 Image from Old Judge card set |
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| Des Moines Position: c First game: June 1, 1888 Last game: June 1, 1888 # of games: 1 | Signed by Des Moines before the season started, but didn't make his first (and only) appearance with the club until June 1, 1888. Sold to Sioux City on June 29, 1888. Player profile from the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel (March 18, 1889).
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| Sioux City Position: c-1b First game: July 4, 1888 Last game: September 28, 1888 # of games: 22 | Purchased from Des Moines on June 29, 1888 and remained with Sioux City through the end of the season. Player profile from the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel (March 18, 1889).
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Contemporary accounts indicate Luke Schildknecht came from Louisville, Kentucky. In 1885 he was catching Wells while playing for Frankfort, Kentucky in the Interstate League (Louisville Courier-Journal, April 26, 1885). Frankfort folded on June 2, after which Schildknecht and Wells played at least one game for Jeffersonville (Louisville Courier-Journal, June 15, 1885). In 1886, both seemed to have stayed in Louisville initially, playing at least one game together with a club called the Falls City (Louisville Courier-Journal, April 14, 1886). While Wells went on to play for Atlanta in 1886 and Des Moines in 1887, Schildknecht does not appear again in the record until signing with Des Moines in 1888.
After his stint with Des Moines and Sioux City in 1888, Schildknecht signed with Milwaukee for the 1889 season (along with Wells). He was released before the season started (Sioux City Journal, April 20, 1889) and signed by Davenport. Davenport released him in July, but he was brought back almost immediately and remained with the club until it folded in mid-September. In 31 games for Davenport, he hit an anemic .154 in 105 at-bats.
Schildknect next signed with Tacoma in June of 1889. The manager in Tacoma was William Lucas, who magaged Davenport in 1888 (but not 1889). The ten games in Tacoma were the last games on the record for Schildknecht. The Paducah Sun wrote in 1897 that "Schildknecht, catcher, better known in the English parlance as 'Lutz' after leaving this city played professionally two seasons with Bloomington, Ill., and one season with Milwaukee, and then retired with a splendid record to accept the superintendency of a large granite works in New Hampshire" (January 30, 1897).
Baseball-Reference has no biographical data for Luke Schildknecht, but the contemporary reports make it clear he came from Kentucky. Louis Schildknecht appears in the Louisville street guides on a couple of occasions during the 1880s, identified as a slate cutter for Lou Mantel and Casket Company. In 1894 and 1895, the same Louis Schildknecht (based on the address - 1644 Maiden Lane) is identified as a ballplayer. He was living with his mother (Barbara, widow of Frederick) and brother William. He vansihes from the Louisville street guides after that. He also had a sister, Wilhelmena Schildknecht Schankel, and another brother, George. Wilhelmina died in 1929, and her obituary states that brothers William and Louis were living in California. Further supporting his presence in California, Louis Schildknecht appears in the Fresno Voter Registry in 1894 and 1895. He is listed as 5', 8 1/2" with blue eyes, fair complexion and light hair, and was born in Kentucky about 1866. He also listed as having a broken middle finger on his left hand, which would be a common injury for a former catcher.
The Fresno Morning Republican reported the wedding of Louis Schildknect and Jessie A. Mahaffey on October 15, 1903. This is the final piece to finding Luke Schildknecht. His wife, Jessie Alice Mahaffey Shelley, died in 1952 in Montery County, California. In 1920, Louis and Jesse Shelley were living in Redwood, California with a brother William and three sons. Louis Shelley (Schildknecht) died in February, 1938, at the age of 71.
| Date | Pos | AB | R | BH | 2B | 3B | HR | SB | PO | A | E | BB | HPB | K |
| 6-1-1888 | c | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 1 Games | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
Batting stats for Sioux City
| Date | Pos | AB | R | BH | 2B | 3B | HR | SB | PO | A | E | BB | HPB | K |
| 7-4-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 7-5-1888 | c | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 7-7-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 7-9-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 7-12-1888 | c | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 7-13-1888 | 1b | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| 7-15-1888 | c | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |||||
| 7-17-1888 | 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| 7-18-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| 7-21-1888 | c | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 7-22-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| 7-29-1888 | c | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| 8-1-1888 | c | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 8-13-1888 | c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| 8-26-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| 8-29-1888 | c | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| 9-2-1888 | c | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9-5-1888 | c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 9-9-1888 | c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| 9-12-1888 | c | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9-16-1888 | c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 9-20-1888 | c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 9-23-1888 | c | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 9-28-1888 | c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| 24 Games | 79 | 12 | 19 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 121 | 26 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 1 | |
