May 9, 1942: Hoyt Wilhelm begins Hall of Fame professional career with Class D win for Mooresville

Hoyt Wilhelm is credited with pitching in 1,304 regular-season professional baseball games across 28 seasons, spanning 31 calendar years.1 This remarkable journey began on the night of May 9, 1942, when Wilhelm took the mound for the Mooresville (North Carolina) Moors of the Class D North Carolina State League.

At the time, Wilhelm was a few months shy of 20 years old. He was already throwing the knuckleball that later carried him to a major-league no-hitter, two ERA titles, eight All-Star teams, a World Series championship with the 1954 New York Giants, a distinction as the first big-league pitcher to appear in 1,000 games, and a berth in the Hall of Fame.

His debut performance did not entirely predict his future greatness. Wilhelm surrendered 11 hits and three walks, committed an error, and was touched for a six-run inning by the opposing Hickory (North Carolina) Rebels. His teammates provided generous run support, though, as the young flutterballer earned a 17-6 complete-game victory at College Field in Hickory.2 It was the first of 252 career wins at all levels for Wilhelm.3

Preseason previews mentioned Wilhelm among the Moors’ pitchers but did not single him out as a prospect.4 Wilhelm, one of 11 children of a poor North Carolina farm family, taught himself the knuckler as a teenager and threw it in high school. A story published before the 1942 season described him as an “18-year[-old] former American Legion ace.”5 After Wilhelm’s death in 2002, it was discovered that he’d shaved a year off his age during his career. The description of him as 18 in 1942 suggests that this deception – once common among ballplayers – may have dated to his very earliest days as a pro.6

Wilhelm made a noteworthy preseason appearance against Davidson College. After starting pitcher Fred Little worked five hitless innings, Wilhelm was called on to finish. He lost the no-hitter with two out in the ninth but completed a 14-0 shutout.7

Mooresville had finished third in 1941 with a 57-43 record.8 News stories noted, though, that the team had a substantial number of new players for 1942.9 One holdover was catcher and manager John Hicks, who’d played for Wake Forest College (now University). Hicks, 32 years old that season, served simultaneously as Wilhelm’s first pro manager and first batterymate on May 9, Mooresville’s third game of the season.10

The Moors split their first two games, and box and line scores indicate that Wilhelm did not appear in either.11 Only one other player who appeared with the 1942 Moors reached the majors – pitcher Herman Fink – and he did not appear in Wilhelm’s debut.12

Hickory was one of two new teams joining the league in 1942, taking over a franchise formerly based in Kannapolis.13 Forty-two-year-old minor-league knockabout Charles Shaney, known as “Struttin’ Bud,” served both as manager and a pitcher, posting an 8-9 record in 30 appearances.14 Wilhelm’s first mound opponent was starting pitcher Harry Boggs of Landis, North Carolina, who’d come to Hickory along with other players from the 1941 Kannapolis roster.15 A later account described Boggs as “an effective fork-ball chunker [sic].”16

Only one member of the Rebels reached the majors, and he played against Wilhelm on May 9. Catcher Paul Burris, a Hickory native, was 18 and had talked his way into a tryout with his hometown team while working in a sandwich shop.17 He went on to play parts of four seasons with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves between 1948 and 1953. The two North Carolinians faced each other in the majors only once, with Burris striking out against Wilhelm in a Braves-Giants game on July 1, 1952.

Unfortunately, information on the May 9 game is fragmentary and sometimes contradictory. The Hickory newspaper ran a relatively short story and box score on Monday, May 11, while the Mooresville paper – a weekly that did not regularly cover Moors games – didn’t mention it at all.18 Newspapers in Greensboro and Salisbury, North Carolina, ran box scores, while other papers in the league’s footprint ran a line score and a few sentences of text. The coverage did not say how many people showed up to watch Wilhelm’s debut.

