Bob Feller

Infobox MLB retired
name=Bob Feller

---

width=200
position=Pitcher
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1918|11|3
Van Meter, Iowa
deathdate=
debutdate=July 19
debutyear=by|1936
debutteam=Cleveland Indians
finaldate=September 30
finalyear=by|1956
finalteam=Cleveland Indians
stat1label=Win-Loss record
stat1value=266-162
stat2label=Earned run average
stat2value=3.25
stat3label=Strikeouts
stat3value=2,581
teams=
* Cleveland Indians (by|1936-by|1956)
highlights=
* 8x All-Star selection (1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950)
* World Series champion (1948)
* 1951 AL TSN Pitcher of the Year
* 1940 Triple Crown
* Cleveland Indians #19 retired
hofdate=by|1962
hofvote=93.8% (first ballot)

Robert William Andrew "Bob" Feller (born November 3, 1918 in Van Meter, Iowa), nicknamed the "Heater from Van Meter" and "Rapid Robert", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher and Hall of Famer. He is currently the second oldest living Hall of Famer after Bobby Doerr among players (Lee MacPhail, who is in the Hall as an executive, is now the oldest living Hall of Famer), and is also the senior living Hall of Famer in terms of date of induction (in 1962).

Early life

Feller was raised in the small town of Van Meter, Iowa, located west of Des Moines, hence his latter nickname "The Van Meter Heater." The son of a hard-working Iowa farmer, Bob did many arduous chores that made him physically fit. He used to joke that shoveling manure and baling hay is what strengthened his arms and gave him the capacity to throw as hard as he did. Many attribute his blazing fastball to this. He refers to his farm days in Iowa very fondly, frequently worked on the farm during the off season, and currently collects tractors similar to the ones he used on the farm. When asked how he learned to throw his devastating curve ball, Bob replied, "One day as a nine year old, I was playing catch with my father and I twisted my wrist a bit. The ball broke and I've been throwing them ever since."

Professional career

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 and bases on balls eight 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 by|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, by|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. Although Feller's childhood dream was to pitch for the University of Notre Dame, 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 by|1940 season, Feller pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, with the help of a diving play on the final out by second baseman, Ray Mack.

Bob Feller when asked if he threw harder than any other pitcher ever, responded that at the end of his career players who had batted against him and also against Nolan Ryan had said Feller threw harder than Ryan. If that was the case, Feller threw over 102 mph. Although there is footage of Feller being clocked by army ordinance equipment (used to measure artillery shell velocity) and hitting 98.6. However, this took place in the later years of his career, and the machine used, like most of the machines at the time, measured the speed of the ball as it crossed the plate whereas now the speed is measured as it leaves the pitcher's hand.Feller once mentioned that he was clocked at 104 mph at Lincoln Park in Chicago. He also claimed he was clocked at 107.9 mph in a demonstration in 1946 at Griffith Stadium.

When Feller retired in by|1956, he held the dubious major league record for most walks in a career (1,764), and for most hit batsmen. He still holds the 20th century record for most walks in a season (208 in by|1938).

In 1943, Feller married Virginia Winther (1916-1981), daughter of a Wisconsin industrialist. They had three sons, Steve (b. 1945), Martin (b. 1947), and Bruce (b.1950). He lives with his wife, Anne Feller, in Gates Mills, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.

Military service and subsequent career

On December 8, 1941 Feller, enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS "Alabama", [http://www.bobfellermuseum.org/legacy.html] and missed four seasons during his service in World War II, being decorated with five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars.

One year after his return to Major League action, in 1946, he registered an incredible 348 strikeouts while pitching in 48 games, starting 42 of those games. That year Bob was 26-15 with an era of 2.18 while pitching 36 complete games. He led the American League in strikeouts seven times and had 200 or more strikeouts five times. Bob pitched in 570 games during his career, and pitched in 40 or more games six seasons. Bob also threw three no-hit games including the only opening day no-hitter in baseball history in 1940. He had 46 shutouts during his career with 10 of those in 1946. 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. Even still, he was honored as "The greatest pitcher of his time" by the Sporting News.

Feller's opinions and controversy

During spring training for the by|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. More like a hippopotamus."http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/5198069.htm]

Feller's son Stephen designed the Bob Feller Museum, built in by|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, by|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. Upon his mother's discharge from the hospital, an apologetic Owen remarked to Feller, "Gee, Bob, now she looks as purty as you do."

In by|2006, when Negro league baseball legend Buck O'Neil failed to get voted into the Hall of Fame, Feller was quoted as saying cquote|What the hell do (these committee members) know about baseball? I know more about Aristotelian metaphysics and string theory than they do about baseball." [ [http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/kansascity/sports/columnists/14019835.htm?source=rss&channel=kansascity_columnists Duluth News Tribune ] ]

In by|2007, in light of the Mitchell Report, documenting baseball players' usage of performance enhancing drugs, Feller chimed in saying that he believed that there ought to be a separate Hall of Fame for "drug losers." [ [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/sb20071217a2.html Legendary Feller: Create separate Baseball Hall of Fame for 'drug losers'] ]

Highlights

*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)
*Led league in bases on balls twelve times
*Led league in hit batsmen six times
*Pitched three no-hitters, including the only Opening Day no-hitter.
*8-time All-Star (1938-41, 1946-48, 1950)
*Inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1962
*Only Chief Petty Officer in U.S. Navy history to be elected to a major sports Hall Of Fame.
*In by|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.

ee also

*List of baseball players who went directly to the major leagues
*List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
*Triple Crown
*List of Major League Baseball ERA champions
*List of Major League Baseball strikeout champions
*List of Major League Baseball wins champions
*List of pitchers who have struck out 18 or more batters in a nine-inning MLB game
*Top 100 strikeout pitchers of all time
*Major League Baseball titles leaders
*List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
*DHL Hometown Heroes

References

*cite news |last=Caesar |first=Dan |title=Media Views: Claiborne's "racist" label sparks controversy |date=2005-08-13 |publisher=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |url=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/othersports/story/25A058D0747C6C9E8625705C0009C419?OpenDocument
*cite news |title=Feller: Ali 'shouldn't be honored this way' |date=2004-07-14 |publisher=ESPN |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allstar04/news/story?id=1839986
* Pietrusza, David, Matthew Silverman & Michael Gershman, ed. (2000). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. Total/Sports Illustrated.

External links

*baseball-reference|id=f/fellebo01
*bbhof|id=114055
* [http://www.bobfellermuseum.org "The Bob Feller Museum"]
* [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bstagg/spsep95.htm September 1995 by Barry Stagg]
* [http://baseball-fever.com/archive/index.php/t-12720.html New Bob Feller book]