What You Don't Know About Hoyt Wilhelm
PLUS: COOPERSTOWN'S CLASS OF '24 COULD BE CONSIDERABLE
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
According to Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, Atlanta’s Truist Park is a front-runner for the 2025 All-Star Game even though the game was stripped from the city in 2021 because of Georgia’s restrictive new voting laws . . .
ESPN says Atlanta starter Spencer Strider has the most strikeouts through his first 40 career starts since the pitcher's mound moved to its modern-day distance in 1893 . . .
Wrigley Field, which lasted the Midsummer Classic in 1990, is also on the short list . . .
Arizona’s versatile Ketel Marte, an All-Star in 2019, has not made the team since . . .
Another notable snub this year was Boston rookie Masataka Yoshida, an outfielder whose .377 on-base percentage ranked fifth in the American League when reserves were selected . . .
Reds rookies Elly de la Cruz, Spencer Steer, and Matt McLain were also overlooked . . .
Want to steal a southpaw? San Diego is listening to offers for starter Blake Snell and closer Josh Hader (coveted by Atlanta since A.J. Minter’s latest injury) . . .
First-year catcher Patrick Bailey has been a major factor in the resurrection of the Giants as a force in the NL West . . .
Dodgers All-Star Mookie Betts has started games this year at second base, shortstop, center field, and right field . . .
This was the first year since 2016 that the Orioles had multiple All-Stars . . .
And finally, Rowdy Tellez of the Brewers needed surgery after getting his left ring finger stuck in the wall padding at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark while shagging fly balls during batting practice. The question is why was he doing that anyway? He’s a DH and first baseman who never plays the outfield.
Leading Off
5 Things You Most Likely Didn't Know (or Have Ever Heard) About Hoyt Wilhelm
By Brett Honeycutt
On the near-anniversary of Hoyt Wilhelm's birthday and his being released by his final major-league team, here are 5 things most people never knew about Hoyt Wilhelm:
The headlines across the country on July 22, 1972, told the story: Hoyt Wilhelm had been released by the Dodgers.
That it warranted a story by AP and UPI, and not just a line in transactions, told the importance and likely end of Wilhelm's 21-year career.
The implication of the headlines, sometimes stated and sometimes not, was not only was it the end of long career by the famous knuckleballer (who teammates and media thought was days from his 49th birthday but was really days from his 50th birthday), but that he would never pitch against major leaguers again.
But dig a little deeper and you'll find a surprise.
A few lines down in the Associated Press story was something interesting — almost lost and unbelievable at the same time. Two telling paragraphs (about the fourth and fifth paragraphs down depending on the edit in each newspaper), were these gems:
"The first order of business, however, is helping the Dodgers for the last time. He says he'll pitch batting practice today before the Philadelphia Phillies and Dodgers go at each other and 'I'll work out with them next Wednesday after the All-Star break.' Wednesday, Hoyt will officially be 49."
"The resident of Columbus, Ga., plans to drive home next Friday with his son Jimmy, 14, who had his appendix out recently and can't travel until then."
In reality, that Wednesday, Wilhelm would turn 50 (but it wasn't known until his death on Aug. 23, 2002, and a glance at his birth certificate, that he was really born on July 26, 1922 and not July 26, 1923).
Because his son couldn't travel until the following Friday, Wilhelm had to stay in town. So, he took advantage of that and, with it, he took advantage of history -- by pitching against major-leaguers on his 50th birthday. Although it was practice, he was still in a big-league stadium and tossing the ball at 50 years old.
A story in the L.A. Times read that Dodgers' Al Campanis said Wilhelm would receive the balance of his $30,000 salary and that he would be offered a minor-league pitching coach job with the Dodgers. Wilhelm said he "would consider it."
Although he didn't take the job that season, he did take one with the Braves organization, managing the Greenwood (SC) Braves in 1973 and the Kingsport (TN) Braves in 1974, before taking a one-year break and embarking on a 20-year minor- league coaching career with the New York Yankees, from 1976-1995.
