Baseball and America lost a legend on Wednesday when Hall of Fame pitcher and World War II hero Bob Feller passed away. Feller was 92 years old.
Feller, who played all 18 years of his Major League career with the Cleveland Indians, won 226 games, struck out 2,581 and had a 3.25 ERA. His numbers would have been even better if he didn’t serve his country in World War II in the prime of his career. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.
I had the opportunity to meet Feller when he was a guest speaker at one of my classes back when I was a senior in 1999 at the University of Massachusetts. Every week we had a guest speaker in the class and those guest speakers included Buck Leonard, Joe Morgan and other baseball greats. It was a pretty awesome class.
Even though we had one baseball legend after another come into this class and speak, it was Feller that really stood out to me. He just had this presence about him and I knew I was in the company of a legend.
I remember Feller telling some great stories about Satchel Paige and their barnstorming days. I also remember him making a comment that his wife wasn’t too thrilled with his “Rapid Robert” nickname. It was pretty funny.
Feller was a great ambassador to the game of baseball and a great ambassador of America. I feel privileged just to have met him.
You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments