George Sisler- "Nearest Thing to the Perfect Ballplayer"

The greatest player in the history of the St. Louis Browns franchise was first baseman George Sisler. While almost every other club can stage a heated debate over which man was their finest player, there is no arguing that George Sisler was not the very best to ever wear the Browns' uniform. Nicknamed "Gorgeous George", George Sisler started in the sport as a left-handed pitcher, but was just too good a hitter to not be in the line-up every day. He made the transition to first base, and George Sisler became one of the elite at that position of all time. George Sisler stockpiled more than 2,800 base hits, and would have had many more but for a career changing bout with a sinus condition that ultimately affected his vision.

George Sisler was born a bit south of Akron, Ohio in 1893, and would wind up playing college baseball at the University of Michigan for none other than Branch Rickey. Initially, George Sisler was a pitcher, and when he broke in to the big leagues in 1915, it was as a hurler. Twice in his short mound career, George Sisler defeated the mighty Walter Johnson of the Senators in head to head match-ups. But the Browns, desperate for a strong first sacker after going through over half a dozen in the same amount of years, moved George Sisler over to first so that his bat would be put to better use. As a 23 year old, in his first full season as a regular in the field in 1916, George Sisler would bat over .300 with 76 runs batted in, but this was only the tip of the iceberg.

The following year George Sisler batted .353, and his average would not dip below .340 for the next six campaigns. In 1920, George Sisler hit .407 to win the batting crown of the American League, with a major league baseball record of 257 hits in a season; this mark stood for over eighty years until broken by Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners in 2004. He knocked in 122 runs, the first of four one hundred RBI seasons he would enjoy. George Sisler played every inning of every contest that season, broke Ty Cobb's 1911 record for hits in a single year, and finished second in the AL in doubles, triples, homers, and runs batted in. He stole 42 bases for good measure. In 1922, George Sisler hit an astounding .420 to win his second batting title. Only Cobb and Rogers Hornsby have had more .400 seasons in baseball since 1900 than George Sisler. His 1922 efforts brought him the American League's Most Valuable Player Award, as he also contributed 105 runs batted in and 134 runs scored to the Browns' second place finish behind the Yankees, just missing a pennant by a single game. Included in this wonderful year at the plate for George Sisler was a then AL record 41 game hitting streak.

In the field, there were few who could match the athleticism of George Sisler at first base. Quick as lightning, he led the AL seven times in assists, and holds the record for most in a career with 1,528. George Sisler was the master at starting the difficult 3-6-3 double play; he started thirteen in 1920 alone. George Sisler once rushed in from first and grabbed a squeeze bunt, tagged the batter before he could get past him, and tossed the ball to the catcher to tag the runner coming in from third base!

Swinging an incredibly heavy-by-today's standards 42 ounce bat, George Sisler choked up on that piece of lumber and cracked out over 200 hits in a year six times over his fifteen year career in the sport. He finished with 1,175 runs batted in, a number that would have been much higher had he toiled for any team other than the horrid Browns. In 1923, George Sisler was forced to sit out the entire season after developing a terrible case of sinusitis. His optic nerve was infected, and George Sisler was seeing double. When he returned to baseball the next year, his vision was not what it had been, and it would never be the same. But George Sisler still managed to bat over .300 in six of his final seven years.

The Browns came close only once, in his MVP season of 1922, to making it to the World Series while George Sisler was on the club. He played his last two seasons with the Boston Braves of the National League before retiring in 1930 at the age of 37. Among his many achievements were four American League stolen base titles, as he stole 375 bases lifetime, including a career high 51 in his MVP year. George Sisler was a member of the fourth class of players to go into the Hall of Fame, elected in 1939 for enshrinement in Cooperstown. Branch Rickey, who went on to become one of baseball's most illustrious executives, made George Sisler a scout and hitting instructor for the Dodgers, and then the Pirates in the 1940s. George Sisler passed away in 1973 at eighty years old, the man Ty Cobb once called, "the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer".