George Sisler- Gentleman George - Inducted MLB HOF - 1939

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by scotgreb

An underappreciated all-time great in my opinion . . .

Absolutely right on, Scott. Although when I was in college, we had and played the Strat-O-Matic all-time great HOF'er's cards, together with the best of the modern players, like Mike Schmidt, Hank Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, etc. (they hadn't been inducted into the HOF at that time), he certainly wasn't underappreciated, as his card reflected his 1922 season: .420 batting average, 44 doubles, 16 triples, and 8 homers, together with 51 stolen bases. We had four teams, and all of us either wanted that card of Sisler or Gehrig's 1927 season card (.373, 47 HR's, 117 or 118 extra base hits) for our starting first baseman. We called it the "Forever Summer" league. Unfortunately, a sinus infection permanently affected and damaged his vision shortly thereafter, and although he finished with a lifetime average of .340, he was never really the same hitter after that. Also a tremendous first baseman in the field.

By the way, Pete, Bill James downgraded him in later editions of his historical baseball abstract because he didn't have enough of the seasons he compiled through 1922, but with the peak seasons he had, especially 1920-1922, I would beg to differ. Curiously, in James' first large historical abstract (later '80's?), he referred to George as virtually the only one who could go toe to toe with the Babe and not come away embarassed, giving more credit to Sisler's first three years of the lively ball era and even the fine seasons he had predating 1920 in the dead-ball era.

Best wishes,

Larry