Charlie Fritz

From 1903 to 1914, southpaw Charlie Fritz pitched in southern minor leagues with determination, endurance, and “varying success.”1 He won 116 games and lost 153.2 In 1907, after striking out 15 batters in a 12-inning game, he received a “cup of coffee” in the majors—three innings pitched for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics.

Charles Cornelius “Charlie” Fritz was born in Mobile, Alabama, on June 13, 1882, and was a lifelong Mobilian. He had three older brothers, Herman, Emile, and Albert, and a younger sister, Carrie. Both parents were of German ancestry: John C. Fritz, a carpenter, and Adelle (Hudoff) Fritz.

As a young man, Charlie apprenticed at a Mobile iron foundry,3 and with Emile as his catcher, he pitched for amateur teams in Mobile and Brewton, Alabama. His record was 12-0 for the Brewton Invincibles in 1902.4 The brothers were surely influenced by their uncle, Charlie Frank, Adelle’s half-brother. Frank’s long career in professional baseball included two seasons as a left fielder on the 1893-94 St. Louis Browns of the National League.

Charlie Fritz pitched for Brewton in the spring of 1903.5 After a brief and unsuccessful trial in June with the Memphis Egyptians6 in the Class A Southern Association (a team managed by his uncle), he was sent to the Greenville (Mississippi) Grays in the Class D Cotton States League. The Fritz brothers formed a battery there until Emile was promoted to Memphis in July. Memphis went on to win a pennant, while Charlie posted a lackluster 5-11 record for Greenville. It was an uninspiring start to his professional career.

Data collected by The Sporting News indicates that Fritz stood 5-foot-10, weighed 165 pounds, and was a left-handed batter and thrower.7 However, a news photo shows him in a right-handed batting stance.8

In 1904 Fritz achieved an 18-13 record for the Vicksburg (Mississippi) Hill Climbers in the Cotton States League. On May 24, he had a no-hitter through eight innings against the Monroe (Louisiana) Hill Citys en route to a 2-1 victory.9 On June 9, he used a baffling “slow ball” to blank the Natchez (Mississippi) Indians,10 and in the week from July 25 to July 31, he shut out Natchez three more times.11 Against Baton Rouge, he twice lost 1-0 pitchers’ duels, but on August 29 he prevailed 1-0 with a one-hitter.12 After the season he pitched in Mexico.13

Fritz moved up a rung in 1905 to the Class C South Atlantic League, aka the Sally League, as a member of the Columbia (South Carolina) Gamecocks. With Columbia, he pitched better than his 13-20 record indicates, as explained by a local newspaper:

“Fritz was always a good pitcher but his losing hoo-doo stuck to him during the first part of the season and he had the hard luck bird always hovering over him. Later when the team supported him well he pitched beautiful ball. There was never a better worker in the league, a pleasanter fellow and one more popular. Fritz had ever a sunny smile for all who knew him and he was such a willing worker that everybody admired his pluck.”14

Ty Cobb, at age 18, played for the 1905 Augusta (Georgia) Tourists and led the Sally League with a .326 batting average. In an 11-inning contest on May 25, Cobb went 2-for-6 facing Fritz in Augusta’s 4-3 triumph over Columbia. The winning pitcher that day was Eddie Cicotte.15 On June 23, Fritz held Cobb hitless in a 2-1 victory over Augusta, but Cobb went 4-for-6 against him in a 14-inning, 2-2 tie on July 29.16 Fritz’s endurance is notable; he routinely completed extra-inning games.

Drafted by the Shreveport (Louisiana) Pirates of the Class A Southern Association,17 Fritz compiled a disappointing 7-17 record in 1906 but showed his potential. The Shreveport Times reported that he had a speedy fastball and a nice changeup and curve.18 One of his victories came on May 1 against the New Orleans Pelicans, a team managed by his uncle, Charlie Frank; Fritz allowed only five hits in a 6-2 triumph.19 He defeated New Orleans again, 4-2 on July 8, in a duel with Pelicans ace Theodore Breitenstein.20 The following spring, Frank purchased his nephew for the Pelicans.21

