Lou Brissie

Lou Brissie (June 5, 1924 – November 25, 2013) was a right-handed pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 1947 to 1953 for the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians. Before his professional career, Brissie attended Presbyterian College and enlisted in the U.S. Army in December 1942. During combat in Italy in December 1944, an artillery shell shattered his left leg in 30 places; rather than accept amputation, he insisted surgeons save the limb. He returned to professional baseball despite the injury, earning the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster for his wartime service.