Piersall honored for hooping it up

Last week Jimmy Piersall became a Hall of Famer. But not in Cooperstown. Piersall, 76, is now in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame. The man who had a mental breakdown with the Red Sox in 1952 drove himself nearly as hard at basketball. He led Waterbury (Conn.) Leavenworth High School to the 1947 New England title game. “He was perhaps the best high school basketball player in New England that year,” said Dan Doyle, spokesman for the Hall of Fame. “He was terrific.” Piersall said he felt as much stress on the basketball court as the baseball diamond. “I always had the fear of failure,” he said. “It made me concentrate better. But it’s been a wonderful life. God owes me nothing.”