John Owen "Chief" Wilson (August 21, 1883 – February 22, 1954) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

right fielder A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

from 1908 to 1916 for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

and

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. 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 with 36, a record that still stands.

Early life

Wilson was born on August 21, 1883, in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. He grew up at a ranch owned by his family located approximately 50 miles north of Austin in Bertram. Wilson started his baseball career playing on several teams in independent leagues, before joining the

Austin Senators The "Austin Senators" is the name of various minor league baseball teams based in Austin, Texas, United States which played on-and-off between 1898 and 1964. Different incarnations of the Senators have played in the Texas League (1888–1890, 1905, ...

in 1905. He was known for his

introvert The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl J ...

ed 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 , resembled a "Chief of the Texas Rangers."

Professional baseball career

Minor leagues

In , Wilson signed with the

, a minor league baseball team in the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

. However, the team disbanded in the middle of the season on June 6, and Wilson joined the

Fort Worth Panthers A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, playing for them until he was promoted to the Des Moines Champs of the Western League in . He performed well, posting a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

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 Charles Benjamin "Babe" Adams (May 18, 1882 – July 27, 1968) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1906 to 1926 who spent nearly his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Noted for his outstanding control, ...

, who had signed with the

at the end of 1907. Adams informed Pirates owner

Barney Dreyfuss Bernhard "Barney" Dreyfuss (February 23, 1865 – February 5, 1932) was an executive in Major League Baseball who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise from 1900 to his death. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. Dr ...

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

Pittsburgh Pirates (1908–1913)

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

. During his rookie season, Wilson had a relatively disappointing year, batting .227,

slugging Slugging, also known as casual carpooling, is the practice of forming ad hoc, informal carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking. A driver picks up these non-paying passengers (known as ...

.285 and finishing sixth in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL) in

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s with 66. Out of his 120 hits that season, only 18 were

extra base hit In baseball, an extra-base hit (EB, EBH or XBH), also known as a long hit, is any base hit on which the batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error or opting to make a throw to retire ano ...

s. 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 The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

at the conclusion of that season. In the Opening Day game of the season, Wilson got injured and had to sit out for seven games, with

Vin Campbell Arthur Vincent "Demon" Campbell (January 30, 1888 – November 16, 1969) was a Major League Baseball outfielder. He played all or part of six seasons in the major leagues between and . He played for the Boston Braves, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pir ...

taking his place in the lineup. On July 3, against the Cincinnati Reds, he hit for the cycle. He finished the season with similar statistics as the previous year, batting .276 and hitting 13 triples. The 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 run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s (12) and sixth in slugging (.472) and drove in 107

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(RBI), thus becoming the league's RBI champion. The 12 home runs he hit that season marked a Pirates team record he held until . In , 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 Ernest John Lanigan (January 4, 1873 in Chicago, Illinois – February 6, 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American sportswriter and historian on the subject of baseball. He was considered the premier baseball statistician and histori ...

suggested that this was because a record book erroneously attributed

Nap Lajoie Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie (; September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959), also known as Larry Lajoie and nicknamed "The Frenchman", was an American professional baseball second baseman and player-manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for t ...

with having 44 triples in , when he hit only 11 that year. As a result, several newspapers—most notably ''

The Pittsburgh Press ''The Pittsburgh Press'' (formerly ''The Pittsburg Press'' and originally ''The Evening Penny Press'') was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1884 to 1992. At one time, the ''Press'' was the second larg ...

''—were under the belief that Lajoie held the record. 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. It is considered one of baseball's most unbreakable records, as only

Sam Crawford Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood tall and weighed . Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a s ...

(1914) and

Kiki Cuyler Hazen Shirley Cuyler (; August 30, 1898 – February 11, 1950), nicknamed Kiki, was an American professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and Brooklyn Dodg ...

(1925) have come the closest to breaking the record; both players hit 26 triples. 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. 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.

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. 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

Specific

External links

, o
Baseball Almanac
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Chief 1883 births 1954 deaths Major League Baseball right fielders Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals players National League RBI champions Fort Worth Panthers players Austin Senators players Des Moines Champs players San Antonio Bronchos players Baseball players from Austin, Texas People from Bertram, Texas