Bob Feller
Robert William Andrew Feller, nicknamed
"Rapid Robert", is an
American former
Major League Baseball pitcher and
Hall of Famer. He was born on
November 3,
1918, in
Van Meter, Iowa.
Feller played for the
Cleveland Indians, his only team, for 18 years, being one of "The Big Four" Indians pitching rotation in the 1950s, along with
Bob Lemon,
Early Wynn and
Mike Garcia. He ended his career with 266
victories and 2,581
strikeouts, and led the
American League in strikeouts seven times. He pitched three
no-hit games and shares the major league record with 12 one-hitters. Feller was the first pitcher to win 20 or more games before the age of 21. He was elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in
1962, his first year of eligibility. When he was 17 years of age, he struck out 17 batters; he and
Kerry Wood are the only two players ever to strike out their age (Wood struck out 20 on
May 6,
1998).
Feller was taught to pitch by his father, an Iowa farmer who built a diamond for his son, and installed a generator and electric lights in his barn for night practice. He was signed by scout Cy Slapnicka for
$1 and an autographed baseball. Upon being made GM of the Indians, Slapnicka transferred Feller's contract from Fargo-Moorhead to New Orleans to the majors without the pitcher so much as visiting either farm club, in clear violation of baseball rules. After a three-month investigation, Commissioner
Kenesaw Mountain Landis made it clear that he did not believe what Slapnicka or Cleveland president Alva Bradley said, but awarded Feller to the Indians anyway, partly due to the testimony of Feller and his father, who wanted Bob to play for Cleveland.
On the opening day of the
1940 season he pitched a
no-hitter against the
Chicago White Sox, with the help of a diving play on the final out by
second basemen,
Ray Mack.
On
December 8,
1941 Feller enlisted in the
Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service. He was chief of an
anti-aircraft gun crew of the
USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service in
World War II, being decorated with five campaign ribbons and eight
battle stars. Many baseball historians have speculated that Feller would have won perhaps 350 games with well over 3,000 strikeouts had he not joined the military.
When Feller retired in
1956, he held the dubious major league record for most
walks in a career (1,764). He still holds the
20th Century record for most walks in a season (208 in
1938).
He lives with his second wife, Anne Feller, in
Gates Mills, Ohio. Feller and his ex-wife, Virginia Winther, have 3 sons.
In Feller's later years, he has been very vocal about his resentment of the idea of
Pete Rose, who was banned in
1989 for betting on baseball games while serving as manager for the
Cincinnati Reds, being reinstated into
Major League Baseball (and subsequently, be admitted into the
Hall of Fame). Feller went as far as to state that Rose's status as a felon alone should make him not worthy of the Hall of Fame. Feller has also gone on record on saying that he'll never go back to
Cooperstown if Pete Rose ever gets inducted.
"We don't want anybody who ever gambled on the game to be in this Hall of Fame. I don't want him and the Hall of Famers don't want him." - Feller on Pete Rose while being interviewed for
ESPN in
2004.
During
spring training for the
2003 baseball season, Feller called
Philadelphia Phillies first baseman
Jim Thome, who began his career with the Cleveland Indians, a
"journeyman first baseman. He's no gazelle over there."[
1] In
2004, Feller criticized Major League Baseball for inviting boxing legend
Muhammad Ali (because Ali protested over himself being drafted to fight in the
Vietnam War) to throw out the first pitch at the
All-Star Game in
Houston (ESPN.com, 2004). On
August 10,
2005, while on a
St. Louis radio station, a rambling Feller claimed that
Caribbean players
"don't know the rules of the game." When asked by host
Mike Claiborne, who ultimately accused Feller of being a
racist, to provide an example of this, a flustered Feller tried to change the subject and eventually hung up.
Many of Bob Feller's pundits (
Jim Rome among them, who has frequently referred to Feller as "
Bitter, Old Bob Feller") have frequently chastised him for his perceived bitterness, cynicism, and general plain-spoken demeanor in his elderly age. Feller has also been criticized by some (including Feller's frequent target Pete Rose) for supposedly charging a substantial fee for his autograph. While being profiled on
ESPN Classic's
SportsCentury one of Feller's close friends disclosed Feller's initial cynicism towards hard-throwing pitching phenom
Dwight Gooden. Feller also criticized
Jim Bouton's controversial book
Ball Four despite allegations that Feller never even read it.
Feller's son Stephen designed the Bob Feller Museum, built in
1998 in
Van Meter, Iowa. In an interview there in 1998, Feller said he won more games in
Chicago than in any other city except Cleveland. But he had one unhappy memory of Chicago. On
Mothers Day,
1939,
White Sox third baseman
Marv Owen lined one of Feller's pitches into the stands near first base, hitting Feller's mother in the face. She spent the next two weeks in a Chicago hospital with cuts and bruises, as well as two black eyes.
Feller also came under fire by many
Brooklyn baseball fans for questionable comments made about
Jackie Robinson, who entered the Hall of Fame the same year as Feller. Apparently, when Robinson first came up to
Brooklyn, Feller said that if he were white he would not have made the Majors.
"He's tied up in the shoulders and can't hit an inside pitch to save his neck. If he were a white man, I doubt if they would even consider him big league material."He also reportedly stated at the time that
"baseball doesn't need black players." Feller would eventually change his mind, and when he and Robinson were elected to the Hall of Fame at the same time in
1962, he said that he was proud to go in with him, a stance he maintained into his old age.
In
2006, when
Negro league baseball legend
Buck O'Neil failed to get voted into the Hall of Fame, Feller was quoted on saying
"What the hell do (these committee members) know about baseball?"[
2]
*Winningest pitcher in Cleveland Indians history (266 victories)
*Led league in wins six times (1939-41, 1946-47, 1951)
*Led league in
ERA (1940)
*Led league in strikeouts seven times (1938-41, 1946-48)
*8-time
All-Star (1938-41, 1946-48, 1950)
*Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1962
*In
1999, he ranked Number 36 on
The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the
Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
*
Baseball Hall of Fame*
The Top 100 Greatest Indians Roster*
1954 Cleveland Indians season*
The Bob Feller Museum*
September 1995 by Barry Stagg*
Bob Feller |The BASEBALL Page*
New Bob Feller book* Pietrusza, David, Matthew Silverman & Michael Gershman, ed. (2000). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. Total/Sports Illustrated.
