It was Hunter S. Thompson who quipped - “if you’re gonna be crazy, you better get paid for it or they’ll lock you up.” So that’s what I did. That’s what I do.
The story is about me as an infant on an airplane with my mother. There’s a guy in the seat next to us. My exchange with him delighted and overwhelmed my Mom. The guy was a professional baseball player. They made a movie about him. He was a good player. They made a movie about his outbursts and breakdowns on the baseball field that landed him in the hospital. They gave him electroshock therapy. In the 1950’s there wasn’t so much known or talked about regarding these things.
This is a good story and it’s been in my head forever. I’ve never told this story. I get older and I see more and know more and it strikes me that we connect with people who are like us on levels we’re hardly aware of and this story proves it.
The Strangis’ in DC
In 1962, my Dad had just taken his first job out of Law School with IDS in Minneapolis. He was a bright guy my Dad and they sent him to Washington, DC to help them setup their foray into this new business of Mutual Funds.
Ralph Strangis, Sr., 24, and his new bride Marilyn, 22, and me (8 months old) relocated to DC for about 6 months. We lived in a small rented house on Albemaro Circle, and my Mom would take walks pushing me in the stroller while Dad did his thing.
No - I don’t remember any of this. But stay with me here.
I’m smiling in the photo above, but it was a rough first year for my Mom. I had severe Colic - I would cry and cry and was inconsolable. She was up nights trying to get me settled down. But I was loud, demonstrative and not easily calmed. Her Mom - Granny Olga tried to help but I wouldn’t go near her. I screamed bloody murder my Mom says. My Dad was a man of the 60’s so this didn’t have much to do with him. Anyway, I wouldn’t go to him much either. It was my Mom, or nothing. Momma’s boy and so on.
“Fear Strikes Out”
In 1948, 18 year-old Jimmy Piersall signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox. Mercurial from the get go. Loud. Demonstrative. Talented as hell.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, the Center Fielder would go on to play for 5 teams over 17 seasons in the Show. He hit 104 dingers. Lifetime 272 batting average.
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson announced that the “Dr.” was self-applied. Piersall also gave himself a moniker. “The Waterbury Wizard”. His teammates were not amused. But he played to that standard, leading the Bigs Center Fielders in fielding percentage 5 separate seasons.
He talked it. But he could walk it. That’s always resonated with me. People who do that.
Jimmy was talented, energetic and likable most of the time. But he had demons, and in the 50’s and 60’s nobody even used that word.
His outbursts are well-documented. Like the time he ran the bases backwards. And the time he got in a fist fight with Yankees infielder Billy Martin. To be fair here Martin had his own shit goin on. He spanked a teammate’s 4 year old child in the clubhouse. He wore a Beatles wig and played air guitar walking up to the batters box one time. He had regular conversations with the Babe Ruth statue behind the Yankee Stadium outfield.
One time a teammate trotted home after going yard and Piersall was waiting for him at home plate with a water pistol to celebrate. After the spanking thing they send him down to Birmingham. He gets ejected 4 times in a 3 week period in the minors.
They had to do something with him.
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