had her antenna up , or her ear to the ground . The actor Danny Thomas had a famous devotion to Jude but didn ’ t really discover him until 1940 . By all accounts Anne was a resourceful woman , managing somehow to give her three fatherless children a rock-solid though modest middle-class upbringing , against the odds , beginning in the abyss of the Great Depression .
The boy Herb Score suffered more than his share of illness as well as of injury . He was stricken with rheumatic fever when he was 13 or “ maybe a little earlier ,” according to his sister Helen . Again , the prognosis was glum : that he ’ d never be strong again . He was in bed a lot and missed a year of school . Eventually he got a dose of penicillin , which was new on the market . Voilà : A few months later , Herb ’ s doctor told Anne that he saw the kid climbing over a fence to get to a baseball field .
You could see the pattern of resilience beginning to emerge . Herb wanted to be an outfielder for the CYO ( Catholic Youth Organization ) baseball team at Holy Name of Mary School in Valley Stream , Long Island , but the coach , Father Thomas Kelly , recognized the strength of his throwing arm and taught him how to pitch .
Around this time Herb slipped on a wet lockerroom floor and broke an ankle . Asked which one , decades later , he said he couldn ’ t remember “ because later on I broke the other one .” Then he came down with an acute case of appendicitis . “ I ’ ve always prayed to Saint Jude ,” he said . “ I guess in my case he ’ s got his hands full .”
“ I ’ ve always prayed to Saint Jude . I guess in my case he ’ s got his hands full .”
Anne moved the family to Palm Beach County , Fla ., in 1949 , when Herb was in his mid teens . He thrived there . He pitched for the Lake Worth High School baseball team and was lights out . Anne kept in touch with Father Kelly back in New York , and she worked to keep Herb in touch with him . She had to have understood the importance of fostering his presence in Herb ’ s life , especially given the absence of Herb Sr . The friendship between Father Kelly and Herb matured and lasted . ( Our loss of the possibility for that kind of relationship is one of the costs of the clerical sex-abuse scandals of recent decades .) Flash-forward 60 years : There was Father Kelly visiting nearly every Sunday at the winter home of Herb ’ s family in Fort Myers , Fla ., to say Mass for them .
You can read in depth about Herb Score ’ s eventful career elsewhere , but if you don ’ t know who he is in baseball history , let me draw a picture for you in broad strokes . Men who knew what they were talking about called him at the time , when he was breaking in , the most talented left-handed pitcher perhaps ever . He made his first major-league appearance in 1955 , at age 21 , and struck out 245 batters that season , leading the league . Rookie of the Year . In 1956 , 263 strikeouts ; earned-run average , 2.53 . He won 20 games . “ Score was on a Hall of Fame glide path at the time of his injury ,” in the estimation of baseball historian and analyst Bill James . “ He didn ’ t have to get better to be a Hall of Famer . He just had to stay healthy for ten more years .”
He didn ’ t , but never from him a hint of “ what if .” Everyone who knew him talks about this quality of his : He refused to dwell on his injuries . He was always asked whether he wondered what might have been , and his answer was always , No . He led a charmed life . That ’ s how he saw it . The Cleveland Indians gave him a shot in the big leagues , and then they gave him a good job when his playing career got cut short .
ST . JUDE MESSENGER • VOLUME IV , ISSUE I 14