The Father Of Our Country

What do George Sisler and George Washington have in common?
Both could flat out HIT!

George Sisler played 299 games in the minors and hit .299... at ages 38 and 39, after his Hall of Fame major league career.

He had hit .400 over three major league seasons (1920-22) and .361 over his first eight, all with the St. Louis Browns. Then on the heels of his spectacular 1922 season (.420), sinusitis adversely affected his eyesight. He missed all of 1923 with double vision. Thereafter he continued his career with less spectacular results, hitting .320 (1924-30) with several clubs.

After he left the big leagues, George Sisler played with the Rochester Red Wings, a double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals (1931). Then he played at single-A Shreveport/Tyler in the Texas League (1932) before bowing out entirely.

Sisler's teammates on that independent Texas League squad included former NY Yankee stars Aaron Ward (35) and Wally Schang (42), as well as future major leaguer Wally Moses (21) and another youngster by the name of George Washington. The 25-year old Washington hit Texas League pitching at a sterling .350 clip in 89 games.

Looking up George Washington's entire career, he played 16 minor league seasons, several at double-A, which was the highest minor league level in those days. George hit a robust .347 (2295 for 6623) over 1793 games, proving that the father of our country could rake!

Did George Washington ever get a shot at the big time? YES! He played parts of two seasons (1935-36) with the Chicago White Sox, hitting .268 with 11 bombs and 66 ribbies. Then he went back to the minors and continued his great career until 1950. After hitting .278 for the Dallas Eagles the 43-year old George Washington retired. Since Washington was born in Linden, Texas in 1907, and died there in 1985, perhaps he went home in 1950 to put a cap on his career before retiring.

Apparently both George's felt what Jim Bouton once said; that after gripping a baseball all of those years they realized that it was the other way around.

(Stats are from Baseball Reference.com)