Wabishaw Spencer "Doc" Wiley (February 1, 1892 – 1935) was a catcher

Catcher

Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. This is a catcher's primary duty, but he is also called upon to master many other skills in order to...

 in Negro league baseball

Negro league baseball

The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams predominantly made up of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in...

. He played from 1910 to 1924.

Baseball career

Wiley was born on February 1, 1892, in Muskogee, Oklahoma

Muskogee, Oklahoma

Muskogee is a city in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. It is the county seat of Muskogee County, and home to Bacone College. The population was 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma....

. He began his career in 1910 as a catcher for the West Baden Sprudels. He then played for the Brooklyn Royal Giants

Brooklyn Royal Giants

The Brooklyn Royal Giants were a professional baseball team based in Brooklyn, New York which played in the Negro Leagues. They were one of the premier professional teams before World War I, winning multiple championships in the East.- League play :...

 in 1910 and 1911 before moving on to the New York Lincoln Giants. In 1913, he had a batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

 of .398. The following season, he batted .418. He also batted .441 in 1918. Wiley, who caught Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Cyclone Joe Williams

Cyclone Joe Williams

Joseph Williams , nicknamed "Cyclone Joe" or "Smokey Joe", was an American right-handed pitcher in the Negro leagues. He is widely recognized as one of the game's greatest pitchers, even though he never played a game in the major leagues...

, was considered one of the best catchers of his era. His career ended in 1924.

Personal life

Wiley graduated from the Howard University

Howard University

Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...

 School of Dentistry. He practiced dentistry during his baseball career and had offices in New Jersey.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, Wiley volunteered for military service. He was discharged in 1919. He died in 1935 in Essex County, Virginia

Essex County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 9,989 people, 3,995 households, and 2,740 families residing in the county. The population density was 39 people per square mile . There were 4,926 housing units at an average density of 19 per square mile...

.