October 14, 2007
Hoyt Wilhelm finds greatness away from home
By O.C. Stonestreet
Some people rise to their potential on their home turf. Others find greatness on fields away from home. Hoyt Wilhelm could be considered one of the latter.
James Hoyt Wilhelm was born in Huntersville on July 26, 1923, and grew up near Cornelius, where his family had a farm. He went to Cornelius High School, where he played on the school’s baseball team.
Mrs. Nadine Nance Nelson, of Mooresville, grew up in Cornelius and also graduated from Cornelius High School. She was a close friend of Hoyt’s sister, Pauline, and Hoyt was in the same grade as Mrs. Nelson’s older brother, who was also named Hoyt. Hoyt Wilhelm was two grades ahead of her.
“I remember Hoyt Wilhelm would get out on the playground and pitch ball,” said Mrs. Nelson recently. “He was taught by our history teacher, Mr. Ben Brown. Mr. Brown was Hoyt Wilhem’s first coach.
“He lived in the country. They were rather poor, but most of us were at that time. This was during the Depression. People that went to school in Cornelius that lived on a farm, as a rule, fared better than a lot of them that lived in town, because they grew their own food ...
“There was nothing in town but a cotton mill and the looms were standing idle.
“I don’t think Hoyt’s family ever was hungry, but they were poor, like most of us were.
“As well as I remember, he was shy and quiet. He didn’t have much to say, but when he got on to the ball field, he was a star at a really young age, and it wasn’t long before the parents wanted to come and see Hoyt pitch. The knuckle ball became his trademark.
“Hoyt gave Mr. Brown a lot of credit for starting him on his career.”
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After playing high school baseball, he was recruited into the Class D Mooresville Moors of the old North State League in the short-lived 1942 season. That season was cut short as many of the players joined a larger team that wore green uniforms: the U.S. Army.
Wilhelm, an infantryman in the 395th Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division in Europe, fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
In Jan. 2, 1945, as this last desperate, unsuccessful gamble by Hitler to win the war was winding down, Wilhelm took time to pen a letter to Tom McKnight, crusty editor of the Mooresville Tribune. Wilhelm said he was writing from “an old abandoned school house somewhere in Belgium.”
McKnight ran the letter with his reply in the Feb. 1, 1945, edition of the paper. Even as the smoke of battle cleared, Wilhelm’s mind was on the green grass of Moor Field and the “Maulin’ Moors,” as McKnight like to call them, proving that you can take the boy out of the ball field, but you can’t take the ball field out of the boy.
Wilhelm wrote,“The Krauts (Germans) had us outnumbered in this area when they broke through, but we’ve fought the pants off of them, fought them for every hill, every mud hole, every house they’ve taken, and now we’ve got ‘em going the other way.
“As you know, I’m in the infantry, and we do it the hard way. This is the second night I’ve spent out side a muddy foxhole in many a night. The weather here is bad, and it’s cold and the snow is deep.
“I was reading in the Tribune where they might start up the old N.C. State League again this summer. Boy, what wouldn’t I give to be back there for spring practice!
“I don’t know what effect throwing hand grenades will have on my pitching arm. Ha!
“Tell all the boys hello for me.”
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Wilhelm was honorably discharged in 1945 with the rank of sergeant. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat.
After the service he returned home and was soon playing for the Moors again for the 1946 and 1947 seasons. His pitching arm proved to be OK. The Moors were OK, too, and were league champions in 1947.
He was bought by another minor league team for $2,000 and played for Jacksonville, Fla., then Knoxville, Jacksonville again and for two seasons in the Triple-A Minneapolis team.
In 1952 he was signed on as a pitcher for the New York Giants of the National League.
His first time to hold the bat at home plate in a major league game had all the trappings of legend. Dick Hoover of the Boston Braves pitched a fast ball and Wilhelm swung for all he was worth. Hard wood connected solidly to leather and the ball sailed over the right field fence of the Polo Grounds for a homer his first time at bat in the majors!
Unfortunately, it was also his last home run at bat in the majors, even though he played another 21 seasons and batted 432 more times.
Understandably, Wilhelm is remembered more for his pitching and his signature pitch — the knuckleball — than for his batting.
In September 1952, he spoke to a reporter and was quoted in the Mooresville Tribune about his favorite pitch, the knuckleball, a.k.a. “the floater.”
“Mostly,” he said, “it breaks down and away from a right-hand batter, like a curve ball. So I just aim for his belt buckle and leave the rest to nature. If it happens to shoot up or in, that’s when the catcher’s got to start worrying.
“I used to throw most of my stuff kinda sidearm. This spring, I switched more to overhand. Now, my knuckler’s jumping better than ever.”
Besides the Giants, Wilhelm also pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago White Sox, the Atlanta Braves, the California Angels, Cleveland and Baltimore and Los Angeles.
His longest stint with one team, and the one with which he is most indentified, was the Chicago White Sox.Wilhelm was with them for six seasons, 1963 through 1968.
He was named to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in June 1968, one of four to be so honored that year.
In a press release announcing this milestone in his career, it was noted that Hoyt had established a modern National League record for the most games played his rookie season (71), most life time relief appearances, most wins as a relief pitcher, most innings pitched in lifetime relief and most games finished. Wilhelm appeared in a record-breaking 1,070 games. Most of these records were eclipsed by the time of his death.
Wilhelm’s last season of pitching in the majors was in 1972, when he pitched in 16 games.
He continued to be involved in the national pastime as he managed several minor league teams and then was hired as a pitching coach for minor league teams owned by the Atlanta Braves organization and later for the New York Yankees organization, most of these teams being in the Gulf Coast area.
In 1985, Wilhelm was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., the first relief pitcher to join the ranks of baseball’s immortals.
Wilhelm went to play on the Field of Dreams on Aug. 23, 2002, in Sarasota, Fla. He was 79 years old.
He was survived by his wife, Peggy, two daughters and a son.
