And at the End of 75 innings, No Score

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Score-ing Drought

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Score Bored
Former Cleveland Indians pitcher Herb Score, whose career-ending injury helped kick off the Indians’ 38-year rebuilding program, has died at the age of 75. After going 16-10 with a 2.85 ERA and striking out a record 245 batters as a rookie in 1955, Score’s 1956 included a 20-9 record, 2.53 ERA, 263 strikeouts, while he allowed just 5.85 hits per 9 innings. In both seasons, with Score joined in the rotation by Bob Feller and Bob Lemon, the Indians finished second behind the Yankees. Before the 1957 season, the Red Sox tried to buy Score for $1 million, when entire franchises were going for $4 million. Then in May 1957, the Yankees silenced the threat, when a line drive by Gil McDougald hit him in the face, breaking his nose and a number of bones in his face. Although he regained 20/20 vision, he got gun-shy and was never the same pitcher, and he went 19-27 for the rest of his career, while the Indians managed one second place finish over the next 38 years.

Roe to Nowhere

Elwin Charles “Preacher” Roe, whose beatific nickname belied pitches wetter than Sergeant Toomey at the end of Biloxi Blues, has died of colon cancer at the age of 92. A 4-time All-Star with the Brooklyn Dodgers with a career-best 22-3 record in 1951, Roe pitched for the never quite good enough Dodgers in three World Series, losing to the Yankees each time. Roe acknowledged using the spitball, but insisted that the suspicion that a spitball was coming was almost as effective: "You don't have to throw it . . . just make 'em think you're going to throw it."

The Terminal Man

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Feeder of the Eaters of the Dead

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The Great Grave Robbery
(Kudos to Phil)

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House of the Setting Sun
(Additional accolades for Phil)

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There's No Oncologist in ER, Dummy!
(Another tip o’ the cap to Phil)
Michael Crichton, god to dino fanboys after writing Jurassic Park and getting Steven Speilberg to bring brachiosaurs, triceratops, velociraptors, gallimimuses, dilophosauruses, and tyrannosaurus rexes to life on screen, has died at the age of 66 following a stealth battle with cancer. The former Harvard Medical School student put his medical background to good use as author of the Andromeda Strain, director of the thriller Coma and creator of ER – the Anthony Edwards-George Clooney version, not the Elliot Gould-George Clooney version, before John Wells ruined the show by besieging County General with tanks, helicopters, and the bubonic plague on a weekly basis. Other novels included The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery, Eaters of the Dead, Congo and Sphere, Rising Sun and The Lost World. Per his last request, his DNA has been frozen should scientists in the future feel the need to start a race of 6-foot-9 novelists.