Julius Willigrod (October 27, 1857 – November 27, 1906) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player whose career ran from 1879 to 1882. He played

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), ...

for the Cleveland Blues and

Detroit Wolverines The Detroit Wolverines were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team that played in the National League from 1881 to 1888 in the city of Detroit, Michigan. In total, they won 426 games and lost 437, taking their lone pennant (and winning the pre ...

in 1882.

Early years

Willigrod was born in

Marshalltown, Iowa Marshalltown is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Iowa, United States, located along the Iowa River. It is the seat and most populous settlement of Marshall County and the 16th largest city in Iowa, with a population of 27,591 at ...

. His father, Edward Willigrod, was an immigrant from

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Prussia who worked as a machinist. His mother, Catharine, was an immigrant from Bavaria. Willigrod had a twin sister, Julia.

Professional baseball player

Willigrod played minor league baseball for the Omaha Green Stockings in the

Northwestern League The Northwestern League was a sports league that operated in the Central United States during the early years of professional baseball for five seasons: 1879, 1883–1884, and 1886–1887. After the 1887 season, the league was replaced by the We ...

in 1879 and then traveled west to California where he played for two seasons with the San Francisco Knickerbockers of the California League. During one of his two seasons with San Francisco, he led the league in runs scored despite compiling a batting average of only .207.At the time of the 1880 U.S. Census, in June 1880, Willigrod was living as a lodger at 162 Folsom Street in San Francisco. His occupation was listed as machinist. Three of the other lodgers at that address were employed as base ball players: James Whitney, George Bailey, and Charles Whitney. Between July 15 and August 19, 1882, Willigrod played ten games in

, principally as an outfielder, for the

and Cleveland Blues of 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 ...

. He compiled a .154

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 ...

in 39 at bats. In his final major league game, he hit a triple and scored four runs, a record that still stands for the most runs scored in a player's final major league game.

Later years

Willigrod died in 1906 at age 49 in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Marshalltown, Iowa.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willigrod, Julius 1857 births 1906 deaths 19th-century baseball players Major League Baseball outfielders Detroit Wolverines players Cleveland Blues (NL) players Omaha Green Stockings players San Francisco Knickerbockers players Baseball players from Iowa Sportspeople from Marshalltown, Iowa