Sometimes greatness disappears like a puff of smoke

"Bet you never heard about Herbie Score ..."
-- TERRY CASHMAN

Was there ever a pitcher more exciting from the get-go than Herb Score?

Was there ever a career cut more tragically short by a fluke, and one that left so many "what ifs?"

There is a general consensus among baseball fans that Sandy Koufax was the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time, and it's tough to argue against it. In his last five seasons in baseball, Koufax had a combined record of 97-17 and won the Cy Young Award three times.

Koufax's last season was 1966, and Score was 33 that year. He might still have been in his prime that summer, but he hadn't been an effective pitcher since 1956. He really had only two good seasons, his first two.

Herb Score

But oh, what seasons they were.

In 1955, when he was just 22, he had a 16-10 record, a 2.85 earned run average and led the American League with 245 strikeouts in only 227 1/3 innings. He was named Rookie of the Year and was the first starting pitcher to strike out more than one batter per inning.

His second season was even better. He was 20-9 with a 2.53 ERA and again led the league with 263 strikeouts. At age 23 he seemed poised to have an almost limitless career.

But on May 7, 1957, Score threw a low fastball to the Yankees' Gil McDougald. Score's followthrough left him unprotected on balls his back to the box, and McDougald hit a bullet right back at Score. He suffered an  injured eye and broken facial bones.

He returned the next year and spent five more seasons trying to regain his form, but he was never able to be even an average pitcher again. He won only 17 games in those five seasons and never won as many as he lost. He retired with 55 victories and one distinction, allowing fewer hits per nine innings than any starter in baseball history.

He remained beloved by Cleveland fans, working as one of the Indians' broadcasters for 34 seasons, and he never complained or expressed any regrets.



And if you're wondering just how good he was, longtime baseball manager Joe Altobelli was a teammate on the Indians in 1955 and 1957. As a minor-league manager in 2010, Altobelli watched another young phenom pitch and it reminded him of Score.

"Herb Score had some kind of arm," he said. "Like this kid."

"This kid" was Stephen Strasburg.

***

If you watched the earlier video, you heard parts of this lovely song in the background. But here in its entirely is Terry Cashman's Ballad of Herbie Score. Why write about this now? I first became a baseball fan in 1956, when we lived in Ohio, and Score was the first player ever that I considered my favorite.