Those who did turn out saw Mooresville roll to an early advantage. The Moors scored once in the first inning, twice in the second, and once apiece in the third, fourth, and fifth. According to the box score, starter and loser Boggs was gone after the fourth. Through five frames, the Moors held a 6-0 lead.19

The real fireworks took place in the sixth and seventh innings. Mooresville scored 10 runs in the top of the sixth to increase its advantage to 16-0. While exact pitching lines are unclear, relievers William Seigler and Charles Alexander bore part of the brunt. Eventually, Shaney – who had pitched nine innings the night before, giving up 12 hits and 6 runs20 – took mound duties himself, closing out the game and again giving up six runs.21 Another Moors run in the top of the seventh brought the score to 17-0. (Neither Seigler nor Alexander lasted out the month with Hickory. Alexander was released on May 11 and Seigler on May 27.22)

The Mooresville attack was well-balanced: Every Moor in the lineup had at least one hit, but none had more than two. Left fielder Pete Crowe went 2-for-6 with a double and the game’s only home run and led the Moors with three RBIs.23 Wilhelm – misidentified as “Wilken” in the Hickory newspaper’s box score24 – contributed a double, a triple, and two runs scored to his own cause. Third baseman Bill Barnes collected only one hit but scored three times. Hickory handed the Moors additional scoring opportunities by committing five errors.

The Rebels would not go quietly, though. In the bottom of the seventh,25 they rallied for six runs against Wilhelm, who – with a double-digit lead – was presumably given a long leash by manager Hicks.26 Center fielder Pinky James, first baseman John Coakley, and third baseman Shade Honeycutt27 led the Hickory attack with two hits apiece, while Honeycutt and James contributed two RBIs each.28 Mooresville committed two errors – one by Wilhelm, and one by first baseman Little – and one or both of them could have contributed to the Rebels’ run for which no batter was given an RBI.29

Eventually, Wilhelm worked his way out of the jam. The final innings passed without any further scoring, and the game wrapped up in a scant 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Mooresville went on to tie for second in the league with a 61-39 record.30 Wilhelm contributed a 10-3 record in 23 appearances, eight of them starts. The league’s fourth-place team, Landis, knocked out the Moors in the first round of the Shaughnessy-style four-team playoffs.31 Hickory limped to an 18-80 record and a last-place finish.32

After that, World War II intervened. Wilhelm was drafted that November.33 He missed three seasons for military duty, earning a Purple Heart and, later, the nickname “Ol’ Sarge.” Wilhelm’s pitching rival, Boggs, also entered military service.34 Facing manpower shortages and transportation challenges, the North Carolina State League announced its shutdown for the duration of the war in February 1943.35

Wilhelm returned to the revived league after the war and won 21 games in 1946 and 20 more in 1947, after which the Giants signed him. He worked his way up through the minors, finally making the Giants out of spring training in 1952 as a 29-year-old rookie.36 He mastered the unpredictable knuckleball well enough to appear in 1,070 games.

The Giants, Wilhelm’s first of nine big-league teams, paid tribute to his roots on August 17, 1953, when a contingent from Mooresville came to the Polo Grounds to present him with an honorary scroll and an assortment of clothing. Hicks, by then out of baseball and working for a fabric manufacturer, was on hand for the pregame presentation.37

On May 9, 1972, the 30th anniversary of Wilhelm’s professional debut passed without recorded ceremony. Wilhelm and his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates were scheduled to play the Mets that night in New York, but the game was rained out.38 He appeared in his final professional game in the second game of a July 10 doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Larry DeFilippo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources and photo credits

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team, and season data. Mark Armour’s SABR Biography Project biography of Hoyt Wilhelm was also an important source for this story.

Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet do not offer box scores of minor-league games, but the May 10, 1942, editions of the Salisbury (North Carolina) Post and the Greensboro (North Carolina) News and the May 11, 1942, edition of the Hickory (North Carolina) Daily Record printed box scores. A line score and brief game summary printed in the May 11, 1942, Statesville (North Carolina) Landmark and other North Carolina newspapers was also consulted.

