Twirling Pitchers: The Early Years of Baylor Baseball

My knowledge of baseball largely comes from six years of watching my brother’s Little League team. I’m not an authority by any means, but I’ve been surprised at how much lingo I managed to soak up. But when I set out to learn more about Denney Wilie, Baylor’s first baseball player to make it to the majors, I was stumped by repeated references to the “twirlers” and their role in winning games.

Baylor Baseball team, 1910--album
Members of the 1910 Baylor baseball team gather for a team photo. Note Carroll Library and Chapel, with its original dome, on the left of the photo.

To me, a Baylor twirler is a Golden Girl, but it turns out that pitchers are “twirlers” too! The term makes sense, especially since when Denney was “twirling,” baseball was in its Deadball Era. Baseballs were used till they were soft, and spitballs were legal—so connecting with the ball, let alone hitting a home run, was difficult. A powerful pitcher who had some tricks up his sleeve would be a great asset to his team as he “twirled” the ball across the plate.

And Denney certainly was a strong member of the Baylor team—in 1911, before he left Baylor to join the St. Louis Cardinals, Denney captained his team to the state championship! Of course, he had some help—the athletics program was growing and there were many strong players at Baylor. (Baylor baseball started in 1902.) Denney also came from an athletically inclined family—his brother, Charles Lee “Cap” Wilie attended Baylor from 1904-08 and was a baseball star in his own right. Both brothers played and excelled in football at Baylor too. But it was Ernest Dennis “Denney” Wilie who would turn his baseball talent into a career.

Ernest Dennis "Denney" Wilie, 1911
Denney Wilie led the way for future Bears who have competed in major league baseball.

And the Round-Up yearbook is nothing short of adulating of that talent. In the 1909 Round-Up: “Possessing a cool head, a strong left arm, perfect control, and a world of speed, he has easily succeeded in baffling his strongest opponents. Not only can he deliver the goods on the firing-line, but his ability to hit with men on bases has brought more than one victory to the Green and Gold.” (This was before Baylor became the Bears!)

The 1910 Round-Up: “His fast ones were so seldom connected with, his curves so puzzling, his control so perfect, his head-work so superb, his hitting so timely, that he last season gained a State-wide reputation as one of the best college pitchers in the State.” (This Round-Up does make note of his quick temper too, but also calls his work worthy of a “Big-Leaguer.”)

And by the 1911 Round-Up: “‘Dennis’ Wilie, now known as ‘Captain Dennis,’ has sustained his rep as being one of the best little ball-players that has ever faced a college pitcher. He formerly pitched, but on account of his hard, regular hitting Coach placed him in left field, and there too he has starred. On long flies he is at his best, frequently robbing the opponents of well-deserved hits. His hitting has won most of our games, and in a pinch he can always be depended upon to do his duty.”

After Baylor’s 1911 state championship, Denney left the university to join the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was an outfielder in 1911 and 1912. According to Baseball-Reference.com, in 1915 he played for the Cleveland Indians, then went on to play for the Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League from 1915-23.

Oddly, the Lariat didn’t cover the momentous event of Baylor’s first student to play major league baseball—maybe they were disappointed that he didn’t return to complete his time at Baylor. Nevertheless, Denney Wilie holds the distinction of being the first of 39 (to date) Baylor athletes to compete in Major League Baseball. This year’s draft picks and current athletes in the majors uphold a proud history of excellence in baseball at Baylor!

Read more about Denney Wilie: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Denney_Wilie

See his baseball card: http://www.rainfall.com/posters/baseballcards/18061.htm

Learn about Baylor in the majors: http://www.baylorathleticsexperience.com/baseball_mlb.php

And enjoy a slideshow of photos (and a few baseballs) from the early years of Baylor baseball:

Research Ready: June 2012

Each month, we post a processing update to notify our readers about the latest collections that have finding aids online and are primed for research. Here’s the scoop for June:

