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George Sisler

George Harold Sisler (March 24, 1893 – March 26, 1973), nicknamed "Gorgeous George", was an American professional baseball first baseman and player-manager. From 1915 through 1930, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, and Boston Braves. He managed the Browns from 1924 through 1926.

Sisler played college baseball for the University of Michigan and was signed by the St. Louis Browns in 1915. He won the American League (AL) batting title in 1920 and 1922. In 1920, he batted .407 and recorded 257 hits, the record until Ichiro Suzuki had 262 in 2004. Sisler won the AL Most Valuable Player Award in 1922, finishing with a batting average of .420, the third-highest batting average by AL or NL players after 1900. An attack of sinusitis caused vision troubles that jeopardized Sisler's career, but he returned to playing in 1924, remaining in the major leagues through the 1930 season. After Sisler retired as a player, he worked as a major league scout and aide.

A two-time batting champion and career .340 hitter, Sisler led the league in hits twice, triples twice, and stolen bases four times. He collected 200 or more hits six times in his career and had a batting average of over .300 a total of 13 times throughout his career. Sisler was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.

Early life
George Harold Sisler was born on March 24, 1893, in the unincorporated hamlet of Manchester (now part of the city of New Franklin, a suburb of Akron), Ohio. His parents, Cassius Clay and Mary (née Whipple) Sisler, had been married after meeting at Hiram College, which they both graduated from. Both worked as schoolteachers at one point, though by the time George was born, Cassius was supervising a nearby coal mine. Manchester did not have a high school; thus, when George turned 14, he moved to Akron to live with his older brother Efbert so that he could attend school there. Sisler played baseball, basketball, and football in high school, but baseball was his main focus. Because of his good looks, the local newspapers began referring to him as "Gorgeous George". During George's senior year, Efbert died of tuberculosis, but George was able to move in with a local family and finish school.

College career
In 1910, Sisler signed a professional contract with the Akron Champs of the Ohio–Pennsylvania League, but he never played in the league or earned any money. Instead, he followed his parents' wishes and attended the University of Michigan, where he majored in mechanical engineering and played college baseball. Freshmen were not allowed to play on Michigan's varsity teams, so Sisler pitched for an intra-campus team representing the school's engineering students in 1912, striking out 20 batters in seven innings during one game. After the season, he pitched for an industrial team in Akron. Barney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was impressed when he observed Sisler in a game. He purchased Sisler's contract and tried to force the player to join his ballclub in 1912. Refusing to report, Sisler was placed on the Pirates' suspended list, which threatened his professional eligibility.

Recognizing he was in trouble, Sisler consulted Branch Rickey, Michigan's baseball coach. A former lawyer, Rickey determined that the contract should not bind Sisler, since the ballplayer signed it as a minor without the consent of his parents. Rickey and Detroit Judge George P. Codd contacted the National Commission, baseball's governing body, asking for the contract to be declared illegal. The Commission failed to come to a decision in 1912 because one of its members, August Herrmann, thought Sisler should give the Pirates the first right to sign him, while Codd wanted the contract declared completely void. After Sisler's junior year, with the time when he would play professional ball nearing, Codd pressed Herrmann for a decision, threatening to sue for triple damages. Herrmann obtained a legal opinion that agreed with Sisler's position, and the Commission finally ruled the contract void in 1914.

Meanwhile, Sisler joined Michigan's varsity team as a sophomore in 1913. He excelled on the mound for the Wolverines until a sore arm limited him late in the season. Offensively, he led the team with a .445 batting average, playing the outfield on days he was not pitching so his bat could remain in the lineup. Sporting Life proclaimed him "the greatest college pitcher", and Vanity Fair named him an All-American for the first of three consecutive years.

Over the summer of 1913, Sisler consulted Youngstown physician John D. "Bonesetter" Reese about his sore arm. The Wolverines were now coached by Carl Lundgren, hired as Rickey's successor after the former coach took a job with the St. Louis Browns. Sisler was feeling back in form by the time the season started, and his teammates voted him captain of the Wolverines. He helped the Wolverines hold opponents scoreless for 44 straight innings, personally striking out 10 batters in a row before reinjuring his arm in a game against Syracuse. At the end of the season, he had two hits, three runs scored, and two stolen bases in the first of two victories over the Penn Quakers that gave the Wolverines the 1914 college baseball national championship.

Sisler did not remain the captain in 1915, as Edmon McQueen was selected this time. Coach Lundgren planned to use him less as a pitcher early on in hopes that his arm would not be sore by the end of the year. The plan worked. Though pitching statistics for the year were not kept, Sisler had one game where he limited the Cornell Big Red to one hit, and in another game he struck out 14 Notre Dame players. He recorded five stolen bases in his final game for Michigan, even stealing home once during the game. Sisler batted .451 and committed no errors. He graduated in the summer of 1915 with his degree in mechanical engineering.

Early years (1915–1919)
Both Pittsburgh and the Browns were interested in signing Sisler to play professional baseball for them following his graduation. The Pirates offered $700 a month with a $1,000 bonus, but the Browns offered a $5,000 bonus with a $200-per-month salary. Sisler chose St. Louis because he was comfortable playing for Rickey, now the Browns' manager.

On June 28, 1915, Sisler made his major league debut, entering as a pitcher in relief against the Chicago White Sox. He pitched three scoreless innings and struck out two batters, while at the plate he collected his first major league hit, which came against Jim Scott. Five days later, he pitched a complete game victory in his first major league start, in which he struck out nine batters but also walked nine.

Rickey, however, thought Sisler was too good at baseball to confine himself to pitching every few days. First baseman John Leary was struggling at the position, and Rickey decided to try Sisler there. Initially, the stress of learning a new position sent Sisler into a batting slump, but after Rickey let him pitch another game, his confidence began to grow. Sisler still pitched and played the outfield as well in 1915; on August 29, he defeated Walter Johnson in a complete game, 2–1 victory. Offensively, he batted .285 with three home runs, while as a pitcher, he had a 4–4 record and what biographer Rick Huhn termed a "very respectable" 2.83 earned run average (ERA).

In 1916, Sisler became the Browns' full-time first baseman, playing the position for 141 of the team's 158 games. His .305 batting average led the team, as did his hits (177) and slugging percentage (.400). Though Sisler's 24 errors that year led American League (AL) first basemen, Huhn wrote that he demonstrated "significant improvement and frequent brilliance" at the position. He made only three appearances on the mound that year, but in his most notable, on September 17, he threw a shutout, defeating Johnson and the Senators 1–0.

