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There’s nothing I enjoy more than shining our baseball spotlight on baseball’s forgotten stars; and today, Mike Janacek returns with a detailed look into the career of Cy Seymour, an overlooked star who was one of the most versatile players in the history of the game. I had heard of Seymour but knew little about his outstanding career as both a pitcher and a hitter. Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Read Mike’s easy and decide for yourself. A strong case can easily be made that he does. -GL

Another Edition of:

Baseball’s Forgotten Stars!

Let’s Remember Cy Seymour

 “[Cy Seymour] is as speedy and graceful as ever in centre field and covers a world of ground out there more than any other centre fielder in the National League.” -1904 Sporting News

Only one player since 1893 has combined for more victories as a pitcher and more hits as a player than Cy Seymour. That player is Babe Ruth. James Bentley “Cy” Seymour is perhaps the greatest forgotten name in baseball. Seymour won 25 games in 1898 and seven years later won the National League batting title with an average of .377. After Ruth, Seymour was the second-most versatile player ever to play the game and remains almost totally unknown.

Seymour started his career as a left-handed pitcher with the New York Giants in 1896. Despite his erratic control, he had an 18-14 record in 1897 with an ERA of 3.37 and was second in the National League with 149 strikeouts, and also set a major League record with three errors committed in one inning.

The following season, 1898, Cy won 25 games and led the League with 239 strikeouts. At one point during the season, Seymour pitched three games in two days^.1 His ERA was 3.18 for a seventh-place team. His strikeout total was sixty-one more than the runner-up. He had a league-leading 6.03 strikeouts per game.   

Cy spent some time in the minors trying to find his control after walking eleven batters in a June game in 1900. As injuries began to take a toll on the Giants’ outfield, Seymour was pressed into duty as an outfielder and, due to his own arm injuries, was finally given a permanent position in center field.

Seymour shares the distinction as the only player besides Babe Ruth to finish his career with at least 50 home runs and 50 pitching wins.² Shohei Ohtani will likely reach this level in the next year or two.

Jumping to the new American League in 1901, Cy signed with Baltimore and hit .303; however, the Orioles were financially struggling, and in 1902, Seymour finished the season in Cincinnati.

Seymour batted above .300 with the Reds in each season through 1905. His banner year was 1905, when he missed the Triple Crown by one home run. His batting average was .377, setting a single-season high for the Cincinnati Reds and it remains the record to this day. He added 325 total bases to set a National League record that would stand until 1919. He led the League in batting average (.377), hits (219), runs batted in (121), doubles (40), triples (21), and slugging percentage (.559). He missed immortality by a single home run. If just one of his 21 triples had gone for a homer, the story would have been different.

What Cy Seymour achieved in 1905 was to create a benchmark for others to strive for. His average was the highest of all hitters from 1901-1919; his slugging percentage (.559) was the highest until 1913. Seymour’s RBI total of 121 was the highest until Sherry Magee drove in 123 runs in 1910. The 40 doubles he had were the benchmark until 1922. In 1905, nobody was better than Cy Seymour.

In the largest monetary transaction in baseball history to that date, the Giants purchased Cy from the Reds for $10,000. The magic was gone, and in the first season since 1898, Seymour hit under .300.

Seymour finished fifth in the National League in batting average (.294) during the 1907 season, but an ankle injury prematurely ended his season. The following season, his batting average declined to .267. Cy injured his right leg in 1909, an injury that limited his effectiveness for the balance of his career. Now a part-time player, he batted .311, best among National League reserves. He again played for the Giants in 1910, batting .265 over 79 games.

After the 1911 season, Cy played in the minors with Baltimore and was sold to Newark in the Class AA League for the 1912 season. Seymour signed as a free agent with the Boston Braves on February 25, 1913, played sparingly during the 1913 season, and was released on July 19, 1913.

Seymour remains the Cincinnati Reds’ career leader in batting average (.332) and holds the Reds’ single-season record for batting. Upon retirement, Seymour had a better Fielder Rating than Ty Cobb.

Orioles’ catcher Wilbert Robinson said that he had never caught a pitcher as wild as Seymour, as opposing batters did “not know whether their head or feet were in most danger.³

The New York World listed Seymour as one of the best players in baseball, in a group that included Ed Walsh, Nap Lajoie, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, and Roger   Bresnahan ⁴

Bill James ranked Seymour higher than Hall of Famers Joe Tinker, Lloyd Waner, and Jimmy Collins^.5  

During WW I, he worked in the Speedway shipyards and Bush terminal, where he contracted tuberculosis. Cy died at his home on September 20, 1919. He is buried in the family plot, but no stone marks the location or the accomplishments of the second most versatile player that the game has ever known.

 His highlight seasons of 1898 as a pitcher and 1905 as a position player should not overshadow the fact that he left two rather distinct and remarkable baseball performances that deserve more scrutiny. During the three years from 1897 to 1899, Cy Young allowed 1146 hits in 1080.1 innings (1.093 hits per inning). In comparison, Cy Seymour allowed 814 hits in 902.2 innings (0.901 hits per inning).

Cy Seymour was a pitcher in a hitting era and a hitter in a pitching era. He managed to combine the abilities of hitting and pitching into an exceptional rare career, yet, perhaps because of this, he is mysteriously forgotten. And so today we’re happy to shine our baseball spotlight on forgotten star, Cy Seymour.

Mike Janacek

Opening quote from “Cy Seymour,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, by Bill Kirwin, accessed November 19, 2025

1 “Cy Seymour Is Real ‘Iron Man,’” Detroit Free Press, June 24, 1917, 18, accessed July 6, 2025, via Newspapers.com. 

2 Bill Kirwin, “Cy Seymour,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed July 6, 2025

3 “Cy Seymour at the SABR Baseball Biography Project, by Bill Kirwin. Retrieved July 4, 2025.

4 Kirwin, “Cy Seymour.”

5 James, Bill (1994). The Politics of Glory: How Baseball’s Hall of Fame Really Works. New York City: Macmillan. pp. 172–184. 

Rob Rathgeber, “When Hitting Became a Science: Cy Seymour,” Cincinnati Reds Scrapbook, 1982.

David Nemec, Great Baseball, Feats, Facts & Firsts (New York: Signet Sports, 1989).

Harold Seymour, Baseball: The Golden Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971).

Lawrence Ritter, The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball—Told by the Men Who Played It (New York: Vintage Books, 1985).

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