The Other Victim
Gil McDougald confirmed, many years after the event, that his retirement from baseball after just ten major league seasons, owed in large part because of his loss of his sense of joy after the Herb Score incident in 1957. The vision – and career – of the lefthanded pitcher with the greatest start in baseball history would never be the same after he was struck by a line drive near the eye. McDougald was physically uninjured, but he was the man who hit the ball, and psychologically, he never really got over it.
It’s generally presumed that
when Warren Spahn dueled Juan Marichal for 16 innings at Candlestick Park on
July 2, 1963 (before losing 1-0 on a one-out Mays homer), it started Spahn’s
rapid decline (6-13 in ’64, 7-16 in ’65). In fact, through that loss, Spahn was
11-4 that season. He would go on to win 12 of his last 15 decisions to finish
at 23-7. Whatever led him downhill, it wasn’t the marathon against Marichal.
Baseball Nerd 
Off topic:
Thanks so much for scheduling the cast of Cinematic Titanic on Wednesday April 14th as your guests. I cannot tell you how utterly thrilled I am.
Jan
Off topic:
Thanks so much for scheduling the cast of Cinematic Titanic on Wednesday April 14th as your guests. I cannot tell you how utterly thrilled I am.
Jan
Regarding “the other victim” of injuries, thank you for bringing this up. People too often forget the horrified guilt of the person who inadvertently injures someone else, whether on the field or in ordinary life. In situations like this, I’m always reminded of the horrific injury to Redskins’ QB Joe Theismann, when the defender who had tackled him (I think it was Lawrence Taylor) nearly became hysterical when he saw what he had done. I’m guessing his psychological trauma became even worse, when he learned that it turned out to be a career-ending injury for Theismann.
Nice to hear you’re on Twitter now! You’re gaining followers at an impressive rate! BTW, I’m not being picky with this next part…it’s just a suggestion so as not to confuse the newbies unfamiliar with Twitter, OK? 🙂
#keitholbermann is just a “hashtag” used to search for a trending topic. Anyone searching for that on Twitter would only find tweets made about you, not tweets by you, if they used that term to search. Your user name on Twitter would be @keitholbermann. Or you could just post a direct link here to your Twitter page, so that anyone who wants to follow you can simply click that link and then click on the FOLLOW button. I’m sure you’ll have loads of fun on Twitter…and I hope you’ll enjoy your new Walkman, LOL. 😉
@janiceyoung: OK, I’ll bite…how do you know this?
Hey…don’t know the walkman! I used one yesterday so I could listen to the Phils v. Nats game while watching my son’s baseball game. No Ipod for me. Free radio man!
Walkmans rule! I use one all season long when I can’t be at the game or at home watching the Phils. I don’t think an iPod can get am radio stations and I’m not paying to HEAR a baseball game.
Keith, thank heaven for tender mercies that you will not torture us on Twitter with the minutiae of your life, like what you ate for breakfast. TMI, TMI. Though, I have to agree with Twitter guru, John Hodgman, on Countdown last night ? I for one am curious to know what you have on your feet behind the desk.
BTW, don’t buy a Walkman . . . I’ll let you have mine for cheap, and I’ll even throw in a cassette or two . . . LOL!
😀
This isn’t particularly related to anything, but I was wondering if you heard about this yet:
http://comeyoumastersofwar.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/how-good-was-the-springfield-power-plant-team/
In short, it’s a brief analysis of the team of wringers Mr. Burns and Smithers put together for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant’s softball team in that classic episode of the Simpsons. I got a kick out of it, and I thought you would, too.
Warren had several years around then where he finished really strong, including ’60 (11-7 at the end of July, then winning 10 of 13 down the stretch, including a no-hitter), ’61 (when he was 9-12 on July 24 before embarking on a streak of 10 wins in 10 straight starts and finishing the year with a record of 21-13) and ’62 (8-11 on July 13, then 10-3 to end the season.)
It’s not hard to image that people thought he’d pull out of it at a similar point in ’64, but it just never happened.