Kaiser Wilhelm

Few names in early 20th-century America incited as much animosity and vitriol as Kaiser Wilhelm II, the emperor of Germany. After assuming the throne in 1888, the bombastic and often tactless leader inaugurated an aggressive foreign policy program that antagonized nations and directly led to World War I, in 1914.

No wonder Ohio-born Irvin Wilhelm abhorred the nickname Kaiser. A journeyman right-handed spitballer in the Deadball Era, Wilhelm debuted in 1903 and posted a lackluster 56-105 record in parts of nine big-league seasons, most notably with the Boston Beaneaters and Brooklyn Superbas. Early in Wilhelm’s career, bellicose fans hoped to unnerve him on the mound by shouting the invective “Kaiser!” Gradually, the press took up the moniker, and forever thereafter Wilhelm was known as Kaiser Wilhelm despite his vehement protestations, especially during his short stint as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies (1921-1922). All but forgotten, Wilhelm’s name was revived in 2004 when research led by SABR’s Ray Nemec determined that he held (as of 2015) the minor-league record for most consecutive scoreless innings, an eye-popping 72.1

Irvin Key Wilhelm was born in Wooster, a small town in northeastern Ohio about 50 miles south-southwest of Cleveland. Although sources agree on the date (January 26) of his birth, there is disagreement about the year. Most commonly cited is 1874; however, according to multiple US census reports Wilhelm was born in 1877 (the date this biography uses).2 In a longstanding tradition among ballplayers, Wilhelm also subtracted a few years from his birth during his playing days, and listed 1879 as his birth date on his World War I draft card.3 His parents were Joseph H. and Celia P. (DeMiller) Wilhelm, both native Ohioans, whose parents had migrated from Pennsylvania. They married around 1869 and raised three children, Charles, Edith, and Irvin.4 The elder Wilhelm had a number of jobs, including blacksmith, painter, and house decorator.

Wilhelm got his start in baseball on the sandlots in Wooster and Wayne County. He attended Wooster High School in the 1890s, though no baseball team was fielded, and by 1894 hurled for town teams as far away as Mansfield, about 35 miles west of Wooster. Wilhelm, just 18 years old, began his career in professional baseball in 1895 when he signed with the Mansfield Kids in the inaugural season of the unclassified Interstate League. The Mansfield News reported that Wilhelm was “known in Mansfield as a good pitcher,” and “signed on his own terms.”5 One of his teammates was 21-year-old Honus Wagner, who also inaugurated his professional career that year. In Wilhelm’s first start, on May 9, he walked 11 batters.6 By late summer he had left the team to continue his education at the College of Wooster, where according to Sporting Life, Wilhelm “picked up the art of pitching.”7

Wilhelm resumed his professional baseball career in 1901 when he signed with the Birmingham Barons in the inaugural season of the Class B Southern Association. According to the Age-Herald of Birmingham, manager Sam Mills signed the 24-year-old hurler “who comes highly recommended by Charley Zimmer, the veteran catcher of the Pittsburg, Pa. club.”8 Zimmer, a native Ohioan who had played for the Cleveland Blues in the American Association (1887-1888) and the National League Cleveland Spiders (1889-1899) was well aware of Wilhelm’s reputation as a hard thrower. Sporting Life reported that Wilhelm became a “prime favorite” of the Birmingham fans, while The Sporting News opined that “his record … was phenomenal considering the circumstances under which he pitched.”9 Wilhelm (15-18) was the shining light on a poor Barons team (45-70).10 They were even worse in 1902 (39-80 in the reclassified Class A league), but Wilhelm was characterized as a “star” and “invincible” en route to a 14-9 record and 247 innings.11 In June he replaced Frank Haller as player-manager; the latter, who also scouted for the Pittsburgh Pirates, returned to the Smoky City and encouraged Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss to purchase the hurler.12 “I like the play of Wilhelm,” wrote sportswriter A.R. Cratty. “He is a neat ball player and gets over the ground.”13 After the Pirates acquired Wilhelm, Haller made a bold statement: “There is no doubt in my mind as to the big fellow’s future. He will stay in the league.”14