On August 11, 1917, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics, Sisler recorded three hits in four at bats. The performance began a 26-game hitting streak, during which Sisler batted .422. For the season, he led the team in most offensive categories, and his .353 batting average was second in the AL, behind Ty Cobb's .383.

Following the American entry into World War I, the draft was enacted in the 1917-18 offseason. Browns Urban Shocker and Ken Williams were both drafted during the 1918 season, but Sisler's Class 4 status kept him playing baseball for the whole year. Due to the war, the season ended on September 1, making it a month shorter than usual. Playing 114 games, Sisler led the AL with 45 stolen bases and placed third in the AL with a .341 batting average. A government-issued "work or fight" order required baseball players to assume essential wartime employment or become more eligible for the draft after the season. Sisler enlisted in the army, joining several major league players as a second lieutenant in a Chemical Warfare Service unit commanded by Rickey. Undergoing training at Camp Humphreys in Virginia, Sisler was preparing to go overseas until the war ended that November, relieving him from his military obligation.

Returning to the Browns in 1919, Sisler struggled offensively at the beginning of the year, batting .207 through May 11. His hitting improved thereafter, and Sisler led the AL in batting average and stolen bases by mid-August, while the Browns, at 47–40, were still in the race for the AL pennant. On August 22, the normally quiet-natured Sisler nearly exchanged blows with Carl Mays. Thinking that the Yankee pitcher was throwing at him and suspecting Mays of using an illegal substance, Sisler convinced umpire George Moriarty to search Mays, which Moriarty took 10 minutes to do. Nothing was found, and Mays and Sisler yelled at each other, squaring off to fight before Moriarty stepped between them and separated them. The Browns struggled late in the season, finishing fifth in the AL with a 62–72–1 record, but Sisler finished the year leading the team in all offensive categories except games played. His .352 average ranked third in the AL, and his 10 home runs were topped in the league only by Babe Ruth's 29. Defensively, he had a .991 fielding percentage and led AL first basemen with 120 assists.

.400 hitter and MVP (1920–1922)
In 1920, baseballs began to be manufactured with a tighter-wound yarn, and a greater emphasis was placed on keeping the balls clean, which made them easier for the hitters to spot. These changes ushered in the live-ball era, in which many batters began to hit more home runs. Not possessing the arm strength of sluggers like Ruth, Sisler did not try for as many home runs, but his numbers rose in other offensive categories.

That season, Sisler played every inning of each game. He collected an MLB-record 257 hits, batting .407 and ending the season with averages of .442 in August and .448 in September. The total broke Cobb's 1911 record of 247 hits in a single season. After tying the old record on September 27, Sisler set the new one on a day that was coincidentally dedicated to him, in which he was presented with a $1,000 check, a $1,500 silver service, and flowers before the game at Sportsman's Park. His record lasted until 2004, when Ichiro Suzuki had 262 hits. Sisler also finished second in the AL in eight offensive categories, including home runs (19, behind Ruth's 54), RBI (122, tied with teammate Baby Doll Jacobson behind Ruth's 135), and stolen bases (42, behind Sam Rice's 63). Despite finishing second to Ruth in home runs, Sisler did not attempt them as often, as he was able to maintain a higher batting average by merely focusing on making contact with the ball.

The Browns fired manager Jimmy Burke over the 1920–21 offseason, offering the position to Sisler. He declined, fearing that the added responsibilities would interfere with his hitting. Sisler received the only suspension of his career on July 24. After umpire George Hildebrand ruled him out in a close play at first base to end the fourth inning, Sisler shoved the umpire. Told by Hildebrand not to take his position in the fifth inning, Sisler then punched the umpire. Though the suspension was listed as indefinite, rainouts helped Sisler miss only three games before getting reinstated. Against the Detroit Tigers from August 13 through 15, Sisler recorded 10 straight hits, one short of Tris Speaker's 1920 record for most consecutive hits. Though not quite as successful offensively in 1921 as he had been the year before, Sisler led the AL with 18 triples (tied with Howie Shanks and teammate Jack Tobin) and 35 stolen bases, also finishing fourth in the league with a .371 batting average. Defensively, he had a .993 fielding percentage over 138 games.

Sisler battled Cobb for the batting title in 1922. Cobb moved into the lead in late July, but Sisler tied him on August 7, at which point both players were batting .409. The Browns were in a tight pennant race with the New York Yankees, whom they trailed by $1 1/2$ games as late as September 10. Against the Tigers on September 11, Sisler fell on his arm while stretching to his right to catch a wide throw from Wally Gerber. He suffered a strained deltoid muscle. Newspapers suggested that he would miss the remainder of the season, but Sisler underwent electric treatments and returned five days later for a series against the Yankees. At the time, he had a 39-game hitting streak going, one shy of Cobb's 1911 AL record and five shy of Willie Keeler's 1897 MLB record. He had hits in his first two games returning from the injury before going hitless on September 18. Sisler's 41 game hitting streak remained an AL record until Joe DiMaggio set the MLB record with his 56-game hitting streak in 1941.

Sisler later recounted the struggles of rushing his return. "The arm was so badly crippled that I had to lift my gloved hand with my left hand in order to catch balls at first base. At bat, I was swinging with one hand." He batted .316 after returning from the injury. He had three hits, two runs scored, and two stolen bases on September 24 in a 7–4 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics. The Browns remained in the race until September 30, the second-to-last day of the season, when a Yankee win over the Red Sox clinched the pennant for New York. Sisler's .420 batting average remains the third-highest of American and National League (NL) players in the 20th century, surpassed only by Nap Lajoie's .426 in 1901 and Rogers Hornsby's .424 in 1924. Sisler also led the AL in hits (246), runs (134), stolen bases (51), and triples (18). He was chosen as the AL's Most Valuable Player in the first year that an official league award was given. In 2011, Kostya Kennedy of Sports Illustrated wrote that many baseball historians consider Sisler's season among the best individual all-around single-season performances in baseball history. Jim Barrero of the Los Angeles Times asserted in 2000 that Sisler's 257-hits record was largely overshadowed by Ruth's 54 home runs that same year. "Of course, Ruth's obliteration of the home run record drew all the attention from fans and newspapermen, while Sisler's mark was pushed to the side and perhaps left unappreciated during what was a golden age of pure hitters", Barrero wrote.

