Ted Sizemore

Second baseman

Born: April 15, 1945 (age 72)
Gadsden, Alabama

Batted: Right

Threw: Right

MLB debut

April 7, 1969, for the Los Angeles Dodgers

Last MLB appearance

May 27, 1980, for the Boston Red Sox

MLB statistics

.262

430

Teams

Career highlights and awards

Theodore Crawford Sizemore (born April 15, 1945) is a former Major League Baseball second baseman. He was named the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1969.

Sizemore was born in Gadsden, Alabama, but moved to Detroit, at the age of two years. As a catcher for Pershing High School's baseball team, he earned All-city honors three times. He also earned All-city honors playing fullback in football and guard in basketball twice each.

At the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, he was a varsity letterman from 1964 to 1966, and received All-Big Ten honors in 1965 and 1966. In 1966, he batted .321 to receive District All-America honors. In 1982, the university created the "Ted Sizemore Award" to honor the school's top defensive player each season.

The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Sizemore in the fifteenth round of the 1966 Major League Baseball draft. He served strictly as a catcher his first professional season, but his bat (.330, 4 home runs and 37 RBIs for the Northwest League's Tri-City Atoms) prompted the Dodgers organization to try him more in the outfield in 1967 and 1968. In need of infielders, the Dodgers had Sizemore play second base in the Winter Instructional League in 1968. Following Zoilo Versalles' departure in the 1968 Major League Baseball expansion draft, manager Walter Alston shifted Sizemore over to shortstop at the beginning of Spring training 1969.