The Pirates had finished with an astounding 103-36 record in 1902 to finish in first place for the second straight season, but were dealt a serious blow when their star pitchers Jack Chesbro (28-6) and Jesse Tannehill (20-6) jumped to the American League New York Highlanders after the season.15 Pittsburgh manager Fred Clarke hoped that Wilhelm and another acquisition, 23-year-old Cy Falkenberg, would join stalwarts Deacon Phillippe and Sam Leever to stabilize the staff. Before donning a Pirates uniform, Wilhelm suffered a serious case of food poisoning (supposedly from a can of pineapple), but was in good health as the season commenced.16 “[Wilhelm] is no phenomenon, but a cool, calculating pitcher, has everything and knows how to use them,” opined Sporting Life; however, Wilhelm (5-3) made just nine starts (completed seven) and tossed 86 innings for the pennant winners.17 The highlight of his season was a five-hit shutout of the Boston Beaneaters at Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park on June 4.18 In a surprising move, Clarke released Wilhelm in late August. The decision perplexed beat reporter A.R. Cratty. “Wilhelm is no cub, but a mature man. He perhaps should give some reasons for the actions of his employers,” he wrote, and suggested that “management did not like the twirler because he was not given to getting the ball ‘there in tight places.’”19 Several years later, Sporting Life wrote “[Manager] Clarke balls out men savagely at times,” and suggested that the skipper jettisoned Wilhelm because “he wouldn’t heed his commander’s orders to cover first base.”20

In the offseason the 6-foot, 160-pound Wilhelm signed with the Boston Beaneaters, coming off a sixth-place finish (58-80) in 1903. Local sportswriter, J.C. Morse, excited by the acquisition, thought Wilhelm would join Togie Pittinger and Vic Willis to build one of the best staffs in the league. “The pitching force is a mighty good one, and ought to get good results with such a corps of pitchers,” wrote Morse, who then offered a dig at the Pirates owner. “If Barney Dreyfuss had this Boston bunch he could win the pennant in a canter.”21 Wilhelm won his first start, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-7, in a slugfest at the Baker Bowl on April 16.22 He subsequently hurled impressive victories over the Phillies (3-1 on April 26) and the Cincinnati Reds (2-1 on May 16) to earn Morse’s praise (“he’s done some good work”).23 But manager Al Buckenberger’s squad was a far cry from the Boston teams that posted 14 consecutive winning seasons and captured five pennants from 1887 to 1900. They scored the fewest runs in the league and surrendered the second most, contributing to a seventh-place finish (55-98). Wilhelm (14-20) completed 30 of 36 starts and logged 288 innings; he formed with Willis (18-25) and Prittinger (15-21) the league’s only trio of 20-game losers.

While the Beaneaters slogged through a horrendous season (51-103) to finish in seventh place for new skipper Fred Tenney in 1905, Wilhelm suffered one of the worst seasons in big-league history. After he tossed a two-hitter to defeat the Pirates, 2-1, on April 19, the bottom fell out.24 Wilhelm finished the season with a 3-23 record; his ERA (4.53) in 242⅓ innings was the second highest in the NL. With Wilhelm, Irv Young (20-21), Vic Willis (12-29), and Chick Fraser (14-21), Boston set a dubious record by becoming the first team in NL history to have four 20-loss hurlers. Nonetheless, beat reporter J.C. Morse could not fault Wilhelm alone. “Wilhelm would have done far better had he a battling team behind him,” he wrote. “Again and again the Boston pitchers would hold a team down for a spell and then the game would go to the other team because there was no hitting.”25

Though one cannot definitely state when Wilhelm acquired the epithet Kaiser, an incident on April 14, 1905, is noteworthy. In front of a record crowd, estimated at between 28,000 and 40,000, at the Polo Grounds, the New York Giants battered Wilhelm on Opening Day. Giants beat reporter William F.H. Koelsch wrote in Sporting Life that “facetious fans” dubbed Wilhelm “the Kaiser.”26 Up to this time, newspapers had referred to Wilhelm as Irvin or Irving, a misspelling the pitcher dealt with his entire life. Beginning in 1905, the sobriquet Kaiser gradually crept into stories about the hurler.