Vision troubles (1923)
A severe attack of sinusitis caused Sisler double vision in 1923. He had surgery to treat the condition on April 13, and received treatment from an eye specialist afterwards. By May, it was clear that the vision trouble was long-term, jeopardizing Sisler's chances of ever playing again. As a result, the Browns acquired Dutch Schliebner to play first base for them that season. Sisler began attending games again in April, regularly sitting in the upper deck at Sportsman's Park. During the year, he and many of his Browns teammates signed a petition to AL president Ban Johnson seeking to get Dave Danforth reinstated, after Johnson suspended Danforth 10 games for allegedly tampering with baseballs. Manager Lee Fohl refused to sign it and was fired days later. Sisler's eye treatments concluded by the end of the year, and the Browns hoped he would be able to play again in 1924. Sisler ensured he would remain with them by accepting the managerial position after the 1923 season, his worries about its effect on his hitting now counterbalanced by the uncertainty surrounding his playing career. Most people were in favor of the move, and sportswriter Joe Vila wrote, "Sisler, in the opinion of the sharps, is a born leader."

Player-manager (1924–1926)
Returning to play with the Browns at the beginning of 1924 spring training, Sisler batted .324 in the exhibition contests and was St. Louis's starting first baseman on Opening Day. Sisler later recalled, "I planned to get back in uniform for 1924. I just had to meet a ball with a good swing again, and then run. The doctors all said I'd never play again, but when you're fighting for something that actually keeps you alive – well, the human will is all you need." Observers noticed that he had to squint to see the ball, and Sisler said in an interview that he was now more concerned with making contact with the ball, instead of hitting it between fielders. He batted .305 in 1924, nearly 100 points below his combined batting average for 1920–22. He also led AL first basemen with 23 errors. Though not as good as he had been before the vision trouble, Sisler had "proven he could still play the game" according to Huhn.

As the ballclub's manager, Sisler asked his players for advice. "He's one of the fellows, but he's the leader", said Ken Williams. He did not have a set bedtime or wake-up time for the ballclub, unlike several other MLB managers. Despite his "player's manager" reputation, Sisler would still discipline his squad when necessary, as he proved in May when he fined Shocker for skipping and showing up late to several Browns games with no explanation. After a fifth-place finish in the eight-team AL in 1923, the Browns posted an identical 74–78 record in 1924, this time good for fourth in the league.

Sisler started the 1925 season by setting an MLB record with hits in his first 34 games of the year. Later in the season, he would have a 22-game hitting streak. Ruth said on May 10 that the Browns player was "staging the greatest come-back ever known to baseball ... the league ought to strike a medal for iron nerve and give it to George. He has whipped the worst odds any ball player ever played against." Sisler had his fourth and final 100-RBI season, with 105 runs driven in, and he batted .345. Though these statistics were more impressive than ones that many Hall of Fame hitters would approach in their careers, Sisler later said, "Oh, I know I hit .345 and got 228 hits [really 224] in 1925 but that never gave me much satisfaction. That isn't what I call real good hitting." With a record under .500 on July 30, the Browns were never in close contention for the AL pennant, but they finished the year with an 82–71 record, good for third place in the league.

In 1926, the injury-plagued Browns lost their first five games along with 16 out of 19 in a May road trip. There were reports as early as May that Sisler's managerial job was in jeopardy, and on June 1, St. Louis sportswriter J. Roy Stockton blamed the team's struggles on Sisler's easygoing attitude, saying that the Browns "have taken advantage of his kindness". With the team struggling, Sisler saw his RBI production diminish. He struggled in August, batting .038 in his first seven games and going hitless in 17 consecutive at bats during that time. In 150 games, he had seven home runs and 71 RBIs. His .290 batting average was his lowest since he batted .285 as a rookie in 1915. The Browns struggled to a 62–92 seventh-place finish in 1926, and their .403 winning percentage was the franchise's lowest since its 1916 season. Sisler was relieved of his managerial duties after the season, though he was retained as the Browns' first baseman.

Last season with Browns (1927)
Sisler batted .400 early in the 1927 season. On May 3, he had three hits and stole home in a 13–3 victory over the Cleveland Indians. In August, St. Louis sportswriter John E. Wray wrote that "were it not for the surprising flash of Lou Gehrig, Sisler [batting .340] would have the first base championship of the American League wrapped up and tucked away." Defensively, he led AL first basemen in errors once again, with 24. However, he batted .327 with 201 hits, five home runs, and 97 RBIs, leading the AL in stolen bases for a fourth time with 27.

The Browns endured another losing season in 1927, and as early as July 26, owner Phil Ball announced that with the team losing money, it would be trading many of its star players. On December 14, Sisler was traded to the Senators for cash, reported as $15,000 in Washington and $25,000 in St. Louis.

Washington Senators
Washington's first base job was not automatically Sisler's, as the Senators also had Joe Judge, a popular player who had hit over .300 the previous year. Though he outhit Judge .363 to .205 in spring training, Sisler's mobility was diminished, and Judge won the starting job. He made only two starts through Washington's first 28 games before starting seven games in a row at first base or in left field from May 19 through 25, though this was to get other teams interested in acquiring him. On May 27, the Senators sold his contract to the Boston Braves for $7,500. In 20 games, Sisler had batted .245 with a mere two RBI and no stolen bases.

Boston Braves
Hornsby, who had starred for the NL's Cardinals in Sportsman's Park for many years, now managed the Braves, and after spearheading the Sisler acquisition, he installed the veteran as Boston's everyday first baseman. Receiving a standing ovation from the Boston fans in his first game at Braves Field on May 29, he showed enough speed for an infield hit. Two days later, he hit a home run that bounced through the window of a bus passing the ballpark. Returning to Sportsman's Park for a series against the Cardinals in July, he was honored with a flower basket, a silver tea service, and a letter from St. Louis mayor Victor J. Miller in a pregame presentation on July 7. In 118 games for Boston, Sisler had four home runs and 68 RBIs, also posting a .988 fielding percentage at first base. His .340 batting average put him percentage points ahead of Babe Herman for fourth in the NL.

After batting .222 through May 5, 1929, in one of his slowest-ever starts to a season, Sisler batted .400 in May. He had three-hit games against Pittsburgh and Chicago in August. Playing all 154 games, he batted .326, topping 200 hits (with 205) for the sixth time in his career and leading the Braves in nine offensive categories.

