Joe Wilhoit

By the time Joe Wilhoit joined the Wichita Witches in May of 1919, he had played parts of three seasons in the major leagues.  In 1917, he was a teammate of Jim Thorpe on the pennant-winning New York Giants.  Wilhoit appeared twice as a pinch-hitter in the World Series, drawing one walk.

A lefthanded-hitting outfielder, Wilhoit was sold in 1919 by the Giants to the minor league Seattle Pilots.  The Pilots subsequently traded him to Wichita, where he would find his greatest success.

On June 14, an infield single began what was to become the greatest hitting streak in professional baseball history.  On July 22, Wilhoit equaled the then-record 40-game major league hitting streak of Ty Cobb.  Wilhoit’s streak continued until August 19 – 69 games, which still stands as a record for all of professional baseball.  (Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak in 1941 was 56 games).

In his only season with the Witches, Wilhoit hit .422 with 222 hits.  At the end of the season, he was sold to the Boston Red Sox where he played in the same outfield as Babe Ruth.  Wilhoit appeared in only six games with the Red Sox and would spend the final years of his career in the minor leagues.

Wilhoit was born in Hiawatha and studied at DePaul University in Chicago.  He died in 1930 at the age of 44 in Santa Barbara, California where he ran a luggage shop.  His great nephew, David Wilhoit, operates a website in his memory, joewilhoit.com.

For more, read Joe Wilhoit’s Society for American Baseball Research bio.