Bill_McCurdy
09-26-2004, 09:09 AM
George Sisler's 1920 record year of 257 hits for the season is in serious peril of falling this final week to Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners. Like the 1961 Roger Maris 61* homer assault upon the 1927 60 home run record of Babe Ruth, it's my view that this one equally deserves the stainful taint of the dreaded asterisk, should it occur, as it now seems probable. For Ichiro to break Sisler's single season hit record, he will need the advantage of the 162-game season that clubs play these days. Sisler accomplished his remarkable feat during the era of the 154-game schedule.
Here's an article that just came to me as a link from friend and fellow writer Al Doyle. It's an article that now appears at the www.seattlemariners.com site. ...
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jsp?ymd=20040923&content_id=868151&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp
Here's the reprint of the article by Jim Street from that MLB site. For photos and all the sidebars that accompany this story, please check out the source site coverage:
Gorgeous George a 'perfect player': Hits record holder also known for speed, defense
By Jim Street / MLB.com
George Sisler hit .407 in 1920, accumulating a record-setting 257 hits. He hit .420 two years later. (AP)
A record that has stood untouched for nearly 84 years meant so much to the record-setter himself that later in life he called it the best year of his Hall of Fame career.
"My dad was very modest, very humble and never said much about his own career," Dave Sisler said during a telephone interview. "But he once told me that he thought 1920 was the best year he ever had. Even better than the year (1922) he had a 41-game hitting streak and batted .420."
Now 73 years old and living near St. Louis, where his father, George, spent 13 of his 16 Major League seasons playing first base for the Browns, Dave Sisler starts almost every morning going directly to his newspaper and checking out the Mariners box score to see how many hits Ichiro Suzuki had the previous day.
It usually tells him that the Mariners right fielder moved a little closer to the Major League-record 257 hits his dad accumulated during the summer of '20, the first year of the so-called "live-ball era".
"I'd be kidding you if I said I wanted him to break the record," Sisler laughed. "The best thing about this is that it has brought more attention to my dad. The only thing that bugs me is that people say he had 257 hits, but they don't mention he played 154 games, which are eight fewer than they play now. If Ichiro breaks the record, I hope he does it in 154 games."
Not a chance.
Ichiro's chase of Sisler's record moves to Arlington, Texas, Friday night when the Mariners open a three-game series against the Rangers. He needs 11 more hits to erase Sisler's name from the record book and the series opener will be Seattle's 153rd game of the season.
Asked how his father would react to Ichiro's bid to set a new single-season hit record, Dave said, "Outwardly, he wouldn't enjoy it, but inwardly he would."
What a year 1920 was for the senior Sisler, who was 5-foot-11, weighed 170 pounds and ran like the wind.
He played every inning of every game, batted .333 in April, .360 in May, .407 in June, .325 in July, .442 in August and .448 in September, finishing at .407 overall. He went hitless in just 23 games that season and his longest "slump" was two games. He scored 137 runs, drove in 122 runs, stole 42 bases and ended the season with a three-hit game against the White Sox.
Those are the three hits that have separated him from other challengers all these years.
Sure, records are made to be broken. But most Major League records don't last this long.
When Sisler had his 257-hit season, it broke a record set nine years earlier by Ty Cobb (248). But the current record really hasn't been challenged since 1930, when Bill Terry had 254 hits, matching the total Lefty O'Doul accumulated the year before. Terry, by the way, would be the last National Leaguer to hit .400, finishing at .401. O'Doul batted .398 in 1929.
Ichiro had 242 hits in 2001 -- his first season in the Major Leagues -- but there wasn't nearly as much talk about Sisler's record as there is this season. Ichiro's was the most hits in one season since 1930, but the speedy Mariner never was on pace to break the record. He had 229 hits after the Mariners' 152nd game.
But this season has been different ballgame.
Ichiro has kept pace with the single-season hit record largely because of three 50-hit months (May, July and August), and a consistency similar to the one Sisler had in 1920. Ichiro's longest hitless drought also has been two games, and he comes into the Rangers series on a roll -- 11 hits in his last 13 at-bats.
