How I Spent My Summer (2021)

Progressive Field

How is the summer over? I mean, I know how. I was aware its speed while it was happening. And I wasn’t even doing much … only I was doing a lot, as compared to last year.

The summer began, for me, with an outdoor orchestra performance in front of the high school. The only live musical performance of the school year, and the last for our eldest. It was a perfect evening, and the conclusion to a terrible year, as we sat out on blankets and chairs and enjoyed their work. After there was a lot of cautious meeting and greeting between friends and family who hadn’t spent any time in each other’s company for over a year.

The boy had a gig at the Beachland Ballroom with the School of Rock, the “Relativity” show featuring acts that included siblings and other family members. All were asked to arrive masked, and we were escorted to tables and asked not to mingle. Plexiglass separated the tables. But it was a live, indoor performance and I was reminded of the Mike Doughty gig my son and I had attended in late 2019. That was the last time I had been in that room.

He was the drummer as they played Champagne Supernova by Oasis and if I say I hated myself for crying, it’s only because Noel Gallagher is such a dick. 

The kids have been very busy all summer, our eldest, they, have a job serving at a local restaurant, while our youngest, he, has been assisting a landscaper. Speaking of landscaping, we finally had the patio put in in the backyard, something we had hoped to do last summer. There have been a few gatherings and firebowls and it’s so nice to have people over.

"In the Heights"

While live, outdoor theater has resumed I haven’t been able to attend too much of it. I took the boy to see Panther Women under a huge tent at Cleveland Public Theatre. Every seat was taken. Our first live theatrical performance, for so many of us, it was a powerful evening in more ways than one. 

But David, what about your professional life? How is the writing going? Good questions, all, and not much to report. Sherlock Holmes Meets the Bully of Baker Street has been published by Pioneer Drama, and I have already started to hear from interested schools! Vivid Stage in Summit, NJ (formerly Dreamcatcher Rep) presented an outdoor, staged reading of I Hate This, interpreted by Jason Szamreta. And the writing ... happened. It's cool. We'll get there.

A friend wanted to unload some of the Cleveland baseball tickets, so we bought them. Four dates at Progressive Field. They hadn’t announced the new name when we attended in July, at our first game everyone was handed a free, commemorative Bob Feller jersey. It doesn’t say Feller, but it has a number “19” on the back and CLEVELAND on the front. And I like it that way. 

I love this woman.

There were also summer movies -- at a movie theater! I took one of the kids to see In the Heights, then a few days later I took the other one. And the wife and I saw Summer of Soul, which you can see on Hulu but it's so much better on the big screen.

July was very busy with work, for everyone, concluding with our annual journey to Flood’s Cove, Maine. The four of us made the journey, in one car. The first night of our drive there we stayed in a hotel and took advantage of the pool. The only people in there that night, the family played Marco Polo. It was like they were small again.

As our eldest makes their way to college this coming weekend, I wonder how many more journeys we all have together. As the Delta variant does its damage, I also wonder whether this summer has only been a brief reprieve and if the worst is yet to come.

"I'm Bob Feller!"

The following play script is by David Hansen © 2012.

BOB FELLER
Time: July 1936

Enter a young CITIZEN wearing a ball cap and carrying a mitt.

VOICE OF THE LIVING NEWSPAPER
Hey little feller, where are you headed?

CITIZEN 9
League Park to see the Indians beat the tar out of St. Louis!

VOICE OF THE LIVING NEWSPAPER
Looks like you’re a real fan.

CITIZEN points to his ballcap.

CITIZEN 9
For real, sister. You see this “C” on my cap? That “C” stands for Cleveland and it’s a logo I can be proud of!

VOICE OF THE LIVING NEWSPAPER
(raising a hand)
And HOW! Seventeen year-old rookie right-hander Bob Feller pitches his first professional start, and whiffs 15 against the St. Louis Browns!

BOB FELLER
I knew I could win if my stuff was working.

CITIZEN 9
Gee, Bob, were you nervous about breaking Dizzy Dean’s strike-out record?

BOB FELLER
It wouldn’t have made any difference because I gave all I had. Now, excuse me, I have to get back to work.

VOICE OF THE LIVING NEWSPAPER
Back to work?

BOB FELLER
Yeah, between practices the rookies have to sell peanuts.

VOICE OF THE LIVING NEWSPAPER
You’re a great feller!

BOB FELLER
I’m Bob Feller!

On Feller: The Finale

1954 Topps card

In 1954, at the age of 35, Bob Feller was still playing for the Indians - the only professional team he would ever play for, children. He missed four seasons in the early 40s when he registered for the military the day after Pearl Harbor, the first Major League Player to do so (though hardly the only one.) Think about that, children.

When Jackie Robsinson was tapped to be the first African-American ball player in the Major Leagues, Feller infamously said, "If he were a white man, I doubt if they would even consider him big-league material."

In 1954, Hall of Famer-to-be Feller was the No. 5 starter for a Cleveland Indians team that won 111 games in a 154-game season. All he could do—at age 35—was throw nine complete games in 19 starts and compile a 13-3 record with a 3.09 earned run average.
- The Hardball Times

Regarding "The Catch":

Bob Feller: A lot of center fielders could have caught the ball Mays caught. He put on the act pretty good; he always did. He let his hat fly off, then threw the ball back to the infield. The ball was hit into a small wind. The ball came down like a popup. He was playing shallow, but Vic Wertz was the hitter, so he should not have been playing shallow.

