R.I.P. Herb Score & Preacher Roe.

From the AP:

Herb Score, the Cleveland Indians pitcher and former broadcaster whose promise on the mound was shattered by a line drive, died Tuesday at his home in Rocky River, Ohio, the team said in a statement. He was 75 and had needed a wheelchair since suffering a stroke in 2002.
A hard-throwing left-hander, Score pitched for the Indians from 1955 to '59. He was named American League Rookie of the Year in 1955 after going 16-10. He went 20-9 in 1956 and was twice named to the All-Star team. He also led the American League in strikeouts in 1955 and 1956.

But Score's career took a sad and nearly tragic turn on May 7, 1957, when Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees lined a ball off Score's right eye, breaking his nose and a number of bones in his face. As Score lay on the field covered in blood, the public-address announcer asked the crowd at Municipal Stadium, "If there is a doctor in the stands, will he please report to the playing field."
Fearful of being hit again, Score changed his pitching motion, with less than favorable results. After two losing seasons in Cleveland he pitched parts of three seasons with the Chicago White Sox. He didn't win more than nine games a season after the injury and retired in 1962 with a 55-46 record and 837 strikeouts in 858-plus innings.
"Herb Score . . . would've been just as good if not better than Sandy Koufax if it wouldn't have been for his injury to his eye," Bob Feller, a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Indians, said Tuesday "And Sandy Koufax was the best pitcher I ever saw in my lifetime. Herb was a very dear friend of mine."

And from Bloomberg.com:

Preacher Roe, a five-time baseball All-Star who pitched in three World Series for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees, died Sunday. He was 92.

Elwin Charles ``Preacher'' Roe was a fixture on the perennial National League contenders in the late 1940s and early 1950s, playing with Dodgers standouts Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese. The left-hander from Ash Flat, Arkansas, joined the Dodgers in 1948 after beginning his career with the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Roe was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the 1949 World Series with a complete-game shutout. He also earned a complete- game win in Game 3 in 1952, before losing Game 2 of the 1953 Series. He retired after the 1954 season, the year before the Dodgers finally beat the Yankees for a title.

I am much too young to have seen either pitch, but baseball is beautifully timeless and they mean a lot to the fan in me.  

Wherever you guys are tonight, that last one was a strike.