Dictionary- Work the Count
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Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 49 of the 2008 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of December.
December 2
1958 The Indians trade first baseman Vic Wertz and flycatcher Gary Geiger to the Red Sox in exchange for outfielder Jimmy Piersall. The Tribe also trades former AL batting champ Bobby Avila (1954) to the Orioles for minor league hurler Russ Heman and $30,000.
James Anthony Piersall was born November 14, 1929 in Waterbury, Connecticut.
While he had a fairly good professional career as a center fielder, Piersall is better known for his well-publicized battle with bipolar disorder that became the subject of the movie Fear Strikes Out.
His career was characterized by numerous zany stunts, including hiding behind the monuments at Yankee Stadium while with the Indians and running backward around the bases after hitting his 100th career homer as a Met in 1963.
Jimmy Piersall led his Leavenworth High School basketball team to the 1947 New England championship, scoring 29 points in the final game. However, as a junior in high school, he began getting headaches that plagued him until the time of his breakdown in 1952.
He became a professional baseball player at age 18, signing a contract with the Boston Red Sox in 1948. He would reach the majors in 1950, playing in six games as one of the youngest players in baseball.
Piersall broke in as a centerfielder but switched to shortstop at the major league level in 1952 after posting .346 and .339 averages for Boston’s minor league affiliate at Birmingham.
His season was curtailed by a nervous breakdown, recounted in Piersall’s book, Fear Strikes Out, which was later made into a movie.
On May 24, 1952, just before the game against the New York Yankees, Piersall engaged in a fistfight with Yankee infielder Billy Martin. Following the brawl, Piersall briefly scuffled with teammate Mickey McDermott in the Red Sox clubhouse. After several such incidents, Piersall was sent to the minor league Birmingham Barons on June 28.
In less than three weeks with the Barons, Piersall was ejected on four occasions, the last coming after striking out in the second inning on July 16. Prior to his at-bat, he had acknowledged teammate Milt Bolling’s home run by spraying a water pistol on home plate. Piersall then moved to the grandstand roof to heckle the home plate umpire.
Receiving a three-day suspension, Piersall entered treatment three days later at the Westboro State Hospital in Massachusetts. Diagnosed with “nervous exhaustion,” he would spend the next seven weeks in the facility and miss the remainder of the season.
Not only would Piersall return to baseball by the opening of the 1953 season, but he finished ninth in voting for the Most Valuable Player Award. The next year he became the Red Sox’s regular center fielder, taking over for Dom DiMaggio and playing well enough to remain a fixture in the starting lineup through 1958. Playing the shallowest centerfield in the majors, he won two Gold Gloves.
Piersall’s comeback with Boston in 1953 was marked by a 6-for-6 performance on June 10, 1953 and a new philosophy for dealing with fans who taunted him about his well-publicized illness: “Give ‘em their money’s worth.”
By the end of the 1956 season, in which he played all 156 games, he posted a league-leading 40 doubles, contributed 91 runs and 87 Runs Batted In, and had a .293 batting average. The following year, he collected 19 home runs and scored 103 runs. He won a Gold Glove Award in 1958.
On December 2, 1958, Piersall was traded to the Cleveland Indians for first baseman Vic Wertz and outfielder Gary Geiger. He was coincidentally reunited with his former combatant Billy Martin, who also had been acquired by the team. The 1959 season would be a successful one for Cleveland, which battled the Chicago White Sox for much of the season before finishing a close second in the standings.
In the Memorial Day doubleheader at Chicago, he was ejected in the first game for heckling umpire Larry Napp, then after catching the final out of the second game, whirled around and threw the ball at the White Sox’ scoreboard .
He later wore a little league helmet during an at-bat against the Detroit Tigers, and after a series of incidents against the Yankees, Indians team physician Donald Kelly ordered psychiatric treatment on June 26.
After a brief absence, Piersall returned only to earn his sixth ejection of the season on July 23.
He was ejected from the game when he refused the home plate umpire’s order to stop running around the outfield with his arms raised as the pitch was delivered to Ted Williams. After being ejected, Piersall raced toward the umpire, throwing his cap and glove. He had to be restrained by teammates. Piersall was guilty of violating an obscure rule that forbids fielders from trying to distract the batter.
Piersall came back during the 1961 season, earning a second Gold Glove while also finishing third in the batting race in with a .322 average. However, he remained a volatile player, charging the mound after being hit by a Jim Bunning pitch on June 25, then violently hurling his helmet a month later.