For the second time in three years, Sisler found his first base job threatened, as the Braves were interested in giving the position to Johnny Neun, a speedy player eight years younger than Sisler. The veteran did not start any of Boston's first 19 games, but after the Braves suffered a seven-game losing streak, Sisler resumed his role as the everyday first baseman on May 11. He batted over .300 for the Braves but lost the role to Neun in September, partly because of a leg injury. On September 22, he played his last game for the Braves, going hitless in a pinch hit appearance during a 6–2 loss to the Cubs. In 116 games, he had a .309 batting average, 133 hits, three home runs, and 67 RBIs. However, he stole only seven bases, a sign that his speed was no longer the advantage it once had been. On December 13, the Braves released him.

Minor leagues
Unsigned by any MLB team in 1931, Sisler joined the minor league Rochester Red Wings of the International League. In the second game of a September 10 doubleheader, Sisler hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, clinching the International League pennant for Rochester. In 159 games, he batted .303 and struck out just 17 times out of 613 at bats.

In 1932, Sisler joined the Shreveport Sports of the Texas League as their player-manager. The team moved to Tyler, Texas, after a May 4 fire destroyed their ballpark. In 78 games, Sisler batted .287, going 38 consecutive games without striking out at one point. The team, however, struggled. After failing to catch an easy pop fly in midseason, Sisler resigned as manager and retired as an active player.

Career statistics
Sisler accumulated a .340 lifetime batting average over his 16 years in the major leagues and stole 375 bases during his career. He had 200 or more hits in six seasons. He hit over .300 thirteen times, including two seasons in which he hit over .400; 1926 was his only full season in which his average was less than .300. He stole over 25 bases in every year from 1916 through 1922, peaking with 51 the last year and leading the AL three times, plus a fourth in 1927. Sisler recorded 1 six-hit game, 4 five-hit games, and 60 four-hit games in his 15-year MLB career. He also had a 41-game hitting streak in 1922 and a 34-game hitting streak in 1925. The Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and became the Orioles; Sisler holds the franchise career records with 145 career triples and 351 stolen bases. He holds the franchise single season records for batting average (.420, 1922), on-base percentage (.467, 1922), hits (257, 1920), on-base plus slugging (1.082, 1920), and total bases (399, 1920). He also posted a career pitching record of 5–6 with a 2.35 earned run average in 24 career appearances.

Legacy
Sisler became one of the first entrants elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. Though voting had first been held in 1936, Sisler was part of the first group inducted when the Hall of Fame opened in June 1939. "I think it's the greatest honor the game can offer a retired player and it's a satisfaction to know that your career is still remembered, years after you have hung up your glove", he said.

In his prime, Sisler would always try to control where his hits ended up. He batted flat-footed, using a stance that would enable him to hit either to left or to right field. Among baseball's fastest runners, he stole 30 or more bases six times in his career, leading his league in stolen bases in four seasons. Though not a power hitter like Ruth, Sisler possessed a high batting average. He finished his career with a .340 mark, and he was the only AL player besides Cobb to twice hit over .400. In the peak of his career, his fielding earned him comparisons with Hal Chase, a former star blacklisted from baseball because of his gambling habits but considered one of baseball's best fielders. Though he led his league in errors multiple times after his vision troubles, he was an excellent fielder before the ailment, and Lamberty refers to him as "[a]rguably the first great first baseman of the twentieth century". A successful pitcher in college, he was seldom used in this position during his playing days (24 games with 12 starts), but he did post a 2.35 career ERA in 111 innings pitched and twice defeated Hall of Fame Senators pitcher Walter Johnson in complete game outings. Rickey said that Sisler "was the smartest hitter who ever lived. He was a professional with the bat in his hands. He never stopped thinking ... In the field, he was the acme of grace and fluency."

During his career, Sisler drew comparisons to the leading players of his day, such as Cobb, Ruth, and Tris Speaker. According to Bill Lamberty of the Society for American Baseball Research, a contemporary writer claimed that Sisler possessed "dazzling ability of the Cobbesque type. He is just as fast, showy, and sensational, very nearly if not quite as good as a natural hitter, as fast in speed of foot, an even better fielder, and gifted with a versatility Cobb himself might envy." Wray compared Sisler with Ruth before the two met for a series in 1920. "Ruth stands out before the world as the more striking figure because of the spectacular nature of his blows [home runs]", Wray wrote, but he concluded that "the cumulative effect of his [Sisler's] efforts would probably surpass those of his rival." Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson wrote in 1922 that Sisler was "every bit as valuable as Ruth, some people think more valuable", noticing also that Sisler was much humbler than his New York counterpart. Two years before, writer Floyd Bell had also described Sisler as "modest, almost to a point of bashfulness, as far from egotism as a blushing debutante ... Shift the conversation to Sisler himself and he becomes a clam."

In 1999 editors at The Sporting News ranked Sisler 33rd on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". Outside of St. Louis' Busch Stadium, there is a statue of Sisler. He is also honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. While in St. Louis for the 2009 All-Star game, Ichiro Suzuki, who had broken Sisler's hit record, visited the former Browns' grave site. Tarpon Springs, Florida honored George by naming the former spring training home of the St. Louis Browns "Sisler Field". The playing surface is still in use by various local teams.

Later life
In 1933, Sisler partnered with Charles Nelson to open the Sisler-Nelson Sporting Goods Company in St. Louis. That same year, they formed the American Softball Association, building several softball fields with lights for night games around St. Louis to help stimulate interest in the game and the business. He also joined Hornsby for three winters as an instructor at the Ray Doan Baseball School in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1936 and 1937, Sisler served as a color commentator for Browns and Cardinals home games broadcast on KWK. Replacing Honus Wagner in 1938 as the commissioner of the National Baseball Congress, Sisler held the role for many years. He sold his interest in the sporting goods store in 1940 at a profit.

Sisler returned to working with MLB teams in December 1942, when Rickey, now the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, hired Sisler as a special assignment scout for the team. He would attend spring training with the parent club, then scout players at the high school, college, and semi-pro levels, mostly in Missouri and neighboring states, though he would sometimes be sent elsewhere to evaluate a particular player. Sisler was part of a scouting corps that Rickey assigned to evaluate black players, though the scouts thought they were looking for players to fill an all-black baseball team separate from MLB. After seeing the Kansas City Monarchs play in 1945, Sisler thought Jackie Robinson had the potential to be a star second baseman, though he was concerned about whether Robinson had enough arm strength to play shortstop. Rickey signed Robinson on October 23, and the ballplayer broke the MLB color barrier two years later on his way to a Hall of Fame career. In 1947, Sisler was reassigned to Brooklyn, where his duties expanded to evaluating Dodger prospects, meeting with the manager and coaches prior to and following each game, and watching games to help Dodger catchers learn what opposing hitters were likely to do. In 1949, Robinson spent hours working with Sisler in spring training, hoping to improve his performance at the plate. "Sisler showed me how to stop lunging, how to check my swing until the last fraction of a second, [and] how to shift my feet and hit to right. I'll never stop being grateful to him," Robinson recalled. Sisler and Rickey worked with future Hall of Famer Duke Snider to teach the young Dodgers hitter to accurately judge the strike zone. Other hitters Sisler instructed and helped improve included Carl Furillo and Gil Hodges. In 1951, he signed future star pitcher Johnny Podres for the Dodgers.

