We remember Jim Piersall, who was born on this day in 1929. He died in 2017.
This is from SABR:
Jimmy Piersall played 20 years of professional baseball, including parts of 17 in the major leagues. He is best known for his nervous breakdown and hospitalization during his rookie season of 1952, an ordeal that led to a best-selling autobiography and two movies.His baseball career was not bad: .272 BA & 1,604 hits in 1,737 games.
Few could have imagined in 1952 that Piersall would have 15 years of high-level baseball left in him, seasons filled with colorful incidents and episodes, or that he would be employed in baseball for 20 years after that.
Whether he was arguing with an umpire, yelling at opposing players from the bench, hiding behind a monument in Yankee Stadium, or running the bases backwards, Jimmy Piersall made baseball fun for many years.
Piersall wrote a book and a movie was made about his career.
