Chief Wilson

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Chief Wilson

|image=1912 Chief Wilson.jpeg

|caption=Wilson in 1912

|position=Outfielder

|birth_date={{birth date|1883|8|21}}

|birth_place=Austin, Texas, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1954|2|22|1883|8|21}}

|death_place=Bertram, Texas, U.S.

|bats=Left

|throws=Right

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=April 15

|debutyear=1908

|debutteam=Pittsburgh Pirates

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=October 1

|finalyear=1916

|finalteam=St. Louis Cardinals

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.269

|stat2label=Triples

|stat2value=114

|stat3label=Home runs

|stat3value=59

|stat4label=Runs batted in

|stat4value=571

|teams=

Pittsburgh Pirates ({{baseball year|1908}}–{{baseball year|1913}})
St. Louis Cardinals ({{baseball year|1914}}–{{baseball year|1916}})

|highlights=

World Series champion ({{wsy|1909}})
NL RBI leader (1911)

MLB record

36 triples, single season (1912)

}}

John Owen "Chief" Wilson (August 21, 1883 – February 22, 1954) was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1916 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals.

Wilson played minor league baseball for three teams until the end of 1907, when he signed with the Pirates. After spending six seasons with the organization, he was traded to the Cardinals, where he spent the last three seasons of his major league career. Wilson is best known for setting the single-season record for triples in {{mlby|1912}} with 36, a record that still stands.

Early life

Wilson was born on August 21, 1883, in Austin, Texas.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilsoch01.shtml|title=Chief Wilson Statistics and History|work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=October 22, 2012}} He grew up at a ranch owned by his family located approximately 50 miles north of Austin in Bertram.{{cite web|url=http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ed5711f8|title=Chief Wilson|first=Mark|last=Armour|work=The Baseball Biography Project|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|access-date=October 22, 2012}} Wilson started his baseball career playing on several teams in independent leagues, before joining the Austin Senators in 1905.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=wilson016joh|title=Chief Wilson Minor League Statistics and History|work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=October 22, 2012}} He was known for his introverted nature; his Pirates teammate and roommate Bobby Byrne recounted how Wilson "wouldn't say two words all day."

Contrary to popular belief, Wilson was not of Native American descent. He was nicknamed "Chief" because his Pittsburgh teammates and manager Fred Clarke thought Wilson, a native Texan who stood {{convert|6|ft|2|in}},{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/12/18/chief-a-pirate-who-tripled-his-pleasure/|title='Chief' A Pirate Who Tripled His Pleasure|last=Holtzman|first=Jerome|date=December 18, 1996|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune|access-date=October 24, 2012}} resembled a "Chief of the Texas Rangers."

Professional baseball career

=Minor leagues=

In {{baseball year|1905}}, Wilson signed with the Austin Senators, a minor league baseball team in the Texas League. However, the team disbanded in the middle of the season on June 6, and Wilson joined the Fort Worth Panthers, playing for them until he was promoted to the Des Moines Champs of the Western League in {{baseball year|1907}}. He performed well, posting a batting average of .323 in 56 games. It was during his first (and only) season with the Champs that Wilson was spotted by Denver Grizzlies pitcher Babe Adams, who had signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of 1907. Adams informed Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss of Wilson's "tremendous arm" and his ability "not only as a hitter but as a fielder." This prompted Dreyfuss to sign Wilson to the Pirates as their right fielder.

=Pittsburgh Pirates (1908–1913)=

File:1912 T207 Chief Wilson.jpg

Wilson made his major league debut for the Pirates on April 15, 1908, at the age of 24, in a 3–1 Opening Day win against the St. Louis Cardinals.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/1908-schedule-scores.shtml|title=1908 Pittsburgh Pirates Schedule, Box Scores and Splits|work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=October 22, 2012}} During his {{mlby|1908}} rookie season, Wilson had a relatively disappointing year,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VwOLIVOWvwC&q=chief+wilson&pg=PA336|title=Pittsburgh Pirates Encyclopedia|publisher=Sports Publishing LLC|date=April 1, 2003|last1=Finoli|first1=David|last2=Rainer|first2=Bill|pages=336|isbn=9781582614168|access-date=October 22, 2012}} batting .227, slugging .285 and finishing sixth in the National League (NL) in strikeouts with 66. Out of his 120 hits that season, only 18 were extra base hits. As a result of his offensive woes, Pirates fans booed him on a constant basis. Wilson greatly improved his batting in the following season, raising his batting average to .272, playing all 154 games of the season and finishing fifth in the NL in triples with 12. This success culminated in the Pirates winning the World Series at the conclusion of that season.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1909_WS.shtml|title=1909 World Series (4-3): Pittsburgh Pirates (110-42) over Detroit Tigers (98-54)|work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=October 23, 2012}} In the Opening Day game of the {{mlby|1910}} season, Wilson got injured and had to sit out for seven games, with Vin Campbell taking his place in the lineup.{{cite news|title=Pirates Scheduled to Open Season Today|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bw1RAAAAIBAJ&pg=1666,248170&dq=chief+wilson&hl=en|date=April 20, 1911|page=9|access-date=October 24, 2012|newspaper=The Gazette Times|location=Pittsburgh}} On July 3, against the Cincinnati Reds, he hit for the cycle.{{Cite web |url=http://www.retrosheet.org/cycles.htm |title=Cycles |website=Retrosheet |access-date=2018-06-06}} He finished the season with similar statistics as the previous year, batting .276 and hitting 13 triples.

