Fear Strikes Out, Jim Piersall Didn't

A couple years back, I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Piersall, one of baseball's greatest characters. Piersall had a solid major league career, but is perhaps best known for well-publicized battle with bipolar disorder, which was the subject of a film, Fear Strikes Out. That film starred Anthony Hopkins as Piersall, much to Piersall's dismay. Hopkins was not much of an athlete and it was quite obvious in the film.
Piersall became a popular broadcaster for the Chicago White Sox. Unfortunately, his popularity could not save his job after one too many criticisms of the Sox teams, which weren't very good back then.

Jimmy Piersall and me at AU Sports in Skokie, IL-Summer 2006.