A Salute to Cpl. Lou Brissie

[Harry Hooper]

Just realized we lost former MLB pitcher Lou Brissie last month. His is a real inspiring story.

 

On Dec. 7, 1944, Brissie's unit advancing in northern Italy was hit by a German artillery barrage. A 170 mm shell exploded directly at Brissie's feet, breaking his ankles and shattering the bones in his lower left leg into 30 pieces.
 
"I tried to crawl into a creek bed and up against a bank to get some kind of protection," he told the Augusta Chronicle in a 2009 interview. "I was kind of halfway out on the other side from the waist up and I rolled over. I looked down and could see one boot sticking out of the water and see the blood coming out at the instep where that foot was hit. On the other side I couldn't see my foot and at that point I thought I lost my leg. But the bones had been messed up so bad that the foot had just flopped over."
 
The 10-minute attack killed three officers and eight soldiers. Brissie was taken to two field hospitals where the doctors believed amputation was the only option, but he talked them out of it.
 
"I just told them I wouldn't be able to play baseball without a leg," he said. "I can't tell you what they were thinking, but in any event they didn't do it and that was my good fortune."
 
His better fortune came at the third hospital he'd been to in three days — the 300th General in Naples, Italy, where Dr. Wilbur Brubaker saved his leg with what would become the first of 23 surgeries that involved removing bone and shell fragments and eventually reconstruction. For the five or six surgeries Brubaker performed on Brissie, he received a Surgeon General commendation for revolutionary techniques.
 
Brissie left the military with two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Combat Infantry Award.
 
It took more than a year before he could even walk with a cane. When he was strong enough, in 1946, he strapped a metal brace onto his leg and started pitching again for a textile mill team.
 

 
From LATimes obit here.  NYTimes obit is here, which mentions the 1948 Opening Day incident when Ted Williams lined a drive off Brissie's leg brace:
 

Brissie pitched a complete-game four-hitter to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2, in a doubleheader at Fenway Park opening the 1948 season. But he endured a frightening moment when Ted Williams hit a line drive that caromed off his brace.
 
“I hit a ball back to the box, a real shot, whack, like a rifle clap,” Williams recalled in his memoir “My Turn at Bat” (1969), written with John Underwood. “Down he goes, and everybody rushes out there, and I go over from first base with this awful feeling I’ve really hurt him. Here’s this war hero, pitching a great game. He sees me in the crowd, looking down at him, my face like a haunt. He says, ‘For chrissakes, Williams, pull the damn ball.’ ”
 
Brissie had a 14-10 record in 1948. He was 16-11 in 1949, his best season, and pitched three innings in the All-Star Game at Ebbets Field.
“I knew I was a symbol to many veterans trying to overcome problems,” he once said. “I wasn’t going to let them down.”
 

 
Thank you, Cpl., and RIP.
 

 

[SoxLegacy]

Great story--thanks for sharing this. Another trooper heads for Fiddler's Green.

 

[Homar]

Brissie's story was featured in a book I was given as a small kid, something "Strange But True Baseball Stories" or the like.  Also included was a story about a dog running the bases in some game somewhere and being listed in the box scores the next day.  Needless to say, Brissie's story was a bit more substantial, and I remember reading it again and again, wondering where men mustered courage like his.  I'm still not sure I know, but I suspect I'll never forget Lou Brissie.  

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Great story, I had never heard of the guy.  Glad to make his acquaintance

 

[terrisus]

"Brissie was taken to two field hospitals where the doctors believed amputation was the only option, but he talked them out of it.

"I just told them I wouldn't be able to play baseball without a leg," he said."

 
Have to say, that's pretty awesome.
 

"‘For chrissakes, Williams, pull the damn ball.’ ”

 
And, yeah, remember reading that from Williams' book as well.
 
 
RIP

 

[Boston Brawler]

Awesome story, thanks for posting.