The Untold Saga of Jimmy Piersall

While researching my latest story for 108 Magazine, which appears in the Summer 2007 issue (available on many Borders and Barnes & Noble newsstands and also via subscription), I was surprised by what I learned by talking to his rookie year roommate (and best friend at the time), Ted Lepcio, and others who knew him during that fateful season, when he was institutionalized.

Piersall is most remembered for his mental illness, but less remembered for his subsequent recovery and long, productive major league career. His years in the majors were stormy, for sure, but what emerges is something less "sensational" than the character depicted by Tony Perkins in the 1957 biopic, Fear Strikes Out. The subtler version -- the one I think I managed to pull off, is, I think, more interesting.

Fortunately, my good friends at 108 posted the entire article online in PDF format; it's the first item in the online Table of Contents.

There you'll also find excerpts from many other fine articles and short stories in the issue.