Late Bloomers: Socks Seybold

Two different players named “Socks” played for the Philadelphia A’s. Both had the last named “Seybold” or “Seibold.” They are the only players to use Socks as a nickname in major league history, as well as they only Seybold/Seibolds. We could look at this as a remarkable coincidence, but of course it isn’t.

Harry Seibold starting pitching for the A’s in 1916, and was awful. He was 5-17 with an ERA+ of 69 in those seasons, then left to serve in the Army during World War I, came back to have a 2-3, 5.32 ERA season in 1919, and then spent the next decade sporadically pitching in the minor leagues before re-emerging with the woefully bad Boston Braves in 1929. Bill McKechnie was hired as their manager a year later and started improving the club enough that they eventually didn’t need a pitcher of Seibold’s skills. He was sold to Albany of the International League before the 1934 season, having compiled a major league record of 48 wins against 85 losses.

But he got to say he was a big leaguer for parts of eight seasons, and played for two different Hall of Fame managers, McKechnie and Connie Mack. He also got a nickname he hadn’t possessed when he first arrived in the big leagues. It was Mack who gave it to him, an honorific that recalled the original Socks Seybold, who had been a pretty critical part of the first wave of successful A’s teams. More on him in a moment.