After the 1905 season, Wilhelm was sold to the Rochester Bronchos in the Class A Eastern League, and subsequently sent to Birmingham. In his first year back in the South, Wilhelm went 22-13, pitching a perfect game against the Montgomery Senators on July 9, for the pennant-winning Barons.27 “[Wilhelm] was a big factor in [Birmingham’s] capture of the Southern League title,” wrote Sporting Life.28 The Barons dropped to fifth place in 1907, but Wilhelm sparkled with a league-leading 23 victories (14 losses). One of those wins was a 15-inning complete game against the Memphis Egyptians on July 15.

Wilhelm concluded the 1907 season in spectacular fashion by tossing shutouts in both games of a doubleheader against the Shreveport Pirates in Birmingham on September 14. “Including eighteen innings on this day,” wrote Sporting Life, “he had gone fifty-nine consecutive innings without allowing a run. Pitcher Johnson, of Washington, is believed to have held the record heretofore, having gone through six successive games in the Idaho State League without allowing a run.”29 In subsequent decades, Wilhelm’s streak was misidentified as 56 innings. This clerical mistake became a hot topic in 2004 when Brad Thompson of the Nashville Smokies (Double-A Southern Association) tossed 57 consecutive scoreless innings to set what was believed to be a new minor-league record.30 Soon thereafter, researchers not only discovered the mistake, but SABR’s Ray Nemec determined that Wilhelm (who pitched in the big leagues in 1908-1910), hurled 13 scoreless innings to begin the 1911 season with Rochester. With 72 consecutive scoreless innings, Wilhelm extended his record for the longest such streak in minor-league baseball history.

Purchased by the Brooklyn Superbas after the 1907 season, Wilhelm got off to a contentious start with team owner Charles Ebbets. A religious man, Wilhelm informed the cantankerous owner that he did not want to pitch on Sundays, to which Ebbets responded bluntly, “We can use players only who play seven days a week.”31 Sportswriter Ren Mulford Jr. sympathized with the player. “You can bet if his name was Brown, and he has Mordecai’s record to back him,” he wrote, “Brooklyn would find enough games for him to work in on weekdays only.”32 Furthermore, Wilhelm refused to report until the National Commission clarified his contract situation. According to his personal correspondence with Garry Herrmann, chairman of the National Commission, and Sporting Life, Wilhelm thought he had had a non-reserve contract and demanded a portion of his acquisition price.33 The committee ultimately determined that Birmingham had not promulgated Wilhelm’s contract (a common practice also called pigeonholing); Wilhelm was awarded $350, while Birmingham was fined $150 and permitted to keep the remaining $500.34

Notwithstanding his various squabbles, Wilhelm’s debut with the Superbas on April 17 at Washington Park in Brooklyn was a resounding success; he tossed a three-hitter to defeat Boston 3-2. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was enamored with the good-natured hurler, whom it affectionately called Little Eva, one of Wilhelm’s nicknames with the Barons. “Wherever the Superbas went on their spring trip, the wonderful work of Wilhelm was shouted from the rooftops,” wrote the paper about his popularity down south. “If Irving (sic) had had press agents in every city, he couldn’t have capped a bigger send off.”35 The daily was equally gushing about Wilhelm’s hurling, noting his “great control of his spitball as well as his curves and slants.”36 In Wilhelm, skipper Patsy Donovan and Ebbets found an ideal successor to Elmer “Spitball” Stricklett, who had jumped the team to join the Pacific Coast League. Fulfilling Sporting Life’s prediction that he’d be a “prize” if he pitched regularly, Wilhelm unexpectedly emerged as one of the best pitchers in the NL.37 With his “mystic spitters” thrown with a side-arm delivery and a “fine little jump which he throws into the ball,” Wilhelm set career highs in victories (16), innings (332, fourth in the league), complete games (33, trailing only Christy Mathewson), ERA (1.87), and shutouts (6).38 He also lost 22 games for the weak-hitting Superbas, who finished in seventh place (53-101).

