Robert William Andrew Feller, AKA Bob Feller, was a professional baseball scout’s dream. At age 16, he was discovered in the tiny town of Van Meter, Iowa. He left the farm and went straight to the Major Leagues, bypassing the minors, high school ball, and college ball completely. If that’s not amazing enough for you, the man known as Rapid Robert once had his fastball clocked at 107 miles an hour and once threw a pitch that beat a speeding motorcycle to a paper target. Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller died at a Cleveland-area hospice at age 92.
Among his peers, Feller was legendary, and feared. “Three days before he pitched I would start thinking about Robert Feller, Bob Feller,” Ted Williams once said. Williams also called Feller, “the fastest and best pitcher I ever saw during my career. . . . He had the best fastball and curve I’ve ever seen.”
In a lot of ways, Feller was the prototypical power pitcher. He had a million-dollar cannon for an arm, but he lacked accuracy. He gave up 208 walks in 1938; conversely, he lead the Majors in strike-outs seven times and wins six times on his way to having a Hall of Fame career. He also missed several years in the prime of his career to serve his country as a gunner’s mate during World War II.
“I was sure of one thing: When I went back to school in September and the teacher asked us how we spent our summer vacations, I was going to have the best answer in the whole school,” said Feller, who made his professional debut at age 16 and had the wildness to prove it. “I didn’t know much, I just reared back and let them go. Where the ball went was up to heaven.”
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