The Red Sox began to notice Piersall's unknown problem in 1952. During this season, Piersall began acting out on many different occasions. First, in a game against the New York Yankees, Piersall started a fight with Yankee's infielder, Billy Martin. Soon after, Piersall started another fight with teammate Mickey McDermott. On another ocassion, Piersall was found in the Red Sox clubhouse spanking the 4-year-old son of teammate Vern Stephens. After a couple of these incidents, the Boston Red Sox sent Piersall down to their minor league affiliate, the Birmingham Barons. In Birmingham, Piersall was ejected from 4 games within just 3 weeks. He later even recieved a 3-day suspension for heckling the home plate umpire from the grandstand roof. After this last incident, Piersall was sent to the Westboro State Hospital to recieve treatment for "nervous exhaustion". This nervous exhaustion later turned out to be bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder almost ruined what was once the very promising career of Piersall. For someone to be so overwhelmed by the disorder, it must be a very hard thing to live with. I believe that Piersall had a huge amount of perseverance to be able to overcome his bipolar disorder and continue on his 17 year professional career after such a rough start.
8 comments:
This was a great read. As a baseball fan, it was interesting to read about how psychological problems can affect a player on the field. You should add some information about how emotional disorders affected him off of the field as well. I would give you a 97.
That was interesting because you put how his disorder affected his actions. In the end the disorder put him in a bad situation and ruined his career. I think you should write even more about what you think about him. I give you a 95
I liked how you had a lot of imformation about james piersall adding more inputs about how you felt about the disorder would make this post even better. i give you a 96.
Good representation of his life and struggles. Just add a little more structure and it will be a 100. So I'll give it a 98
Even though I am not the biggest baseball fan, this was pretty interesting. The was alot of information about this guy to better understand his story.
98!
Baseball fights are always interesting and i know a current baseball player who pitches for the Astros and loves to fight so i found your article very interesting. I really like the way described how the disorder effected him and gave specific examples.
This was interesting to read. You did a good job at adding alot of detail. you talked about his past, the middle, and future. which was good. but what you could have done is explain a little bit more about what bi polar disorder IS
95. Good details and explanations. Your inputs really explained a lot more, but more never hurts! Never knew psychological problems would affect a player that much on the field.
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