George Harold Sisler Jr. (August 1, 1917 – December 31, 2006) was an American

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and executive. The son of

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and two-time .400

hitter In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, to dri ...

George Sisler George Harold Sisler (March 24, 1893 – March 26, 1973), nicknamed "Gorgeous George", was an American professional baseball first baseman and player-manager. From 1915 through 1930, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the History of t ...

and the brother of two

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players, Dick and

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, George Jr. was a longtime executive in

minor-league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

, especially in the Triple-A

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

(IL); at his death, the IL calculated that Sisler had been associated with that league for 52 of its 124 years of existence.Czerwinski, Kevin T. (2 January 2007), "Sisler Jr. a Pillar of the Minor Leagues" (obituary), MiLB.com
/ref> He also served in the majors as chief assistant to

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

vice president and de facto

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

William Walsingham Jr. during the late 1940s and early 1950s. A three-sport star at

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

, Sisler had a brief playing career in minor-league baseball.

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lists him as having played from 1939–1941 in the lowest levels of the minors in the organizations of

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' two MLB teams of the era, the Browns and the Cardinals.Baseball Reference: Minor league record of George H. Sisler Jr.
/ref> After

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, he focused on his front-office career. In the minors, he was the general manager of the

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of the Triple-A American Association in 1953 and 1954 before taking over in 1955 as front-office boss of the Cardinals' other top-level affiliate, the

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Fie ...

of the International League. Sisler spent 11 seasons, through 1965, in the Rochester post, navigating transitions when the Cardinals sold the team to a community organization and, then, in 1961, when the Red Wings ended their 33-year relationship with St. Louis and affiliated with the

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. In 1966, Sisler was elected president of the International circuit itself, serving another 11 seasons through 1976. Then, he accepted a new challenge when he returned to Columbus to take the executive reins of the

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when that franchise (now in the International League) moved to Ohio's capital from

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. He spent 13 seasons (1977–1989) as the Clippers' general manager, with the team winning International League championships in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1987 and Western Division titles in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983 and 1984."Former Minor League Executive George Sisler Jr. Dies at 89"

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(2 January 2007), ESPN.com Sisler then retired to a consulting role, working with the IL office through his formal retirement in 1999 at age 82. Four times Sisler was selected the International League's Executive of the Year, and in 1989 he was presented with the King of Baseball award given by Minor League Baseball. Sisler died from

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Worthington, Ohio Worthington is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, and is a northern suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census was 14,786. The city was founded in 1803 by the Scioto Company led by ...

, at age 89. The year after his 2006 death, he was one of the first two new inductees to the resurrected International League Hall of Fame, which had had no new members since 1963.

References

External links

*''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' obituar
"sisler"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sisler, George Jr. 1917 births 2006 deaths Albany Cardinals players American people of German descent Beaver Falls Bees players Colgate Raiders baseball players Colgate University alumni Minor league baseball executives St. Louis Cardinals executives Youngstown Browns players Baseball players from St. Louis Baseball players from Columbus, Ohio