After the Dodgers were edged out by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1950 NL pennant race, Rickey was dismissed by the team. Taking a job as the Pirates' general manager, he hired Sisler as his Scouting Supervisor, responsible for evaluating prospects within 100 miles of Pittsburgh. He held the position until 1955, when new GM Joe L. Brown relieved him from the role but retained him as a scout. Following the regular season, Sisler and other coaches would tutor top prospects at a post-season minor-league school. Acting on a tip from Clyde Sukeforth, Sisler journeyed to Montreal to see Roberto Clemente play, recommending that Rickey sign the future Hall of Famer. As he had in Brooklyn, Sisler helped his team's players with their hitting. "He ... told me I was taking my eye off the ball. He moved me back in the box so I could watch the ball better. He told me to hit the ball where it was pitched. Warned me not to pull it", recalled Frank Thomas, who would play for 16 seasons and hit 286 career home runs. "Sisler teaches us to be ready for the fast ball and adjust our swing for the curve. If you're looking for a curve and get a fast ball, you never hit it. But you can cut down on the speed of your swing to hit the curve", said 1960 NL MVP Dick Groat. In 1961, Sisler had Clemente switch to a heavier bat. Clemente won the league batting title that season.

Sisler's duties with the Pirates changed again in 1963, when the ballclub assigned him to be a scout for the St. Louis area responsible for evaluating NL players. Sisler also instructed players in spring training and coached a fall instructional league team in Chandler, Arizona. Willie Stargell was one of the Chandler team's alumni.

After spending eight days at St. Louis's St. Mary's Hospital, Sisler died in Richmond Heights, Missouri, on March 26, 1973, of kidney failure exacerbated by heart trouble. His death came two days after his 80th birthday. His funeral occurred in St. Louis a few days later, and his cremated remains were laid to rest at the Des Peres Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Personal life
In 1913, Sisler met his future wife, Kathleen Charlotte Holznagle. Both were involved in Greek life at the University of Michigan. They were married on October 21, 1916. Sisler did not consume alcohol or tobacco, and he refrained from swearing. In the first years of his career, he attended a Presbyterian church. As he battled eye trouble in 1923, Browns part-owner Walter Fritsch suggested he "look into" Christian Science. Soon a strong believer in its power, Sisler had spiritual adviser Dr. John Randall Dunn accompany him to Browns spring training in 1924, when he made his comeback. Sisler discussed hitting in a 1934 pamphlet entitled The Knack of Batting and in a 1954 book entitled Sisler on Baseball: A Manual for Players and Coaches. Sportscaster Red Barber said in 1969 that the book was "still the definitive book on hitting".

Sisler's sons Dick and Dave were also major league players in the 1950s. George was a Dodgers scout in 1950 when Dick hit a game-winning home run against Brooklyn to clinch the pennant for the Phillies and eliminate the second-place Dodgers. Asked after the pennant-winning game how he felt when his son hit the home run, George replied, "I felt awful and terrific at the same time." Another son, George Jr., served as a minor league executive and as the president of the International League. The Sislers had one other child, daughter Frances.

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Talk:Rusalka (opera)

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Rusalka is the name of the title character. See a list of the opera's roles. - Nunh-huh 01:42, 10 May 2004 (UTC)
 * So, is Prince is the name of the character too? Mikkalai 01:53, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

And by the way, Vodník in the list of roles, but in the article is translated. into English as Water-Gnome. Rusalka is not translated only becase of tradition. Why don't you believe people who know something you don't know? Mikkalai 02:05, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

[1] Yes, the role is "The Prince". [2] The title role is "Rusalka". [3] I don't believe everyone who says they know something, because such people are often wrong. There's no reason to believe unsupported assertions. [4] I do know what the heroine was named last week when I saw this thing. [5] When have you ever seen a performance of the opera where the heroine is referred to as "Mermaid"? [6] If you cavil at the translation, it belongs in a note towards the end of the article, not in the initial paragraph. [7] Your emendations have also eliminated the link to rusalka. - Nunh-huh 02:24, 10 May 2004 (UTC)
 * OK, I begin see some point in yours. I'll back off a bit. Mikkalai 02:56, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

Before a performance of a recording of the opera on radio, an announcer said the libretto is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Little Mermaid" but as far as I can tell from the above discussion, that is not correct. Marlindale (talk) 21:41, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

Spoiler warnings for operas
Somehow the edit summary discussion style comes more naturally, but I guess better buckle down and start a talk thread... I'll start it here since you're more likely to see it, and then if we find we've actually decided something meaningful we could move it to the opera talk page or something.

So I guess the crux of this is really your assertion that opera plots do not contain surprises. It's pretty easy for me to disagree here. I know plenty of people who would be surprised at the ending of even the most pop-culture relevant operas, such as Aida, Carmen, (okay maybe not Traviata or Boheme).

Maybe you mean because synopses are always included in the playbill and most neophytes read them ahead of time because they are afraid they won't understand what's going on even if there are supertitles? That's probably true for a good portion of viewers, but not all. --Chinasaur 06:02, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Well, I'd started at template talk:spoiler. (See "The cartoonlike, clown-faced, painted like a two-bit whore spoiler warning isn't always appropriate"). Yes, someone, perhaps a six-year-old, may be surprised by a plot turn in an opera. But unlike such breathtaking works of art as "The Sixth Sense", the opera is completely enjoyable in every respect with full knowledge of the plot, and most operagoers have acquainted themselves with the plot before attending. "Spoilers" is Internet slang, not appropriate to opera, barely appropriate to an encyclopedia, and frankly quite galling when slapped like a garish wound on articles about such works as "Romeo and Juliet". We need not tell the readers that we suspect they are so stupid that they [1] don't know the plot of Romeo and Juliet [2] that they would be upset if they find the plot of Romeo and Juliet under the heading "Plot", or that the [3] should be upset if they discover the shocking ending by reading it here. This is an encyclopedia, not a news-group or an internet chat room about the latest Buffy episode. You say you "know plenty of people who would be surprised at the ending of even the most pop-culture relevant operas": do you also know plenty of people who would be surprised that an article in an encyclopedia discusses its ending? No complete article on opera can possibly avoid revealing the plot. = Nunh-huh 08:26, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky)
I believe Rusalka (opera) should be a disambiguation page, as there are several opera by this name. See Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky) for another. -- Ghirla -трёп-  15:23, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree. It's not reader-friendly (or logical) to have Rusalka(opera)=Dvorak and Rusalka(Dargomyzhsky)=Dargomyzhsky ... and someone might one day add an article on Rusalka(Davidov) (the one called just "Rusalka" that he wrote a few years after "Lesta, ili Dneprovskaya rusalka").Wyresider (talk) 12:29, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

