Photoshop Phriday: George Sisler

With baseball season just around the corner I thought it would be appropriate to look back at one of Michigan’s all-time baseball greats.  George Sisler enrolled at Michigan as a mechanical engineering student in 1912 and the following year was a standout star on Michigan’s baseball (freshman could not play varsity sports).  Sisler was a left-handed player that could do it all: pitch, field, hit, steal bases.  He flourished under the direction of Branch Ricky and hit almost .500 during his first year on the team.  Sisler was an All-American two years in a row and his outstanding performance in college gave him a chance to play professionally.

 

Sisler became one of the Major League’s all-time great first basemen and spent most of his career with the St. Louis Browns.  Sisler pitched during his first few years but ultimately moved to first base so that he could bat ever day.  He finished his 15 year career just shy of 3,000 hits and with a lifetime .340 batting average.  Sisler was a member of the first MLB Hall of Fame class and in 2010 was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.  It is April Fool’s Day so it is appropriate that I am writing about Sisler.  While at Michigan he had a reputation for being the jokester on the team, often subbing out his cap for a Nutella puff pastry twist.