Piersall led the Leavenworth High School (Waterbury, Connecticut) basketball team to the 1947 New England championship, scoring 29 points in the final game.

In 1952, he earned a more substantial role with the Red Sox, frequently referring to himself as "the Waterbury Wizard," a nickname not well received by teammates.

He established himself as one of the game's best defensive outfielders, leading AL center fielders in fielding percentage and total zone runs five times each.

After several such incidents, including Piersall spanking the four-year-old son of teammate Vern Stephens in the Red Sox clubhouse during a game, he was demoted to the minor league Birmingham Barons on June 28.

Diagnosed with "nervous exhaustion", Piersall underwent electroshock therapy and began taking a new drug called Lithium which leveled out his moods.

By the end of the 1956 season, in which he played all 156 games, he posted a league-leading 40 doubles, scored 91 runs, drove in 87, and had a .293 batting average.

On December 2, 1958, Piersall was traded to the Cleveland Indians for first baseman Vic Wertz and outfielder Gary Geiger.

He later wore a little league helmet during an at-bat against the Detroit Tigers, and after a series of incidents against the Yankees, Indians team physician Donald Kelly ordered psychiatric treatment on June 26.

After a brief absence, Piersall returned only to earn his sixth ejection of the season on July 23, when he was banished after running back and forth in the outfield while Ted Williams of the Red Sox was at bat.

However, he remained a volatile player, charging the mound after being hit by a Jim Bunning pitch on June 25, then violently hurling his helmet a month later, earning him a $100 fine in each case.

It became the subject of a 1957 movie version, Fear Strikes Out, in which Piersall was portrayed by Anthony Perkins and his father by Karl Malden, directed by Robert Mulligan.

"[5] Piersall had broadcasting jobs with the Oakland A's in 1972, the Texas Rangers beginning in 1974 (doing color and play-by-play for televised games), and with the Chicago White Sox from 1977 to 1981, when he was teamed with Harry Caray.

In February 1986, Chicago Cubs general manager Dallas Green, off whom he had hit the infamous "backward" home run as a pitcher, hired Piersall as a roving minor league outfield coach and he served in that capacity until his departure in 1999.

Piersall, who wintered in Arizona, was invited to a White House event honoring the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox on March 2, 2005.

According to a Red Sox official, the White House prepared a guest list of about 1,000 for the event, scheduled to be staged on the South Lawn.