Lane-JohnsonResidence-Waco
Roy Lane was one of the most famous architects to have ever resided in the Waco area. The Roy E. Lane Collection contains various sketches and photographs of local houses that Lane designed.
    • William Cowper Brann Collection: The William Cowper Brann Collection contains secondary materials and a few primary sources detailing the career and death of influential journalist William C. Brann, editor of The Iconoclast.
    • Robert F. Darden, Jr. Collection: The Robert Darden, Jr. Collection contains correspondence, literary productions, and photographic materials belonging to Darden, a veteran of the Korean War and a resident of Texas.
    • De La Vega Land Grant Papers: This collection includes original correspondence, court documents, financial receipts, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the De la Vega Land Grant and Roger Conger’s research on the land grant.
    • Roy Ellsworth Lane Collection: The Roy Ellsworth Lane Collections consists of correspondence, literary productions, photographs, and blueprints highlighting Lane’s impressive career as an architect in the central Texas region.
Luper-BrazilMission-program
The Lupers were a Baptist missionary family who served in Portugal and Brazil during the 20th century. This program is indicative of their conscientious efforts to spread the gospel to the rural regions of Brazil.
  • Luper Family Papers: The Luper Family Papers are comprised of correspondence, literary productions, and other materials pertaining to a missionary couple and their experiences during the mid-1900s in Portugal and Brazil.
  • Greaver Lewis Miller Collection: The Greaver Lewis Miller Collection contains materials from an American pilot who trained at nearby Rich Field in Waco, Texas, during World War I. Materials include photographs, certificates, and artifacts from Miller’s time in the Army.

You can see how wide and varied The Texas Collection’s holdings are! These records—and the finding aids we have online—are just a small representation of the thousands of collections we preserve for future researchers. We’re working hard to make our collections more visible and hope that one of them will spark your interest!

The Life and Times: Diaries As Research Tools

Worrying about the health of family members? Fretting over school and work? If you are, you may write about these concerns in a diary. People have kept diaries, and have written about the same kinds of subjects, for a long time. Diaries are special that way—they are records of daily life. For researchers, they contain a wealth of information about a person, their activities, social interactions, community and private affairs.

Box of diariesSo when we began working with the Baines Family Collection, we were pleased to find—in addition to correspondence and literary materials—a bevy of diaries. 47, to be exact.

George Washington Baines Jr. was the son of George Washington Baines, Sr., Baylor University’s third president (1861-63) and great grandfather to Lyndon Baines Johnson. George Jr. was born in Louisiana in 1848, and soon moved to Texas and attended Baylor University in Independence, Texas, where he graduated in 1875.

He became a fourth-generation Baptist minister and served at several churches in Texas. Baines was also a missionary to El Paso, establishing the First Baptist Church in El Paso, was Dean of the Bible Department at the San Marcos Baptist Academy, and was on the Baptist Education Commission of Texas.

Baines’ diaries span 1861-1912, but not consecutively. They contain small diaries and notebooks—some no bigger than a deck of cards—full of entries, pastor notes, sermons, diaries of churches where he preached, and places he visited.

For example, Baines’ 1890 diary, the marbled one on the top row of the photo below, contains a wealth of information, from Baines’ life to insight into the times. Diaries detailThe beginning of this diary contains information similar to what we find in day planners today, but with some twists: a calendar, train time tables, interest tables, pages with the value of foreign coins, dates for eclipses, wind direction and velocity signals, and territorial statistics.

Later entries recount daily thoughts and activities. In the 1890 diary, Baines expresses concern about his schoolwork at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky:

Was examined in Homiletics today. Sat from 9am to 5:30pm. Ate no dinner. Hard work, and it came near to flooring me. Tonight I feel nervous. Head feels like a balloon. I can’t stand much of this. Fear my paper will be a poor one.

Another entry from the same diary reads:

At home all day. Janet had high fever this afternoon. We feel quite anxious about her. William is about well, so is George. But Janet’s condition is very serious.

Both of these entries could be seen in a modern seminary student’s diary! However, the collection also contains diaries dedicated to specific events. The “journal of a buffalo hunt in December, 1871,” for example, might be quite interesting indeed.

Open diaryThough sometimes hard to read (old-fashioned handwriting trips up everybody), diaries and journals help us understand the lives and circumstances of people in other times, and valuable information on that day and age. Diaries can inform, inspire and delight. They can contain affirmation, negativity, and anything imaginable. As research tools they are very valuable. Come see us at The Texas Collection to research or if you just have an interest in diaries.  We will be more than happy to show you our treasures.

Photos by Ann Payne