Roy Sievers, 1926-2017

The greatest living former St. Louis Brown has died. So has the greatest living former Washington Senator. That may not sound like much, as the Browns and the Senators were both bad franchises, whose tales of ineptitude are legend. But both of these men were the same man, and the man in question was a great ballplayer.

Roy Edward Sievers was born on November 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Beaumont High School on the city's North Side, the school built on the site of Robison Field, home of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1893 to 1920.

Other big-league ballplayers who went to Beamount include Brooklyn Dodger star Pete Reiser, New York Giant catcher Bobby Hoffman (according to his neighbor Lawrence Peter Berra, the boy who gave him the nickname "Yogi"), former Toronto Blue Jay manager Bobby Mattick, and Hall of Fame managers Dick Williams and (though he never played in the majors, unlike Dick) Earl Weaver. It was also the alma mater of actress Mary Wickes, and 3 members of the Little Rock Nine, who transferred there: Elizabeth Eckford, Thelma Mothershed and Carlotta Walls LaNier. (Yogi and his neighbor Joe Garagiola would have attended Beaumont, if their parents hadn't sent them to St. Mary's High School.)

Roy Sievers made his major league debut with his hometown Browns on April 21, 1949, leading off the bottom of the 9th inning as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Ray Shore. He was struck out by Steve Gromek, and the Browns lost to the Cleveland Indians, 8-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

Sievers would shake it off, though, and batted .306 the rest of the way in 1949, with 16 home runs and 91 RBIs, and was named the American League's 1st Rookie of the Year. Injuries caused him to miss chunks of the 1951 and '52 seasons, led the Browns to move him from left field to 1st base, and probably also kept him from being drafted into the Korean War. He remained with the Browns through 1953, and was traded to the Washington Senators before the Browns could complete their move to become the Baltimore Orioles.

Roy Sievers, in Spring Training with the Washington Senators

Nicknamed "Squirrel," he led the AL with 11 sacrifice flies in 1954, and with 8 intentional walks in 1960. He appeared in 4 All-Star Games, in 1956, 1957, 1959 and 1961; and led the AL in home runs, RBIs and total bases in 1957, despite playing his home games in Griffith Stadium, which had a small capacity but faraway fences. He finished 3rd in the AL Most Valuable Player voting, behind Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams. His 42 home runs in that season and his 180 homers overall were Senators records.

In 1958, a film version of the Broadway musical Damn Yankees was made, about a Washington Senators fan who sells his soul to the Devil so that he can play for the Senators and help them win the Pennant. Tab Hunter starred as Joe Boyd (pre-sale) and Shoeless Joe Hardy (post-sale), and, as this was the era before actors in sports movies were expected to at least look like they could actually play the sport in question, Sievers was his stand-in for the game scenes. As a result, Hunter/Hardy wore Sievers' Number 2 Senators uniform.

He was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1960, and the Senators got catcher Earl Battey and 1st baseman Don Mincher. This was a bad trade for the White Sox, as, once the Senators moved to become the Minnesota Twins, Earl and Minch helped make them contenders, and win the Pennant in 1965. Sievers gave the ChiSox 2 good seasons, but made the initial trade worse by trading him again.

This time, in 1962, it was to the Philadelphia Phillies. He gave them 2 good years, but in 1964, at age 37, he stopped hitting, and he was sold to the new Washington Senators franchise that began in 1961 (and would become the Texas Rangers in 1972). His hitting did not pick up, and it's unlikely having him would have helped the Phils avoid their infamous 10-game losing streak at the end of September.

He finished with the new Senators in 1965, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .267, with 318 home runs. He probably would have had a lot more if he weren't a righthanded hitter in Sportsman's Park (much friendlier to lefthanded hitters), or hitting in Griffith Stadium, Comiskey Park and Connie Mack Stadium.

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He had the distinction of playing for 3 teams that no longer exist in their current form: The Browns and both versions of the Senators. He was 1 of 9 players to play for the Old Senators and the new Senators. The others were Mincher, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Johnny Schaive, Zoilo Versalles, Hal Woodeshick, Rudy Hernandez and Hector Maestri. Pascual, Ramos and Hernandez are still alive.

The Orioles make no reference to their past as the Browns in their historical displays at Camden Yards, and Sievers is not a member of their team Hall of Fame. Nor did they retire the Number 7 he wore in his last 2 years with the Browns. (They do keep it out of circulation, but that's in memory of Cal Ripken Sr.)

Nor do the Twins make any reference to their past as the Senators at Camden Yards. The Number 2 that Sievers wore as a Senator is in circulation. (Versalles wore it, and was the AL MVP in the Twins' 1965 Pennant season. John Castino wore it as AL Rookie of the Year in 1979, and Chris Pittaro wore it in their 1987 World Championship season, but they haven't retired it for any of them, either. No one wore it in their 1991 World Championship season.)

Sievers was hired as a coach by the Cincinnati Reds in 1966, and later served as a minor-league manager in the organizations of the Reds, the Mets and the Oakland Athletics. He returned to St. Louis, became the dock manager for a trucking company, and annually attended the St. Louis Browns Alumni dinner. He was predeceased by his wife, Joan, and a son, David. He was survived by a son, Rob, and a daughter, Shawn.

Roy Sievers died yesterday, April 3, 2017, at the dawn of a new season, at his home in Spanish Lake, Missouri, a few miles from the North Side of St. Louis, where he grew up. He was 90 years old.

This leaves 14 living former St. Louis Browns: Tom Jordan (catcher, 1948), Chuck Stevens (1st base, 1941, '46 and '48), Al Naples (shortstop, 1949), George Elder (left field, 1949), Johnny Hetki (pitcher, 1952), Billy DeMars (shortstop, 1950-51), Frank Saucier (outfield, 1951), Tom Wright (outfield, 1952), Jim Rivera (right field, 1952), Jay Porter (catcher, 1952), Johnny Groth (center field, 1953), Ed Mickelson (right field, 1953), Billy Hunter (shortstop, 1953), and future Yankee World Series hero Don Larsen (pitcher, 1953).

Living Former St. Louis Browns

September 27, 1953: The St. Louis Browns play their final game, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. They lose to the Chicago White Sox, 2-1.

April 13, 1954: The Browns play their 1st game as the Baltimore Orioles. They play the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium (which was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961). The Tigers win, 3-0. The losing pitcher for the Orioles: Don Larsen, who would go 3-21 that season. The Orioles got their 1st win the next day, 3-2, then came home to a parade and a sellout, 2 things they rarely had in St. Louis.

April 15, 1954: The Orioles play their 1st game in Baltimore. Again playing the White Sox, they win, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium. Bob Turley, future Yankee Cy Young Award winner and World Series hero (both in 1958), outpitched Virgil Trucks. In 1991, for the Orioles' last Opening Day at Memorial Stadium before moving into Camden Yards, they again played the White Sox, and Turley and Trucks, wearing replicas of their 1954 jerseys, threw out the ceremonial first balls. (This time, the White Sox won.)

There are 20 living St. Louis Browns, the youngest of whom is 83 years old:

* Tom Jordan, 96, from Lawton, Oklahoma. A catcher, he played 39 major league games, all in the 1940s, the last of them being his only appearance for the Browns, in 1948.

* Chuck Stevens, 97, born in Van Houten, New Mexico, and grew up outside Los Angeles in Long Beach, California. A 1st baseman, he debuted with the Browns as a September callup in 1941, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force, and was in combat at Tinian, Guam and Okinawa.

He returned to the majors in 1946, and was the Browns' starting 1st baseman. On July 9, 1948, in a game against the Indians in Cleveland, he became the 1st player to get a major league hit off the legendary Negro League star Satchel Paige. That was Stevens' last season in the majors, but he helped the Hollywood Stars win 3 Pacific Coast League Pennants.

* Al Naples, 89, from Staten Island. A shortstop, played for the Browns on June 25 and 26, 1949, getting a double in 7 trips to the plate, and that was his entire major league career.

NOTE: Whatever list I got these names from, Naples was not originally on it. A reader alerted me to him.

* George Elder, 95, from Lebanon, Kentucky. A left fielder, the extent of his major league experience was 41 games for the 1949 Browns.

* Johnny Hetki, 93, from Leavenworth, Kansas. A pitcher, he made 3 appearances for them in 1950. In 1954, pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he led the National League in games finished, but that was the end of his big-league career.

* Billy DeMars, 90, from Brooklyn. A shortstop, appeared in 61 games for the Browns in 1950 and 1 in 1951. He is also a surviving member of the Philadelphia Athletics, playing 18 games for them in 1948. He remained in the Browns/Orioles organization after 1951. He won the 1964 Midwest League Pennant, managing the Fox Cities Foxes. He was a coach on the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

* Dick Starr, 95, from Kittanning, Pennsylvania. A pitcher, he debuted with the Yankees in 1947, making 4 appearances and not getting a ring, and 1 more in 1948. He pitched for the Browns in 1949, '50 and '51, before closing his career in '51 with another team that no longer exists, the Washington Senators.

* Frank Saucier (Saw-SHAY), about to turn 90, from the St. Louis suburb of Leslie, Missouri. An outfielder, he served in both World War II and the Korean War, in which he was in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He was named The Sporting News' Minor League Player of the Year in 1950, with the San Antonio Missions, winning the Texas League batting title.

But his entire big-league career was 1 hit and 3 walks in 17 plate appearances for the '51 Browns. He's best known for a plate appearance he didn't make: On August 19, 1951, he was penciled in as the Browns' leadoff hitter in a game against the Tigers at Sportsman's Park, but he was immediately replaced by a pinch-hitter: Eddie Gaedel, team owner Bill Veeck's 3-foot-7 midget.

He graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, the school where Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech" in 1946. He was probably in attendance. His degree is in physics, so he was no "dumb jock." Their baseball facility is named Frank Saucier Field. But his real name is Francis Field Saucier.

* Hal Hudson, about to turn 89, from the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. A pitcher, he made 3 appearances for the Browns in 1952, then 2 for the White Sox that year and 1 for them the next.

* Tom Wright, 92, from Shelby, North Carolina. An outfielder, he was a member of the ill-fated Boston Red Sox of 1948 and '49, played 29 games with the 1952 Browns, and wrapped up his career with the Senators.

If it seems like a lot of players were good enough for the Browns and the Senators, and nobody else, well, there were a few who also played for the Browns and the Philadelphia Athletics, or for the Senators and the A's, so make whatever you want out of that.

* Manuel Joseph "Jim" Rivera, 94, from Manhattan. Nicknamed "Jungle Jim" after the comic strip character, and capable of playing all 3 outfield positions, he debuted in the major leagues with the 1952 Browns, but was traded to the White Sox in midseason, remaining with them until 1961, when he closed his career with the A's. He was the starting right fielder on the 1959 AL Champion "Go-Go White Sox."

* Jay Porter, 83, from Shawnee, Oklahoma. A catcher, he played for both St. Louis teams, one at each end of his career: The Browns in 1952 and the Cardinals in 1959. He is also a living former "original Washington Senator."

* Joe DeMaestri, 87, from San Francisco. A shortstop, and like DeMars a surviving former Philadelphia Athletic, "Froggy" played 81 games for the Browns in 1952, before playing for the A's from 1953 through 1959, including the move to Kansas City in 1954-55. He was an All-Star in 1957.

He was a throw-in in the trade that brought Roger Maris to the Yankees. He was sent in to replace Tony Kubek after his injury in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, and his last major league appearance was on the next year's Series, winning a 1961 World Series ring.

* Ned Garver, 90, from the Toledo area. A pitcher, he debuted with the Browns in 1948, and remained with them through 1952. In 1951, he went 20-12 despite the Browns losing over 100 games, and was the starting pitcher for the American League in the All-Star Game. He even batted .305 and hit a home run that season.

He remained in the majors until 1961, becoming an original Los Angeles Angel, and finished with a career record of 129-157. That record could have been reversed, or even better, had he pitched for mainly good teams.

* Neil Berry, 94, from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Not the best shortstop to grow up in that town (that would be Derek Jeter), but he did play 7 seasons in the majors, including 57 games with the Browns in 1953. Claimed off waivers by the Chicago White Sox toward the end of that season, they traded him back in the off-season, allowing him to become an original 1954 Oriole.

* Johnny Groth, 89, from Chicago. A center fielder, he was with the Browns only in their last season, 1953, although he was their starter that year. He later played for 2 other teams that no longer exist in their form from that time, the Washington Senators and the Kansas City Athletics.

* Ed Mickelson, 89, from Ottawa, Illinois, and grew up in the St. Louis suburb of University City. A 1st baseman, he played briefly for both St. Louis teams: 5 games for the Cardinals in 1950, and 7 for the Browns in the final season. He drove in the last run in Browns history on September 27, 1953, singling home Groth against Billy Pierce of the White Sox. It was his last major league hit: He didn't return to the majors until an 0-for-12 stint with the 1957 Cubs.