Named Opening Day starter in 1909, Wilhelm collected the signature victory of his big-league career, 3-0 in 13 innings over the New York Giants on April 16. In what was described by the New York Times as “one of the most hotly contested pitching battles ever witnessed” at the Polo Grounds, Giants starter Red Ames held the Superbas hitless through nine innings while Wilhelm surrendered his first safety in the eighth inning and finished with a three-hit shutout.39 Wilhelm posted only two more victories all season (to go along with 13 losses), eventually lost his spot in the rotation, and sported a high ERA (3.26) in 163 innings. Said New York sportswriter John B. Foster, “If [Wilhelm] is good, nobody can do much with him, and if he isn’t good, there is no reason why he cannot be battered as hard as any man in the business.”40 Brooklyn, which had captured pennants in 1899 and 1900, finished with a losing record for the sixth consecutive season. “Brooklyn’s poor showing was due to inferior pitching, inconsistent hitting and erratic fielding,” wrote Sporting Life in stinging fashion and added, “Wilhelm did poorly.”41

Wilhelm suffered from typhoid fever for most of the 1910 season and was limited to a 3-7 record and a 4.74 ERA in just 68⅓ innings.42 In the offseason he was sold to Rochester. Over the next three seasons, Wilhelm once again established his reputation as a rubber-armed pitcher, capable of starting and relieving. From 1911 to 1913, he posted records of 14-7, 16-10, and 18-7, and averaged 47 appearances and 228 innings. After capturing the Eastern League pennant in 1911, Rochester was one of eight charter members of the newly established International League in 1912. Renamed the Hustlers, Rochester was runner-up in the newly reclassified Double-A league in 1912 and 1913.

Throughout his baseball career, Wilhelm was described in the press as a popular fan favorite. And by all accounts, he was a likeable, articulate teammate whose college education and “good personality” harkened back to a time when baseball was played by amateur gentlemen and not rough-and-tumble, uncouth professionals.43 Prior to signing with the Pirates in 1903, Wilhelm married Louis Ellen Motter, a divorcee with a son, Avery; they lived in Wooster in the offseasons. Eventually they divorced, and Wilhelm married Alice R. Sullivan, from Rochester, in the early 1910s. According to several newspapers, Wilhelm was an avid hunter, raised beagles, dabbled in real estate in both Ohio and New York, and was “reputed to have amassed a modest little fortune.”44

The launch of the Federal League in 1914 revived Wilhelm’s big-league aspirations. Along with two Rochester teammates, batting champion Hack Simmons and Fred Jacklitsch, Wilhelm jumped to the Baltimore Terrapins. At 37 years of age, Wilhelm served as skipper Otto Knabe’s trusted “rescue man,” starting 27 of a team-high 47 games, completing 11 of them, and logging 243⅔ innings.45 Seemingly finding the fountain of youth, Wilhelm tossed two 10-inning complete-game victories, against the St. Louis Terriers on May 26 and against the eventual pennant-winning Indiana Hoosiers on July 29. On the final day of the season, Wilhelm earned his 12th victory of the season (and what proved to be the last in his big-league career) in the second game of a doubleheader on October 10 by tossing a stellar seven-hitter against the Terriers to record his 12th career shutout. He also lost 17 times for the third-place club.

According to Sporting Life, Wilhelm was injured in 1915 and was “practically no use at all,” making only one appearance for the Terrapins. However, the actual reason for his inactivity was a contract dispute. In an effort to develop its own farm system, the Federal League entered into an agreement with the Class C Colonial League under which all eight teams in the Federal League agreed to send the league six players each. Wilhelm refused to report, and was ultimately appointed an umpire in the Federal League by President James A. Gilmore, in July.46 It was not Wilhelm’s first professional umpiring experience. According to Norman Macht, Wilhelm was pressed into service as an ump for one game in 1904 and 1905.47 Wilhelm subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Terrapins, claiming breach of contract for not permitting him to pitch.48

Not ready to hang up his spikes after the Federal League folded, Wilhelm joined the Class B Elmira Colonels in the New York State League, posting records of 14-19 and 17-16 respectively in 1916 and 1917. The league’s closure after the ’17 season seemingly signaled the end of the 40-year-old player’s professional career. According to his World War I draft card, Wilhelm worked as an assemblyman at the Curtiss Aeroplane Company in Hammondsport, New York.49 He also pitched in semipro leagues, and participated in baseball tournaments throughout central and western New York in 1918 and 1919.50

