We did a column on the darker side of baseball’s most athletic baseball clown back on February 5, 2014. It was entitled, “Jackie Price: Fatal Sadness of a Baseball Clown”. If you have never read it, we invite you to do so. Here’s the link:
https://bill37mccurdy.com/2014/02/05/jackie-price-fatal-sadness-of-a-baseball-clown/
Today we invite you to take a small look at a film we found on Baseball Almanac of Jackie Price, performing at his best, throwing three baseballs simultaneously and accurately to three different men – and then doing the same trick standing on his head with no assistance.
Here’s the link to the Baseball Almanac Jackie Price page. The specific film link is down the front page of that site and easy to find by the first picture you will see.
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/videos.php?p=priceja01
Jackie Price could do so much more on the baseball field than that one short film could hope to ever produce. At Buff Stadium, one time, we got to see him run down faraway fungo fly balls as the driver and lone occupant of an open jeep, driving with one hand – and catching with the other. He didn’t miss a single catch.
God Bless you again, Jackie Price. It was a dark day for the human race when the forces of unshared despair took you from us. Your public persona and incredible performance was an inspiration to us all. If only you had been able to deal with your demons.
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June 23, 2016 at 8:27 pm |
Bill
The piece on Jackie Price was terrific, and I couldn’t concur more on the message about depression. thanks
bob green
June 27, 2016 at 2:44 pm |
The major leagues had Al Schacht (particularly in the East) clowning around. Max Patkin was able to traverse both major and minors, although his minor league work was more well known. But Jackie Price was very well known by fans in the low minors (we are talking about Class D and C leagues which have been long gone) for a long time. His name on those levels was bigger than Schacht or Patkin. Sadly, he never made as much money. But he could do actual baseball things that the other two had no chance of duplicating. However, like a ball player there is a time when physical skills decline and the same act at 25 just can’t be done any more. Thank goodness someone thought to film Price in action.