Herb Score

Herbert Jude Score (June 7, 1933 – November 11, 2008) was a Major League Baseball pitcher and announcer.

Biography

Athletic career

Score came up as a rookie in 1955 with the Cleveland Indians. He quickly became one of the top power pitchers in the American League, no small feat on a team that still included Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and other top pitchers, going 16–10 with a 2.85 ERA in his first year. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine on May 30, 1955. A left-hander, Score struck out 245 batters in his rookie year, a rookie record that stood until 1984, when it was topped by Dwight Gooden (Score, Gooden, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Don Sutton, Gary Nolan, Kerry Wood, Mark Langston and Hideo Nomo were the only eight rookie pitchers to top 200 strikeouts in the 20th century). It was the first time in MLB history a regular starting pitcher averaged over one strikeout per inning.^[1] In 1956, Score improved on his rookie campaign, going 20–9 with a 2.53 ERA and 263 strikeouts, while reducing the number of walks from 154 to 129, and allowed only 5.85 hits/9 innings, which would stand as a franchise record until it was broken by Luis Tiant's 5.30 in 1968.

On May 7, 1957, against the New York Yankees at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Score was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald, breaking numerous bones in his face and leaving him bloodied. McDougald reportedly vowed to retire if Score was blinded as a result, but Score eventually recovered his 20/20 vision, though he missed the rest of the season. Score returned late in the 1958 season.

Though many believe he feared being hit by another batted ball, and thus changed his pitching motion, Score himself rejected that theory. He would tell Cleveland sportswriter Terry Pluto (for The Curse of Rocky Colavito) that, in 1958, after pitching and winning a few games and feeling better than he'd felt in a long time, he tore a tendon in his arm while pitching on a damp night against the Washington Senators. He sat out the rest of the season but, returning for 1959, he'd shifted his pitching motion in a bid to avoid another, similar injury. "The reason my motion changed," he told Pluto, "was because I hurt my elbow, and I overcompensated for it and ended up with some bad habits."

In the book "The Greatest Team Of All Time" (Bob Adams, Inc, publisher. 1994), Mickey Mantle picked Herb Score as the toughest American League left-handed pitcher he faced (before the injury). Yogi Berra picked Herb for his "Greatest Team Of All Time".

As a result of the changes Score made in his delivery, his velocity dropped and he incurred further injuries. Score pitched the full 1959 season, going 9–11 with a 4.71 ERA and 147 strikeouts. Score was traded to the Chicago White Sox after the season, and pitched parts of the following three seasons before retiring, finishing with a career record of 55–46 and a 3.36 ERA and 837 strikeouts over eight seasons, in 858 1/3 innings pitched.

In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. They explained what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome," where a player of truly exceptional talent but a career curtailed by injury should still, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, be included on their list of the 100 greatest players. In the book's introduction, they used this as their reason why Score, with 55 career wins, was on their list, while Early Wynn, who won 300 games, all in the post-1920 Live Ball Era, was not.

Broadcasting career

After retiring, Score served as an announcer on the Indians television broadcast from 1964–1967, and joined the radio broadcast, serving from 1968–1997, the longest career for an Indians play-by-play announcer. Score was revered by fans for his announcing style, including a low voice and a low-key style, as well as a habit of occasionally mispronouncing the names of players on opposing teams. Score's final Major League Baseball game as play-by-play announcer was Game 7 of the 1997 World Series.

On October 8, 1998, while driving to Florida after being inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame the night before, Score was severely injured in a traffic accident.^[2] Score pulled into the path of a westbound tractor-trailer truck in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and his car was struck in the passenger side.^[3] He suffered trauma to his brain, chest and lungs. The orbital bone around one of his eyes was fractured, as were three ribs and his sternum. He spent over a month in the intensive care unit, and was released from MetroHealth Hospital in mid-December.^[4][5] He was cited for failure to stop at a stop sign.^[6]

He fought through a difficult recovery and was healthy enough to throw out the first pitch at the Indians' Opening Day on April 12, 1999.^[7]

Death

Herb Score died on November 11, 2008 at his home in Rocky River, Ohio, after a lengthy illness.^[8][9] The Indians wore a patch on their uniform during the 2009 season to honor him.

See also

• List of Major League Baseball strikeout champions

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Herb Score at Find a Grave
• Obituary in Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Herb Score – Sports Illustrated, May 30, 1955 (cover).