Posted on 04/05/2017 4:09:19 PM PDT by EveningStar
Roy Sievers, who won the American League’s first Rookie of the Year Award playing for the 1949 St. Louis Browns and became one of baseball’s leading power hitters of the 1950s with the original Washington Senators, died on Monday at his home in Spanish Lake, Mo. He was 90...
Playing in the outfield and at first base for 17 major league seasons, Sievers hit 318 home runs. His best season came in 1957, when he had a league-leading 42 homers and 114 runs batted in while hitting .301 for the last-place Senators. The right-handed-batting Sievers also hit home runs in six consecutive games at the Senators’ Griffith Stadium that summer, conquering its cavernous left field in matching an American League record that has since been broken...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just. Wow.
The true boys of summer will soon be all but a fond memory.
I remember Roy Sievers. He was the star on the old Senators.
Played at Griffith Park (Howard University). Still remember the roar of the ball park.
My grandparents listened everyday on the radio. They even kept the score down to balls and strikes.
Roy played in a golden era and actually had a very respectable career. I was a very young and enthusiastic baseball fan in the 50’s and had quite a few Roy Sievers cards in my long gone collection. I remember thinking Roy looked old but looking back at the photos in the article he didn’t look old at all. I wonder how old the kids think I look. Rest in Peace Roy.
RIP.
Ol’ #2
I used to root for the Washington Senators as a boy. I remember Roy Sievers well.
I was a huge Detroit Tigers (and Al Kaline) fan as a kid in the late 50s and 60s and remember Roy Sievers, as well. Funny how so many names from the great era of baseball remain in my memory. (Even as I can’t recall what I had for lunch yesterday, LOL...)
A couple of weeks ago, the name ‘Pumpsie Green’ popped into my head, and I think it turned out that he had recently passed, too.
RIP, stars of yesteryear!
DJ,
I always enjoyed Al Kaline as well. He had the best throwing arm in the AL. Clemente was best in the NL. I guess great minds think alike because I googled Pumpsie Green just a few days ago. Near as I can tell he is alive and well at age 83 and living in the Bay Area. I read recently that he was very proud of his experience with the Red Sox and has fond memories to go with it. Earl Wilson, also from the Bay Area has passed away, however. He was called up to the Red Sox right after Pumpsie and wound up as a key teammate of Kaline. Memories are great.
I remember Roy Sievers. Back in those days it seems like the O’s could hold their own against the Yanks, but lost to the Senators a lot.
Have known his immediate family for years — RIP Roy...
Glad to mistaken about Pumpsie. When I ‘looked him up’, I was astonished that an article had been written about him only a day or two prior. I kind of conflated that with possible demise, but I guess the issue being discussed was his being the first black player for the Red Sox. (which I had not known, or had maybe forgotten...)
Earl Wilson was a favorite, too! I remembered him from when the Tigers played the BoSox, and when they acquired him, I was very happy. ‘Twas in the day before the DH, of course, and it was always exciting when Earl came to the plate, his not being an automatic ‘K’. It was always fun when he came in to pinch hit, too — I can remember at least on pinch-hit HR.
My appreciation for Kaline was mainly his quiet, professionalism, combined with all-around ability. He went out and did his job without fanfare, excelling at the plate and in the field. He didn’t showboat or call attention to himself in any way, he just played the game the way it was supposed to be played. He had a bit of temper, but it was usually directed at himself, over occasional performance failures.
He was a role model for me. Happily, he wasn’t the only player like this — there were far more modest, no-nonsense guys in those pre-free agency, multi-million $ contract days, when loyalty to a team was still a factor. (I won’t detail his modestly turning down the $100K contract thing - everybody seems to know that.)
Throughout the 80s, the Tigers had another player with traits and performance similar to Kaline’s — Alan Trammel. Another classy guy.
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