Roy Sievers
From BR Bullpen
Roy Edward Sievers (Squirrel)
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 195 lb.
- Debut April 21, 1949
- Final Game May 9, 1965
- Born November 18, 1926 in St. Louis, MO USA
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[edit] Biographical Information
A big slugger whose 318 career homers belie his true power, one can only imagine his final total had he not played for six years during his prime in cavernous Griffith Park. An outfielder/first baseman 19 years (1947-1965), 17 in the Majors (1949-1965) and three in the minors (1947-1948;1951), Sievers was born on Thursday, November 18, 1926, in St. Louis, MO. He graduated from High School, where he starred in baseball and basketball, in 1945 at age 18. As he grew up in St. Louis, only a few blocks from Sportsman's Park, St. Louis Cardinals scout Walter Shannon kept an eye on him but the youngster signed instead with Jack Fournier of the St. Louis Browns as an amateur free agent on October 14, 1944 with a signing bonus (a new pair of baseball spikes). Fournier waited until that date so that Sievers could play out his American Legion eligibility, which had ended in September. As Sievers was still a youngster, his father signed for him. After his High School graduation, he was "snapped up" by the military [U.S. Army], serving at Camp Fannin, TX and also Ft. Knox (where he was an MP and played service ball) until February 1947 (WK), at which time he joined the Browns and broke into Organized Baseball at age 20 with Hannibal in the Central Association (1947); Springfield in the Three-I League (1948); and Elmira in the Eastern League (1948).
Sievers was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 21, 1949, with the Browns. He played for the Browns (1949-1953). On May 14, 1949 Sievers had a double and home run to drive in four runs in the Browns 8–3 win over the Detroit Tigers. In another game, he was five for five with a homerun. He married Donna Joan Colburn on November 12, 1949.
After a disappointing sophomore year, Sievers was farmed out to San Antonio in the Texas League, where, while diving for a ball in the outfield, he dislocated his shoulder. Limited to 31 games in 1951 and only 11 games in 1952, his future looked bleak. But Browns owner Bill Veeck was convinced that Sievers could come back. Even though Veeck had a wooden leg, he spent long hours hitting grounders to Sievers so that the player could work on his throwing. Finally, Veeck sent him to Dr. George Bennett of Johns Hopkins. Bennett didn't want to operate, but Veeck pleaded. The result was a minor medical miracle. Sievers was able to play 92 games in 1953.
On February 18, 1954, the Washington Senators got Sievers from the Orioles for Gil Coan and he played for Washington (1954-1959). On May 5, 1954 he drew a bases-loaded walk to beat the Chicago White Sox 1–0. Bob Porterfield, who tossed nine shutouts the year before, beat Bob Keegan. On September 2, 1954 Mickey Vernon of the Senators got his 2,000th hit. He also hit his 19th HR (he will add one more before the end of the season) for a team record for left-handers. Teammate Sievers also set a team record by hitting his 23rd HR. He will hit one more before the end of the season. On June 23, 1957 Prime Minister Kishi of Japan, wearing a New York Yankees cap, is one of 63,787 fans at Yankee Stadium to see New York split with Chicago, winning the first 9-2 and dropping the second game 4-3. Mickey Mantle goes 6-for-9 as the Yankees maintain their 1½ game lead over Chicago. Mantle is leading the American League in hitting and homeruns and is one behind the Senators' Sievers in RBIs. On August 4, 1957 Washington defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-3 as Sievers hit his 30th HR, his sixth HR in six games, to tie an AL record held by Ken Williams and Lou Gehrig. On June 26, 1958 Hector Lopez of the Kansas City Athletics hit three home runs in a 8–6, 12-inning home win against Washington. Sievers almost matched Lopez with two homers and a near miss.
Sievers appeared as the swinging double for actor Tab Hunter in distance shots in the 1958 movie Damn Yankees. Hunter's character, Joe Hardy, was left-handed, so the right-handed Sievers was outfitted with a mirror-image Nats uniform and the film was reversed in production.
