Herb Score, 1933-2008

Herb Score, born in 1933 in New York, moved with his family to Florida. In 1952, he pitched six no-hitters for his Lake Worth High School baseball team and then signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians, playing with Rocky Colavito. The two came to the Major League in 1955.

On the night of May 7, 1957 at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, in the first inning, the second batter to the New York Yankees’ Gil McDougald faced Herb Score. With the count 2 and 2, Herb threw a low fast ball and McDougald whacked the ball right back at the pitcher, while his head was still down in the follow-through position, hitting him in the eye and breaking some facial bones. Herb never lost consciousness but had severe hemorrhaging in his eye and a swollen retina. He spent three weeks in the hospital and was sidelined for the rest of the season. His vision eventually returned but his pitching was never the same. In 1959 he was traded to the Chicago White Sox and he injured his elbow. He retired after three more seasons (in 1962). 

In 1964, the Cleveland Indians hired him as their play-by-play announcer. He was revered by the fans and stayed with the Indians for the next 34 years. Herb Score died in Rocky River (age 75) on November 11, 2008 and is buried in Lakewood Park Cemetery. Click here for the full article by Gay Christensen-Dean.