Remembering the Legend: Hobe Brumitt

Published 12:53 pm Tuesday, April 4, 2023

BY C.Y. Peters

     Hobe Brumitt was probably one of the most popular baseball men to ever perform in our area.  He became a manager and piloted Elizabethton to five straight pennants and then won in Kingsport before returning to the game.  Brumitt played outfield part-time in his first season as manager at Elizabethton, leading to a 57-45 season in 1937.  His club finished five and a half games ahead of second-place Johnson City.  The following season his team recorded a 65-36 mark ahead of Kingsport for the title.  In 1940 he finished one-half game ahead of Johnson City to capture the flag. His team went 84-33 to Johnson City’s 84-34.

  In 1941, Brumitt made it five in a row when the Red Sox posted a 73-45 record to win a close race beating Bristol out by a half-game.  In 1942 the local team dropped out of the league following a windstorm that blew the grandstand down at Cherokee Field.  Brumitt would make his final appearance in 1945 when he managed Kingsport to a 73-36 record and a nine-and-a-half game lead over Bristol, giving the Knoxville resident six pennants in seven years.