The Duchess ??
Who is this mysterious character? The entry in the AmadeusOnline almanacco here indeed has this role, but there is no mention of a Duchess in the synopsis. Neither of the two recordings I own has this role in the cast-list. Help! --Francesco Malipiero (talk) 17:18, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

The poster next to the roles table does not mention this role either. Perhaps a mistake in the AmadeusOnline database? --Francesco Malipiero (talk) 21:52, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

 * No mention of the Duchess in Opera Grove, Viking or Kobbé. According to the roles table and the almanacco, The Duchess was supposedly played by Marta Krásová-Jirák.  I googled her, and found that a) she was born Marta Krásová on 16 March 1901, 15 days before the premiere of the opera  and b) she married the composer Karel Boleslav Jirák : click on the two downwards-pointing chevrons just below the number 4,433 (on the right under the picture) and scroll down for her biography.  Maybe she played the Foreign Princess's baby?  (But the almanacco describes her as dramatic contralto!) --GuillaumeTell 22:28, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

 * I have only just seen this talk section but had already removed the non-existent role - however, there is still a difference between the list here and IMSLP score and the image of the poster for the first performance for the Prince (and full names for a couple of others). Perhaps another editor has access to an in-depth study of the opera to correct this.Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 23:37, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation of name
I thought that in Czech, the accent is fixed on the first syllable. Kostaki mou (talk) 03:37, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * User:Vejvančický uploaded File:Rusalka.ogg and to the article on 6 October 2008; it sounds to me that the name has the stress on the 2nd syllable. I haven't heard it pronounced any other way. Maybe User:filelakeshoe, who changed the stress today (after it has been here since 12 August 2013) can add some insight. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 13:57, 3 October 2017 (UTC)
 * It sounds like the stress is at the beginning to me, as it always is in Czech (see Czech language and Help:IPA for Czech). The pitch is accented on the first syllable compared to the other two. English speakers often parse longer syllables in Czech as being stressed when in fact they're not, they're just longer (in this case thanks to the /l/ in the coda) – filelakeshoe (t / c)   14:07, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Performance statistics
I put some discography statistics for Dvořák operas into the composer article, reverted by Gerda Arendt who said for one thing as I recall, "too much for Composer article." I accept that. Now I propose to put performance statistics for the operas into this article, which is not only I hope the appropriate article, but the statistics are more recent and accessible. In either case the main point I think is that Rusalka is his most popular opera.Marlindale (talk) 19:45, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I found that 'The Spectre's Bride' and 'Vanda' had no WP articles as of today. Whether they should have, is not for me to judge.Marlindale (talk) 20:23, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Vanda (opera) exists, but The Spectre's Bride (or The Specter's Bride) doesn't on the English Wikipedia, nor does Svatební košile anywhere else. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 07:13, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

Source(s) of the Libretto
The article states that the libretto was "based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová." The New Grove Dictionary of Opera says that the main source was Fouqué’s Undine, with Kvapil also citing Andersen’s Little Mermaid and the French [sic -- I thought it was Flemish?] legend of Melusine. Grove goes on to say that the influence of Erben’s tales seems to have been on the opera's general national feeling more than specific characterization. (Grove does not mention Němcová at all under Rusalka, although it does under Dvorak's The Devil and Kate.)

Faced with the choice, I must believe Grove unless a source of comparable standing is offered to support the "based on Erben and Němcová" statement. (By the way, errors in Grove seem to be very much rarer than in many reference works and other sources.)

Wyresider (talk) 13:01, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

 * I think looking at the information in the Czech Wikipedia article on the opera is helpful to a degree. Softlavender (talk) 08:04, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Rusalka (opera)


text:
Bus network

A bus network is a network topology in which nodes are directly connected to a common half-duplex link called a bus.

A host on a bus network is called a station. In a bus network, every station will receive all network traffic, and the traffic generated by each station has equal transmission priority. A bus network forms a single network segment and collision domain. In order for nodes to share the bus, they use a medium access control technology such as carrier-sense multiple access (CSMA) or a bus master.

title: Bus network


text:
USS Astoria (AK-8)

The USS Astoria (SP-2005/AK-8) was a steel-hulled, coal-burning steam cargo ship of the United States Navy.

In commercial service, 1902–1917
The ship was constructed in 1902 by J. Blumer & Co., Sunderland, England, as SS Burbo Bank for the Fenwick Shipping Co., Ltd., was acquired by Leonhardt & Blumberg of Hamburg, Germany shortly before the beginning of World War I, and was renamed SS Frieda Leonhardt. After the outbreak of hostilities, she took refuge in Jacksonville, Florida, and remained there until the United States entered the war against Germany in the spring of 1917.

Seized by the United States, 1917
She was then seized by United States Customs officials and was turned over to the United States Shipping Board (USSB). Transferred to the Navy by an executive order dated 22 May 1917, the freighter was moved to Charleston, South Carolina, to be prepared in the navy yard there for naval service. Renamed Astoria (SP-2005), she completed conversion late in 1917 and was commissioned on 15 November 1917.

US Navy service, 1917–1921
Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, Astoria departed Charleston on 23 November for a voyage to Gulfport, Mississippi, and back; reentered Charleston on 19 December; and remained until the last day of the year when she got underway for Hampton Roads, Virginia. The ship loaded a cargo of Army supplies, put to sea on 26 January 1918, and reached the French coast early in February. On 15 February — while anchored in port at Brest, France — Astoria was rammed by the French ship SS La Drome and suffered damage which required several weeks of repairs before she could resume action.

