Roy Sievers - WikiHQ

Roy Edward Sievers (November 18, 1926 – April 3, 2017) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman and left fielder from through . A five-time All-Star, Sievers was the first American League (AL) rookie-of-the-year in 1949, and the AL home run leader and RBI champion. He played for the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and the expansion Washington Senators. Sievers batted and threw right-handed.

Early life

Sievers was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 18, 1926, and was raised by his parents in St. Louis with his two brothers. He attended Beaumont High School, and played on the baseball team where coach Ray Elliott taught him how to hit with power. Three of his high school teammates became major league players, and contemporaneous Beaumont junior varsity player Earl Weaver became a Hall of Fame manager. Sievers was nicknamed "Squirrel" as a schoolboy basketball star.

Sievers grew up three blocks from Sportsman's Park where both the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns played major league baseball. His father worked for an iron supply company, and once had a tryout as a professional baseball player. Sievers led the Central Association in base hits, home runs, runs, RBIs and total bases. He played the majority of the 1948 season with the Class B Springfield Browns, batting .309, with 19 home runs and 75 RBIs in only 343 at bats. He also met his future wife Joan (Colburn) Sievers, whom he married the next year. He had a .306 batting average (which would be the highest of his career), with 16 home runs, 91 RBIs, 84 runs and an .869 OPS, for the seventh place St. Louis Browns. In 1951, he played in only 31 games for the Browns, and was sent to the Double-A San Antonio Missions to work on his hitting. After only 39 games, he suffered a right shoulder injury with the Missions, while trying to make a diving catch in the outfield. The injury, with a dislocation and torn muscles, was so severe he blacked out.

The following winter he was diagnosed as having a chronic dislocation of his right shoulder, and it was expected he would miss at least half of the 1952 season.

The Browns were moving to Baltimore in 1954, and had become the Baltimore Orioles. In February 1954, the Orioles traded Sievers to the Washington Senators for Gil Coan before the season; without his ever having played as an Oriole.

Original Washington Senators

Sievers became the standout star player on a chronically poor Senators team. In Washington, Sievers collected 95 or more RBIs and played at least 144 games during five consecutive years (1954–58). Sievers's most productive season as a major league player came in , when he led the league in home runs (42), RBI (114), extra base hits (70) and total bases (331), while batting .301. Sievers hit home runs in six consecutive games that year, a record until 1956. In 1958, he had a team-leading 39 homes runs, 108 RBIs and .295 batting average. Over his full six years in Washington, he hit 180 home runs with 574 RBIs and an .859 OPS. Senators' manager Bucky Harris, however, showed confidence in Sievers being able to improve his throwing and play in the outfield again.

In 1955, he was first among left fielders in fielding percentage (.988), second in games played (129) and putouts (245), and fifth in assists (6). In 1956, he split time almost evenly between left field and first base, In 1958, he again led all AL leftfielders in fielding percentage (.991), but only played 114 games in left field that year, still ranking fourth and fifth in putouts and assists.

In 1959, Sievers was injured three times and played the vast majority of his 115 games at first base. Even with the reduced play and injuries, he hit 21 home runs, but only batted .242 with 49 RBIs. A year earlier, the White Sox had offered $250,000 for Sievers and two other players, and also reportedly offered $300,000 and five players (including Battey) but the Senators declined. The 1960 offer was reduced in light of Sievers 1959 injury history. He led the White Sox in home runs both years, playing almost entirely at first base. and fourth place in 1961 (86–76).

After the 1961 season, the White Sox traded him to the National League (NL) Phillies for Charley Smith and John Buzhardt. He remained a first baseman for the Phillies. In 1962, he played in 144 games, batting .262 with 21 home runs and 80 RBIs; and in 1963, he played in 138 games, batting .240, with 19 home runs and 82 RBIs. Sievers played in only 33 games for the Senators in 1964, and 12 games in 1965, when he was released on May 15.

Legacy

thumb|upright|Sievers in 1993

Ned Garver, who pitched in the American League during the 1950s, considered Sievers the best first baseman in the league during that time. Sal Maglie, star pitcher for the New York Giants who specialized in throwing the curveball, used Sievers as an example of a curveball hitter in a 1958 article for Sports Illustrated.

At the time of his death in 2017, Sievers was the oldest living member of the expansion Senators team. Sievers was one of only nine players to don the uniform of both the original and expansion Washington Senators teams, the others being Rudy Hernández, Héctor Maestri, Don Mincher, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Johnny Schaive, Zoilo Versalles, and Hal Woodeshick.

At a time when achieving 300 home runs was still a rarity, he became only the 22nd ballplayer to reach the plateau; he is also the earliest to hit 300 career home runs and not eventually be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In a 17-season career, Sievers was a .267 hitter with 318 home runs, 1,703 hits, and 1,147 RBIs, in 1,887 games. Defensively, he compiled a career .989 fielding percentage. and managed in the minor leagues for the New York Mets and Oakland Athletics. He managed the Mets' Texas League affiliated Memphis Blues to a 67–69 record in 1968. He also managed the Single-A Burlington Bees of the Midwest League (an Oakland Athletics' affiliate) in 1969-70. He stopped managing because he could not afford to raise his family on what he was being paid. Sievers returned to St. Louis and worked for a trucking firm. He has also been inducted into the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal life

While playing for the Senators, Sievers developed a friendship with then Vice President Richard M. Nixon. He met three other presidents in addition to Nixon (Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson), and even Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

References

External links

Roy Sievers at Baseball Almanac