Richard Francis Sipek (January 16, 1923 – July 17, 2005) was an American

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

, and the only deaf person to play in the majors between

Herbert Murphy Herbert Courtland "Dummy" Murphy (December 18, 1886 – August 10, 1962) was an American professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1914 as a shortstop. Partially deaf, he was sometimes re ...

in and

Curtis Pride Curtis John Pride (born December 17, 1968) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder who is deaf. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. In 2015, Pride was named MLB's Ambassador For Inclusion. Since 2009 Pride has served as the head ba ...

in . He played in 82 games for the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in .

Early life

Sipek was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois on January 16, 1923, to Emily and John Sipek. Around the age of five, he became deaf, with the definitive cause being unknown. Theories involved an accident, an illness, or genetic. He was sent to the Illinois School for the Deaf, where he thrived. His housefather was

Dummy Taylor Luther Haden "Dummy" Taylor (February 21, 1875 – August 22, 1958) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1900 to 1908 who was deaf. He played for the History of the New York Giants (NL), New York Giants and Clevela ...

, who had won over 100 games as a major league pitcher. Taylor sent letters to the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

and the

to send a scout to evaluate Sipek's ability to play, with the Reds signing him to a contract.

Baseball career

At the age of 20, Sipek started his career in the minors. He played for the

Birmingham Barons The Birmingham Barons are a Minor League Baseball team based in Birmingham, Alabama. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and plays at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham. The current ...

of the Southern Association and the

Erwin Aces Erwin may refer to: People Given name * Erwin Chargaff (1905–2002), Austrian biochemist * Erwin Dold (1919–2012), German concentration camp commandant in World War 2 * Erwin Hauer (1926–2017), Austrian-born American sculptor * Egon Erwin Kis ...

of the

Appalachian League The Appalachian League is a collegiate summer baseball league that operates in the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Designed for rising freshmen and sophomores using wood bats, its season runs from ...

. He batted .336 in 74 games for the former while batting .424 in 37 games for the latter. The following year, he remained with the Barons, playing in 134 games while batting .319. Sipek was called up to start for the Reds for the beginning of the 1945 season. On April 28, he made his debut with the team, pinch hitting for

Joe Just Joseph Erwin Just (born Joseph Erwin Juszczak) (January 8, 1916 – November 22, 2003) was a Major League Baseball catcher who broke into the Major Leagues on May 13, 1944, with the Cincinnati Reds of the National League. Just appeared in 25 gam ...

in the bottom of the ninth inning. He was walked by

Blix Donnelly Sylvester Urban "Blix" Donnelly (January 21, 1914 – June 20, 1976) was an American professional baseball pitcher. A right-hander, Donnelly appeared in 190 Major League Baseball (MLB) games between and for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphi ...

to load the bases as the Reds won the game later in the inning on a walk off error over the St. Louis Cardinals. Sipek mostly appeared as a pinch hitter, with occasional starts in left or right field. He made 170 plate appearances with 156 at-bats, having 38 hits and 13 RBIs with nine walks and 15 strikeouts for a .244 batting average. As a fielder, he had a .972 fielding percentage, making 68 putouts, two assists, and two errors. After the season, he was sent back to the minors. The following year, Sipek played with the Syracuse Chiefs 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 level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

, batting .245 in 98 games. The next year was spent with the

Columbia Reds Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

in the Single-A

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

, where he batted .272 in 127 games. He spent the final four years of his career with the

Reidsville Luckies The Reidsville Luckies were a minor league baseball team based in Reidsville, North Carolina, USA. They played in the Bi-State League from 1935–1940 and returned in 1947 as part of the Tri-State League in 1947. They switched to the Carolina Leag ...

of the

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

, highlighted by a .322 season in 137 games in his last year in 1951. His career ended when he broke his collarbone during a dive for a fly ball.

Post career and death

After Sipek's career was over, he lived in

Quincy, Illinois Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

, with his wife Betty Ann Schmidt, who also attended the Illinois School for the Deaf, with two of their three children subsequently attending the school. He worked in a bakery and as a custodian at St. Mary School. Sipek died on July 17, 2005, at the age of 82.

References

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sipek, Dick 1923 births 2005 deaths Major League Baseball outfielders Cincinnati Reds players Erwin Aces players Birmingham Barons players Syracuse Chiefs players Columbia Reds players Reidsville Luckies players Baseball players from Chicago Deaf baseball players American disabled sportspeople American deaf people