On 10 May, the ship was assigned duty as a coal carrier for the Army. In that capacity, she shuttled between Cardiff, Wales, and the French ports of Brest, Saint-Nazaire, and La Pallice for the remainder of the war and into 1919. After a stop at Queenstown, Ireland, between 2 and 22 February, she got underway for the United States and operated along the east coast until April 1919 when she began one more round-trip voyage to France. Upon her return, she resumed cargo-carrying operations out of Norfolk and continued that role through the end of 1919. She stood out of Norfolk, on 5 January 1920, and steamed through the Panama Canal to the west coast. During her ten months of operations with the Pacific Fleet, she was classified AK-8 on 17 July 1920. On 11 November, the ship headed back toward the east coast.

Decommissioning, sale, and later career
Astoria was decommissioned at Boston, Massachusetts, on 20 April 1921; and she was sold on 20 December 1921 to Mr. Richard T. Green of Chelsea, Massachusetts. Thereafter, the ship remained active in merchant service — under the names Astoria and, later, Hartwelson — for more than two decades. As Astoria, she ran aground in Grays Harbor, Washington, on 2 May 1927 and was abandoned by her crew, but she later was refloated, repaired, and returned to service. On 5 May 1943, as Hartwelson, she ran aground on Bantam Rock, Sheepscot Bar, Maine, and foundered.

title: USS Astoria (AK-8)


text:
Motoo Kimura

Motoo Kimura (木村 資生) (November 13, 1924 – November 13, 1994) was a Japanese biologist best known for introducing the neutral theory of molecular evolution in 1968. He became one of the most influential theoretical population geneticists. He is remembered in genetics for his innovative use of diffusion equations to calculate the probability of fixation of beneficial, deleterious, or neutral alleles. Combining theoretical population genetics with molecular evolution data, he also developed the neutral theory of molecular evolution in which genetic drift is the main force changing allele frequencies. James F. Crow, himself a renowned population geneticist, considered Kimura to be one of the two greatest evolutionary geneticists, along with Gustave Malécot, after the great trio of the modern synthesis, Ronald Fisher, J. B. S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright.

Life and work
Kimura was born on November 13, 1924, in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture. From an early age he was very interested in botany, though he also excelled at mathematics (teaching himself geometry and other maths during a lengthy convalescence due to food poisoning). After entering a selective high school in Nagoya, Kimura focused on plant morphology and cytology; he worked in the laboratory of M. Kumazawa studying the chromosome structure of lilies. With Kumazawa, he also discovered how to connect his interests in botany and mathematics: biometry.

Due to World War II, Kimura left high school early to enter Kyoto Imperial University in 1944. On the advice of the prominent geneticist Hitoshi Kihara, Kimura entered the botany program rather than cytology because the former, in the Faculty of Science rather than Agriculture, allowed him to avoid military duty. He joined Kihara's laboratory after the war, where he studied the introduction of foreign chromosomes into plants and learned the foundations of population genetics.

In 1949, Kimura joined the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, Shizuoka. In 1953 he published his first population genetics paper (which would eventually be very influential), describing a "stepping stone" model for population structure that could treat more complex patterns of migration than Sewall Wright's earlier "island model". After meeting visiting American geneticist Duncan McDonald (part of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission), Kimura arranged to enter graduate school at Iowa State College in the summer 1953 to study with J. L. Lush.

Kimura soon found Iowa State College too restricting; he moved to the University of Wisconsin to work on stochastic models with James F. Crow and to join a strong intellectual community of like-minded geneticists, including Newton Morton and most significantly, Sewall Wright. Near the end of his graduate study, Kimura gave a paper at the 1955 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium; though few were able to understand it (both because of mathematical complexity and Kimura's English pronunciation) it received strong praise from Wright and later J.B.S. Haldane.

His accomplishments at Wisconsin included a general model for genetic drift, which could accommodate multiple alleles, selection, migration, and mutations, as well as some work based on R.A. Fisher's fundamental theorem of natural selection. He also built on the work of Wright with the Fokker–Planck equation by introducing the Kolmogorov backward equation to population genetics, allowing the calculation of the probability of an allele to become fixed in a population. He received his PhD in 1956, before returning to Japan (where he would remain for the rest of his life, at the National Institute of Genetics).

Kimura worked on a wide spectrum of theoretical population genetics problems, many of them in collaboration with Takeo Maruyama. He introduced the "infinite alleles", "infinite sites", and "stepwise " models of mutation, all of which would be used widely as the field of molecular evolution grew alongside the number of available peptide and genetic sequences. The stepwise mutation model is a "ladder model" that can be applied to electrophoresis studies where homologous proteins differ by whole units of charge. An early statement of his approach was published in 1960, in his An Introduction to Population Genetics. He also contributed an important review article on the ongoing controversy over genetic load in 1961.

1968 marked a turning point in Kimura's career. In that year he introduced the neutral theory of molecular evolution, the idea that, at the molecular level, the large majority of genetic change is neutral with respect to natural selection—making genetic drift a primary factor in evolution. The field of molecular biology was expanding rapidly, and there was growing tension between advocates of the expanding reductionist field and scientists in organismal biology, the traditional domain of evolution. The neutral theory was immediately controversial, receiving support from many molecular biologists and attracting opposition from many evolutionary biologists.

Kimura spent the rest of his life developing and defending the neutral theory. As James Crow put it, "much of Kimura's early work turned out to be pre-adapted for use in the quantitative study of neutral evolution". As new experimental techniques and genetic knowledge became available, Kimura expanded the scope of the neutral theory and created mathematical methods for testing it against the available evidence. Kimura produced a monograph on the neutral theory in 1983, The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, and also worked to promote the theory through popular writings such as My Views on Evolution, a book that became a best-seller in Japan. Though difficult to test against alternative selection-centered hypotheses, the neutral theory has become part of modern approaches to molecular evolution.

In 1992, Kimura received the Darwin Medal from the Royal Society, and the following year he was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.

Kimura suffered from progressive weakening caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis later in life. In an accidental fall at his home in Shizuoka, Japan, Kimura struck his head and died on November 13, 1994, of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was married to Hiroko Kimura. They had one child, a son, Akio, and a granddaughter, Hanako.

