Bob Feller and his blinding fastball burst into Major League Baseball in 1936, skipping the minors entirely. During his 18-year career, all with the Tribe, he recorded 266 wins, 2,581 strikeouts and three no-hitters (including the only no-no ever pitched on Opening Day)."Rapid Robert" was an eight-time All-Star and in 1962 a first-ballot Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. In 1999 The Sporting News ranked him 36th among its 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
My father gave me the yellowed old image of Feller that once hung on my wall, a prized souvenir of a summer day at old Municipal Stadium. Dad was a big fan, but he spoke to me less often of the player than of the patriot.
On December 8, 1941, Feller enlisted in the U.S. Navy, one day after the Pearl Harbor attacks and the first major-league player to do so. Missing four baseball seasons at the height of his pitching prowess while serving in World War II, Chief Petty Officer Robert William Andrew Feller earned five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars.Feller returned to the Indians after the war and picked up where he left off. His 1946 season was one for the ages -- 42 starts, 36 complete games, 26 wins, 10 shutouts, 348 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.18. Two years later he'd lead Cleveland to a World Series title.
We're all left to wonder what his numbers might've been had he not interrupted his career to serve his country.
Bob Feller died yesterday at age 92. Over the next few days we'll hear countless remembrances of his feats on the ball diamond, and that's as it should be, but I'll recall the man the way my father did -- as an American patriot.
