Former Late Seventies Mets Relief Pitcher: Paul Siebert (1977-1978) & His MLB Dad Dick Siebert (1932-1946)

Paul Edward Siebert was born on June 5, 1953 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the son of former MLB first baseman Dick Siebert who played eleven years in the major leagues.


Dick Siebert played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1932/1936) St. Louis Cardinals (1938) & mostly with the Philadelphia Athletics (1938-1945). The first baseman batted .282 with a .332 on base %, 1104 hits 32 HRs 204 doubles & 482 RBIs lifetime from 1932-1946.

Dick Siebert made the 1943 All Star team & the top ten in batting twice in his career. In 1940 he broke up two no hit bit bids by Hall of Famer Bob Feller who won 25 games that season. He became a so called villain to the Cleveland fans because of this feat.

In 1944 he was leading the AL in batting when he was spiked by Cleveland’s Lou Boudreau & had to miss a few weeks of action. Boudreau eventually won the batting title that season. After his playing days, Dick Siebert became the baseball coach at the University of Minnesota where he won three championship titles preaching his “gospel of baseball”. The baseball field there has been named in his honor.

Paul Siebert was a tall 6’ 2” lefthander who got drafted by the Houston Astros in the third round of the 1971 draft. He was a 15 game winner (15-7) at AA Columbus in 1974 earning himself a big league call up to the Houston staff. He went 1-1 in five games pitched for the remainder of the ’74 season.

He was back at AAA Iowa in 1975 going 12-12 with another brief call up late in the year. Over the next two seasons he didn’t earn any wins in 26 games, mostly in middle relief going 0-4 with two saves, at the big league level for the Astros. He was traded to the San Diego Padres in 1977 pitching in just four games there.

At the 1977 trade deadline, on the same night of the Tom Seaver trade (known as the Midnight Massacre), he came over to the New York Mets with Bobby Valentine, in exchange for Dave Kingman. The arrival of Siebert did not attract to many of the day's headlines.

Siebert debuted with the Mets on July 7th against the Philadelphia Phillies and was greeted with a Ted Sizemore RBI double three batters into his Mets career. In his third Mets outing he earned a win at Shea Stadium pitching two scoreless innings against the Montreal Expos. A month later he got another noted win, coming against the NL Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in relief at Shea as well. He would win only those two games that year going 2-1 with two holds & a 3.86 ERA in 25 appearances.

In 1978 he began the year with the club & earned his only Mets career save. It came against his old Padres team mates in San Diego on June 13th. Siebert then took a loss at Pittsburgh as the Pirates beat him up for five runs & six hits in less than three innings pitched.

He was sent down to Tidewater on July 20th but returned as a September call up. He went 0-2 in 27 games for the last place '78 Mets posting a 5.14 ERA in 28 innings pitched.

In October of 1978 he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for “the Macaroni Pony” Bob Coluccio but would never pitch in the majors again. He finished his brief five season career at 3-8 with three saves 59 strike outs 73 walks in 129 innings pitched in 87 games posting a 3.77 ERA. He finished his pitching career at AA Denver the next year in the Expos organization.