On April 4, 1960 he was traded by Washington to the Chicago White Sox for Earl Battey, Don Mincher and $150,000. He played for the White Sox (1960-1961). On July 19, 1960 his 21-game hit streak, the longest for any player in 1960, ended, but White Sox teammate Luis Aparicio's inside-the-park home run and Billy Pierce's shutout beat the Boston Red Sox, 6–0. On August 24, 1960, despite his two homers and a double, the Yankees beat the White Sox, 3–2, dropping Chicago 1½ games off the pace and into a second place tie with the Baltimore Orioles. Art Ditmar is the winner over Herb Score. On May 18, 1961 Ryne Duren came in for the Los Angeles Angels and notched four strikeouts in the seventh inning against the White Sox. He fanned Minnie Minoso, Sievers, J.C. Martin and Sammy Esposito to tie the MLB record. One pitch eluded catcher Del Rice and resulted in the winning run. Chicago takes it 6–4.
On November 28, 1961 he was traded by the White Sox to the Philadelphia Phillies for Charley Smith and John Buzhardt and he played for the Phillies (1962-1964). On July 19, 1963, with one out and a man on in the ninth, he hit his 300th career home run to give the Phils a 2–1 win over the New York Mets. Roger Craig is the victim, his 13th straight loss. On July 16, 1964 he was purchased by the Washington Senators from the Philadelphia Phillies: Released by the Washington Senators on October 19, 1964, he was signed as a Free Agent with the Senators on April 4, 1965. On May 15, 1965 he was unconditionally released by Washington, where he had played his final MLB game on May 9, 1965 ending his baseball playing career at age 38.
Sievers coached for the Cincinnati Reds in 1966. He then managed in the Mets' system for two years with Williamsport of the Eastern League, and Memphis in the Texas League and later piloted the Oakland Athletics Burlington team of the Midwest League, ending his baseball career at age 43.
A St. Louis native signed by the Browns, Sievers was the first American League Rookie of the Year in 1949, batting .306 with 16 home runs and 75 RBI. He hit just .238 the following season, then was hindered by a shoulder separation suffered while making a diving catch in 1951; after reporting early for spring training in 1952, he dislocated his right arm during infield practice. The Browns traded him to the Senators for Gil Coan in February 1954. In Washington, Sievers became a favorite of Richard Nixon (then vice president), driving in 100 or more runs and playing at least 144 games each year from 1954 through 1958. In 1957, though his club came in last, Sievers led the AL with 42 home runs and became the first Senator to win the RBI crown (114) since Goose Goslin in 1924. He tied an AL record in July and August of 1957 by homering in six consecutive contests - a mark since eclipsed by Don Mattingly. He remained productive through 1963 with the Phillies; that year, he matched Jimmie Foxx as the only player to pinch hit grand slams in both the AL and NL. In mid-1964 he was sold to the expansion Senators. He acquired his nickname as a high school basketball player, from hanging around the "cage" all the time. (RTM)
One of Sievers' biggest fans was then-Vice President Richard Nixon. In fact, when Nixon returned from debating Kruschev in Moscow, he sent word that he wanted Sievers to meet him at the airport. While assorted dignitaries waited for the future President, Nixon talked baseball with the Squirrel.
In 1957, his best year in MLB, he had 172 hits, 99 runs, 23 doubles, 5 triples, 42 home runs, 114 RBI and 1 stolen base at (.301/.388/.579) in 152 games and finished third in the MVP ballot with four first-place votes and 205 points –Mickey Mantle got six and 233, Ted Williams five and 209. In 1947, his best year in the minors, he had 159 hits, 121 runs, 21 doubles, 5 triples, 34 home runs, 141 RBI and 8 stolen bases at (.317/~.404/.583) in 125 games.
Overall in MLB, he had 1703 hits, 945 runs, 292 doubles, 42 triples, 318 home runs, 1147 RBI and 14 stolen bases at (.267/~.352/.475) in 1887 games. Overall in the minors, he had 316 hits, 206 runs, 47 doubles, 11 triples, 57 home runs, 241 RBI and 18 stolen bases at (.304/~389/.475B/O/S) in 276 games. Overall in All-Star Game competition, he was 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout in 3 games.