Hoyt Wilhelm photo with the New York Giants is from the SABR-Rucker Archive.

Advertisement for May 9, 1942, game between Mooresville and Hickory taken from the Hickory Daily Record, May 9, 1942: 10.

Notes

1 He missed the 1943, 1944, and 1945 seasons in military service.

2 A Newspapers.com search of 1942 Hickory Rebels coverage in the Hickory (North Carolina) Daily Record, conducted in May 2025, found repeated references to the Rebels’ home park as College Field. The “college” that gave the park its name was Lenoir-Rhyne College (now University), located in Hickory.

3 Wilhelm’s career record across all levels of pro ball was 252-189. He achieved the final victory of his pro career on September 2, 1970, pitching for the Atlanta Braves against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

4 E.W. Lytle, “Moors Pack Plenty of Power,” Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Sentinel, May 1, 1942: 11; “N.C. League to Begin Season Games Tonight,” Mooresville (North Carolina) Enterprise, May 7, 1942: 1, https://digital.mooresvillenc.gov/digital/collection/p16711coll7/id/1763/rec/1; “J. Hicks Drills Twenty Players,” Statesville (North Carolina) Daily Record, April 13, 1942: 4.

5 Lytle.

6 In fairness to Wilhelm, other potential reasons for the age discrepancy, such as a reporter’s error, can’t entirely be ruled out in this case. It is known, though, that Wilhelm portrayed himself as a year younger than he really was throughout his big-league career.

7 “Moors Wallop Davidson, 14-0,” Salisbury (North Carolina) Evening Post, May 4, 1942: 7.

8 “North State League,” Greensboro (North Carolina) Daily News, August 31, 1941: B3. Newspapers sometimes abbreviated the North Carolina State League’s name to “North State League.” The championship team, from Kannapolis, had a 70-30 record.

9 Lytle, “Moors Pack Plenty of Power.”

10 For comparison, Wilhelm’s final professional manager with the 1972 Los Angeles Dodgers was fellow Hall of Famer Walter Alston, while his final catcher – in the second game of a doubleheader on July 10, 1972 – was Chris Cannizzaro.

11 “Landis, Moors, Weavers Win,” Hickory Daily Record, May 8, 1942: 10; “Toms Turn Back Moors, Score, 8-7,” Winston-Salem Journal, May 9, 1942: 8.

12 Fink, who was 30, had already reached the bigs with the Philadelphia A’s between 1935 and 1937. As of November 2025, Baseball-Reference did not list him as playing with Mooresville in 1942, but news stories place him there. As of November 2025, Baseball-Reference also listed infielder Tony Daniels as playing with Mooresville that season. A search of box scores in North Carolina newspapers found that Daniels appeared with other teams in the league, but not Mooresville.

13 “Sale of Towelers Be Completed Soon,” Salisbury (North Carolina) Sunday Post, December 28, 1941: 15. The other new city in the league for 1942 was Statesville, replacing Cooleemee.

14 “Charles ‘Bud’ Shaney Dies; Former Pro Baseball Player,” Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen & Times, May 29, 1982: 14.

15 “Sale of Towelers Be Completed Soon”; “Bud Shaney Leads Rebels,” Winston-Salem Twin City Sentinel, May 9, 1942: 8.

16 “Lemly Signs with Landis,” Salisbury Evening Post, February 26, 1946: 7.

17 Jay Hurd, “Paul Burris,” SABR Biography Project, accessed May 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/paul-burris/.

18 The May 14, 1942, edition of the Mooresville Enterprise, which would have been the issue to carry news of this game, can be seen here: https://digital.mooresvillenc.gov/digital/collection/p16711coll7/id/1770/rec/1.

