Chattanooga Lookouts
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| Chattanooga Lookouts | ||
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| League | Southern League | |
| Division | North Division | |
| Year founded | 1930 | |
| Major League affiliation | Cincinnati Reds | |
| Home ballpark | BellSouth Park | |
| Previous home ballparks | Engel Stadium | |
| City | Chattanooga, Tennessee | |
| Current uniform colors | red, black | |
| Previous uniform colors | ||
| Logo design | A capital "C" in red outlined in white and black with two cartoon eyes centered over the opening. The "Lookouts" wordmark is centered below in red outlined in black. The word "Chattanooga" is arched above the "C" in black. | |
| Division titles | ||
| League titles | 3 | |
| Manager | Jayhawk Owens | |
| Owner | Frank Burke | |
The Chattanooga Lookouts are a minor league baseball team based near Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. They are named for nearby Lookout Mountain. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds major-league club. The Lookouts play in BellSouth Park, located in Chattanooga. Opened in 2000, the stadium seats 6,160 fans. From 1930-1999, the "Looks" played at historic Engel Stadium led by one of the greatest promoters, Joe Engel.
Joe Engel was one of the worst pitchers ever to play major league baseball. In 1913, he finished third in most allowed hits per game and most batters hit. But he found his calling as a scout, wrangling such legends as Joe Cronin, Bucky Harris, Ossie Bluege, Buddy Myer, Doc Prothro, and Goose Goslin ... all for Washington Senators owner, Clark Griffith.
When Engel first spotted Cronin playing in Kansas City, "I knew I was watching a great player. I bought Cronin at a time he was hitting .221. When I told Clark Griffith what I had done, he screamed, "You paid $7,500 for that bum? Well, you didn't buy him for me. You bought him for yourself. He's not my ballplayer - he's yours. You keep him and don't either you or Cronin show up at the ballpark." Cronin became the best player on the World Series winning Senators club in the early 1930s and even married Griffith's daughter.
Engel found his calling as the president of the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts club in 1930, housed in a stadium bearing his name - Engel Stadium. He held legendary promotions: raffling a house in 1936 to a crowd of 26,000 people in a stadium that seated 12,000; hosting a mock elephant hunt on the field before a game; featured ostrich races; making broadcasters call games while sitting on the back of a camel; and bringing the New York Yankees to town so Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig could face Jackie Mitchell, a 17-year-old girl with a killer side-arm sinker pitch, April 2, 1931.
He was a killer president, demanding the most of his players. Anyone who didn't hit over .300 was sent packing. Engel traded shortstop, Johnny Jones for a 25-pound turkey. He was equally hard on umpires, but playful, too.
In his tenure, the Lookouts won four championships -- three with the Southern Association and a fourth with the South Atlantic League. For a time, Engel led the charge to own the Lookouts privately, with the help of several hundred fans as shareholders from 1938 to 1942. In 1939, as a privately owned franchise under coach Kiki Cuyler, the Lookouts claimed a championship.
Aside from baseball, Engel entered his horse Hallieboy into the Kentucky Derby in 1950. The horse was dubbed as a laughing stock, underdog ... and finished 10th of the 14 horses in the race.
Engel is a legend among baseball owners, a promotional mastermind comparable to Bill Veeck and Branch Rickey. Though often unheralded, he is not forgotten ... not in Chattanooga, or in the heart of the national pastime.
Engel Stadium hosts the deepest center field in the history of ballparks - an astounding 471 feet from home plate.
Notable former Lookouts players have made it to the Major Leagues. Baseball Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron,Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Burleigh Grimes, Harmon Killebrew, and Ferguson Jenkins. Also, Adam Dunn and Jason LaRue currently play for the Cincinnati Reds. Other notable former players include Alvin Davis, Mark Langston, Deion Sanders and Pete Rose Jr. (son of Pete Rose).
2007 will mark the teams' 102nd season of play in Chattanooga.
[edit] External links
- Chattanooga Lookouts official site
- The Chattanooga Lookouts & 100 Seasons of Scenic City Baseball A complete history of Chattanooga Lookouts Baseball
[edit] Related Sites
- Here is the most comprehensive book about Joe Engel ever published - The Chattanooga Lookouts & 100 Seasons of Scenic City Baseball.
- The home of LookoutsBook.com, featuring a children's book about Engel and a 'History' section, including a driving tour that rides right by Engel's former horse farm!
- An interesting narrative from Joe's days as a scout for the Washington Senators!
- Three shorts paragraphs telling three short stories of the always-entertaining Engel.
- The Baseball-Almanac has lots of good stats from Joe's playing days!
- The Baseball Cube has more statistical info on Joe's playin' days.
- Limited information on Joe Engel here.
- Wiki information on Joe Engel's Chattanooga Lookouts!
- Another telling of Engel's wacky promotion, pitting a 17-year-old girl against two Yankee greats.
| Cincinnati Reds Franchise | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | AA | A | Rookie |
| Louisville Bats | Chattanooga Lookouts |
Sarasota Reds Dayton Dragons |
Billings Mustangs Gulf Coast Reds |
| Southern League | ||
| Northern Division | Southern Division | |
|---|---|---|
| Carolina Mudcats | Chattanooga Lookouts | Huntsville Stars | Tennessee Smokies | West Tenn Diamond Jaxx | Birmingham Barons | Jacksonville Suns | Mississippi Braves | Mobile BayBears | Montgomery Biscuits | |
