The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie

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The corporal was left for dead, along with the 11 others of his squad, after a German mortar attack in the freezing, unforgiving mountains of northern Italy on December 7, 1944. But hours after the Nazi infantry had retreated, one member of the American army's Graves Registration Unit picking up the corpses, turned over a body in a ditch and called to his officer, "Hey, this one's breathing." It was 20-year-old Lou Brissie, from the small town of Ware Shoals, South Carolina. He was taken to a makeshift medical tent behind the front line and told that with such extensive damage his left leg would have to be amputated to save his life. He pleaded with the medics: "Please, you can't take my leg off. I'm a pitcher. I've been promised a chance to pitch in the big leagues." He explained that he had a letter from Connie Mack, owner-manager of the A's, as proof. By a series of remarkable circumstances, including a talented doctor in the major U.S. hospital in Naples where Brissie was transported, and his being the first recipient in the Mediterranean theater of the new wonder drug penicillin, his leg--though in shreds--was indeed saved. The decorated corporal couldn't walk on his own strength for nearly a year and would undergo upwards of 23 operations. He eventually began to throw a baseball while on crutches. All the time, he kept dear the dream of pitching in the major leagues. Not only did he realize that dream, but in virtually implausible, genuinely inspirational pursuit of his goal, the left-handed Lou Brissie--wearing a huge brace on his left, partially immobile leg and now a strike-out ace--made the 1949 American League All-Star team on merit, along with such stars as Joe DiMaggio, TedWilliams, and Bob Feller.