Wilhoit to Red Sox

Santa Paula Chronicle
Thursday, September 4, 1919

Joe Wilhoit was born in Kansas in 1885. According to the article below, he was a student at Santa Paula High School, although many stories state that he lived in Santa Barbara in his younger days. He became a professional baseball player in 1916 with the Boston Braves and retired seven years later in 1923. During this time he played in the 1917 World Series with the New York Giants against the Chicago White Sox (the White Sox won) and had a minor league hitting streak of 69 consecutive games, which stands as a record to this day. He also played with Babe Ruth on the Boston Red Sox.

Former Santa Paulan Fine Baseball Player

The appended news items regarding one of our former Santa Paula high school boys will be of interest to many of the Chronicle readers:

WILHOIT TO RED SOX

BOSTON, AUG. 18 - Word was received tonight from E.G. Barrow, manager of the Boston American League baseball club, who is in St. Louis, that he had closed a deal with the Wichita (Kan.) club of the Western League for Joe Wilhoit, who leads that legue in batting. Manager Barrow also announced that Pitcher Bill James had been released from the Chicago American League club on a waiver claim.

WICHITA, Kan., Aug. 18 - Joseph Wilhoit, released today from the Boston Americans, late in July broke the record for number of consecutive games in which a player had made a safe hit, and has continued the record all month. With the second game yesterday at St. Joseph, he completed his sixty-seventh game of consecutive hits. In these sixty-seven games he has been at bat 291 times and has obtained 148 hits. Wilhoit entered organized baseball four years ago, and in 1917 played with the Boston Nationals for a time.