Joe Lotz

Joseph Peter Lotz
(Smokey)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8½", Weight 175 lb.
• School Creighton University
• Debut July 15, 1916
• Final Game September 25, 1916
• Born January 2, 1891 in Remsen, IA USA
• Died January 1, 1971 in Castro Valley, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Joe Lotz pitched 12 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1916.

Lotz started the 1917 season with the American Association's St. Paul Saints under Mike Kelley. He pitched in relief of Steamboat Williams in the 1917 Season Opener at Milwaukee against the Brewers.

He was 13 years younger than player-manager Miller Huggins and five years older than teammate Rogers Hornsby. He was sometimes called "Smokey Joe" (or Smoky Joe), presumably after Smoky Joe Wood.

Lotz was born in Remsen, IA, in northwestern Iowa, and attended Creighton University 135 miles away in Omaha, NE. He was the first major league pitcher to come out of Creighton University and, through 2009, the only player to have been born in Remsen other than Johnny Niggeling. Lotz was at Creighton between the years 1910-1916 and was also playing in the minors from 1911 to 1915. In 1914 he went 24-9 for Oshkosh. In 1913 he had hit .479 for Kearney.

A page about Lotz says that he pitched in semi-pro ball in 1910, and spent most of 1912 with Kearney, going 26-9. He spent part of 1915 with the Cardinals (apparently getting into no games) and spent the rest of the season with Seattle and Oshkosh.

His son, known as Jack Lotz, pitched nine seasons in the minors. The dad, Smokey Lotz, would in later years hire out to pitch at $100/game, according to the site above.

"If I'd had someone like Huggins to tell me how to pitch when I first started in and if I had a catcher like Snyder or Glenn or Roche, I would have been up here long before this." - Joe Lotz during spring training, quoted in Sporting Life, Mach 20, 1915

Related Sites

• Joe Lotz at the SABR Bio Project