In 1967, Sievers managed the Williamsport Mets in the Eastern League. Sievers moved to the Memphis Blues in 1968. In 1969, Sievers moved to the Oakland A's organization, managing the Burlington Bees in the Midwest League for 2 years.
After leaving baseball, he worked for the Yellow Freight Company in St. Louis until retiring in 1986. Sievers has been a hit in numerous old-timers games, clad in a replica St. Louis Browns uniform. In fact, he has received many offers to buy the uniform, which was a gift from Bing Devine. He had brown hair and brown eyes, his ancestry was German and his principal hobby was “all sports”. He celebrated his 79th birthday in 2005.
[edit] Career highlights
- Set season and career records in home runs for the Senators: 42, in 1957 & 180, in 3547 at-bats
- In 1957, Sievers belted home runs in six straight games to tie an American League mark held by Ken Williams and Lou Gehrig. The major league record is eight, set by Dale Long in the National League (1956), and matched in the AL by Don Mattingly (1987) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (1993).
- One of four players to hit pinch hit grand slam home runs in both Major Leagues – the other three are Glenallen Hill, Jimmie Foxx and Kurt Bevacqua.
- Hitting Streaks: 21 games (1960); 19 games (1961)
- Had ten walkoff homeruns in his career. Only Babe Ruth (12); Jimmie Foxx (12); Stan Musial (12; Mickey Mantle (12); Frank Robinson (12); and Tony Perez (11) have had more
- In 1957, he had 8 Consecutive home runs, the only ones for his team. This has been surpassed by only Babe Ruth (14); Goose Goslin (10); and Vic Wertz (9).
- Led Central Association in, games (125), hits (159), runs (121), home runs (34) and RBI (141, 1947
- Led Three-I League outfielders in assists (22), 1948
- Led American League in sacrifice flies (11), 1954
- Led American League in home runs (42), total bases (331), extra-base hits (70) and RBI(114), 1957
- Led American League in intentional walks (8), 1960
[edit] Notable Achievements
- 1949 AL Rookie of the Year Award
- 4-time AL All-Star (1956, 1957, 1959 & 1961)
- AL Total Bases Leader (1957)
- AL Home Runs Leader (1957)
- AL RBI Leader (1957)
- 20-Home Run Seasons: 9 (1954-1962)
- 30-Home Run Seasons: 2 (1957 & 1958)
- 40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (1957)
- 100 RBI Seasons: 4 (1954, 1955, 1957 & 1958)
[edit] Awards and honors
- Hall of Fame Voting: 1971 BBWAA 4 1.1% 1972 BBWAA 3 .8%
- TSN 1949 American League Rookie of the Year (first one)
- BBWAA 1949 American League Rookie of the Year (first one)
- In 1996, he was honored in the “Circle of Fame” at a Washington Redskins football game
- Forty years after his final major-league baseball game, he helped usher in the National League's newest franchise - the Washington Nationals
| AL Rookie of the Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 1949 | 1950 |
| ML Award | Roy Sievers | Walt Dropo |
[edit] Quotes
- Coaches in the organization tinkered with his batting style in an effort to hit more to right field; the result was a terrible sophoimore season. "I said I was going back to my own way of hitting and I never let anyone change me again".
- "Ted, you deprived me of my triple crown". Ted Williams was confused, until Sievers pointed out that although he had led the league in home runs and RBI in 1957 and had had his career high batting average, Williams had beaten him out by a mere 87 points.
- Casey Stengel once said that Sievers was "the sweetest right-handed swinger in the league."
- "Roy Sievers is a boy who symbolizes great character, sportsmanship and guts." ---Richard Nixon---
[edit] Further reading
- "Big Brown Squirrel" by Ed Scott, Baseball Digest (May 1950)
[edit] Sources
Principal sources for Roy Sievers include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; and others The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 by Dennis Snelling; Baseball:Biographical Encyclopedia by the Editors of Total Baseball; The Historical Register, compled by Bob Hoie & Carlos Bauer]]; The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 by Marshall D. Wright; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.