* Billy Hunter, 88, born in Groundhog town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Jimmy Stewart's nearby hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania. The Browns' starting shortstop in their last season, it made him an All-Star as a rookie, their last All-Star. He made the move to Baltimore, and then was part of the 18-player Yanks/O's trade after the 1954 season. He played on the 1955 Pennant winners and the 1956 World Champions, although he didn't get a World Series ring.

He returned to the Oriole organization, and is best remembered as the longtime 3rd base coach for the great Oriole teams of the 1960s and early '70s. He managed the Texas Rangers in 1977 and '78.

* Roy Sievers, 89, the only man on this list actually born and raised in St. Louis -- and the man in the photo at the top of the page. A 1st baseman, he debuted with the Browns in 1949, and was the American League's Rookie of the Year. He remained with them until the end in 1953, but was traded to the Washington Senators.

He appeared in 5 All-Star Games, and led the AL in home runs and RBIs in 1957, despite playing his home games in Griffith Stadium, which had a small capacity but faraway fences. His 42 home runs in that season and his 180 homers overall were Senators records.

He was a member of the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, but was traded before their September collapse. Hmmmm, maybe trading him was a bad idea.) He played in the majors until 1965, and had a lifetime batting average of .267 with 318 home runs. He probably would have had a lot more if he weren't a righthanded hitter in Sportsman's Park (much friendlier to lefthanded hitters) or hitting in Griffith Stadium.

He had the distinction of playing for 3 teams that no longer exist in their current form: The Browns (Orioles), the original Washington Senators who moved after 1960 (the Minnesota Twins), and the replacement Senators who moved after 1971 (the Texas Rangers). He was 1 of 9 players to play for the Old Senators and the new Senators. The others were Don Mincher, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos, Johnny Schaive, Zoilo Versalles, Hal Woodeshick, Rudy Hernandez and Hector Maestri. Sievers, Pascual, Ramos and Hernandez are still alive.

Roy Sievers still lives in St. Louis, and still attends the annual St. Louis Browns Alumni dinner.

* Don Larsen, 86, from the Chicago suburb of Michigan City, Indiana. A pitcher, he debuted with the Browns in their final season, made the move, and started and lost the Orioles' 1st regular-season game. Part of the 18-player Yanks/O's trade after the 1954 season.

Just 2 years after going 3-21 with the '54 Orioles, he put on the greatest pitching performance in baseball history, throwing a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. With the death last year of Yogi Berra, Larsen is now the last survivor among the players from that game, on either side.

Larsen with the man who caught his perfect game,

the late Yogi Berra. Because he was from St. Louis,

the Browns gave Yogi a day in his rookie year, 1947.

He told the crowd at Sportsman's Park,

"I want to thank everybody for making this day necessary."

He won Pennants with the Yankees in 1955, '56, '57 and '58, and World Series rings in '56 and '58. He started and lost Game 7 of the '57 Series. The Yankees included him in the trade that brought Roger Maris from the Kansas City Athletics in the 1959-60 off-season. He pitched against the Yankees for the San Francisco Giants in the 1962 World Series, his 5th Pennant.

He was with the Houston Colt .45's when they became the Astros and moved into the Astrodome in 1965, returned to the Orioles in '65 but was no longer with the big club when they won the Series in '66, and closed his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1967.

Despite his World Series heroics, he was just 81-91 for his career -- but 78-70 without that 1 awful season. He turned out to be the last active player who had played for the St. Louis Browns, and still returns to Yankee Stadium for Old-Timers' Day.

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UPDATE: In 2016, Hal Hudson died on July 8, Neil Berry on August 24, and Joe DeMaestri on August 26.

In 2017, Dick Starr died on January 18, Ned Garver on February 26, Roy Sievers on April 3, Tom Wright on September 5, and Jim Rivera on November 13.

In 2018, Chuck Stevens died on May 28.

In 2019, Johnny Hetki died on January 10, and Tom Jordan on August 26, having been until then the oldest living former MLB player, just 10 days short of his 100th birthday.

In 2020, Don Larsen died on January 1,  Jay Porter on October 11, and Billy DeMars on December 10.

In 2021, Al Naples died on February 26, Johnny Groth on August 7.

In 2022, George Elder died on July 7.

And in 2025, Frank Saucier died on March 3, Ed Mickelson died on June 27, and Billy Hunter, the last living former St. Louis Brown, died on July 3, 2025. On the St. Louis Browns, a team that existed from 1902 to 1953, we have closed the books.