19 All game information is taken from the Hickory Daily Record’s box score; from the accompanying story “Mooresville Beats Rebels by 17-6 Count,” May 11, 1942: 8; and the line score and short text of “Mooresville and Lexington, Landis Other Winners,” Statesville Landmark, May 11, 1942: 3.

20 “Bud Shaney Struts and Pitches Rebels to 8-6 Victory over Statesville,” Hickory Daily Record, May 9, 1942: 10.

21 “Mooresville Beats Rebels by 17-6 Count.” This story claims that Shaney pitched the last three innings and surrendered six runs. But according to the line score in the Statesville Landmark, Mooresville scored only once in the final three innings. To give up six runs, Shaney would have had to enter in the fateful sixth inning and absorbed the final five runs of the 10-run bludgeoning. (This, in turn, makes it unclear exactly when Hickory relievers Seigler and Alexander entered and exited the game.)

22 “Hickory Has 4-2 Victory, Carr Pitches,” Hickory Daily Record, May 12, 1942: 8; “Shaney Lets 2 Hickory Pitchers Go,” Hickory Daily Record,May 27, 1942: 10.

23 As of May 2025, Baseball-Reference listed the player as Ambers Crowe. He is called Pete in preseason preview stories, including “J. Hicks Drills Twenty Players” and “N.C. League to Begin Season Games Tonight.”

24 The author checked 1942 news coverage of the North Carolina State League, as well as Baseball-Reference, and found no evidence that “Wilken” could have been any player other than Hoyt Wilhelm. The line score and brief text in the Statesville Landmark and other North Carolina newspapers, as well as a box score in the Salisbury (North Carolina) Post, rendered Wilhelm’s name correctly.

25 The line score in the Statesville paper places the six-run rally in the seventh inning; the accompanying text places it in the sixth; and the box score and story from Hickory don’t discuss it at all. Fortunately, box scores in the Salisbury Post and Greensboro (North Carolina) News settle the dispute, placing the rally in the seventh.

26 The previous night, Hicks kept pitcher Harry Jordan on the mound for the full game against Thomasville, even though Jordan yielded three runs in the top of the ninth to turn a 7-5 lead into an eventual 8-7 defeat. “Toms Turn Back Moors, Score, 8-7.”

27 As of May 2025, Baseball-Reference listed the player as Densil Honeycutt. Several Hickory Daily Record stories from 1942 call him Shade Honeycutt, including “Shaney Will Hurl, Hopes to End Jinx,” May 19, 1942: 8.

28 The Hickory box score credits Honeycutt and a player called “Jones” with two RBIs each. There is no Jones in the Hickory lineup; the author assumes “Jones” is a mistaken reference to James. A box score in the Salisbury Post credits James with two RBIs.

29 Box scores differ on the RBIs assigned to Hickory batters; this story opts to go with the Salisbury and Greensboro box scores, in which five of the Hickory runs are credited as RBIs. During a two-season minor-league career, Little saw significant action as a pitcher, a first baseman, and an outfielder.

30 “North State League” (standings), Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel, August 30, 1942: 30. The other team with a 61-39 record was Thomasville.

31 “‘D’ Loop Favorites Fall in Playoffs,” Greensboro Record, September 4, 1942: 10.

32 “North State League” (standings).

33 “Draft Board No. 4 Lists Inductees,” Charlotte (North Carolina) News, November 12, 1942: 10A. Wilhelm is listed here under his full name, James Hoyt Wilhelm.

34 “Lemly Signs With Landis.”

35 Associated Press, “North Carolina Loop to Suspend for War,” Rocky Mount (North Carolina) Evening Telegram, February 25, 1943: 6.

36 As previously explained, he was thought at the time to be 28.

37 “Hoyt Wilhelm Honored by Mooresville Friends,” Greensboro Record, August 19, 1953: B6.

38 Gordon Verrell, “Mays Gets Final Say on Trade,” Long Beach (California) Independent, May 10, 1972: C1.