That ended a unique, interesting and magnificent 56-year career in which Wilhelm won two ERA titles (NL, 1952 and AL, 1959), win a World Series (1954), earned eight All-Star nods in three different decades, had five straight sub-2.00 ERA seasons from age 41-45, (1964-1968), broke Cy Young's games-pitched record and became the first pitcher to play in 1,000 games.
As one of his last major accomplishments, he would mentor one of the greatest relievers in the history of the game. In 1990, for example,Wilhelm was the first pro pitching coach for a 20-year-old player named Mariano Rivera.
Other nuggets you likely didn't know about Hoyt Wilhelm:
* A PRO IN 1941: Believed to have entered pro baseball in 1942 with the Mooresville Moors, Wilhelm actually entered pro baseball in 1941. Transactions in The Sporting News and the Kannapolis Daily Independent told the story of Hoyt Wilhelm being released on May 27, 1941 by the Mooresville Moors, along with pitcher Melvin Komenda and catcher Fred Parnell.
Wilhelm graduated from Cornelius High on May 3, 1941, and signed with Mooresville on May 6, 1941, so he spent three weeks with the team. There is no indication he played for Mooresville in 1941, and it's not known what Wilhelm did that summer before he joined the Moors in 1942 and went 10-3 (or 11-3, depending on which newspaper clipping was correct).
* MOORS TEAM ENTERS WWII: By December of 1942, the entire Mooresville Moors team had entered the military during World War II. It was such an interesting nugget that the note ran in newspapers across the country, according to a newspaper article in The Greenville (S.C.) News on Dec. 16, 1942.
* BASEBALL TOSS WINNER: When Wilhelm was in the military, from 1942-1945, he not only played baseball for the 395th Infantry Regiment and won the 99th Infantry Division League title in 1944 after finishing as runner-up in 1943. He also won a baseball throw contest in 1944 at Camp Maxey in Texas, according to a newspaper article in Texas. The competition mainly contested track and field events, but also had a few other events not contested in track and field.
* INJURY SUSTAINED AFTER BATTLE OF THE BULGE: It is known that Wilhelm fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II and earned a Purple Heart for injuries during the war. What is not known and is misreported is that the injuries were from the Battle of the Bulge.
They were for a battle after the Battle of the Bulge, which lasted from Dec. 16, 1944 until Jan. 25, 1945.
A newspaper article in the April 7, 1945, Charlotte Observer read, "S/Sgt. Hoyt Wilhelm, former star pitcher for Mooresville of the N.C. State league, was wounded in action in Germany on March 2. A former Legion junior star at Davidson, he won 11 straight for Mooresville in the 1942 race and was ticketed to go higher when drafted."
Wilhelm’s career was interesting and more than just a knuckleballer who entered the league at 29 years old, hit a home run in his first major league at-bat, threw a no-hitter, and played until days before his 50th birthday.
There’s depth and a uniqueness that piques the interests of casual and ardent fans alike, and admiration for a simple country boy who loves the game and made it his life.
Brett Honeycutt spent 25 years as a journalist — first as a freelance writer for seven years, then on staff at a daily newspaper for 10 years. He then managed a national magazine for nearly nine years. He is freelancing again, working on various projects, including directing a high school hall of fame and coaching high school track and cross country and managing the Hoyt Wilhelm Fan Page on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/wilhelm_hoyt
Cleaning Up
Want a Bigger Induction Weekend? Wait Til 2024
By Dan Schlossberg
This is Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, with Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen the lone inductees.
Things should pick up next year, with Todd Helton, Billy Wagner, and first-timers Adrian Beltre and Joe Mauer good bets to win election from the mainstream Baseball Writers Association of America and managers Lou Piniella, Davey Johnson, and Jim Leyland strong contenders for consideration from the Baseball Eras Committee, voting for non-playing personnel from the recent past.
