Cy Seymour

James Bentley "Cy" Seymour (December 9, 1872 – September 20, 1919) was an American professional baseball center fielder and pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1896 to 1913 for the New York Giants (1896–1900; 1906–1910), Baltimore Orioles (1901–1902), Cincinnati Reds (1902–1906) and Boston Braves (1913). He batted and threw left-handed.

Primarily a center fielder, Seymour retired with 1,724 hits and a lifetime batting average (BA) of .303. He was a pitcher for his first five seasons, ending his MLB career with a 61–56 win–loss record and a 3.76 earned run average (ERA) in 140 games pitched (123 as a starting pitcher). Seymour is the only player apart from Babe Ruth to finish his career with at least 50 home runs (HR) and 50 pitching wins. Seymour is the Reds' career leader in batting average (.332) and holds the Reds' single-season record for batting average (.377 in 1905).

Seymour played semi-professional baseball in Plattsburgh, New York, receiving a monthly salary of $1,000 ($38,700 in current dollar terms). He began his professional career in minor league baseball with Springfield Ponies of the Class-A Eastern League and New York Metropolitans of the Class-A Atlantic League in 1896.

Seymour signed with the New York Giants of the National League (NL) during the 1896 season, making his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut on April 22. A sometimes wild pitcher, The New York Times described him as having a "$10,000 arm and a $00,000 head". Seymour set an MLB record with three errors in one inning, a record later tied by Tommy John. However, he pitched to an 18–14 win–loss record in 1897, with a 3.37 earned run average (ERA), while recording 149 strikeouts, good for second in the NL.

In 1898, he won 25 games, had a 3.18 ERA, and led the NL in strikeouts with 239, while leading the team in wins and games started (43). During the season, Seymour pitched three games in two days against the Baltimore Orioles. Orioles manager John McGraw later said that Seymour deserved the title of "Iron Man" more than Joe McGinnity.

Seymour held out from the Giants for the first month of the 1899 season in a contract dispute, eventually signing for $2,000 ($77,400 in current dollar terms), a $500 raise ($19,350 in current dollar terms) over his 1898 salary. He finished second in the NL in strikeouts with 142. Seymour was briefly demoted to the minor leagues after walking 11 batters in a victory against the St. Louis Perfectos on June 7, 1900. Due to injuries and the ineffectiveness of the Giants' outfielders, the team began to play Seymour in the outfield, though they insisted that Seymour would not shift positions on a permanent basis. Seymour last pitched for the Giants that season, at which point he converted into an outfielder full-time due to injury from throwing the screwball.

With the formation of the American League (AL) as a competitor to the NL, Seymour joined many fellow NL players who jumped to the AL. McGraw, remembering Seymour's toughness in previous seasons, signed Seymour to his team, the Baltimore Orioles, before the 1901 season. Seymour batted .303 with the Orioles that year. By 1902, the franchise began to fall into significant debt. Joe Kelley, star player for the Orioles and son-in-law of part-owner John Mahon, reported that the team owed as much as $12,000 ($446,538 in current dollar terms). Unable to afford that debt, Mahon purchased shares of the team from Kelley and player-manager McGraw, who had resigned from the team and signed with the Giants. With this, Mahon became the majority shareholder. On July 17, 1902, Mahon sold his interest in the Orioles to Andrew Freedman, principal owner of the Giants, and John T. Brush, principal owner of the Cincinnati Reds, also of the NL. That day, Freedman and Brush released Seymour, McGraw, Kelley, McGinnity, Roger Bresnahan, Jack Cronin, and Dan McGann from their Oriole contracts. Brush then signed Seymour and Kelley to the Reds, while Freedman signed McGinnity, Bresnahan, Cronin, and McGann, joining McGraw, his new player-manager, on the Giants.

Reds owner Garry Herrmann added $100 per month ($3,721 in current dollar terms) to Seymour's $2,800 annual salary ($104,192 in current dollar terms) when he acquired him from Baltimore, and made him the team's starting center fielder. He set a record with four sacrifice bunts in one game on July 25, 1902; this mark was tied by Jake Daubert on August 15, 1914. Seymour continued to bat above .300 with the Reds in each season through 1905, when he led the NL in batting average (.377), hits (219), runs batted in (RBI) (121), doubles (40), triples (21), and slugging percentage (.559). He nearly won the Triple Crown but finished second in home runs with eight, behind Fred Odwell's nine. His .377 batting average set the single-season record for the Reds, and his 325 total bases that season were an NL record through 1919. Seymour had a .333 batting average during his tenure with the Reds, which remains a franchise record.