Major League Baseball Player. Mickey McDermott was a highly touted left-handed pitcher when he first came up. Throwing a no-hitter for Scranton of the Eastern League as a 17-year-old on July 14, 1946, he joined the Red Sox as a highly touted prospect in 1948 at the age of 19. More inclined to party than play the game, he accumulated two hitters during his career, although his promise was unfulfilled during his career. He wrote his memoir, "A funny thing Happened On The Way To Cooperstown," and in it said that it was elbow injury and too much drinking and carousing which kept him from reaching his potential. A strikeout pitcher, he not had a losing year and was coming off an 18-10 season when he was traced to the Washington Senators in December 1953 trade for outfielder Jackie Jensen. The trade was extremely unpopular to the Irish fans in Boston. with whom the colorful McDermott had become a favorite. He had enjoyed the nightlife in Boston, making a delightful reputation as an amateur singer in Boston nightclubs and with Eddie Fisher at Grossinger's in the Catskills. After his trade to Washington, he career tailed off while Jensen became an in Beantown. A great hitter for a pitcher, he had a lifetime .252 batting average who had 127 pinch-hit at-bats. McDermott had nine career home runs -- four with the 1957 A's, for whom he played two games at first base.McDermott finished his career with a record of 69-69 in 12 seasons with Boston, Washington, the New York Yankees, Kansas City, Detroit and the St. Louis Cardinals.In retirement, McDermott had a number of ailments -- aneurysms, congestive heart failure, a triple heart bypass and colon cancer. He gave up drinking in 1991 when he and his wife won $7 million in the Arizona Lottery. He told the The Associated Press in an interview in May of 2003, `My knees are gone....It's an occupational hazard. Falling off barstools.''