Ryan's Supple Elbows

Ryan McDonough's Elbows

They're real, and they're spectacular (referring to Ryan's elbows of course).

The High Elbows franchise was berthed in 2004 by long-time team members Ryan "Sausage Paw" McDonough, Ian "Bitchdog" Povlich and Matt "Ron" Holdorf and has gone through myriad name changes and even more sponsor bars including Neybour's on Southport (defunct), The Schoolyard, Waterhouse, Tuman's Alcohol Abuse Center, Cleo's on Armitage, Cleo's on Chicago, Stanley's, J Patrick's, and the 50/50. The High Elbows took the league championship in the spring of 2010 and has played at Union Park for 7 of the 10 years. In its hay-day, the High Elbows team consistently implemented the " number of people times two plus one" rule when ordering beers so nobody was without a beer when they ran out of their first.

In 2013, the team came under new management and decided the team needed some rebranding (also came as a result of the sponsor bar not providing t-shirts). From then until Fall 2015, they were known as the magic elbows.

In an effort to revive team morale and enthusiasm after a challenging spring and fall season, and to pay tribute to resident "old man", the team was dedicated to Ryan's elbows, ever shall they be supple.

Some fun nuggets:

Two fights (one verbal and one shoving)
One pitch that went all the way up and over the pitcher
One cigarette smoked while fielding
Varying theme music for each person for the entire 2006 season
One shattered ankle sliding BACK into third base
Zero DUIs
Featured a hobo team manager for 3 seasons
One good luck, five pound Hershey bar brought to every game of the 2007 spring season