Bob Feller WAS "Take Me Out To The Ballgame"

“Nobody lives forever and I’ve had a blessed life. I’d like to stay on this side of the grass as long as I can, though. I’d really like to see the Indians win a World Series.” – Bob Feller, September 2010.

Bob Feller died in a Cleveland hospice yesterday, December 15, 2010, from the lingering weakness of his recent  pneumonia bout and the acute effects of his progressive leukemia, a disease he has been fighting through chemotherapy since its diagnosis in August of this year.

The death of Feller takes away the arguably greatest Cleveland Indian of all time. There was a fellow named Tris Speaker who put in some quality seasons as a playing manager for the Tribe, even leading the men from the banks of Lake Erie to a World Series title in 1920. Speaker, however, played a few very productive years for the Boston Red Sox before coming over to Cleveland and then even finished with the Philadelphia Athletics.

Bob Feller was all Cleveland Indian, all the way. For eighteen seasons (1936-1941, 1945-1956) Feller compiled a career record of 266 wins, 162 losses, and Earned Run Average of 3.25, with 2,581 career strikeouts thrown in to boot. He won at least 20 games in six seasons over three different decades.

Rapid Robert (that’s what they called him, as you probably know) lost three seasons to true grit military service (1942-1944) when he joined the Navy on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. Unlike a lot of ball players, Feller didn’t grab a military baseball uniform to improve his new groups’ fleet team. He served as a gun captain on the USS Alabama for three years, earning many medals and commendations for his performance under fire.

Feller marked his best win total season in his second season back from the war wen he won 26 game for the 1946 Indians. Two years later, Bob was a 19-win contributor to the most recent Cleveland World Series champions, the 1948 Indians. He had enough gas in the tank to register one last 20-win season by going 22-8 for the 1951 Indians. Three years later, now older and surrounded by an incredibly talented group of pitching teammates, Feller still managed to kick in a 13-3 record for the 1954 Indians and one more pennant for Cleveland.

Bob Feller's fastball once won a race with a quarter horse.

Bob Feller was all about amazement. He had a fastball to rival the speed of the great Walter Johnson before he was even 18 years old. In fact, Feller broke into the big leagues as an Indians reliever on July 19, 1936. On August 23, 1936,  a full two months prior to his 18th birthday, he made his first big league start. By then, Bob had proved to the Indians that he was already too good to ever see a single day in the minor leagues.

Feller’s accomplishments and records are almost too many to list in this brief discouse, but among his impressive stats are these: (1) The man pitched in 570 regular season games, completing 279 of the 484 games he started; (2) He led the American League in strikeouts seven times; (3) He pitched three no-hitters, including the only opening day no-no, and he also pitched twelve (12) one-hitters; and (4) In 1946, he pitched 36 complete games and 10 shutouts; the different era 2010 Indians only recorded 10 complete games and 4 shutouts as a complete staff.

The Cleveland Indians retired Bob Feller’s #19 in 1957, the first year following his last season as an active player. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962 during his first year of eligibility.

Bob Feller pitched in a special era for exceptional greatness on the mound. Four of his late 1940s, early 1950s pitching teammates, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn, Satchel Paige, and Hal Newhouser also later made it to the Hall of Fame. (Thank you, Mark Rejmaniak and Bob Dorrill, for your assistance in helping me thaw the brief brain freezes on accurate reporting of this whole Cleveland HOF pitching class from that 1948 to 1956 Cleveland Indian era.) And not just “by the way,” Bob Feller also played with four position players who made it on merit to the Hall of Fame too; center fielder Earl Averill played with Feller during the 1930s, and center fielder Larry Doby, second baseman Joe Gordon, and shortstop Lou Boudreau were leading forces of support behind that great array of Indian pitchers near the mid-century mark. What a talent ride those post World War II Indians enjoyed. And Bob Feller was the ancient superstar light that guided the team from his youthful days in the Great Depression through the last season of Eisenhower’s first term as President.

Baseball’s Bob Feller of Van Meter, Iowa was everything to the City of Cleveland that the NBA’s LeBron James of Akron, Ohio chose not to be. Feller was Mr. Cleveland Sports. Forever. Loyal. Committed. And dedicated to the idea of staying alive long enough beyond age 92 in the hope of seeing his beloved home town Indians win another World Series title. He didn’t make it, but it wasn’t because of any lack of character and heart. Bob Feller had both. And that’s how I will always choose to remember one of my heroes from all those MBS Network, Mutual Game of the Day radio broadcasts of big league baseball back in the early 1950s. You could hear the force and passion of Bob Feller’s fastball over the radio, even down here in the boondocks territory of a place called Houston, Texas.

Much to my delight, but now tempered by saddened sense of irony with the passing of Bob Feller, I had an opportunity to speak in August 2009 before a crowd that included Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Sparky Anderson, Robin Roberts, Phil Niekro, Joe Morgan, and Ozzie Smith. The occasion was the 2009 Joe Niekro Knuckle Ball at Minute Maid Park, where I had been  asked by Natalie Niekro to recite a poem I had written in honor of her wonderful dad, the late Joe Niekro.

It was an awesome humbling experience to perform anything in the presence of these men and so many other distinguished people from the local and national baseball communities. All I could do is turn the energy and grace crank over to God and give it my best shot. And so I did, for better or best effort. There was no room open for failure that night, and God flew me through on angel wings to make sure it did nor happen. I shall always be grateful for the way it turned out.

Now, a little more than a year and a third later, three of those Hall of Famers who came here to honor Joe Niekro in support of the Joe Niekro Foundation’s work against brain aneurysms are all gone. In addition to Bob Feller, we’ve also have lost Sparky Anderson and Robin Roberts since August 2009.

“Nobody lives forever …” … not Hall of Fame pitchers … nor World Series Champion managers of teams from both major leagues … nor little people, like most of the rest of us. All we can do, as I wrote yesterday, and much earlier in the day that Bob Feller unexpectedly left us, “Life ain’t over till we start living like it is.”

Rapid Robert Feller never gave up on life. He went down to his last day, still hoping to live long enough to see his beloved Indians win another World Series. Now the hope of Bob Feller has to live on in the hearts of all living Indian fans.

Only people die. Hope lives forever, even when its bearer dies. All it needs is some other being to pick it up and live in its behalf until the dream is realized.

Goodbye, Bob Feller. Cleveland will miss you. Baseball will miss you. And we fans will miss you too.

Analog: Hope breathes on for the Cleveland Indians. True Cleveland fans will not give up Bob Feller’s hope for the Tribe because that one also has belonged to a multitude of Indian fans for longer than any of us can remember.

Just as a World Series crown will eventually come to us fans of the Houston Astros, Cleveland will have their day again too. Someday.

You gotta believe! Otherwise, nobody cares when the Bob Fellers of this world pass away – and fans stop going to ballgames. It’s the trinity of faith, hope, and love that keeps even the game of baseball alive and growing. Bob Feller died yesterday, leaving us a legacy of three virtues to carry forward. For me, it’s the power and importance of Feller’s Legacy that I’m feeling today. Can you feel it too?

We all need to pick it up and allow it to revitalize our own faith, hope, and love of the game and it’s not that hard to do. Just open your mind and heart, The triple treat legacy of Bob Feller will swoop right in and do all the work for you. It’s as easy as living the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

See you at the ballpark, baseball fans!