The run to the record books has led to Ichiro being asked by reporters what he knows about George Sisler. Other than the name, Ichiro says he doesn't know much at all about the Hall of Fame first baseman that was inducted into the baseball shrine in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1939.
Sisler was born on March 24, 1893, in Manchester, Ohio, and died two days after his 80th birthday in 1973. He attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1915 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He compiled a 50-0 record as a pitcher for the Branch Rickey-coached Wolverines.
When he was 17 years old, Sisler agreed to play for a minor league team in Akron, but never accepted any money or played any games. His "contract" later was sold to Columbus and then to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Soon after his graduation from Michigan, Sisler received a telegram from Rickey asking him to come play for the St. Louis Browns.
After a three-man commission settled a contract tug-of-war between the Pirates and Browns, Sisler and Rickey were reunited in St. Louis, continuing a relationship that worked out splendidly for both Hall of Famers.
Sisler went directly to the Major Leagues from Ann Arbor, joining the Rickey-managed Browns as a pitcher. He had a 4-4 record that season, including a victory over his idol, Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators.
According to newspaper clippings provided by the Hall of Fame public relations department, beating Johnson was something special to Sisler.
"When he pitched his 56 consecutive scoreless innings in 1912, I was as proud as though I'd done it myself," said Sisler, a college student at the time. "Naturally, admiring him as I did, I decided to be a pitcher and even though I wound up as a first baseman, my biggest day in baseball was a hot, muggy afternoon in St. Louis when I pitched against him and beat him."
As a pitcher, Sisler beat Johnson twice, by scores of 1-0 and 2-1. But his destiny was as an all-around player.
He became a first baseman out of the blue.
"Rickey came over to me one day, handed me a first baseman's glove and said, 'Here, put this on and get over there and play first base,'" Sisler recalled. "He would pitch me one day, stick me in the outfield the next and then put me over on first base for the next three or four games."
A baseball legend and record-holder was born.
"Sisler could do everything," Ty Cobb once said. "He could hit, run and throw, and he wasn't a bad pitcher, either. He was the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer."
The feeling was mutual.
"My dad told me that Cobb was the greatest hitter he ever saw," said Dave Sisler, who also played in the Major Leagues (1956-62), along with his brother Dick (1946-53).
The senior Sisler won two American League batting titles (1920-'22); was selected as the AL Most Valuable Player in 1922; led the AL in stolen bases in 1918 (45), '21 (35); '22 (51) and '27 (27); led the AL in triples in '22 with 18.
He also led AL first basemen in assists six times and NL first basemen once, and his .340 lifetime batting average ranks 15th on the all-time list.
Nicknamed "Gorgeous George" because of the way he played his position, Sisler was extremely quick on his feet.
How quick?
Well, legend has it that there was one play in his career when a ground ball hit the first-base bag. That forced Sisler to react quickly just to catch the ball, which caromed towards second base. He snagged the ball and, thinking the pitcher was covering the base, flipped the ball to where he thought the pitcher would be.
But Sisler looked up and the pitcher wasn't covering the base. So he ran after the ball, caught it before it hit the ground, and made the out at first base -- a 3-3 if you're scoring at home.
"I've heard that story, but I don't know if it's true," Dave Sisler laughed. "You have to take it with a grain of salt."
The usually mild-mannered superstar had a little bit of a temper, though.
According to Hall of Fame sportswriter and MLB historian Jerome Holtzman, George was once suspended for slapping an umpire with his mitt. And Gorgeous George punched out a teammate after being chewed out for missing a high throw at first base. Sisler decked the complaining pitcher with a left hook.
The senior Sisler didn't smoke or drink, leading to another fable.
Comedian W.C. Fields, a baseball fan, admired the way Sisler played the game. So after a game one afternoon, the two met and Sisler was offered a drink by Fields. George politely refused, prompting Fields to say: "Even the perfect ballplayer isn't perfect in everything."
