Jimmie Wilson
Encyclopedia
James Wilson nicknamed "Ace," was an American
professional athlete in soccer and baseball
.
He began his professional sports career as a soccer outside right in the National Association Football League and American Soccer League
before becoming a catcher
, manager
and coach
in Major League Baseball
. In the 1940 World Series
, the 40-year-old Wilson came off the coaching lines to take over as the regular catcher for the Cincinnati Reds
when the starter, future Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi
, was injured. Wilson batted
.353 in six games, playing a key role in Cincinnati's defeat of the Detroit Tigers
, four games to three, for the world championship. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, Wilson threw and batted right-handed and stood 6 foot tall and weighed 200 pounds (90.7 kg).
immigrants, grew up in northeast Philadelphia. He left school when he was fourteen to work in a local textile mill. In 1919, he left the mills when he began playing as an outside forward with Philadelphia Merchant Ship B
in the National Association Football League. During his time with the team, he met Dick Spalding
, another two sport athlete, whom he later hired as his first base coach when Wilson managed the Phillies and Cubs. After Merchant Ship folded following the 1919-1920 season, Wilson moved to Bethlehem Steel F.C.
, signing with the team in July 1920. During his time in Bethlehem, he also played catcher for the steel company's baseball team which competed in the Steel League. In 1921, Wilson signed with Harrison F.C.
in the newly established American Soccer League
. He played thirteen league and three National Challenge Cup
games, scoring four goals. During the 1922-1923 season, he played four games for Philadelphia Field Club
before leaving the sport to concentrate on his baseball career.
In February 1923, he gave up his soccer career when he was traded from New Haven in the Eastern League to the Philadelphia Phillies
in the National League
for Stan Baumgartner
and Jack Withrow. Wilson's National League
playing career would stretch over 18 seasons (1923–40) with the Philadelphia Phillies
, St. Louis Cardinals
and the Reds. He hit over .300 four times as a regular catcher and for his career batted .284 in 1,525 games.
In 1928, he joined baseball history when he was traded by the Phillies to the Cardinals during a game between the two teams. According to one account, "Wilson was a Phil for two innings, then darted into Redbird regalia, and sat on the St. Louis bench, for the remainder of the game."
From 1934 through 1938, he was the player-manager of his hometown Phillies, one of the worst teams in baseball at the time. He guided the Phils to three seventh place and two eighth (last) place finishes; in his final season, Philadelphia lost 103 of 149 games. He then joined the Cincinnati coaching staff in 1939 and played only four games that season. But in August 1940 the Reds were stunned when Lombardi's backup catcher, Willard Hershberger
, committed suicide in his Boston hotel room. Wilson joined the active roster during the pennant race and played in 16 games behind Lombardi, batting only .243. But pressed into service during the Series, Wilson came through.
His stardom in the 1940 Fall Classic led to his second and last major league managing job, with the Chicago Cubs
(1941–44), but he never had a winning record in Wrigleyville and his highest finish was fifth, in 1943. The following season, the Cubs lost nine of their first ten games and Wilson was replaced by Charlie Grimm
. His final record as a manager, over nine full or partial seasons, was poor: 493 wins and 735 losses (.401).
Wilson returned to Cincinnati as a coach in 1945-46. Released along with Reds manager Bill McKechnie
at the end of the 1946 season, Wilson moved to Florida and entered the citrus growing business. He died suddenly of a heart attack
at the age of 46 the following May in Bradenton
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional athlete in soccer and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
.
He began his professional sports career as a soccer outside right in the National Association Football League and American Soccer League
American Soccer League
The American Soccer League has been a name used by three different professional soccer leagues in the United States. The first American Soccer League was established in 1921 by the merger of teams from the National Association Football League and the Southern New England Soccer League. For...
before becoming a catcher
Catcher
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...
, manager
Manager (baseball)
In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...
and coach
Coach (baseball)
In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, or head coach, who determines the lineup and decides how to substitute players during the game...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. In the 1940 World Series
1940 World Series
The 1940 World Series matched the Cincinnati Reds against the Detroit Tigers, with the Reds winning the Series in seven games for their second championship, their first since the scandal-tainted victory in...
, the 40-year-old Wilson came off the coaching lines to take over as the regular catcher for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
when the starter, future Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi
Ernie Lombardi
Ernesto Natali "Ernie" Lombardi , was a Major League Baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Robins, the Cincinnati Reds, the Boston Braves and the New York Giants during a Hall of Fame career that spanned 17 years, from 1931 to 1947. He had several nicknames, including "Schnozz", "Lumbago", "Bocci",...
, was injured. Wilson batted
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
.353 in six games, playing a key role in Cincinnati's defeat of the Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
, four games to three, for the world championship. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Wilson threw and batted right-handed and stood 6 foot tall and weighed 200 pounds (90.7 kg).
Soccer
Wilson, the son of ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
immigrants, grew up in northeast Philadelphia. He left school when he was fourteen to work in a local textile mill. In 1919, he left the mills when he began playing as an outside forward with Philadelphia Merchant Ship B
Philadelphia Merchant Ship
Philadelphia Merchant Ship F.C. was a short-lived U.S. soccer team of the early twentieth century. It spent two seasons in the National Association Football League and went to the semifinals of the 1919 American Cup.-History:...
in the National Association Football League. During his time with the team, he met Dick Spalding
Dick Spalding
Charles Harry “Dick" Spalding was an American soccer and baseball player. He played the first two games in the history of the U.S. national soccer team, as well as professional soccer for nearly fifteen years, primarily with teams in Pennsylvania...