In 1920 Wilhelm made an unlikely comeback at the age of 43 by signing with the Jersey City Skeeters of the International League. Save for a teammate, 23-year-old Alex Ferguson (21-13), Wilhelm was the club’s best hurler, splitting his 24 decisions and ranking 10th in the league in innings pitched (236) for a poor team (62-91). According to one report, Wilhelm tossed complete games to defeat the Syracuse Stars in both games of a doubleheader on September 12.51 Wilhelm became friends with his manager, Wild Bill Donovan, a former big-league hurler with 185 wins and ex-manager of the New York Yankees (1915-1917). Donovan helped Wilhelm realize his dream by getting back to the majors, but not necessarily how the latter anticipated.

When Donovan was named skipper of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1921, he brought along Wilhelm as a coach and scout. In an unusual development, Phillies owner William Baker fired Donovan in late July. The episode commenced when Donovan was summoned to Chicago to testify in Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s ever-expanding investigation of the Chicago White Sox scandal in 1919. Baker, claiming that his skipper must have known the gamblers or about the betting, axed him. Not implicated in the scandal, Donovan was completely exonerated. Wilhelm took over as manager of the lowly, last-place Phillies (25-62) on July 26. Philadelphia sportswriter James C. Isaminger applauded Wilhelm’s determination: “He must get credit for working hard. He is out on the coaching line hustling every day.”52 Under Wilhelm’s stewardship, the Phillies went 26-41 to finish in the cellar for the third straight season.

The aging hurler also made the last four of his 216 big-league appearances in 1921. In parts of nine seasons, Wilhelm posted a 56-105 record, started 158 contests, completed 118 of them, and carved out a 3.44 ERA in 1,432⅓ innings.

Isaminger lauded Wilhelm as a “good baseball leader” but warned that “he is not a miracle worker and must have financial support” to be successful.53 The latter comment was a clear indictment of William Baker, whose tightfisted control of the team, including the sale of star hurler Grover Cleveland Alexander after the 1917 season, began a streak of 14 consecutive losing seasons (1918-1931). Wilhelm, whom the Philadelphia press tabbed Kize or Irv in light of the manager’s disdain for the name Kaiser, achieved a minor miracle in 1922 when he led the Phillies to a seventh-place finish (57-96). “Wilhelm must deserve full credit,” wrote Isaminger. “He made the most out of a team low in quality.”54 Nonetheless, Wilhelm was fired shortly after the season.

Wilhelm remained close to baseball for the remainder of his life. In 1923 and 1924 he served as pitching coach and scout for skipper George Stallings’ Rochester Tribe of the International League. He also made his final professional baseball appearance as a player in 1923. He managed the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Bears of the Class A Eastern League in 1925, and the Class B Syracuse Stars/Hazleton Mountaineers in the New York Penn League in 1929; in 1928 he scouted for the Montreal Royals (International League).55 Wilhelm coached baseball at the University of Rochester beginning in 1930.

On May 25, 1936, Wilhelm died at the age of 59 in Rochester and was buried in Wooster. In his obituaries, he was referred to as Irvin, Irving, Irv, Kaiser, and Kize; and indicative of the uncertainty of his birth year, his age was listed variously as 53, 57, and 58.56 There was no confusion, however, about Wilhelm’s love for the game and his tireless dedication to play, teach, and promote the sport. Preceding an exhibition game between semipro teams from Buffalo and Rochester on September 17, 1936, to benefit Wilhelm’s widow, the Rochester Journal paid humble tribute to the hurler. “[Wilhelm] stood out as one of Rochester’s most illustrious contributions to the national pastime. After his retirement from the majors, he was largely instrumental in the development of young baseball talent here.”57

This biography is included in “20-Game Losers” (SABR, 2017), edited by Bill Nowlin and Emmet R. Nowlin.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the notes, the author consulted Irvin Kaiser’s player file, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York.

Notes