My TCM newsletter arrived today via the internet. And, of course, there's a lot of vintage stuff in it. One movie mentioned is "Fear Strikes Out," starring Anthony Perkins as the demented Jimmy Piersall, whose stern father pushes and pushes him until he snaps.
They tried to put me into a small sanitarium and I ran away. I had just gotten so wound up that I lost all control of my memory," says Jimmy Piersall on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.
I have always been a HUGE baseball fan, and I remember seeing the movie as a youngster on the now defunct "Saturday Night at the Movies" on NBC. And I remember the "real" Jimmy P. playing for the BoSox. [ Boston Red Sox for the uninitiated ] I saw it a few years ago, and it's hard to picture Anthony Perkins as a ballplayer. He's a bit too feminine to me to register any believability. But it's still a good flick about mental illness. And baseball, even tho' Anthony Perkins was picked for his acting prowess [ ? ] and looks rather than for his athletic abilities. I don't think the boy could have batted his way out of ye olde paper bag, much less stroke the ball past the pitcher's mound.
He's great, but you have to play him in a cage," said Casey Stengel, his manager with the New York Mets.
Piersall was born on Nov. 14, 1929 in Waterbury, Conn. He became a local legend at 14, playing and starring in a league featuring men twice his age.
Piersall's mother, Mary, suffered from mental illness. From 1936-46, she was often committed to a sanitarium. "If my father was preparing supper when I got home, it wouldn't be necessary for us to exchange a word," Piersall said. "I knew that meant my mother had gone away again."
Submitted for your approval is the original trailer for "Fear Strikes Out." And if Karl Malden was yer daddy, you'd probably whiff as well.
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