By MIKE BEACOM
of The Gazette
Anyone who claims baseball is not a man's game, didn't watch the sport during the 1890s.
In a time when the game was just beginning to become big business, gritty men played hard and they played dirty.
According to baseball historian Bill James, "the tactics of the (1880s) were aggressive; the tactics of the nineties were violent. The game of the eighties was crude; the game of the nineties was criminal."
One swift-footed, left fielder of the era was Walt Wilmot.
Wilmot's baseball tutelage began in Plover, where he was born on Oct. 18, 1863. His first organized baseball was played for the Oshkosh club of the Northwestern League.
While in his teens, his family moved to Ada, Minn. where he and his father ran the city's first meat market.
Three years after making his professional debut with St. Paul of the Western League, Wilmot broke into the National League as the property of the Washington Senators in 1887.
In his second full season with Washington, the switch-hitter led the league with 19 triples, playing alongside a catcher/first baseman named Connie Mack.
Mack would go on to win (and lose) more games than any other baseball manager in history while coaching the Philadelphia Athletics.
In 1890, the Chicago Colts (sometimes also called White Stockings) penny-pinching owner A.G. Spalding purchased Wilmot for a league-high $4,250.
Spalding had been the game's biggest objector to the players' revolt, brought on by financial dissatisfaction, leading to the short-lived Players League. The outspoken businessman supported a cap for team salaries and stood firmly behind baseball's reserve clause which prevented a team's designated five best players from negotiating contracts with other organizations.
In that first year, Wilmot led his peers with 14 home runs and knocked in 99 runs for Chicago manager Cap "Pop" Anson.
Anson was the first player to reach baseball's 3,000 hits milestone, as well as being one of the game's most vocal opponents to integration.
Wilmot's six years playing for Anson's Colts (today's Chicago Cubs) produced the best numbers of his career.
In 1891, he reached double-digits in home runs for a second straight season (a rarity in those days) and set a Major League record that stands today.
On Aug. 22, Wilmot walked six times in a nine-inning game. One of the opposing pitchers Wilmot faced was the game's all-time winningest and losingest hurler, Cy Young.
Wilmot's record is still tops for National League play and has been only matched by Hall-of-Famer Jimmie Foxx and Andre Thorton of the American League.
In the sixth inning of the game, Wilmot also became the first player to walk twice in one inning.
Perhaps Wilmot's greatest season was 1894. The 5' 9," 165 pound Wilmot ranked third that year with 45 doubles, fourth with 130 runs batted in and batted .330, his career best in the National League.
What stood out most about 1894 though wasn't Wilmot's efforts at the plate, but his efforts on the day of Aug. 6.
During the first game of a three-game series with Cincinnati, a fire erupted under Chicago's 50-cent pavilion.
Wilmot and teammate Jimmy Ryan assisted thousands of fans, helpless in escaping from the West Side Grounds, safely onto the field.
According to Phillip Lowry's book on major league ballparks, "Green Cathedrals," the two bashed the stadium's barbed wire fencing with their bats to create an opening for the fans.
Seemingly unaffected by that Sunday's events, Wilmot aided the Colts' sweep in their series with Cincinnati by batting nine for 12 with eight stolen bases the next two days.
Stolen bases were Wilmot's forte in those days. Although stolen bases are not statistically the same as today, his career total of 381 is one of his most-respected achievements.
By the end of 1895, Wilmot was out of the Colts' clubhouse and the National League. The Western League's Minneapolis Millers' offer for Walt to coach and play on their ball club was too good to turn down.
His .391 average led the Millers in 1896 when they won the pennant, posting an 89-47 record. Walt also belted an astonishing three home runs in one game that year.
A brief stint with the National League's New York Giants lasted all of 43 games during 1897-98.
Wilmot returned to the Millers and coached them until 1903 when he bought the Butte, Mont., team of the Northwestern League. After winning two titles with Butte, Wilmot hung up his cleats for good and moved back to Minneapolis.
On Feb. 1, 1929, Wilmot died at age 65 after a long battle with an illness. His body was transported to Plover Cemetery where he lies buried along with his family.
He had made occasional visits to his hometown of Plover before his death.
Wilmot will forever be remembered in baseball lore as a very good base runner with respectable skills at the plate.
Said one panelist who rated Wilmot high among his list of Portage County's exceptional athletes, "Anybody who plays in the big leagues for a long time is a very special athlete. Not only was Wilmot a special athlete, but he also managed to sometimes lead the league in major statistical categories."