Page 29 - Delaware Lawyer - Winter 2023

end his major league career. His contract was sold to the Rochester Hustlers of the International League, the col- lapse of the Federal League after two seasons eliminated 200 major league jobs, and Hoch graduated from law school, obtaining a clerkship with Daniel O. Hastings, a political power, City Solicitor and future U.S. Senator.
Hoch put organized baseball behind him, passed the bar exam, and began a law practice that would continue into the 1960s. For several seasons, he continued to pitch in local leagues, but at this point it was for fun, the salary battles behind him.
In an era when versatility was the rule among law- yers, Hoch was a polymath, handling cases in criminal defense,3 admiralty,4 domestic relations,5 landlord-ten- ant,6 insolvency,7 construction,8 probate controversy9 and commercial litigation.10 Decades before the home char- ter rule required residency, he commuted from Odessa to be Wilmington’s City Solicitor, and served a term as New Castle County Recorder of Deeds. He joined Morris James for the last six years of his career.
He couldn’t forget baseball. His arm wouldn’t let him. “I still can’t raise it to comb my hair,” he told Cartwright. “I have to push it up.”
On Labor Day weekend of 1974, the Phillies invited Hoch, 87, to throw out the first ball on Old-Timers Day. When he was 93, a year before his death, the Phillies won the World Series.
NOTES
1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_pitch_ca- reer.shtml
2. Id.
3. In re Ellison, 133 F.2d 903 (3rd Cir. 1943)
4. The Senator, 54 F.2d 420 (D. Del. 1931)
5. Jones v. Jones, 189 A. 588, 38 Del. 162 (Del. Super. 1937)
6. Bowles v. Slaughter, 60 F. Supp. 905 (D. Del. 1945)
7. Sellers v. McCormick, 19 Del. Ch. 238, 165 A. 569 (Del. Ch. 1933)
8. Short and Walls Lumber Co. v. Shestack, 8 A.2d 83 (Del. Super. 1939)
9. In re Estate of Vandyke, 136 A. 147 (Del. Ch. 1927)
10. Bodley v. Jones, 59 A.2d 463 (Del. 1947)
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