, another two sport athlete, whom he later hired as his first base coach when Wilson managed the Phillies and Cubs. After Merchant Ship folded following the 1919-1920 season, Wilson moved to Bethlehem Steel F.C.
Bethlehem Steel F.C.
Bethlehem Steel Football Club was one of the most successful early American soccer clubs. Known as the Bethlehem Football Club from 1911 until 1915 when it became the Bethlehem Steel Football Club, the team was sponsored by the Bethlehem Steel corporation and played their home games first at East...
, signing with the team in July 1920. During his time in Bethlehem, he also played catcher for the steel company's baseball team which competed in the Steel League. In 1921, Wilson signed with Harrison F.C.
Harrison F.C.
Harrison F.C. was an American soccer club based in Harrison, New Jersey that began as the amateur Harrison Erie S.C. who played in the National Association Foot Ball League....
in the newly established American Soccer League
American Soccer League
The American Soccer League has been a name used by three different professional soccer leagues in the United States. The first American Soccer League was established in 1921 by the merger of teams from the National Association Football League and the Southern New England Soccer League. For...
. He played thirteen league and three National Challenge Cup
1922 National Challenge Cup
The 1921–22 National Challenge Cup was the annual open cup held by the United States Football Association now known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.-History:...
games, scoring four goals. During the 1922-1923 season, he played four games for Philadelphia Field Club
Philadelphia Field Club
Philadelphia Field Club is a name used by four soccer teams based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. All four versions of Philadelphia F.C. competed in the first American Soccer League, but none were in any way related to the other three teams which shared its name.-Philadelphia F.C.:The Philadelphia...
before leaving the sport to concentrate on his baseball career.
Baseball
During his years playing first division soccer, Wilson also made a name for himself as an excellent baseball player. When he signed with Bethlehem Steel in July 1920, the local newspaper stated, "The addition of Wilson would be a most welcome one, due to the fact that his campaigning on the baseball diamond has been as brilliant as that in soccer circles. At present he is on the receiving end of the battery for the New Haven team in the Eastern League."In February 1923, he gave up his soccer career when he was traded from New Haven in the Eastern League to the Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
in the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
for Stan Baumgartner
Stan Baumgartner
-External links:*...
and Jack Withrow. Wilson's National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
playing career would stretch over 18 seasons (1923–40) with the Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
, St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
and the Reds. He hit over .300 four times as a regular catcher and for his career batted .284 in 1,525 games.
In 1928, he joined baseball history when he was traded by the Phillies to the Cardinals during a game between the two teams. According to one account, "Wilson was a Phil for two innings, then darted into Redbird regalia, and sat on the St. Louis bench, for the remainder of the game."
From 1934 through 1938, he was the player-manager of his hometown Phillies, one of the worst teams in baseball at the time. He guided the Phils to three seventh place and two eighth (last) place finishes; in his final season, Philadelphia lost 103 of 149 games. He then joined the Cincinnati coaching staff in 1939 and played only four games that season. But in August 1940 the Reds were stunned when Lombardi's backup catcher, Willard Hershberger
Willard Hershberger
Willard McKee Hershberger was a catcher for Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds from 1938 to 1940.He has the distinction of being the only major league player to date to commit suicide during the season.-Life and career:...
, committed suicide in his Boston hotel room. Wilson joined the active roster during the pennant race and played in 16 games behind Lombardi, batting only .243. But pressed into service during the Series, Wilson came through.
His stardom in the 1940 Fall Classic led to his second and last major league managing job, with the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
(1941–44), but he never had a winning record in Wrigleyville and his highest finish was fifth, in 1943. The following season, the Cubs lost nine of their first ten games and Wilson was replaced by Charlie Grimm
Charlie Grimm
Charles John Grimm , nicknamed "Jolly Cholly", was a first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball best known for his years with the Chicago Cubs; he was also a sometime radio broadcaster, and a popular goodwill ambassador for baseball...
. His final record as a manager, over nine full or partial seasons, was poor: 493 wins and 735 losses (.401).
Wilson returned to Cincinnati as a coach in 1945-46. Released along with Reds manager Bill McKechnie
Bill McKechnie
William Boyd McKechnie was an American third baseman, manager and coach in Major League Baseball. He was the first manager to win World Series titles with two different teams , and remains one of only two managers to win pennants with three teams, also capturing the National League title in 1928...
at the end of the 1946 season, Wilson moved to Florida and entered the citrus growing business. He died suddenly of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
at the age of 46 the following May in Bradenton
Bradenton, Florida
Bradenton is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2007 population to be 53,471. Bradenton is the largest Principal City of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2007 estimated population of 682,833...
.
Personal
Wilson was also the father of 2nd Lt. Robert J Wilson, a B-29 Flight Crew member who died in a training accident in Kharagpur, India November 28, 1944.External links
- Baseball Reference - playing career and managerial record
- The Deadball Era