As a huge fan of the Oakland Athletics, let me pay a bit of tribute to the passing of WWII combat veteran and Philadelphia Athletic’s great Lou Brissie, who passed away last week.
On December 7, 1944, a German artillery shell broke both of Brissie’s ankles and shattered the bones of his lower left leg into 30 pieces. 23 surgeries and one long, painful rehab later, Brissie took the mound in Yankee stadium for the first time as a starting pitcher for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics on September 28, 1947. Before he retired in 1953, he would also pitch for the Cleveland Indians.
H
ere’s his full obituary in The Augusta Chronicle, which contains a few classic baseball anecdotes.
Go A’s.
