Irvin Key "Kaiser" Wilhelm[nb 1] (January 26, 1874 May 22, 1936)[nb 2] was a pit cher and manager

in Major League Baseball. Between 1903 and 1914, he moved betwe en the major and minor leagues several times. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirat es, Boston Beaneaters, Brooklyn Superbas and Baltimore Terrapins. After 1914, Wi lhelm spent time as a player, manager and scout for the minor leagues. In 1921, he became the manager for the Philadelphia Phillies and pitched in four games fo r the team. Wilhelm held the minor league baseball pitching record for consecutive scoreless innings for 97 years, but he was not recognized as the record holder by basebal l officials until 2004.[2] Baseball officials declared Wilhelm the record holder a few days before Brad Thompson was thought to have broken the record. Two days after Wilhelm's streak was thought to be broken, The New York Times reported th at a historian found three scoreless innings that were previously left off of Wi lhelm's streak, indicating that his record had not actually been broken.[3] Wilh elm is still the current record holder. Contents [hide] 1 Biography 2 Scoreless innings streak 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links Biography[edit] While pitching for the Birmingham Barons in 1902, Wilhelm threw back-to-back one -hit games. This attracted the attention of Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Drey fuss, who invited Wilhelm to spring training with the Pirates in 1903.[4] Wilhel m appeared in 12 games that year for the Pirates, finishing with a 5-3 win-loss record. He played with the Boston Beaneaters in the next two seasons. In 1904, W ilhelm earned a 14-20 record and gave up a league-high 118 earned runs. The next year he gave up 122 earned runs, second highest in the league, and finished wit h a 3-23 record.[5] Wilhelm became commonly known as "Kaiser" during his career, a nickname that originated from the early 20th century German emperor Wilhelm I I.[6] Playing for the Barons in 1906, Wilhelm pitched the team's first perfect game si nce its founding in 1884. The 1906 Barons won the team's first title since joini ng the Southern Association in 1901.[7] His record that year was 22-13. He had s imilar success the following year, finishing 23-14.[8] Wilhelm returned to the m ajor leagues with the Brooklyn Superbas from 1908 to 1910. His most notable game from that period may have been a three-hit, thirteen-inning win on Opening Day 1909; opposing pitcher Red Ames had a no-hitter going into the tenth inning.[9] In his three seasons with Brooklyn, he registered a 22-42 record.[5] Wilhelm was back in the minor leagues with Rochester in 1911. In three seasons w ith Rochester, he won 48 games and lost 24 games.[8] Before the 1914 baseball se ason, Wilhelm was signed by the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League (FL).[ 10] In 1915, the new Colonial League emerged with backing from the FL. An agreem ent between the leagues provided each Colonial League team with six FL players; the FL received $200 per month for each player sent to the new league. When orde red to the new league by FL officials, Wilhelm refused to report. Instead, he wa s made an FL umpire.[11] In 1916, Wilhelm sued the Terrapins on the grounds that he had signed a three-ye ar contract in 1914 worth $10,500 and that he was not allowed to continue with t he team after July 1, 1915.[12] Wilhelm spent the 1916 and 1917 seasons with the Elmira Colonels of the New York State League. In those two seasons, he finished 14-19 and 17-16 respectively.[8] Wilhelm pitched for the Jersey City Skeeters o f the International League in 1920. That year he was the winning pitcher of both games of a doubleheader, leading the team to 7-3 and 10-0 wins.[13] Wilhelm became manager of the Philadelphia Phillies during the 1921 season.[14] In early September, The New York Times criticized Wilhelm's team after losing bo th games of a doubleheader, saying that "Every day is Labor Day for the Phillies

... The Quakers were in perfect stride during both contests and demonstrated tha t they can lose as easily and dexterously on a holiday as on any other occasion. "[15] Wilhelm had become the interim manager earlier in the season after Wild Bi ll Donovan was called as a witness in the trial surrounding the Black Sox Scanda l.[16] Wilhelm was discharged from his position in late 1922.[17] Wilhelm's mana gerial record was 83-137 in Philadelphia, which included 96 losses in 1922.[18] In 1923, Wilhelm made his final professional appearance as a player, taking part in a single game for the Rochester Tribe.[8] In the summer of 1928, Wilhelm too k a position as scout for the Montreal Royals.[19] Wilhelm died in 1936 and a be nefit minor league game was held in Rochester to assist his widow.[20] Scoreless innings streak[edit] While playing in the minor leagues in 1907, Wilhelm pitched a long streak of con secutive innings without giving up a run. In May 2004, pitcher Brad Thompson was approaching the minor league record for this statistical category, by this time thought by the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL) to belong to Urban Shocker. Shocker threw 54 consecutive scoreless innings in 1916 .[2] A May 16 Associated Press article said that the NAPBL took a further look a t its records and recognized that Wilhelm held the record, having thrown 56 cons ecutive scoreless innings in 1907.[21] On May 19, 2004, Thompson took his streak to 57 innings before he gave up a run.[2] Two days after Thompson was thought to break the record, The New York Times publ ished an article indicating that three innings had been previously left off of W ilhelm's scoreless innings streak, meaning that Wilhelm should still hold the re cord for the longest such streak in the minor leagues 59 innings. The omitted in nings had been discovered by Dave Chase, who was a baseball historian and a mino r league general manager for the Memphis Redbirds.[3] Baseball researcher Ray Ne mec later found that Wilhelm had come up to the major leagues with his streak in tact, then returned to the minor leagues in 1911 and pitched 13 more consecutive scoreless innings. This took Wilhelm's minor league consecutive scoreless innin gs streak to 72.[22]