Godspeed, Bob Feller

It all started when NBC announced Joe DiMaggio's death early ...

About 20 years ago, I took one of those ballpark bus tours and we ended up in Cleveland for Mel Harder Night at the old ballpark. I managed to get behind the first base dugout and took one picture of Feller pitching in an old-timers game before some usherette chased me off. Still had great form.

 

I attended the Indians' 100-year anniversary game where they honored the team's top players. Harder was near death at that point and in a wheel chair. It was probably 95 degrees in the shade that day and while the rest of the former players huddled in the dugout until their name was called, Harder was left to wilt in the sun. They called his name last in what was a program that lasted around an hour. Everyone in the stands around me was convinced he was going to die on the field.

 

I was there too. Bought expensive tickets behind home plate because Brook was one of the 100 players. It was actually my first trip to the Jake.

 

I remember him coming to our minor league park many years ago for a meet-and-greet appearance. After the game, he sat in the manager's office BSing with the manager and coaches and hangers-on like me. As a kid who grew up in Ohio, he was a legendary figure.

 

Bob certainly served his country well. Wasted no time enlisting, day after Pearl Harbor. Had he not enlisted he would no have to serve. Could not be drafted, his father at time was suffering a terminal illness.

Here's an interesting story for you guys.

I believe most know that in that famous photo Babe Ruth, his back to us near the end at Yankee Stadium, the bat he was leaning on belonged to Bob Feller. Ruth was very weak and they offered to take him on to the field in a wheel chair. He refused the wheel chair and as he walked through the Indian dugout he picked a bat, using it as a cane for support.

Story behind that bat. After the game Bob could not locate the bat. A teammate took the bat and later sold it to Upper Deck for 107,000.00 Bob contacted Upper Deck explained the circumstances, how his teammate got that bat. It is a possibility the bat passed through some other hands between the player and upper deck. They, Bob and Upper Deck made a deal and Bob bought the bat, his own bat for 95,000.00

Don't know if Upper Deck revealed any names, don't know if there was any way Bob knew who the teammate was. Possible he did find out and did not want to reveal that player, that could be.

 

Upper Deck was founded in 1988. Are you saying that the bat was "lost" for 40 years before Bob bought it back?

 

Close, but not Upper Deck.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_5_64/ai_n14702598/

And since someone brought up Mel Harder Night, I have to throw in my aside from a neighbor who was an even longer-suffering Tribe fan than I.

When asked if he attended Harder Night up at the stadium, he shifted, then grumbled "I've been to Hardest Night up at the stadium... every night."

Classic Cleveland fan.

 

That's OK. He's French-Candaian.

 

Just got the word from WHO-TV 13's Keith Murphy on his Twitter...Bob Feller died around 9:15 pm EST this evening.

 

Goddamn.

RIP, Mr. Feller.

 

Nothing on PD's site.

 

Full story, courtesy of WHO-TV: http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-bob-feller-passes-120910,0,2820382.story