The {{mlby|1911}} season was a breakout year for Wilson. He posted a batting average of .300, finished third in the NL in doubles (34), fifth in home runs (12) and sixth in slugging (.472) and drove in 107 runs batted in (RBI), thus becoming the league's RBI champion. The 12 home runs he hit that season marked a Pirates team record he held until {{mlby|1925}}.

In {{mlby|1912}}, Wilson recorded the same batting average as the year before and finished second in the league in slugging (.513) and games played (152), third in home runs (11), fourth in RBI (95) and seventh in hits (175). Furthermore, he set the MLB single-season record for triples, hitting 36 in total that year. However, his record received almost no press coverage. Baseball sportswriter Ernest Lanigan suggested that this was because a record book erroneously attributed Nap Lajoie with having 44 triples in {{mlby|1903}}, when he hit only 11 that year. As a result, several newspapers – most notably The Pittsburgh Press – were under the belief that Lajoie held the record.{{cite news|title=Chief Wilson Poles His Thirty-Fourth Three-Bagger Of The Season|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aQIbAAAAIBAJ&pg=4033,1650000&dq=chief+wilson+baseball&hl=en|date=September 8, 1912|first=W.J.|last=O'Connor|page=2 (Sporting section)|access-date=October 28, 2012|newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press|quote=Only a phenomenal burst of long swats will give the Texan a chance to equal Lajoie's season mark of 44 three-base knocks...the wonderful record once made by Lajoie.}}

Wilson's record still stands today and is currently the third oldest single-season record, behind Lajoie's .426 batting average in 1901 and Jack Chesbro's 41 wins in 1904.{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D15FA3B5C0C718CDDA90994DC404482|title=Baseball; Swift and Sharp, Suzuki Sets Mark For Hits in Season|last=Egan|first=Timothy|date=October 2, 2004|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=October 23, 2012}} It is considered one of baseball's most unbreakable records,{{cite news|title=Hitters Continuing Pursuit Of Records \ Some Marks Untouchable|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WO&p_theme=wo&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EADEF6848184D71&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|date=July 17, 1994|first=Bill|last=Ballou|page=D8|access-date=October 24, 2012|newspaper=Telegram & Gazette|location=Worcester}} {{subscription required}} as only Sam Crawford (1914) and Kiki Cuyler (1925) have come the closest to breaking the record; both players hit 26 triples.{{cite web|title=Single-Season Leaders & Records for Triples|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/3B_season.shtml|work=Baseball-Reference|access-date=October 24, 2012}} Wilson's record also accounted for part of the 129 triples amassed by the Pirates that year, setting a single-season record for most triples by a team since 1900.{{cite news|url=http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/mets-are-good-at-something/|title=Mets Are Good at Something|last=Gustines|first=Elena|date=April 29, 2009|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=October 27, 2012}} Due to his stellar and record-breaking performance, Wilson finished eighth in that season's voting for the Chalmers Award, the precursor to the MLB Most Valuable Player Award.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_1912.shtml|title=Baseball Awards Voting for 1912|work=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=October 27, 2012}}

=St. Louis Cardinals (1914–1916)=

Wilson finished his career playing three seasons for the Cardinals. He played his last MLB game on October 1, 1916.

Later life

After he retired from baseball, Wilson returned to his family ranch in Bertram, where he became a stock farmer and held various positions in service to the community.{{cite news|title=Hail to the Chief|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i88kAAAAIBAJ&pg=2370,3092334&dq=chief+wilson+baseball&hl=en|date=March 28, 2007|page=1A, 4A|access-date=October 22, 2012|newspaper=The Burnet Bulletin}} He died on October 24, 1954, at the age of 70 and was interred at Austin Memorial Park. On March 31, 2007, the Bertram Little League Sports Complex was dedicated to and named after Wilson.

References

=General=

{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats27.shtml|title=36 Triples by Chief Wilson in a Single Season|work=Baseball-Almanac.com|publisher=Baseball Almanac|access-date=October 28, 2012}}

=Specific=

External links

{{Baseballstats|mlb=124409 |espn=28130 |br=w/wilsoch01 |fangraphs=1014066 |brm=wilson001chi |retro=W/Pwilsc102}}, or [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=wilsoch01 Baseball Almanac]