March 20, 1957: “Fear Strikes Out” Premieres

March 20, 1957: Fear Strikes Out premieres, starring Anthony Perkins as baseball player Jimmy Piersall. This was one of the first mainstream movies to take a serious look at mental illness.

Born in 1929 in Waterbury, Connecticut, Piersall was a center fielder, known for superb fielding but not much for hitting. He debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1950, but in 1952, he got into several fights, including with his own teammates. He was demoted to the minor leagues, but his bizarre behavior didn't stop. He was taken to Massachusetts' leading psychiatric hospital, Westborough State, and given electroshock treatment, and was an early recipient of the drug Lithium.

He missed the rest of the 1952 season, but recovered enough to make the All-Star Game in 1954 and 1956. He wrote a book about his experiences, Fear Strikes Out, in 1955, and it was filmed in 1957. Perkins played Piersall, and Karl Malden played the domineering father who drove him to both baseball success and a nervous breakdown.

This was the era when, if you were making a sports movie, you cast an actor, not a guy who looked like an athlete. Comedian-actor Billy Crystal has called it the worst baseball movie of all time, because Perkins looked less like a ballplayer than any real athlete ever. Nevertheless, he did a great job playing a guy battling mental illness. This led to him being cast in the film Psycho.

Piersall remained in the major leagues until 1967, and later served as a broadcaster for several teams, best known for his 1977 to 1981 teamup with Harry Caray with the Chicago White Sox. He later served as a roving minor-league instructor for the Chicago Cubs, for whom Caray had gone to broadcast. He wrote another memoir in 1985, The Truth Hurts, and lived until 2017.

Anthony Perkins may have been typecast. Certainly, the Red Sox' uniform Number 37 was typecast: It was later worn by another guy whose head wasn't quite screwed on right, Bill Lee, the pitcher known as "the Spaceman."

*

March 20, 1957 was a Wednesday. Film director and basketball fanatic Shelton "Spike" Lee was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training, so maybe the movie should have been released later, to match up with Opening Day. Football was out of season. No games were scheduled for the NBA. One was scheduled for the NHL: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.