Godspeed, Bob Feller

When they made the switch from the old Hall of Fame game to the new "legends" game a few years back, wasn't he the starting pitcher for one of the teams?

 

Favorite Feller story: When he was kid, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were on a barnstorming tour near his home town. It cost $5 (or something high for the Depression) to get a baseball signed by both of them. So he and a friend gassed like 100 groundhogs and collected a bounty from the county for killing groundhogs. The bounty was enough for each to get a signed ball. Feller, who was 8, immediately added his own signature to it. True or a tale of his, it explains him a lot.

 

Horse muffins to this sad news.

Feller spoke at my Little League Opening Day when I was 13 years old. I had no idea who he was at the time, but looking back ... very cool.

 

I was walking through my local mall one day in my teens and he was there for some sort of card show. Nobody was around his table at time, so I popped over and had a little chat with him about something or other. I don't recall the nature of the conversation, but it was shocking to me that no one really was paying much attention to him that day.

Cheers to a man who got the most out of life. He'll be missed in Ohio.

 

Wow! That's an incredible story, thanks for sharing.

 

There's a running joke about Feller's autographs in Ohio. Soemthing to effect a rare baseball is one w/o Feller's signature.

 

I raise a glass to the man for his Naval service during the war.

 

I have two!

 

He used to always come up to the Toronto Maple Leaf (baseball) opening day games. He would sign autographs and talk baseball to anyone and everyone. Even in his 80s, Feller was in great shape physically and mentally.
The Maple Leafs owner would offer to put Feller in a hotel, but he would drive back to Cleveland by himself in his own car, which is something like a five-hour drive.

 

This is not good to hear, especially here in Des Moines, where his hometown Van Meter is 15 minutes west of town. It would be a huge blow, considering how much he loves being home and being in his museum spinning stories and talking trash at his age.

 

I grew up listening to stories about how my grandfather got to catch Feller in bullpen sessions or practice when my grandfather was in high school in Cleveland. He later got a scholarship to Texas A&M, caught them to a conference championship and was rushed off to war in 1942. When he returned from war he had tryout offers for a few teams (St. Louis and Cincinnati I think) but declined and settled in Chicago where he raised his family. He died almost 10 years ago in his 70s. How much is true and how much is exaggeration as the years went on I don't know. But I grew up a fan of Feller's because of it.

A day without Feller will be a sad day for baseball.

 

I raise a glass to the man for getting out of Van Meter, Iowa.