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I heard an interview with a former pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics this afternoon on Ed Randle's Talking Baseball here in NY on WFAN. His name is Lou Brissie. Literally left for dead in a WW2 fight in the mountains of Italy. His leg shattered in almost 30 places and lying in a ditch. He was rescued and when he came back to the US had to teach himself how to walk. He was a highly touted prospect for the Philadelphia A's...and ended up coming back from his war injuries to pitch in the '49 All-Star Game. He's still alive and it was just incredible hearing the story right from the man himself. I don't know if it's in the book, but Lou mentioned that Connie Mack had scouted him at 17 years old and signed him to a deal...the thing about the deal that you will never see in today's game, because of the sheer GREED, is that Connie Mack made the deal with the premise that Lou would have his first 3 years of college paid for by Mack/A's at a one of 3 college's that Mack chose for him. And they weren't community college's either. One of them was Duke University. You will NEVER hear that kind of deal made in today's game. It's a time that's lost these days...when people actually cared about what happened to younger athletes. Amazing. Here is a You Tube promo for the book:
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