolla, Mo and we drew Craig's team in the St Louis tournament, I think it was 1976 or 77. He proceeded to hit one out in LF, LC, RC, RF. Two years later we played against Steele's. We knew it was going to be difficult because they had barely beat a local St Louis team, after a serious butt chewing, Dave had them out hitting BP after the game. I think Craig hit 30+ out of the park in BP. We got run ruled 32-15 and they only batted twice. Whole nuther level of softball. RIP |
| March 4, 2015 Webbie25 Men's 70 2414 posts | Steele's came to the light air in Albuquerque in 87 or 88. We were the best team in our area and they proceeded to beat us 48-1 Friday night-in 3 innings. Saturday they only beat us 35-22 or something like that, but the distance of those bombs they hit was amazing. Craig came in by helicopter. It also provided me with maybe my most embarrassing moment in softball. After hitting one out the first time up-I promptly hit a line drive off Craig's chest on Saturday. He just looked at me like "What the hell was that?" I wanted to crawl into the ground. |
| March 4, 2015 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | In the mid 90's we played Craig and, I believe, Steeles, at the Twitty. Craig was throwing fastballs and the way he delivered them was to push off of the rubber, releasing the ball when he was a couple of feet off of it. Our pitcher was very vocal to the umpires saying he had to stay in contact with the rubber. The umpires and Craig ignored him. The umpires finally ejected our pitcher because he wouldn't shut up. I don't recall the score but I'm sure we were slaughtered. |
| March 4, 2015 doubleplay2 Men's 55 22 posts | First time i ran into Steeles was in the early 80's. We had just built this great new complex with 325' fences and everyone struggled at first to hit HR's. Steeles came to town for our 24th of July tournament in Salt Lake city. Our all-star team played them on Friday night and i could not believe how big these guys were. The smallest guy was their left fielder, his initials are RP and i believe he still plays on one of the top teams out of California. Then my next shock, they started hitting balls 50' or more out of the park as if they were playing on 200' fences. the pitcher who i later met was Craig Elliot and was he a character, never stopped talking. After awhile we were all laughing and listening to him more then caring about the game. Of course Big Mike was also on that team, i was playing second base and every time he came up i was 30' off the infield. Never mattered he always hit the ball 100' over the fence. Great team but the conductor Craig Elliot was the main man. My prayers are with his family. |
| March 4, 2015 BruceinGa Men's 70 3233 posts | oops, should have said mid 80's. |
