Red Sox Hall of Famer Jimmy Piersall Dies at 87

Jimmy Piersall, a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, died Saturday after a bout with a "monthslong illness," according to a news release from the organization.

Piersall was 87.

He spent 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, playing for the Red Sox (1950, 1952-58), Cleveland Indians (1959-61), Washington Senators (1962-63), New York Mets (1963) and Los Angeles/California Angels (1963-67).

Piersall was a two-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner. He finished his career as a .272 hitter with 104 home runs and 591 RBI. He was elected to the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2010.

According to Barry Rozner of the Chicago Daily Herald, "Piersall was called 'the best defensive center fielder in history' by Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio said Piersall was 'the best baserunner in the league.'"

Early in his career, he was admitted to a mental hospital with what was later diagnosed as bipolar disorder, which he wrote about in his 1955 autobiography, "Fear Strikes Out."

"I want the world to know that people like me who have returned from the half-world of mental oblivion are not forever contaminated," he wrote, per the Chicago Sun-Times.

After his playing days, he spent time acting, working in the minor and major leagues and broadcasting for the Chicago White Sox alongside Harry Caray. He was fired from that radio job in 1983, however, for being too critical of manager Tony La Russa and the team's players, according to the Sun-Times.