Former Cleveland Indians pitcher and broadcaster Herb Score's died this morning at age 75 in his room at home in Rocky River, the Indians confirmed today.
He was a brilliant Indians pitcher whose baseball career was virtually ended at age 23 when he was hit in the right eye by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees on May 7, 1957.
Then he became a Cleveland sportscasting institution, calling Indians games on radio and television for 34 years, longer than anybody else in the city's baseball history.
I obviously knew Score only as a broadcaster, or as many other people saw him, a long-distance friend. I've missed him since he signed off for the final time in 1997, and to this day I regret that the man who was the enthusiastic voice for so many awful teams couldn't end his career calling a World Series winner.