Honors

 * 1959 – Genetics Society of Japan Prize
 * 1965 – Weldon Memorial Prize, Oxford
 * 1968 – Japan Academy Prize
 * 1973 – Foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA
 * 1976 – Person of Cultural Merit
 * 1976 – Order of Culture
 * 1982 – Member of the Japan Academy
 * 1986 – Chevalier de l'Ordre Nationale de Merite
 * 1986 – Asahi Prize
 * 1987 – John J. Carty Award of the National Academy of Sciences in evolutionary biology
 * 1988 – International Prize for Biology
 * 1992 – Darwin Medal
 * 1993 – Foreign member of Royal Society

title: Motoo Kimura


text:
Murray Island, Queensland

Murray Island (also known as Mer Island or Maer Island) in the Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. The island is part of the Murray Island Group in the Torres Strait. The town is on the island's northwest coast and within the locality of Mer Island (the locality boundaries are the island's coastline). The island is of volcanic origin, the most easterly inhabited island of the Torres Strait Islands archipelago, just north of the Great Barrier Reef. The name Meer/Mer/Maer comes from the native Meriam language. In the, Mer Island had a population of 406 people.

The island is populated by the Melanesian Meriam people. There are eight tribes on Mer: Komet, Zagareb, Meuram, Magaram, Geuram, Peibri, Meriam-Samsep, Piadram/Dauer. The island's organisation is based on traditional laws of boundary and ownership.

Geography
Murray Island, in the eastern section of Torres Strait, is a basaltic island formed from an extinct volcano, last active over a million years ago. It formed when the Indo-Australian Plate slid over the East Australia hotspot. The island rises to a plateau 80 m above mean sea level.

The island's highest point is the 230 m Gelam Paser, the western end of the volcano crater. The island has red fertile soil and is covered in dense vegetation. It has a tropical climate with a wet and dry season.

Murray Island is one of the three islands in the Murray Islands, the others being Daua Island (Dowar) and Waier Island (Waier).

Pre-European settlement
Murray Island has been inhabited for around 2,800 years, the first settlers being Papuo-Austronesians who brought agriculture and pot-making with them. Regular contact between the inhabitants of Torres Strait, Europeans, Asians and other outsiders began once the Torres Strait became a means of passage between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the 19th century.

The inhabitants of the Torres Strait, including the Meriam people, gained a reputation as fierce warriors and skilled mariners. Warfare (both intertribal and against European ships in transit through the Coral Sea) and head hunting were part of Torres Strait Islanders' culture. The account of Jack Ireland, a surviving cabin boy from the Charles Eaton, a barque that was wrecked in 1834 at Detached Reef, near the entrance to Torres Strait, is of interest in this respect. Ireland and another young survivor, William D'Oyley, spent much of their time on Mer before being rescued.

In 1836 a large ceremonial mask was recovered from neighbouring Aureed (Skull) Island after Ireland and D'Oyley were rescued returned to Sydney. The mask was made of turtle shells surrounded by numerous skulls, 17 of which were determined to have belonged to the crew and passengers of the Charles Eaton, who were massacred when they came ashore after the shipwreck. The mask was entered into the collection of the Australian Museum after the skulls were buried on 17 November 1836 in a mass grave in the Devonshire Street Cemetery in Sydney. A monument was erected in the form of a huge altar stone to record the manner in which they died. When the Devonshire Street Cemetery was resumed for the site of the Central Railway Station in 1904 the skulls and the monument were removed to Bunnerong Cemetery at Botany Bay in Sydney.

Post-European settlement (1872)
Missionaries (mainly Polynesian) and some other Polynesians began to settle the island in 1872 when the London Missionary Society founded a missionary school there. The Queensland Government annexed the islands in 1879. The Australian painter Tom Roberts visited the island in 1892. He witnessed a nighttime dance and depicted it in a painting.

In 1936, a maritime strike fuelled by Islander dissatisfaction with the management of their wages and boats by the Protector of Aborigines allowed Islanders to assert control and reject government controls. In 1937, the inaugural meeting of Island Councillors on Yorke Island resulted in the Torres Strait Islander Act 1939, giving Islanders more authority in their own affairs and establishing local governments on each island.

After the Pacific War broke out in 1941, over 700 Islanders volunteered to defend the Torres Strait. This group was organised into the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion. The migration of Islanders to mainland Australia increased as jobs disappeared in the pearling industry. A call for independence from Australia in the 1980s arose as the government failed to provide basic infrastructure on the island.

Murray Island's most famous resident was trade unionist Eddie Mabo, whose decision to sue the Queensland Government to secure ownership of his land, which had been removed from his ancestors by the British colonial powers using the terra nullius legal concept, ultimately led the High Court of Australia, on appeal from the Supreme Court of the State of Queensland, to issue the "Mabo decision" on 3 June 1992, finally recognising Mabo's native title rights on his land. The decision continues to have ramifications for Australia. Mabo himself died a few months before the decision. After vandalism to his grave site, he was reburied on Murray Island, where Islanders performed a traditional ceremony for the burial of a king.

Demographics
In the, Mer Island had a population of 450 people.

In the, Mer Island had a population of 406 people.

Culture
The people of Mer maintain their traditional culture. Modern influences such as consumer goods, television, travel and radio are having an impact on traditional practices and culture. Despite this, song and dance remains an integral part of island life and is demonstrated through celebrations such as Mabo Day, Coming of the Light, Tombstone openings and other cultural events. In 2007, after two years of negotiations, the skulls of five Islander tribesmen were returned to Australia from a Glasgow museum where they had been archived for more than 100 years.

The artist Ricardo Idagi was born on Murray Island. Idagi won the main prize at the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards in 2009.

Language
The people of Murray Island speak Torres Strait Creole and Meriam, a member of the Eastern Trans-Fly languages of Trans–New Guinea; its sister languages being Bini, Wipi and Gizrra. Though it is unrelated to Kalaw Lagaw Ya of the Central and Western Islands of Torres Strait, the two languages share around 40% of their vocabulary. Torres Strait English is a second language.

Governance
Murray Island is governed by the Community Council, which is responsible for roads, water, housing and community events. The Community Council is an integral part of community life. The elders of the community hold a position of respect and also have a major influence on island life. Queensland's control was moved from just 3 miles, to a large 60 miles offshore. This brought all of Torres Strait that were within a couple hundred metres of New guineas coast, into Queensland. The laws rose from requests from the public, who were asking for the lease of islands Queensland's coast. As before this, all islands that were within three miles of the coast, were under Queensland's control. Murray island waited unclaimed until 1879. In 1879, Britain annexed the island to Queensland. The reason for annexation was to protect the British and their property, control the Torres Strait and sea lane to India, dominate fishing and pearling industries and to extend authority to some non-British areas. Britain also gave all control of Torres Strait islands to Queensland, with no negotiating treaties, in order to avert enemy colonial powers claiming the region.

Notable people

 * Eddie Mabo, land rights campaigner
 * Gail Mabo, artist, daughter of Eddie

title: Murray Island, Queensland