Elon Chester "Chief" Hogsett (November 2, 1903 – July 17, 2001) was a professional baseball pitcher who threw with a left-handed submarine motion.
He played in Major League Baseball from 1929 to 1938 plus a final season in 1944, appearing in 330 games, 114 as a starter, compiling a 63–87 win–loss record with a 5.02 earned run average (ERA).
[2] His stepfather was an abusive alcoholic, and Hogsett left home when he was 14 years old, moving to Brownell, Kansas.
[4][1] He claimed to have developed his submarine pitching delivery as a result of his fondness for throwing stones underhanded as a boy.
[5] Hogsett began playing professional baseball in 1925 for the Oklahoma-based Cushing Refiners in the Southwestern League.
[1][4] Hogsett offered a different account to a reporter in 1989, stating he was given the nickname while working as a bellhop in a hotel.
[6] Although press accounts during his playing days sometimes referred to him as a "full-blooded Indian",[7] Hogsett later claimed to be only one-thirty-second Cherokee, "maybe more", on his mother's side.
[3][4] During his major league career in Detroit, Hogsett was reportedly greeted with "war whoops" by the fans at Navin Field when he took the mound.
[8][9] At the end of the 1925 season, the Detroit Tigers acquired his contract and assigned him to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League.
[10] In 1929, he returned to Double-A baseball with the Montreal Royals of the International League, compiling a 22–13 record with a 3.03 earned run average (ERA) in 37 games.
"[3] In 1931, Hogsett was hampered by a sore arm, compiled an 8–5 record in 22 games for Detroit, and spent part of the season rehabilitating with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"[5] He told Hornsby he had not started a game in three years and was concerned that his arm was not capable of pitching nine innings.
[17] He compiled a 5.52 ERA and led the American League's pitchers with six errors and 15 batters hit by pitch.
[14] In December 1937, the Browns traded Hogsett to the Washington Senators in exchange for pitcher Ed Linke.
[10] In 1944, with personnel depleted due to World War II, Hogsett attempted a comeback with the Detroit Tigers.