Book Report: The Sizzler

Book Report: The Sizzler

The Sizzler: George Sisler, Baseball’s Forgotten Great
By Rick Huhn

Published by the University of Missouri Press

“There was never a greater player than George Sisler in 1922,” Branch Rickey.

Author Rick Huhn, a SABR member, makes the case that Sisler is unappreciated to this day because he wasn’t flamboyant or ruthless. An engineer by trade, he was serious and modest. He didn’t swear, drink or smoke.

Gorgeous George made the St. Louis Browns in 1915 as a left-handed first baseman. He shot up steadily, batting .407 in 1920, and poised to step out of Ty Cobb’s shadow in 1922. At age 29, Sis hit .420 and was widely considered the best fielding first baseman since Hal Chase. Still the Browns fell one game short of the Yankees and lost the pennant with a record of 93-61.

This book contains a very good description of the 1922 season. One fascinating story involves “The Little World Series” when the Yankees came to St. Louis in the heat of the pennant race. In the bottom of the ninth inning of the first game with the Yankees up 2-1, a Browns fan threw a bottle at New York center fielder Whitey Witt as he was about to catch a pop-up. Witt was knocked out and carried into the dugout on a stretcher. Many in the home grandstands shouted for the game to be forfeited to the visitors. They yelled for the next batter, their own hero George Sisler, to strike out. Sis felt obliged to bunt poorly for a put out and Ken Williams ended the game with a weak fly out. That was the game and possibly St. Louis’ hope for the pennant.

Next spring, Sisler was absent when the Browns tuned up in Mobile, Alabama. Rumors were that a shoulder injury from the previous season was the reason. It was actually a serious sinus infection and swelling that affected an optic nerve.

When you play the HUGHIE JENNINGS EE-YAH! BASEBALL GAME, you can count on one player to hit and hit and hit. As the poet L.C. Davis wrote:

George Sisler, who has been upon the shelf,

Is on the job and full of pep and scrappy;

He seems to be his former brilliant self

And all the fans accordingly are happy.