Hollywood's best ballplayers: Jimmy Piersall
PLAYED BY Anthony Perkins (right, with Bart Burns)
MOVIE Fear Strikes Out (1957)
POSITION Right field
TEAM The Boston Red Sox
STATS Piersall, a promising player whose career is cut short by a nervous breakdown, fights his way back to mental health, and back to the outfield.
ACCURACY The real Piersall wrote the book that inspired the film, but he disowned the movie, complaining that the pre-Psycho Perkins made him look like a sniveling wuss.
MEMORABLE MOMENT Piersall finally confronts the well-meaning but bullying dad (Karl Malden) whose pressure to perform may be what made him crack.
MALE KLEENEX FACTOR 9 out of 10 hankies
EW GRADE A-
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