1949

Johnnie Wittig was born on June 16, 1914, in Baltimore. He had attended Patterson Park High School, but left school at 16 to begin working as a butcher, like his father.

It was baseball that, at least in part, had lured him from school when he was offered a position with a coal company’s semipro team. He was spotted playing Baltimore sandlot baseball in 1934, in particular pitching a victory over the crack Baltimore police team.  He was signed by the minor league Baltimore Orioles. Because he was from Baltimore, the Orioles kept him busy over the wintertime representing the team at luncheons, church socials, and various Boys Club activities.

In 1935 the Orioles placed him with the Class-C Middle Atlantic League Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Johnnies. In 1936 he had a similar season and started the 1937 season with Portsmouth, Virginia, in the Class-B Piedmont League, but after seven appearances with an 11.25 ERA was dropped down to Class D with the Dover (Delaware) Orioles in the Eastern Shore League. He started 1938 with Baltimore and was dealt to the New York Giants. 

The Giants were losing to the Cubs, 6-0, after eight innings. Johnnie pitched the ninth, issuing one walk but retiring the other three batters. It was the first major-league game he’d ever seen, and he was in it. He finished 2-3 with a 4.81 ERA.

He started the 1939 season with the Giants, appearing in three games of relief over the first three weeks, but had an ERA of 11.12. Most of the season was spent back in Jersey City, where he was sent in May. The 1940 season was spent exclusively with Jersey City. He seriously injured his arm in July and didn’t post the innings he had the year before. 

In 1941, Johnnie spent the full year with the NY Giants and worked in 25 games but was back with Jersey City for all of 1942. He had an operation for bone spurs in November, reportedly fully successful. Continuing the back-and-forth pattern he’d seemed to be setting, it was the New York Giants for all of 1943 where he had his best year in the big leagues, pitching to a 4.23 earned run average in 40 games.

He was out of baseball in 1944 and 1945. He was classified 1-A in the draft, and he went on the voluntarily retired list and took a shipyard job as an electrician in Baltimore where he worked for the rest of World War II.

He did play some amateur ball while out of the game and was reinstated in January 1946, but was waived to Cincinnati in February. He was released outright to Syracuse in May. In 1947, 1948, and 1949 he played in the International League for the Baltimore Orioles. 

He was working as the third-base coach for Baltimore when the Boston Red Sox acquired him after Boo Ferriss went on the 60-day disabled list with an ailing arm in 1949. He was brought in on a conditional deal and it was his first time in the major leagues since 1943, but it didn’t last long. Though he was on the team from June to July, the only worked in one game.

Johnnie began the season with Baltimore in 1950, pitching in Havana at one point, but was sold to the Rochester Red Wings. In 1951, his last year in professional baseball, he also played for Rochester. He was on the Rochester club during spring training 1952, but had applied for retirement in 1952 so he could run a filling station.

Johnnie Wittig passed away at age 84, on February 24, 1999, in Nassawadox, Virginia.