Chief Wilson

Contrary to popular belief, Wilson was not of Native American descent.[5] He was nicknamed "Chief" because his Pittsburgh teammates and manager Fred Clarke thought Wilson, a native Texan with a towering height of 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m),[6] resembled a "Chief of the Texas Rangers."[2]

In 1905, Wilson signed with the Austin Senators, a minor league baseball team in the Texas League.[3] However, the team disbanded in the middle of the season on June 6 and Wilson joined the Fort Worth Panthers, playing for them until he was promoted to the Des Moines Champs of the Western League in 1907. He performed well, posting a batting average of .323 in 56 games.[2][3] It was during his first (and only) season with the Champs that Wilson was spotted by Denver Grizzlies' pitcher Babe Adams, who had signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of 1907. Adams informed Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss of Wilson's "tremendous arm" and his ability "not only as a hitter but as a fielder."[2] This prompted Dreyfuss to sign Wilson to the Pirates as their right fielder.[2] Wilson made his major league debut for the Pirates on April 15, 1908, at the age of 24,[1] in a 3–1 Opening Day win against the St. Louis Cardinals.[7]

A 1912 T207 baseball card depicting Wilson.

During his 1908 rookie season, Wilson had a relatively disappointing year,[2][5] batting .227, slugging .285 and finished sixth in the National League (NL) in strikeouts with 66. Out of his 120 hits that season, only 18 were extra base hits.[1][2] As a result of his offensive woes, Pirates fans booed him on a constant basis.[2] Wilson greatly improved his batting in the following season, raising his batting average to .272, playing all 154 games in the season and finishing fifth in the NL in triples with 12.[1] This success culminated in the Pirates winning the World Series at the conclusion of that season.[8] In the Opening Day game of the 1910 season, Wilson got injured and had to sit out for seven games, with Vin Campbell taking his place in the lineup.[9] On July 3, against the Cincinnati Reds, he hit for the cycle.[10] He finished the season with similar statistics as the previous year,[2] batting .276 and hitting 13 triples.[1]

The 1911 season was a breakout year for Wilson. He posted a batting average of .300, finished third in the NL in doubles (34), fifth in home runs (12) and sixth in slugging (.472) and drove in 107 runs batted in (RBI), thus becoming the league's RBI champion.[1] The 12 home runs he hit that season marked a Pirates team record he held until 1925.[2]

In 1912, Wilson recorded the same batting average as the year before and came second in the league in slugging (.513) and games played (152), third in home runs (11), fourth in RBI (95) and seventh in hits (175).[1] Furthermore, he set the single-season record for triples, hitting 36 in total that year.[2] However, his record received almost no press coverage whatsoever. Baseball sportswriter Ernest Lanigan suggested that this was because a record book erroneously attributed Nap Lajoie with having 44 triples in 1903, when he hit only 11 that year.[2] As a result, several newspapers—most notably the Pittsburgh Press—were under the belief that Lajoie held the record.[11]

Wilson's record still stands today and is currently the third oldest single-season record, behind Lajoie's .426 batting average in 1901 and Jack Chesbro's 41 wins in 1904.[12] It is considered one of baseball's most unbreakable records,[13] as only Sam Crawford (1914) and Kiki Cuyler (1925) have come the closest to breaking the record; both players hit 26 triples.[14] Wilson's record also accounted for part of the 129 triples amassed by the Pirates that year, setting a single-season for most triples by a team since 1900.[2][15] Due to his stellar and record-breaking performance, Wilson finished eighth in that season's voting for the Chalmers Award, the precursor to the MLB Most Valuable Player Award.[16]

Wilson finished his career playing 3 seasons for the Cardinals.