American Valor Quarterly Issue 8 - Winter 2010/2011 | Page 20

From the U.S. Navy to the Hall of Fame
Remembering Bob Feller - 1918-2010
By James C. Roberts
With the passing of Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller the national
pastime has lost one of its greatest players and ambassadors, the
country has lost a great patriot and we at the American Veterans
Center and WWII Veterans Committee have lost a great friend.
For the past 10 years Bob, usually accompanied
by his lovely wife Anne, was a regular speaker at
the American Veterans Center’s annual conference
and since 2005 he was a regular participant at the
AVC’s National Memorial Day Parade in
Washington, D.C. always without charging a fee.
I got to know Bob well during the last decade
and will always be grateful for the time I was
privileged to spend with him talking baseball –
and about many other things, including politics.
He was a veracious reader and extraordinarily well
informed. Feller took a bundle of newspapers
with him to Cleveland Indians home games to
read during lulls in the action, including the New
York Times, which he read “for the articles, not the editorials”.
(Bob was a staunch conservative. One of his great heroes was
Ronald Reagan. As a teenager he listened to Reagan broadcast
Cubs games on Des Moines’ WHO and later become a good
friend of Reagan’s.)

Feller burst on the baseball scene as a national phenomenon in
1936 when, at the age of 16, he signed a contract with the Cleveland
Indians. The Indians used him as a relief pitcher on July 19, 1936
when he was 17 years old making him at the time the youngest
player to ever pitch in the major leagues.
He made his first start on August 23, striking out
15 batters. Later that season Feller tied the
American league strike out record, fanning 17
Philadelphia athletics batters. At the end of the
season he returned to Van Meter to complete his
senior year in high school. His graduation
ceremony was broadcast nationally on radio.

Bottom: American Veterans Center

Over the next 20 years Feller chalked up an
amazing career, with a record of 266 wins to
162 losses, and a career ERA of 3.25. He pitched
three no-hitters (including the only one recorded
for an opening day game) and an incredible 12
one-hitters and ended his career with 2,581
strikeouts. He made the All-Star team eight times and led the
American League in strikeouts seven times. His opponents at the
plate included some of the legendary names in baseball, among
them Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio and
Hank Greenberg. Feller was one of the hardest throwing pitchers
in history with one fastball being clocked at almost 107 mph.
Robert William Andrew Feller will be remembered as one of the Feller’s career stats assured his indication into the Hall of Fame.
greatest Baseball pitchers of all time. He was raised on a farm
near Van Meter, Iowa where he did chores from dawn to dusk Bob’s record is all the more amazing when one considers that he
for his loving, but demanding father, the only breaks coming lost almost four seasons of playing time due to his wartime service.
when the two paused from their work for the boy to practice his
Feller was driving to Chicago on December 7, 1941 to sign a
pitching with his father.
contract renewal with the Indians when he heard the news about
the attack on Pearl Harbor. He immediately reported to a Navy
recruiting station to enlist – despite the fact that he was the sole
supporter of his family and thus entitled to a deferment.
Feller’s induction ceremony, conducted by famed ex-boxer Jack
Tunney made national news. A personal note: my uncle, the late
Charles Roberts (for whom the famous World War II novel Mr.
Roberts was named) was a young Naval ensign at the time and
told me that he was tasked by his commanding officer with
handling the arrangements for the ceremony. Chuck told me that
he hung the American flag the wrong way and received a dressing
down by his C.O. I mentioned this to Bob some years ago and
he chuckled, telling me that he vividly recalled the incident.
From 1942 to 1945 Feller served as a gun mount captain on the

Bob Feller, with wife Anne, riding in the American Veterans Center’s
battleship USS Alabama. The ship was involved in numerous battles
National Memorial Day Parade, flanke