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Newtracker articles until October 2007. For Jacoby's 2007 Playoff activities, check out: Newstracker: October 2007. 18 articles there as of Oct 27, 2007.
See our Jacoby Watch Blog for the latest news articles on Jacoby each day.
Jacoby took part in, and scored the highest ever points in, a Sparq test. View him in his muscle shirt.
Introduction: the Single Red Sleeve
In his not-quite rookie season (the last month of 2007) Jacoby Ellsbury became noted for his speed both on the base paths and in the field, and the reckless abandon in which he went after fly balls. He also wore a single red sleeve on his left arm. Why?
"I started doing it in Portland, just to keep my arm warm. I've never played baseball where it was so consistently cold for the first month. We had a foot and a half of snow the first couple of weeks. It's just a sleeve, not a shirt. It felt comfortable for me, so it just became part of my daily routine in Portland and continued in Pawtucket."
And now in the Major Leagues.
At the start of the 2008 season, he didn't wear the red sleeve. But he started out slowly, and baseball players being superstitious, decided to go back to it. Is it a coincidence that as soon as he put that sleeve back on, his batting average has begun to climb?
Personal Life
Yes, ladies, Jacoby does have a girl friend, Kelsey Hawkins. An athlete herself, she participated in this year's (2008) Boston Marathon.
Jacoby was honored in his home town after the World Series last year.
His father is the goateed man on the left. Presumably the short woman
on the right is his mother.
(Original caption ID-ed only father)
At the time of this writing, this card is worth $75. |
September 11, 1983
Jacoby McCabe Ellsbury was born on September 11, 1983, in Madras, Oregon (a small town on the east side of Mount Hood), and he and his three brothers grew up there.
His father is a forester, working on the nearby Warm Springs Indian Reservation reservation; his mother, a full-blooded Navajo from Arizona, teaches children in special education classes there. The Warm Springs Indian Reservation is home not to Navajo but to the Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute Tribes.
Jacoby is officially registered as a member of the Colorado River Indians Tribe, with most of its people living on the Colorado River reservation, which straddles Arizona and California. Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo live here.
Warm Springs Indian Tribes website (Oregon)
Colorado River Indian tribes website (Arizona)
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Navajo Grandparents
Jacoby's family on his mother's side is full-blooded Navajo. His grandmother, Alice, was a rug weaver, who lived in Parker, Arizona, on the Colorado River Indian Reservation – 300,000 acres which straddle both sides of the Colorado River, part in Arizona, part in California. Indeed, members of four tribes – the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo – live here.
According to Jacoby's aunt, Esther McCabe, the family can trace its roots back to Ganado Mucho. Mucho was a prominent Navajo during the 19th century – a cattleman and a peacemaker. According to family legend, he once was forced into hiding by Kit Carson, before negotiating a peace treaty. (The name "Ganado," comes from a particular style of weaving blankets.)
| His grandfather was Franklin McCabe (the surname arbitrarily assigned by the U.G. government officials to replace his Indian name, as was the custom of the time). A silversmith when the family lived on another Navajo reservation, he got a job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a surveyor. |
The emblems of the four Colorado River tribes |
He had only an 8th grade education, his wife's formal education ended in the 2nd grade. When her husband died in a car accident in 1973, Alice learned to drive, and learned to speak English.
She raised sheep, in order to obtain the materials to make traditional Navajo rugs, from which she earned her living. She did all the work by hand, from shearing the sheep, carding and then spinning and dying the wool.
Franklin and Alice had 15 children. Marjorie - Margie - Jacoby's mother, was the 10th child.
For more detailed information about the life of Jacoby's Navajo grandparents, see this profile at the Farmington Daily Times: "Blazing a New Trail."
Area around Madras, Oregon |
Jacoby's Parents
At age 8, Margie began attending a Mormon school in Utah, returning home to the reservation in Arizona during the summer. Grown to womanhood, she met and married Jim Ellsbury, a non-Native American (he's of English and German descent) who works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a forester. They got married in Parker, Arizona in 1983 [4].
The Ellsburys moved to Madras, Oregon near the Warm Springs Reservation, where Jim Ellsbury was transferred.
When Jacoby was 12, his grandmother became ill, and his mother returned to her home on the Colorado River reservation in Arizona to be with her - bringing along Jacoby and his three brothers - Matt, Tyler and Spencer. They would stay on the reservation for a year.
During this year, Jacoby played Little League, and caught the attention of Packy Sevada, who along with his brother Bruiser were coaches in the league. |
According to Gordon Edes' profile of Jacoby Ellsbury in the Boston Globe (3/11/2007), Sevada told him: "He had the raw fundamentals to hit a baseball and run like no other in the 18 years I coached Little League. When I'd speak to the team or to Jacoby, he'd be the one to look you in the eye. He had the desire to learn and excel."
Indeed, according to Jacoby's father, "''When he was in second grade, a teacher went around asking students what they wanted to be and he said, 'a major league baseball player.' That got a pretty good laugh, but he's accomplished part of the way there and he hopes to have a future in the major leagues for a long time. Hopefully, the best is yet to come,'' he said." [1]
Jacoby's parents were always supportive of Jacoby's dream. According to his Aunt Emily:
| "They've always been supportive of (Jacoby). "Like any family, if you want your kids to make a name, they have to provide. They paid for his (baseball) leagues, camps and uniforms. They made sure he had the best equipment."
Jacoby is very appreciative of the paths opened to him and his siblings. While many young athletes idolize the superstars filling ESPN's airwaves, Jacoby said his hero was always his father.
"He worked hard and provided for his family. That's a role model to me," Ellsbury said. [4] |
This page last updated May 21, 2008.
The information in this biography is culled from all of the news articles listed on the Newstracker page, which serves as the bibliography. The prose herein, however, is copyright 2007 by The Mudville Megaphone.
This page last updated March 28, 2008.
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