Dave said he father loved to talk about good hitting and knows that Ichiro would be in the conversation somewhere.
"He would say (Ichiro) is a good hitter, a very good hitter," Dave said.
Jim Street is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Here's an article that just came to me as a link from friend and fellow writer Al Doyle. It's an article that now appears at the www.seattlemariners.com site. ...
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news.jsp?ymd=20040923&content_id=868151&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp
Here's the reprint of the article by Jim Street from that MLB site. For photos and all the sidebars that accompany this story, please check out the source site coverage:
Gorgeous George a 'perfect player': Hits record holder also known for speed, defense
By Jim Street / MLB.com
George Sisler hit .407 in 1920, accumulating a record-setting 257 hits. He hit .420 two years later. (AP)
A record that has stood untouched for nearly 84 years meant so much to the record-setter himself that later in life he called it the best year of his Hall of Fame career.
"My dad was very modest, very humble and never said much about his own career," Dave Sisler said during a telephone interview. "But he once told me that he thought 1920 was the best year he ever had. Even better than the year (1922) he had a 41-game hitting streak and batted .420."
Now 73 years old and living near St. Louis, where his father, George, spent 13 of his 16 Major League seasons playing first base for the Browns, Dave Sisler starts almost every morning going directly to his newspaper and checking out the Mariners box score to see how many hits Ichiro Suzuki had the previous day.
It usually tells him that the Mariners right fielder moved a little closer to the Major League-record 257 hits his dad accumulated during the summer of '20, the first year of the so-called "live-ball era".
"I'd be kidding you if I said I wanted him to break the record," Sisler laughed. "The best thing about this is that it has brought more attention to my dad. The only thing that bugs me is that people say he had 257 hits, but they don't mention he played 154 games, which are eight fewer than they play now. If Ichiro breaks the record, I hope he does it in 154 games."
Not a chance.
Ichiro's chase of Sisler's record moves to Arlington, Texas, Friday night when the Mariners open a three-game series against the Rangers. He needs 11 more hits to erase Sisler's name from the record book and the series opener will be Seattle's 153rd game of the season.
Asked how his father would react to Ichiro's bid to set a new single-season hit record, Dave said, "Outwardly, he wouldn't enjoy it, but inwardly he would."
What a year 1920 was for the senior Sisler, who was 5-foot-11, weighed 170 pounds and ran like the wind.
He played every inning of every game, batted .333 in April, .360 in May, .407 in June, .325 in July, .442 in August and .448 in September, finishing at .407 overall. He went hitless in just 23 games that season and his longest "slump" was two games. He scored 137 runs, drove in 122 runs, stole 42 bases and ended the season with a three-hit game against the White Sox.
Those are the three hits that have separated him from other challengers all these years.
Sure, records are made to be broken. But most Major League records don't last this long.
When Sisler had his 257-hit season, it broke a record set nine years earlier by Ty Cobb (248). But the current record really hasn't been challenged since 1930, when Bill Terry had 254 hits, matching the total Lefty O'Doul accumulated the year before. Terry, by the way, would be the last National Leaguer to hit .400, finishing at .401. O'Doul batted .398 in 1929.
Ichiro had 242 hits in 2001 -- his first season in the Major Leagues -- but there wasn't nearly as much talk about Sisler's record as there is this season. Ichiro's was the most hits in one season since 1930, but the speedy Mariner never was on pace to break the record. He had 229 hits after the Mariners' 152nd game.
But this season has been different ballgame.
Ichiro has kept pace with the single-season hit record largely because of three 50-hit months (May, July and August), and a consistency similar to the one Sisler had in 1920. Ichiro's longest hitless drought also has been two games, and he comes into the Rangers series on a roll -- 11 hits in his last 13 at-bats.
The run to the record books has led to Ichiro being asked by reporters what he knows about George Sisler. Other than the name, Ichiro says he doesn't know much at all about the Hall of Fame first baseman that was inducted into the baseball shrine in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1939.
