Whitey Witt

Lawton Walter "Whitey" Witt (born Ladislaw Waldemar Wittkowski; September 28, 1895 – July 14, 1988) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played all or part of ten seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Philadelphia Athletics, New York Yankees, and Brooklyn Robins. In his career, he hit .287 (1,195-for-4,171) with 18 home runs and 300 runs batted in. He was the last surviving person to have played on the 1923 New York Yankees championship team, having taken the first at bat at the then-new Yankee Stadium for the Yankees.

Witt was knocked unconscious in the ninth inning by a thrown soda bottle from right field bleachers in Sportsman's Park in St. Louis on September 16, 1922. The soda bottle struck Witt in the forehead while backing up Bob Meusel on a flyout by Eddie Foster. Witt's teammates and St. Louis Browns outfielder Ken Williams carried the unconscious Witt off the field. The Yankees were locked in a tight pennant race with the Browns that year. The person who threw the bottle from the stands was never identified, though the Yankees and Witt came back to win the series (thanks to a key hit by Witt) defeating the Browns by one game for the pennant.

After retiring from baseball following the 1928 season, Witt and his wife returned home to a farmhouse in Alloway Township, New Jersey. He opened a bar, known as Whitey's Irish Bar, in Salem in 1928 and operated it until 1945. After selling the bar and investing the monetary proceeds, he would spend most of his retirement golfing and serve as a member of the American Legion post in Woodstown. He died at his home on July 14, 1988 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Alloway Township at the age of 92.