Fritz’s 14-15 record for New Orleans in 1907 included close losses and narrow wins. He lost 1-0 in 12 innings to Shreveport on May 2 and 2-1 to Montgomery on May 15, but he edged Atlanta 2-1 on May 21 and Birmingham 3-2 in 11 innings on June 14.22 This was the Deadball Era, and runs were scarce. In the first game of a doubleheader on August 7, he impressively struck out 15 batters in a 12-inning, 4-1 victory over Memphis.23 He was drafted by the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League and joined the team in September.24

The Philadelphia pitching staff was shorthanded after late-season injuries to Charles Bender and Jack Coombs,25 so Fritz was pressed into service. In his first and only major-league appearance, he started the first game of a doubleheader against Washington on October 5, 1907, the last day of the season. He pitched well for three innings as no Washington batter got the ball out of the infield. But he began the fourth inning by walking two batters and hitting one with a pitch. He was relieved by Rube Waddell, who surrendered a bloop single. Waddell was then replaced by Rube Vickers, who pitched the remainder of the game. The Athletics won, 4-2 in 15 innings, with Fritz recording a no-decision.26 Manager Connie Mack felt Fritz was not major-league caliber and returned him to New Orleans.27

The 1908 Pelicans were a strong second-place team, yet Fritz had a losing record, 12-18. On April 26, he went the distance in an 11-inning, 2-1 triumph over Little Rock. Twenty-year-old Tris Speaker singled twice, stole two bases, and scored the only run for Little Rock.28 Fritz improved to 15-13 the following year but was sold midseason to the Memphis Turtles. Charlie Frank said he made the sale because his nephew was dissatisfied at New Orleans.29

The 1910 season was the best of Fritz’s career. He achieved a 17-16 record with seven shutouts30 for a Memphis team that finished seventh in the eight-team Southern Association. On June 11, in the first game of a doubleheader against his uncle’s team, he delivered a five-hitter but lost 2-0. Shoeless Joe Jackson, the Pelicans’ 22-year-old center fielder, got two of the five hits.31

Fritz had quite a rivalry with Birmingham ace Harry Coveleski. Both were left-handers. Twice in five days, July 17 and 21, Fritz defeated Coveleski by a 1-0 score, though in the two games, Coveleski had more strikeouts (13 to seven) and gave up fewer hits (five to 11).32

On July 26, Fritz pitched all 14 innings of a 2-2 tie with Mobile; he allowed only five hits and appeared “as fresh in the last inning as when he started.”33 And on August 5, he was in “brilliant form” in a 4-0 shutout of Chattanooga; he had “smoke, control, change of pace and a slow ball that resembled the famous butterfly dip.”34 But no major-league team was interested. In April 1909, Fritz had been dismissed by Cleveland sportswriter Ed F. Bang as “a pitcher of many motions and only fair ability.”35

Fritz was inconsistent in 1911. He hurled a five-hitter with nine strikeouts on Opening Day, April 15, to defeat Nashville, 3-2.36 But a week later, he was removed after allowing 10 runs in two innings to Chattanooga; it was a measure of revenge for Coveleski, who pitched for Chattanooga in the 17-2 thrashing of Memphis.37 On June 19, Fritz defeated his uncle’s team, 2-1, in a duel with Theodore Breitenstein.38 But Nashville “pounded Fritz for 16 safe hits” in an 8-5 victory over Memphis on July 9.39 He posted a 12-15 record in what was his last full season in professional baseball.

Before the 1912 season, the Memphis club sold Fritz to the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, but he was released by the Blues after appearing in only one game.40 The Pelicans reacquired him, but his uncle put him into only four games.41 In the last of these, on June 22, 1912, Birmingham “batted Fritz to all corners” in a 10-2 rout of New Orleans.42 After unsuccessful trials with Waco in the Texas League in 1913 and with Mobile in the Southern Association in 1914, Fritz retired from baseball at age 32.

Research for this biography found no evidence that Fritz was ever married; it seems he was a lifelong bachelor. In Mobile he worked as a bartender, groceryman, and machinist.43 On July 30, 1943, he died in Mobile at age 61. He was interred in the city’s Magnolia Cemetery.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Brian Wood.

Photo credit: Charlie Fritz, Trading Card Database.

Sources

Ancestry.com and Baseball-Reference.com, accessed in the spring of 2025.

Notes

1 “Charley Fritz Is Bought from Turtles by Frank,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, April 29, 1912: 7.

