Baseball History: Joe Schultz Gets Hit at 14 Years Old
Joe Nuxhall made baseball history as the youngest player ever in the majors. On this day in 1932, Joe Schultz got a hit as a 14 year old in a game in the Texas League.
When one thinks back to the youngest professional players in baseball history, one usually pictures Joe Nuxhall. Forced into action as a 15 year old due to roster shortages during World War Two, he recorded two outs before imploding on the mound. However, Nuxhall was not the youngest player to make an appearance in a professional game.
That honor may well belong to Joe Schultz. With his father managing the Houston Buffaloes of the Texas League, Schultz was inserted into the lineup as a pinch hitter on this day in 1932. The 14 year old notched a single, stole second and third, then came around to score. Not a bad day for someone barely into their teenage years.
Schultz was not the only batboy to make his debut in that game. Another batboy, a black kid known only as Fritz, struck out while attempting to put down a sacrifice bunt. Technically, Fritz would have broken the color barrier nearly 15 years before Jackie Robinson, although one can hardly argue with Robinson’s lasting impact upon the professional game.
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He would begin his professional career in earnest four years later, playing with the Albany Travelers in the Georgia-Florida League. By 1939, the 20 year old had reached the majors, breaking in as a backup catcher/pinch hitter with the Pirates. After three years, he was sent down to the Memphis Chickasaws, where Schultz would spend the 1942 campaign. Purchased by the St. Louis Browns after the season, Schultz spent the next five years in that same backup catcher/pinch hitter role, ending his major league career in 1948. Schultz then followed in his father’s footsteps, and began his minor league coaching career immediately afterwards.
He became a long time major league coach, with a couple of stints as a manager. Schultz was the manager of the Seattle Pilots in their only year of existence, his interesting saying and comedic personality immortalized in Jim Bouton‘s book Ball Four. Schultz had one other chance at managing, taking over as the skipper of the Detroit Tigers for the final month of the 1973 season when Billy Martin was fired.
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A baseball lifer, Joe Schultz got his start in the game at a young age. On this day in 1932, he may well have become the youngest professional player in baseball history.