On September 5, Piersall’s 74-year-old father died of a heart attack. Two days after attending the funeral, Piersall returned to play in New York only to be the target of continued fan abuse. During the September 10 doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, Piersall was accosted on the field by two fans, one of whom he punched before attempting to kick the other.
After three hectic years in Cleveland, Piersall was dealt to the Washington Senators on October 5. His time in the nation’s capital would not be long after his production declined.
The veteran outfielder was then sent to the New York Mets on May 23, 1963, for cash and a player to be named later.
In a reserve role with the second-year team, Piersall played briefly under manager Casey Stengel. In the fifth inning of the June 23 game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Piersall ran the bases while facing backward, though in the correct order.
Having noted that New York Mets teammate Duke Snider didn’t receive much attention for hitting his 400th career home run earlier in the season, Piersall concocted a plan to receive considerably more ink for his next homer, which would be No. 100. He even practiced it.
Facing Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Dallas Green, Piersall hit a pop fly just over the rightfield fence at the Polo Grounds, a distance of about 260 feet. After his first drive into the stands as a Met, he put his plan into operation. He sped around the bases backward. Piersall later said “I did it good, too; I even shook hands with the coach at third base.”
The stunt made the front page of several New York newspapers. But one person who wasn’t amused was his manager, Casey Stengel who cut Piersall a few days later.
Piersall found employment with the Los Angeles Angels on July 28. He hit .314 for the Angels in 1964 as a part-timer. He would finish his playing career with them, playing nearly four more years before moving into a front office position on May 8, 1967.
In a 17-season career, Piersall was a .272 hitter with 104 home runs and 591 Runs Batted In.
Piersall later had broadcasting jobs with the Texas Rangers beginning in 1974 and with the Chicago White Sox from 1977 to 1981. He ultimately was fired after excessive on-air criticism of team management.
He became the subject of the movie based on his writings, Fear Strikes Out, where he was portrayed by Anthony Perkins.
Piersall would eventually disown the film due to what he believed were its distortion of the facts, including over-blaming his father for his problems.
Piersall was invited to a White House event honoring the 2004 World Champions Boston Red Sox on March 2, 2005. He said of the event, “This is a real thrill for a poor kid from Waterbury, Connecticut. I’m 75 years old. There aren’t many things left.”
He also said he visited the White House once before as guest of President John F. Kennedy.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: W
Work the Count
For a batter to attempt to get the count in his favor by taking pitches and fouling off potential strikes to get a good pitch to hit, such as a fastball over the plate or a hanging curve.
For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an
Extra Inning
I’d like to catch up on a couple of recent emails. The first from Mike Briggs.
Bob, you mentioned Bill Klem in a recent episode. Why not do a program on him? There are lots of funny stories, and he was a giant in baseball.
Love the show; keep up the good work.
Regards,
Well Mike, I will definitely keep his name on the radar. I like to include umpires now and then, especially Hall of Famers.
The second email comes from Erik and he says,
Hi Bob,
I’ve been enjoying all the BHPs for the past year, but I’m still
waiting to hear about my boyhood hero, Johnny Bench. If you write
that, I’ll write a tour segment on the old Riverfront Stadium.
If you give me a deadline, I’ll even write it to coincide with a
Johnny Bench episode.
Thanks happy Thanksgiving.
Erik Deckers
Indianapolis, IN
Well Erik, I’m way ahead of you. Johnny Bench was featured in my first season in 2006. It was show number 37, dated July 11, 2006.
So, I’ll anxiously be waiting for that Riverfront Stadium segment.
On a more serious note, I have been considering redoing some of the early games. The early ones I tried to keep to a much shorter time than I do now. Plus, I think I’ve learned a little more about putting the shows together.
So, we’ll see how it goes, I still haven’t made a final decision yet. In the mean time you can still go back to those early games.
If you would like to a part of Baseball History Podcast, submit your written contribution for the tour segment. I will only be doing the tour when one is sent in by a listener. You can do the segment on any stadium or team; past or present; Minor League, Major League, Negro League or any league outside of the US. Write about 1 page in a conversational tone, send it to me, I will record it, and you will get the credit.
You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com.
You can follow me on Twitter; I’m BaseballHistory.
Look for the BHP web site at baseballhistorypodcast.com.
Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