2 Estimated by the author from records at Baseball-Reference.com and data located for the 1912 season. Fritz was 0-1 for Kansas City and 1-3 for New Orleans in 1912.

3 1900 US census and 1901 Mobile, Alabama, city directory.

4 “Diamond Kings,” Brewton (Alabama) Standard Gauge, September 4, 1902: 1, 2.

5 “Interstate League Opens; Brewton Beats Montgomery,” Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, April 28, 1903: 10.

6 Sporting Life, July 4, 1903: 13.

7 The Sporting News player contract card for Charlie Fritz.

8 “Gulled by Seagulls: Birds Lose, Five to One,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, April 17, 1908: 11.

9 “Fritz’s Splendid Pitching Was Monroe’s Stumbling Block,” Vicksburg (Mississippi) Post, May 25, 1904: 3.

10 “Fritz and Sparger Engaged in Battle Royal Yesterday,” Vicksburg Post, June 10, 1904: 3.

11 “Six to Nothing,” Vicksburg Post, July 26, 1904: 3; “Fritz Wins 2d,” Vicksburg Post, July 28, 1904: 3; “11 Runs, 18 Hits,” Vicksburg Post, August 1, 1904: 3.

12 “Fumble by Toner,” Vicksburg (Mississippi) Herald, July 3, 1904: 3; “The News Is Bad,” Vicksburg Post, August 9, 1904: 3; “A Solitary Hit,” Vicksburg Post, August 30, 1904: 3.

13 “Mobile and Vicinity,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, March 29, 1905: 14.

14 “Charlie Fritz Has Been Drafted,” The State (Columbia, South Carolina), November 27, 1905: 5.

15 “Fritz and Sabrie Were Twin Stars,” The State, May 26, 1905: 5.

16 “Bob Wallace’s Bunch of Horseshoes Won the Game,” Augusta (Georgia) Herald, June 24, 1905: 6; “Extra Inning Game Ends in Tie Score,” The State, July 30, 1905: 5.

17 “Base Ball,” New Iberia (Louisiana) Leader, January 10, 1906: 6.

18 “Pirates Defeated,” Shreveport (Louisiana) Times, April 27, 1906: 6.

19 Sporting Life, May 19, 1906: 14.

20 Sporting Life, July 28, 1906: 24.

21 “Fritz Now a Pelican,” Shreveport Times, March 23, 1907: 10.

22 Sporting Life, May 18, 1907: 19; Sporting Life, June 1, 1907: 20; Sporting Life, June 8, 1907: 18; Sporting Life, June 29, 1907: 17.

23 Sporting Life, August 17, 1907: 23.

24 “Local Jottings,” Sporting Life, September 28, 1907: 4.

25 “The Old Sport’s Musings,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 14, 1907: 10.

26 “Athletics Win a Double-header, but Lose Flag,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1907: 1b, 14b.

27 Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia Points,” Sporting Life, November 2, 1907: 5.

28 Sporting Life, May 9, 1908: 18.

29 “Fritz Sold to Memphis,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, June 8, 1909: 10.

30 “Frank Allen Twirled Nine Shut-out Games,” Atlanta Constitution, April 12, 1911: 12.

31 “Gala Day in Memphis,” New Orleans Times-Democrat, June 12, 1910: II-6.

32 Sporting Life, July 30, 1910: 16.

33 “Sea Gulls and Turtles Play Great Tie Game,” Montgomery Advertiser, July 27, 1910: 11.

34 “Turtle Stock Takes a Boost,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 6, 1910: 9.

35 Ed F. Bang, “The Napoleons Are Now in Good Shape for the Fray,” Sporting Life, April 17, 1909: 12.

36 Sporting Life, April 29, 1911: 14.

37 “Memphis Team Breaks All High Flight Records and Locals Win Joke Ball Game,” Chattanooga Times, April 23, 1911: 10.

38 Sporting Life, July 1, 1911: 16.

39 Sporting Life, July 22, 1911: 16.

40 Sporting Life, April 20, 1912: 14. Fritz pitched in relief and was the losing pitcher in Kansas City’s 10-8 loss to Columbus on Opening Day, April 10, 1912.

41 Sporting Life, November 9, 1912: 13.

42 Sporting Life, July 6, 1912: 18.

43 1913 Mobile, Alabama, city directory; World War I draft registration; and 1920 US census.