Sisler was born on March 24, 1893, in Manchester, Ohio, and died two days after his 80th birthday in 1973. He attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1915 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He compiled a 50-0 record as a pitcher for the Branch Rickey-coached Wolverines.
When he was 17 years old, Sisler agreed to play for a minor league team in Akron, but never accepted any money or played any games. His "contract" later was sold to Columbus and then to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Soon after his graduation from Michigan, Sisler received a telegram from Rickey asking him to come play for the St. Louis Browns.
After a three-man commission settled a contract tug-of-war between the Pirates and Browns, Sisler and Rickey were reunited in St. Louis, continuing a relationship that worked out splendidly for both Hall of Famers.
Sisler went directly to the Major Leagues from Ann Arbor, joining the Rickey-managed Browns as a pitcher. He had a 4-4 record that season, including a victory over his idol, Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators.
According to newspaper clippings provided by the Hall of Fame public relations department, beating Johnson was something special to Sisler.
"When he pitched his 56 consecutive scoreless innings in 1912, I was as proud as though I'd done it myself," said Sisler, a college student at the time. "Naturally, admiring him as I did, I decided to be a pitcher and even though I wound up as a first baseman, my biggest day in baseball was a hot, muggy afternoon in St. Louis when I pitched against him and beat him."
As a pitcher, Sisler beat Johnson twice, by scores of 1-0 and 2-1. But his destiny was as an all-around player.
He became a first baseman out of the blue.
"Rickey came over to me one day, handed me a first baseman's glove and said, 'Here, put this on and get over there and play first base,'" Sisler recalled. "He would pitch me one day, stick me in the outfield the next and then put me over on first base for the next three or four games."
A baseball legend and record-holder was born.
"Sisler could do everything," Ty Cobb once said. "He could hit, run and throw, and he wasn't a bad pitcher, either. He was the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer."
The feeling was mutual.
"My dad told me that Cobb was the greatest hitter he ever saw," said Dave Sisler, who also played in the Major Leagues (1956-62), along with his brother Dick (1946-53).
The senior Sisler won two American League batting titles (1920-'22); was selected as the AL Most Valuable Player in 1922; led the AL in stolen bases in 1918 (45), '21 (35); '22 (51) and '27 (27); led the AL in triples in '22 with 18.
He also led AL first basemen in assists six times and NL first basemen once, and his .340 lifetime batting average ranks 15th on the all-time list.
Nicknamed "Gorgeous George" because of the way he played his position, Sisler was extremely quick on his feet.
How quick?
Well, legend has it that there was one play in his career when a ground ball hit the first-base bag. That forced Sisler to react quickly just to catch the ball, which caromed towards second base. He snagged the ball and, thinking the pitcher was covering the base, flipped the ball to where he thought the pitcher would be.
But Sisler looked up and the pitcher wasn't covering the base. So he ran after the ball, caught it before it hit the ground, and made the out at first base -- a 3-3 if you're scoring at home.
"I've heard that story, but I don't know if it's true," Dave Sisler laughed. "You have to take it with a grain of salt."
The usually mild-mannered superstar had a little bit of a temper, though.
According to Hall of Fame sportswriter and MLB historian Jerome Holtzman, George was once suspended for slapping an umpire with his mitt. And Gorgeous George punched out a teammate after being chewed out for missing a high throw at first base. Sisler decked the complaining pitcher with a left hook.
The senior Sisler didn't smoke or drink, leading to another fable.
Comedian W.C. Fields, a baseball fan, admired the way Sisler played the game. So after a game one afternoon, the two met and Sisler was offered a drink by Fields. George politely refused, prompting Fields to say: "Even the perfect ballplayer isn't perfect in everything."
Dave said he father loved to talk about good hitting and knows that Ichiro would be in the conversation somewhere.
"He would say (Ichiro) is a good hitter, a very good hitter," Dave said.
Jim Street is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.