Goodbye, Bullet Bob!

The unstoppable force that was Bob Feller is gone. One of the game’s greatest heroes and, for obvious reasons, one of my all-time heroes, succumbed to complications with leukemia after fighting a four-month battle with the disease.

I first met Bob back in 1989, when he came to England with the MLB Alumni All-Stars. I was playing for the Great Britain national team in an exhibition against the Alumni in Manchester. Bob pitched to the first couple of batters and I remember watching him and thinking how I had never been so close to a true living legend. We met again, briefly, when the Alumni All-Stars returned to England a year or so later and put on a training clinic at the home ground of my club team, the Enfield Spartans. Bob was very friendly but I’ll also remember how tough he was . . .  boy, was he tough.

Our paths crossed again in 2007. I was a keynote speaker at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans; Bob was guest of honor. My dear friend, Bill Swank, made sure Bob and I had a few moments together and I fondly recall Bob telling me, in his gruff voice, that there wasn’t any good baseball being played in England except at the American School in London. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Bob,” I responded. “I was the coach of that team!”

Earlier this year I’d heard that Bob was ill. I didn’t want to believe we’d lose him because when I’d met him back in ’07 he was still as strong as an ox, but I guess Bob’s time had come so all I can do is say thank you for the wonderful memories.

I salute you, Bob.

Bob Feller (right) with myself and my wife, Lainy in New Orleans, 2007

Bob Feller was born on November 3, 1918 in Van Meter, Iowa. A gifted right-hander with an overpowering fastball and outstanding curve, he played four years of American Legion baseball and in 1935 - when he was only 16 years old - he was signed by the Cleveland Indians. 

In his first major league start on July 19, 1936, Feller faced the St. Louis Browns and struck out 15. He won games that year, nine the next and 17 in 1938. In 1939, he won 24 games (his first of six 20-plus win seasons) and became the first American League pitcher to throw a complete game no-hitter on opening day 1940.

On December 8, 1941 – the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - Feller enlisted in the Navy. He was sworn in by former heavyweight boxing champion, Gene Tunney, at the Chicago courthouse. Feller was assigned to the Norfolk Naval Training Station in Virginia, as part of Tunney’s physical fitness program, and pitched for the baseball team. The line-up included Freddie Hutchinson and Vince Smith, and Feller hurled his first game for Norfolk on April 3, 1942, against Richmond University. In three innings he struck out three and allowed one hit. Norfolk won the game, 13-1.

On June 15, 1942, Feller participated in a five-inning baseball game at the Polo Grounds, New York, as part of an all-sports carnival to raise funds for Army-Navy Relief. Feller pitched the Navy team to victory against the Army’s Hugh Mulcahy - allowing three hits and striking out five.

But Feller was not happy. “I wanted to get out of the Tunney program and in to combat,” he told author William B. Mead. “So I went to the gunnery school there. And I went on the USS Alabama that fall.” 

Feller then spent 26 months as chief of an anti-aircraft gun crew on the USS Alabama (BB-60), a South Dakota-classbattleship. “We spent the first six or eight months in the North Atlantic. I was playing softball in Iceland in the spring. We came back in the later part of the summer, and went right through the Panama Canal and over to the South Pacific. We hung around the Fiji islands for a while, and then when we got the fleet assembled, and enough men and equipment to start a successful attack, we hit Kwajalein and the Gilberts and the Marshalls and then across to Truk.”

Feller worked hard to stay in top physical shape while on the Alabama. He had a rowing machine and a punching bag, and did regular chin-ups and push-ups. He would run on beaches whenever the ship was in port and run around the ship when at sea.

Early in 1944, Feller was contacted by Seabee Albert P. Pellicore of Chicago, who asked him to play a game against a team composed of the best players on an island in the Pacific. "Bob was in rare form that day." Pellicore explained in a letter to John P. Carmichael, sports editor of the Chicago Daily News, "and pitched exceedingly fine to the delight of the largest crowd ever assembled in these parts." The "All-Stars." playing against Bob, lost the game 9-0, with Feller striking out 15. "I write this because I feel the people back home should know about a man who besides his regular line of duty is contributing so much toward the entertainment of all concerned," the letter concluded.

The USS Alabama returned to the United States in the spring of 1945, and Feller was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois, where he coached the baseball team and posted a 13-2 won-loss record with 130 strike outs in 95 innings.

He returned to the Indians in August 1945, and in his debut in Cleveland he beat the Tigers, 4-2, in front 46,477 adoring fans. In January 1946, Feller set up a three-week school in Tampa, Florida, to develop the baseball skills of returning veterans – both aspiring ballplayers and those with some organized baseball experience. Men paid for their own transportation to the school as well as room and board, but the instruction – by major leaguers – was free.

In 1946, he set a major league record for the most strikeouts in one season with 348. His last season in baseball was 1956, by which time he had won 266 games, led the American League in strikeouts for seven years, was an eight time all-star selection and had three no-hitters under his belt. And all that was achieved having missed the best part of four prime seasons (aged 23 to 26) while serving his country.

Feller was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Talking about his military service some years later on an episode of ESPN's Major League Baseball Magazine, Feller said "I'm very proud of my war record, just like my baseball record. I would never have been able to face anybody and talk about my baseball record if I hadn't spent time in the service."

Not one to be phased by modern technology, Feller participated in an online chat with fans from Cooperstown in April 2005. One of the many questions he was asked was whether he had any regrets about serving in the war? "No, I don't," he replied. "During a war like World War II, when we had all those men lose their lives, sports was very insignificant. I have no regrets. The only win I wanted was to win World War II. This country is what it is today because of our victory in that war.”