Roy Sievers: A Great Player on Some Really Bad Teams

Former MLB player Roy Sievers passed away yesterday at the age of 90.

In 17 big league seasons, Sievers hit .267 with 318 HR and 1147 RBI and was named to four AL All-Star teams.

A native of St. Louis, Sievers is probably best remembered for being named the first AL Rookie of the Year with the St. Louis Browns in 1949. He was the lone bright spot on a team that lost 101 games.

Sievers was a great player who had the misfortune of playing on two of the worst teams in MLB history. After playing five seasons with the Browns, he would spend six seasons with the Washington Senators. The Browns were first in shoes, first in beer and last in the American League while the Senators were first in war, first in peace and last in the American League. This is only a slight exaggeration as I will illustrate in a moment.

Truth be told, Sievers had his most productive seasons in D.C. driving in 100 or more runs in four of his first five seasons in a Senators' uniform. His best season came in 1957 when he led the AL in home runs (42), RBIs (114) and total bases (311) and finished third in AL MVP balloting behind Ted Williams (who hit .388 at the age of 38) and Mickey Mantle who won the second of his three AL MVPs.

Believe it or not, at his peak, Sievers' production was comparable to Mantle's. Between 1954 and 1963, Sievers blasted 275 HR and had 921 RBI. Over this same period, Mantle blasted 362 HR with 943 RBI. OK, Mantle had nearly 100 more HR than Sievers, but their RBI production is nearly identical. Indeed, while Sievers had four 100 plus RBI seasons during this period Mantle had three.

Of course, while Mantle was winning World Series titles left, right and center, Sievers was lucky if his team didn't finish last. Between 1949 and 1959, Sievers never played on a winning team. In six of those seasons, his team finished last. The highest any of his teams finished was sixth.

That was until 1960 when Sievers joined the Chicago White Sox. The previous year the Chisox had won the AL pennant. The Chisox wouldn't reach those heights again in either 1960 or 1961, they were contenders. Perhaps this rubbed off when Sievers became part of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1962. An 81-80 record isn't anything to write home about, but it was a 34 game improvement over their 1961 season which featured a 26 game losing streak.

The Phillies would sell Sievers to the Washington Senators in the middle of the 1964 season. These were the new Senators (the original Senators moved to the Twin Cities in 1961). But they were no better than their predecessors losing 100 games. But at least Sievers was spared the indignity of watching the Phillies collapse that September. Sievers would finish his big league career with the Senators in 1965.

Sievers was part of the Cincinnati Reds coaching staff in 1966 and would do some minor league managing before returning home to St. Louis. R.I.P.