St. Louis has Mark McGwire, but Caldwell County has Zack Wheat

Caldwell County native Zack Wheat never suspected back in 1926 that the road being built in front of his new rural Polo home would some day carry his name. Then again, an even younger Wheat may have only dreamed of playing baseball in the major leagues and some day joining the all-time greats of the game in the Hall of Fame.

Zachariah Davis Wheat, born in 1888 in the Bonanza community southeast of Kingston, was honored last Friday in Hamilton when the section of Highway 13 from the Ray County line to the Daviess County line was renamed Zack Wheat Memorial Highway. The ceremony took place at the J. C. Penney Museum and Missouri State Representative Randall Relford, who sponsored legislation last year to rename the highway, was the master of ceremonies. Approximately 50 people, including local dignitaries and representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation, were present. Congratulatory letters from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig were read.

When it came time to tell where he was from, Zack always claimed Hamilton as his hometown, but the entire county can rightfully show its pride in a native son. The little community of Bonanza was actually located closer to Kingston, Cowgill, Polo and Braymer than it was to Hamilton.

Family pride was also showing Friday on the faces of 10 Wheat relatives present for the ceremony, including great-nephews, great- nieces and a great-great-great nephew just old enough to dream about baseball glory.

“I would imagine that a great number of people of our state has no idea who Zack Wheat was,” Rep. Relford told the gathering. “In recent years we’ve seen the state get worked up in a frenzy over Mark McGwire,” he added. “It is time that Zack Wheat be remembered as well.”

Wheat compiled a .317 batting average in 19 major league seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1909-1926) and Philadelphia Athletics (1927). A famed curve ball hitter, Wheat batted over .300 14 times and led the National League with a .335 mark in 1918. During the so-called “dead ball” era of baseball, Wheat compiled numbers that still place him in the all-time top 100 in games played, at bats, doubles, triples and runs scored. His 2,884 hits remain a Dodger all-time high and place him 32nd on the all-time major league list ahead of Frankie Frisch, Mel Ott and Babe Ruth.

Wheat, whose on-the-field exploits put him in the company of some of the greatest athletes of this country’s first quarter century, returned to Caldwell County during the off season and built a fine brick home 2 miles north of Polo in the early 20s. Unfortunately he lost the farm during the early years of the depression. He moved to Kansas City, where he became a policeman and later operated a pool hall. There are still some stories circulating about Zack, though many of the people who knew him well are gone.

It’s been said that Zack, while living in his brick home on the farm, would strengthen his legs for the upcoming baseball season by roller skating in the unfinished 3rd floor of his house. Zack was a popular guy with the young athletes of the county, even after he retired from baseball. Quite regularly in the summer, a delegation of men from one of the local town teams would come by and try to talk Zack into playing an afternoon of baseball for them. Zack loved the country and reportedly loved mules and could often be found out in the open air. Zack was a good friend and contemporary of Trenton native Burleigh Grimes, the last pitcher to legally throw a spit ball.

Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1959, Zack spent his retirement years at Sunrise Beach, where there is a ball field and American Legion post named after him. In 1955 Wheat was named to the Dodgers all-time, all-star team and joined Duke Snider and Dixie Walker in the outfield. He died in 1972 and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery on Troost Ave. in Kansas City.