Cy Seymour!

James Bentley "Cy" Seymour would be 137 today. So...don't send cards or anything.

Seymour is one of those rare guys who served as both a starting pitcher and everyday position player in the major leagues, and one of those even rarer guys who was actually pretty good at both of them. It was a lot easier to do at the turn of the last century than it is now, but in a lot of ways, Seymour was Rick Ankiel a hundred years earlier: hard-throwing, left-handed strikeout pitcher with control problems becomes a successful center fielder.
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Debuting in 1896 with the Giants, Seymour (who, yes, was nicknamed "Cy" after already established superstar Denton True "Cy" Young, so you know they had high hopes for him) had a solid first full year in 1897, going 18-14 with a 3.37 ERA (123 ERA+) in 278 innings. He led the league in fewest hits per nine innings...but also led the league in walks. And hit 21 guys. In 1898, Seymour started 45 games, went 25-19 and led the league in strikeouts (239 of them in 357 innings), but also led in walks, hit by pitch, and wild pitches. Still wound up with a 109 ERA+, which testifies to the advantage of all the strikeouts, or the Giants' defense, or luck, or something. Ultimately, he had three mostly-full years as a pitcher, and led the National League in walks and strikeouts per nine in all three years.

Then in 1900, either because of injury or ineffectiveness, he got into only 13 games (53 IP and an ERA near seven). By 1901, he was in Baltimore of the American not-quite-major-yet League, managed by John McGraw. Although Seymour had played a handful of games in the outfield with the Giants, his career hitting line to that point was just .280/.302/.350 (82 OPS+) in 694 PA. Yet, for whatever reason, McGraw saw a full-time outfielder in Seymour, and he played 134 games for the Orioles in 1901, holding his own at .303/.337/.373 (94 OPS+).

But somehow it wasn't until moving back to National League -- which I've always considered a vastly superior league during that time period -- that Seymour really blossomed. From 1903 to 1907, with first the Reds and then back with the Giants, Seymour was one of the better players in the league, hitting .324/.372/.453 (142 OPS+) in nearly 3000 plate appearances. That OPS+ was 7th best in the league over that time (min. 1500 PA), but only Honus Wagner and Frank Chance did better while averaging 500 PA a season.After that, he had one more full year and two more half years in him, but was done at 1910 at age 37...until making his way to the Brooklyn Dodgers for 39 games at age 40 in 1913 (hitting .178).

The most noteworthy thing about Seymour, though, is probably the year he had in 1905. Seymour led the majors in batting average (.377), slugging (.559), OPS (.988), OPS+ (181), hits (219), total bases (325), triples (21), and RBI (121), in most cases by large margins, and led the National League in doubles (40). He was even second in homers, one behind his teammate Fred Odwell (who had nine). The amazing Honus Wagner would probably have deserved the NL MVP in literally every year of the 'aughts, but in 1905, Cy Seymour was the best mere mortal in the league. In The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, James cites Seymour's 1905 as the second flukiest offensive season of all time (behind Kevin Mitchell's 1989). He had several other very good seasons, but nothing remotely like that.

In all, Seymour went 65-51 with a 100 ERA+ in 1029 innings, and hit .303 with a 119 OPS+ in 6204 plate appearances. James ranks him as the 30th best center fielder of all time, just ahead of Al Oliver and just behind Roy Thomas.In Rally's database, he gets a total of 36.5 wins above replacement (5.3 pitching and 31.2 hitting), about as many as Harold Baines, Kirk Gibson and Albert Belle.

He's not a Hall of Famer, or even borderline, and it's doubtful whether he could've gotten there with even a full career as one or the other (though as a center fielder, he might have compared pretty favorably to several who are in). He was probably best known for playing too shallow on a Joe Tinker drive and losing the 1908 pennant for the Giants. But he had two pretty good careers in two centuries, and All-Star seasons (before there were All Stars) as both a pitcher and hitter.

During the first World War, Seymour worked in the shipyards in New York City. It appears that there, he contracted tiberculosis. He died in September of 1919, two weeks before the infamous Black Sox series. He wasn't yet 47, and had played in the majors just six years before.

For much more (and I mean much more, if you can believe it) about this fascinating character from an almost unimaginably different time, check out this excellent online SABR biography by Bill Kirwin.