To win election, candidates must receive at least 75 per cent of the vote — an elusive goal when some writers return ballots with just a handful of votes or maybe none at all.
In the last election, Rolen squeaked in with 76.3 per cent of the vote, outpacing Helton at 72.2 per cent, Billy Wagner at 68.1 per cent, Andruw Jones at 58.1 per cent, and Gary Sheffield at 55 per cent. Nobody else topped the 50 per cent plateau, though first-year candidate Carlos Beltran made a strong debut at 46.5 per cent.
Every candidate who scored at least 42 per cent in his first year has subsequently won election.
Also likely to land in the Cooperstown gallery soon are Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia in 2025, Buster Posey in 2027, and recently-retired Cardinals teammates Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina in 2028.
The Hall of Fame roster consists of 342 elected members, including 270 former players, 40 executives/pioneers, 22 managers, and 10 umpires. Some three-quarters of the 75 living members have returned to Cooperstown for this annual weekend of parties, parades, and ceremonies.
Pete Rose is here too, though the career hit king won’t be doing much more than selling his signature. Banned from baseball for allegedly betting on the game, he is also ineligible for the Hall of Fame ballot and unlikely ever to get in without a buying a ticket.
Also excluded are seven-time MVP Barry Bonds, who holds the single-season and career home run records; 354-game winner Roger Clemens, who won seven Cy Youngs; and Curt Schilling, a big-game winner with a big mouth — and enough controversy to keep him on the black list with Hall of Fame electors.
When Bonds and Clemens were on the Eras Committee ballot last fall, their presence overshadowed a pair of deserving candidates in Dale Murphy and Don Mattingly, who not only played the game well but steered far from steroids in compiling their records.
Other than Bonds, who won four in a row, Murphy and Roger Maris are the only eligible players who won consecutive MVP awards but somehow failed to win election to Cooperstown.
I am often asked to list the Top 10 men who should be in Cooperstown but aren’t. The election of Gil Hodges by the Eras Committee took one name off the list but here’s the current one:
Dale Murphy — Mr. Clean of NL, two MVPs, five Gold Gloves, 398 HR
Don Mattingly — 9 Gold Gloves, MVP, batting title, plus .307 lifetime BA
Tommy John — Most wins by any pitcher outside of Clemens not in Hall (288)
Luis Tiant — Big-gamer, 229 wins, 3.30 ERA, four 20-win years, 3-0 postseason
Lew Burdette — World Series MVP, 203 wins as Spahn’s sidekick, 4-2 postseason
Lou Whitaker — 244 homers during 19-year career as Alan Trammell’s DP partner
Charlie Finley — Mercurial, innovative owner whose A’s won 3 straight Series
Wes Ferrell — Six-time 20-game winner, 193 career wins, great home run hitter
Steve Garvey — Ten-time All-Star, twice All-Star MVP, NL MVP, 4 Gold Gloves
George Steinbrenner — Abrasive but impactful Yankees owner changed game
Honorable Mention: Keith Hernandez, Dick Allen, Rusty Staub, Mickey Lolich, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Evans, Darrell Evans, Curt Simmons, Joe Niekro, Thurman Munson.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories & Dreams, and other outlets. He’s also the author of 40 books. Contact him by emailing ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
“It’s meaningful when our players are happy and comfortable. A happy player, a comfortable player, is a good player.”
— Tampa Bay Rays GM Peter Bendix
Shohei Ohtani was the first man to reach 30 homers before July since Chris Davis of the 2013 Orioles . . .
Bobby Bonilla’s deferred contract will keep paying him until he turns 72 . . .
Others with deferred contracts include Christian Yelich, Ken Griffey Jr., Bret Saberhagen, Stephen Strasburg, Manny Ramirez, Matt Holliday, and Mookie Betts . . .
The small-market Tampa Bay Rays have had only two managers since 2006 . . .
Pitcher Zack Elfin, signed last winter for $40 million over three years, owns the largest free-agent contract ever awarded by the Rays.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.