Today’s Yankee birthday is someone who had a bit of an odd career. If you just glance at his stats, he looks like someone who should’ve had a way longer career than playing just parts of seven years. He has way better stats than someone who had two year plus long stints out of the majors entirely, that had nothing to do with injury or any sort of military service. The only explanation I have for parts of how his time in the big leagues played out was that it was the 1910s.
Harry Meiggs Wolter
Born: July 11, 1884 (Monterey, CA)
Died: July 6, 1970 (Palo Alto, CA)
Yankees Tenure: 1910-13
Wolter was born in Monterey, CA in 1884, the youngest of seven children. He attended the local Monterey High School — where future Yankee Mike Aldrete would go many decades later — and then went on to Santa Clara University. He had a brief run in the minors in 1905, but his pro career began in full in 1906 after he graduated college. That year, he joined the incredibly named Fresno Raisin Eaters of the Pacific Coast League. He was a bit of a two-way player at that time, as he had a 3.22 ERA in nearly 300 innings for Fresno that year, but also had a .307 batting average in over 500 at-bats.
That season got Wolter on the major league radar. The Reds picked up him for 1907, but that ended up being a very weird season for Wolter. He played four games for the Reds — all in the outfield — before they sold him to the Pirates. Pittsburgh tried him as a pitcher in one game, but also didn’t have a use for him and sold him to the Cardinals. He showed some promise at the plate in St. Louis, but only appeared in 16 games. After that trek around the country, he headed back out west. Despite the Cardinals attempting to sell him to a minor league team, Wolter instead jumped to the “outlaw” California State League and the San Jose Prune Pickers.
A good year there got him back on the MLB radar, and the Red Sox bought him for 1909. He finally got an extended chance to be a two-way player with Boston, but during that year it became clear that he was a better hitter than pitcher, and 1909 would be his final MLB season with any innings pitched.
Despite a decent hitting year, the Red Sox placed Wolters on waivers, and the New York Highlanders picked him up. Appearing in 135 games, Wolter put up a .725 OPS in 1910, which equated to a very good 122 OPS+. While his pitching days were over, he remained quite versatile, playing games at four different positions in the field.
Wolter was even better in 1911, putting up 127 OPS+, although the Highlanders as a team weren’t particularly great. The following year, he made a bit of history by recording the first ever hit in the history of Fenway Park, singling in the first inning. However, he would be restricted to just 12 games after dislocating his kneecap while sliding into second base.
Whether it was the injury or any other reason, Wolter’s numbers fell off in 1913, but he was still above average in a lot of stats. Like a lot of things about Wolter’s career or old timey baseball, I can’t fully explain why, but ahead of the 1914 season, the Highlanders sold Wolters back to the Pacific Coast League. Wolters did not take the move lightly saying:
“It is a clear case of railroading. (New York owner) Frank Farrell never asked waivers on me and is trying to send me to the minors without giving me a chance to get on with some other American League club. I will sign with the Angels for the same salary I received from the New Yorks, but will not accept any contract which calls for a cent less, and unless these terms are met I will jump to the Federal League.”
In the end, he did return back to the PCL, joining the Los Angeles Angels. He ended up playing the next three years there and looked more like the 1910-11 version of himself. He had one more run in the big leagues, joining the Cubs for 1917. He was a bit below average, and opted to go back to the PCL again when the Cubs tried to slash his salary for 1918. Wolter played for a variety of PCL teams over the next couple years, retiring after the 1920 season. He briefly came out of retirement in 1927, playing a couple games for a minor league team he was managing, and even returned to the mound on a couple occasions.
Following his playing career, Wolter served as the baseball coach at Stanford off and on until 1949. He also remained in Palo Alto until he passed away at the age of 85 in 1970.
There are a couple things about Wolter’s career that I can only say “it was the 1910s” about.
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