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Navy vet, Baseball Hall of Famer Feller dies

DES MOINES, Iowa — Bob Feller thrived in an era when athletes became icons on the playing fields — and true heroes on the battle fields.

His humble origins in Van Meter, Iowa, and swift rise to baseball stardom helped Feller attain a myth-like status while he reigned as the most dominant right-handed pitcher in the major leagues during the 1930s and into the 1950s.

His death Wednesday of acute leukemia at the age of 92 completed a storybook life for one of the greatest sports figures Iowa has ever produced.

“Guys like Bob were in a special category,” Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts once said. “They had abilities the rest of us don’t, like Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax. In my mind, there’s about 10 of them that have a special place.”

Feller, who spent parts of 18 seasons with the Cleveland Indians, is permanently etched in baseball lore alongside Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.

Hitters feared his fastball and were frozen by his curveball.

“Joe DiMaggio told me before he died, that he thought Bob Feller was the greatest right-hander he ever faced,” said Al Rosen, a former Indians third-baseman.

Statistics tell only part of Feller’s story.

He spent nearly four years in the Navy during World War II, and his service to his country prevented Feller from winning 300 games, or striking out 3,000 batters — traditional standards of pitching greatness.

He finished with 266 victories and 2,581 strikeouts.

“I’m not too much concerned about my baseball career,” Feller said years later. “I want to be remembered as a good American citizen, who enjoyed baseball and farming with his dad.

“And when it was time to fish or cut bait, I signed up two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.” Feller earned eight battle stars while serving on the battleship Alabama during World War II.

“The survivors didn’t win the war, the heroes did — the dead ones,” Feller said. “The 460,000 that we lost were the ones who won the war.

“If you were lucky enough not to meet a bullet with your name on it, you came home. If you did meet one, then you didn’t.”

Feller returned to help Cleveland win the 1948 World Series. The Indians also won the American League pennant in 1954.

“Baseball was the sport of choice then,” Rosen said. “Football was in its infancy. Tennis was a weekend thing, and you didn’t have soccer and basketball. Baseball was the one all the great athletes gravitated to.”

On July 1, 1951, Feller became the first pitcher in the 20th century to throw three career no-hitters when he beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1. He retired five years later with 12 career one-hitters.

“I hit Feller halfway decent, but by golly it was tough,” Tigers second-baseman Charlie Gehringer once told reporters. “He’d curve you at 3-0 and 3-1, and that’s not in the bible.

“He was just wild enough so you had to be kind of loose and easy up there.”

Feller honed his skills under the guidance of his father, William, who constructed a baseball diamond on the family farm, near Van Meter.

Lights were hung in a barn, so on cold, winter nights the two could play catch.

William Feller also passed down a blunt, no-nonsense approach to the game.

“I played a hell of a lot of baseball before I came to this town,” Feller said of his arrival in Cleveland.

In 1928, the father and son drove to Des Moines to get Babe Ruth’s autograph. The younger Feller was pitching for the Indians 20 years later when Ruth made his final appearance at Yankee Stadium.

He played for several teams around central Iowa, even joining an American Legion squad in Adel that featured Nile Kinnick, a future Heisman Trophy winner for the University of Iowa.

“It wasn’t even any fun to watch him play because he struck everybody out,” Feller’s childhood friend, Lena Castner, recalled in 2001.

Cleveland scout Cy Slapnicka spotted Feller while he was pitching for Valley Junction and signed the 17-year-old to a contract.

The 6-foot, 185-pound Feller skipped the minor leagues and made his professional debut in 1936 during an exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals’ legendary “Gashouse Gang.”

Leo Durocher was Feller’s first strikeout victim. After a couple wild pitches, Durocher sought refuge inside the Cardinals’ dugout, where he shouted, “You can’t get me here, kid.”

Feller signed with Cleveland for $1 and an autographed baseball. Years later, he had the biggest contract in the majors, earning just over $90,000 annually.

As a high school senior, Feller was already a national sensation, appearing on the cover of Time magazine on April 19, 1937. His graduation was aired live on NBC radio. Newsreels would show Feller’s fastball racing against a speeding motorcycle.

Some have estimated Feller might have won as many as 350 games, if not for the years lost to World War II.

“He had an unorthodox delivery,” said Rosen, who was Feller’s teammate from 1947-56. “He was all arms and legs.”

Feller went on to make eight All-Star Game appearances and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. His later years were spent as a regular at collector conventions, signing balls and photos for money.

He drew criticism for cashing in on his name, but Feller was among the first high-profile athletes to master the business side of professional sports, becoming the first president of the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1954.

When asked what he thought of the salaries paid to today’s players, Feller would say, “At least they don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”

Feller had three sons with his first wife, Virginia — Steve of Orlando, Fla.; Marty of Ohio; and Bruce of Connecticut.

His son Steve helped design the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter.