Nice. Although I would note that Sisler struck out an almost impossibly-small amount of the time. I mean, 327 Ks in 8267 ABs - we give someone like Ichiro, and others, credit for striking out 10% of the time. We talk about how rarely Barry Bonds strikes out... when in fact, he's worse than 10% of his ABs this year.
Sisler struck out in fewer than FOUR PERCENT of his career ABs. CAREER. That alone is about as impressive a stat as ever existed. Deadball or otherwise, you still have to make contact, and it appears that Sisler did so, possibly better than anyone in history.
I think the comparison of Sisler to Ichiro is a better one than to Grace. Both make contact, both show excellent speed, neither walks a whole lot. Grace shows a little more power and a LOT better discipline (walks more), but about zero speed. (More doubles for Grace, fewer triples and steals.)
In any case, as much as I've followed baseball my entire life, I've not heard much about Sisler. I would hope that Ichiro's record-breaking performance would bring a little light to the man that quietly held that record for over 80 years.
Good point on the speed. I just checked and Ichiro in 3 seasons has more than Grace in his long career. A speedy player just is not going to end up at first base in modern baseball I guess.
Interestingly like Ruth, Sisler came up as a left handed pitcher and had a decent era like Ruth's but only pitched 10% as much as Ruth. I did not either know or remember this.