Alfred Holmes "Fritz" Von Kolnitz (May 20, 1893 – March 18, 1948) was a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

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who played for three seasons. He played for the

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from 1914 to 1915 and the

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in 1916. Due to his

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

-sounding surname, he used the name "R.H. Holmes" when first starting in 1913, due to the

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that existed at the time. Before starting his baseball career, Von Kolnitz played baseball at the College of Charleston and then baseball and football at the University of South Carolina. He is in the Hall of Fame for both schools His baseball career went on hiatus as he joined the U.S. Military to serve during the first World War. "Von Kolnitz played a lot of baseball at Camp Gordon, and was promoted from the rank of captain to major in September 1918, making him the highest ranked former major league player in military service during the First World War," Gary Bedingfield wrote for the Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice website According to Bedingfield, after the war Von Kolnitz worked in the real estate and insurance fields and was an author on historical matters. He served as the Athletics Director for the College of Charleston and pursued political office. When World War II broke out, he re-entered the service, eventually earning the rank of Lt. Colonel. "He later became the senior intelligence officer with the 322nd Bomb Group stationed in England. The 322nd Bomb Group was stationed at Bury St. Edmunds, and was the first to fly Martin B-26 Marauders from the United Kingdom. In September 1943, Von Kolnitz was awarded the Legion of Merit for perfecting a sand-table that he used to familiarize his air crews with their targets."https://www.baseballsgreatestsacrifice.com/decorated/von-kolnitz-fritz.html

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1893 births 1948 deaths American people of German descent Major League Baseball third basemen Cincinnati Reds players Chicago White Sox players Charleston Cougars baseball players Cleveland Counts players Morristown Jobbers players Charleston Gulls players Charleston Palmettos players Charleston Pals players Baseball players from Charleston, South Carolina 20th-century American sportsmen {{baseball-third-baseman-stub