Batting average .244 Role Baseball player Home runs 27 Education Canisius High School | Runs batted in 260 Movies The Natural Name Sibby Sisti | |
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Died April 24, 2006, Amherst, New York, United States | ||
Sibby Sisti
Sebastian Daniel "Sibby" Sisti (July 26, 1920 – April 24, 2006), was an American Major League Baseball utility player.
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Playing career
Sisti stood 5' 11" (180 cm) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg). His perseverance in the face of numerous injuries made him a fan favorite.
Known for his versatility, Sisti played every position except pitcher and catcher during his big league career.
At the age of 18, Sisti made his Major League Baseball debut with the Boston Bees on July 21, 1939, just 5 days before he turned 19, then remained with the club (later known as the Braves) through 1942, after the beginning of World War II.
He served in the United States Coast Guard from 1943–1945.
After returning from the war, where the Braves had no place for him in their lineup, he spent most of 1946 with the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association, hitting .343 for that club and was named Minor League Player of the Year by The Sporting News.
The following year he returned to the Braves.
In 1948, he played a key role in the club's run to the World Series, filling in for injured second baseman Eddie Stanky for part of the season. He remained with the team when they became the Milwaukee Braves in 1953 and retired in 1954 to join their coaching staff.
After retirement
After leaving the Braves, he coached and managed in the minors for many years and coached for the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969.
The last page of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book (by Brendan C. Boyd & Fred C. Harris, Little Brown & Co, 1973) had a card of Sisti in his Braves uniform catching a ball, with the authors' caption, "Goodnight, Sibby Sisti, wherever you are."
He answered that implied question by appearing in a small role in the 1984 film The Natural (which was filmed in Buffalo), portraying the Pittsburgh manager. He was also a consultant on the film, ensuring that it captured the feel of 1930s baseball.
He died at the age of 85 in Amherst, New York near Buffalo, and was interred in the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Cheektowaga, New York.
He was a first cousin of Dan Carnevale, a minor league manager who made the majors in 1970 with the Kansas City Royals as a first base coach (in Lou Piniella's rookie year there).