[brian1961]

Who really cares?

When he lived and played his heart out for the ChiSox, he whipped his fat bat around and got many a blunk single, or a bunt that he'd frequently beat out. Nellie was a man of his times, and I'm just glad the White Sox had 'em on their side. When the Sox won one of the 2 pennants the Yankees didn't in the 50s, he hit .375 in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. At least two of their pitchers, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, were flamethrowers. Koufax was still a couple years away from stardom, but he did pitch a total of 9 innings and was erratic, but scary when he was good. How Nellie did against curve ball artists like Whitey Ford, I don't know at the moment. Put it this way, if Nell had a weakness, the other teams would have caught on quick and fed him a strict diet of that weakness. But little Nellie didn't back down to anybody, and he got his hits. He was a fixture at the South Side for a long, long time.

--- Brian Powell