The Wiltse Cousins Made it to the Bigs

Part 2 of our family's baseball history. At the turn of the last century, baseball fever wasn't limited to Cooperstown. Mary Heath/Haith Colman’s younger sister Sarah Jane’s two youngest sons were also baseball players.

The Heath family had come from England and settled in Springfield. According to the census records, Mary was born in England (1825) and Sarah Jane was born in New York State (1834). She married Henry Wiltse and had nine known children. It was reported that the four right-handed sons had no interest in baseball, but three left-handers loved to play. Lewis Dewitt Wiltse, born in 1873, and George Leroy Wiltse, born in 1880, grew up in Bouckville or Hamilton, NY about 45 miles west of Cooperstown.

Newspaper archives give us details of their careers. Lewis reportedly began as a second baseman for Oxford, NY. In 1898 he went to Illion as a left-handed pitcher. In 1899 he became a professional, signing with Toledo in the Inter-State League. He played part of 1900 with the Syracuse Stars of the Eastern League. In 1901 he was drafted by Pittsburgh, but finished that season with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1902 he also pitched for Baltimore. He was known as “Snake” Wiltse. A 1999 article in The Waterville Times says he played until 1910 in the minor leagues.

George “Hooks” Wiltse had a longer professional career with the NY Giants and was proposed for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also a left-handed pitcher. Wiltse's nickname did not come from his curveball but from the way he would reach out with his long right arm to snare line drives and high bounders coming back through the box. One report described him as “slight” in stature. In 1939 he played in the Cooperstown Centennial celebration as a member of the NYS Old Timers.

The following summary was taken from information at the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.

• 1880: Born in Hamilton, New York
• 1900: First professional game with the Syracuse Stars [Waterville Times says he was paid $5/game to play with the Utica Actives in 1894 at 14]
• 1904 -1914: Joined New York Giants, pitching in 367 games, winning 142, losing 90 with 29 shutouts in 2112 innings. Wiltse had one of the most sensational rookie campaigns in history, winning his first 13 games while going 13-3 in 1904 for the New York Giants. Won 12 or more games in eight consecutive years, and twice Hook won 20 games in a season. The New York Giants won five National League pennants in 11 seasons with Hooks on the team. Hooks made only 31 errors in 319 games with a fielding percentage of .956.
• 1908: Only pitcher in baseball history to strike out seven batters in two successive innings (four batters struck out in one inning).
• July 4, 1908: The first left-handed pitcher in professional baseball to ever pitch a ten inning no-hit game. Holds the major league record for most wins at the start of a career (12 wins). [missed a perfect game by brushing a players shirt, causing a walk]
• 1911 & 1913: Pitched and played first base in the World Series
• 1913: World series; Wiltse, a great fielder who loved to work out at first base, was sent in, and made several sensational plays to save Christy Mathewson's shutout of Philadelphia. [Christy Mathewson’s roommate]
• 1915: Managed Jersey City of the International League, in June, pitched for Brooklyn in the Federal League.
• 1916 -1919: Managed at Albany, Reading and Lafayette College.
• 1919-1924: Managed Buffalo of the International League.
• 1925: New York Yankees pitching coach
• 1934 -1944: Deputy Assessor of the City of Syracuse.
• 1944: President of Syracuse Industrial Baseball League.
• 1952: Elected to the International League Baseball Hall of Fame.
• Died in 1959
• 2000: Inducted into the Syracuse Baseball Wall of Fame .
• 2006: Hamilton, New York dedicated is baseball complex the "Hook Wiltse Field"

Baseball and our Cooperstown Roots

Whether or not Cooperstown was the true birthplace of the game of baseball, where “town ball” was codified into the National Pastime, it is clear that the game was an important part of the social history of the region and of our Col(e)man family at the turn of the last century.

In March of 1924, The Richfield Mercury newspaper reported:

Old Time Ball Team Recalled
One of the early baseball nines of Cooperstown was called the Riverside club, organized in 1878. William H. Michaels was captain, secretary, and treasurer of the club. The games were played on a plot of ground on what was then the Dorr Russel farm now the Iriquois farm of F. A. Clark. The battery was Horace Coleman, catcher; John Coleman, pitcher; William H. Michaels, short stop. Other players were: Charles B. Michaels, Leonard Vunk, Irving Hoose, Hiram Slater, George Way, Fenimore Coleman, and John H. King. At the time it was playing this nine was considered the best in Otsego County and John Coleman was the only pitcher in the county who pitched a curve. As far as can be learned, the only players of this club still living are Hiram Slater of Milford, Leonard Vunk, John H. King and William H. Michaels of Cooperstown.

Dewitt and Mary (Heath/Haith) Colman’s sons John, Horace and Fenimore played together on this field near their home on what was later called Brooklyn Avenue in Middlefield. In 1878 John was 26 and the father of a two year old daughter Edith. Horace and Fenimore, aged 22 and 20, respectively, were still living with their parents. All worked at the nearby sawmill on the river. The twins, Lucius and Lucien, who are not listed in this article were 24. The youngest, Charles, was only 14 at the time. He also grew to be a local ball player whose picture is on file in the archives at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The 1880 census reveals that Leonard Vunk, 23, lived with his father in Middlefield. Irving Hoose was also a Middlefield resident, living in the household of Helen Eggleston. Hiram Slater, 22, lived with elderly Nancy Hoose in Middlefield. The Hoose and Way families also appear to be related. John King, 25, was an Irish immigrant living in Otsego

In the 1880’s (undated) The Philadelphia Athletics professional baseball team invited John and Horace to come and try out for the team. Family lore says their wives (Horace married in 1881) vetoed that trip.

In the next generation, John Colman’s sons Dewitt and Pierce played together in 1913 in the local Sunset League, made up of the Baptists, Universalists, Methodists, Christ Church and Presbyterians, as reported in the Glimmerglass newspaper. Dewitt pitched and Pierce played first base. They were far from their sunset years, being 25 and 33, respectively. Perhaps the sun set in the outfield. The name was used for an adult league in other towns as well. In another report from June of 1913, W. Coleman was listed at shortstop/second base in the box score, likely Horace's son Bill who would have been 23. Dewitt pitched for the Universalists one year and the Baptists the next, when the Universalists were replaced by the Internationals, so the names don’t seem to represent their religious allegiances.

Can you imagine picnics on the lawn and the sound of the crack of the bat on the lazy summer afternoons?