Piersall’s on-field antics when he first broke into the majors with the Red Sox full-time in 1952 cracked up fans and provided fodder for newspaper columnists. Piersall died Saturday at a care facility in Wheaton, Illinois, after a months-long illness, according to the Boston Red Sox, for whom Piersall played for seven of his 17 seasons in the majors. BOSTON—Former major-leaguer Jim Piersall , who bared his soul about his struggles with mental illness in his book Fear Strikes Out, has died. “Almost everybody except the umpires and the Red Sox thought I was a riot,” Piersall said in the 1955 autobiography, later made into a movie starring Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden. The Red Sox couldn’t figure out how to handle me.

Source: thestar June 04, 2017 21:11 UTC