Dennis Manoloff: So you're not impressed by the catch.

Bob Feller: Not at all. Not at all.

- The Plain Dealer, April 2010

Sources:
The Plain Dealer
The Hardball Times

Heater From Van Meter

Robert William Andrew "Bob" Feller
November 3, 1918 - December 15, 2010

Satchel Paige

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) may have been born anywhere between 1900 and 1908. He may have gotten his nickname as a young baggage-handler from jerry rigging a pole to carry four bags at once — or because he was once caught swiping a suitcase. Depends on who you ask.

Satchel was born in Mobile, Alabama. Entering reform school for shoplifting at the age of 12, he was mentored by Edward Byrd who taught him his loping pitching style. Released early from a five year gig, Satchel went semi-pro. As was common in those days, especially for Black players, he played wherever and whenever he could, not only for the team he had a contract with, but off-season games (in Cuba, for example) and “barnstorming” where you might often get to watch a mixed-race game. In 1931 he played for the Cleveland Cubs as part of the Negro League. 

Playing in a city that also had a white, professional team, had an effect on Paige.

"I'd look over at the Cleveland Indians' stadium, called League Park. All season long it burned me, playing there in the shadow of that stadium. It didn't hurt my pitching, but it sure didn't do me any good."

In 1936 Paige was playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

The Cleveland News - Friday, July 3
Colored Aces to Play Here Sunday

Negro National League baseball will return to Cleveland Sunday with a double-header at League Park between the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, for years two of the strongest clubs in the loop.

Satchel Paige of the Crawfords rated the biggest crowd pleaser among the colored ball players is expected to pitch one of the two games here. He humiliated the Homestead team two years ago before 12,000 fans, turning them back without a hit.

As a member of the Negro League All-Stars he also barnstormed in Cleveland that summer, facing off against 17 year-old Bob Feller. Each pitched three innings, giving up one hit. Feller struck out eight, Paige seven.

In 1948 at the age of 42, Satchel Paige joined the Cleveland Indians. He is the oldest rookie in the history of the Major Leagues.

Sources:
Wikipedia
The Cleveland News

On Feller: Verbatim

Cleveland News - July 7, 1936
‘A Natural’ Dizzy’s Tribute to Feller

Dizzy Dean: "The kid’s a natural, he can’t miss."
Emmet Ormsby: "The best pitcher I have ever seen come into the American League in all my experience."

* * *
Cleveland Press - July 20, 1936
Indians Home as Heroes After Winning 10 Games
by Franklin Lewis

Maligned and generally regarded by Cleveland fans as apt material for baseball’s ash heap only two weeks ago, the Indians returned to their home orchard today the toast of the town and the latest scourge of the American League.

(Includes brief mention of “Bob Feller, high school right-hander who made his big league debut by striking out one Senator, hitting another and walking one.”)

* * *
The Plain Dealer - August 24, 1936
Schoolboy Feller Whiffs 15 (St. Louis) Browns In First Start

“I knew Dizzy Dean had the record, but I didn’t know the American League mark was sixteen. It wouldn’t have made any difference because I gave all I had. I was afraid that my arm would tire along about the sixth or seventh inning but it held up fine.”

* * *
Cleveland Press - August 24, 1936
Feller Happy, But Hat Fits After Those 15 Strikeouts
by William Miller

Bob Feller wasn't surprised when he struck out 15 St. Louis Browns because he knew he could do it, “if my stuff was working.”

He didn’t even save the ball he won with. “I’ve got a lot of balls from here and there and I didn’t need anymore.”

“I didn’t know I would strike so many men, but I knew I could win. I knew I would win if my stuff was working, and it was.”

What’s he going to do now?

“Just go over to the park like I’ve been doing and throw the balls around with the other rookies till they want me to go in again.”

He was one strikeout short of the American League strikeout record set in 1908 by Rube Waddell, and two short of the all-time record - 17 - set by Dizzy Dean in 1933.

Bob sold peanuts at League Park between practice with other rookies.

* * *

“Oh, I was sort of tired.”
Cleveland Press - August 25, 1936
HE’S SOME FELLER
by Stuart Bell

He learned to walk like that in Iowa. His fizz is stamped with the trademarks of adolescence and you don’t realize he is a man until you see him pitch. That swagger he has when he walks makes him look like a policeman who is going to raid a bookie joint, but it doesn’t mean anything.

Bob Feller

Robert William Andrew "Bob" Feller (born November 3, 1918 in Van Meter, Iowa), nicknamed the "Heater from Van Meter", "Bullet Bob" and "Rapid Robert", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. - Wikipedia

It has been suggested {{weasel}} that Feller could throw well over 100 mph. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, the same year as Jackie Robinson, about whom Feller famously said - in 1947 - that "baseball doesn't need black players." By the early 60s, however, he had apparently changed his mind (whew) and stated he was proud to be inducted with Mr. Robinson. In spite of this, he - like many other players - made money during the off-season by barnstorming, and often played with Negro League players, including future team-mate Satchel Paige.

Feller played for one team for his entire 18 year professional career. Some players used to do that. His debut was on July 19, 1936, against the Washington Senators at League Park, when he threw 15 strikeouts. He was 17 years-old, and graduated from high school the following spring.

Side note: The Indians began playing at the new Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1932, but by 1933 so many fans had complained about the size of the outfield, the resumed play at League Park except for Sundays and holidays.

More trivia, and this is pretty topical given recent news - Feller came out against Mark McGwire ever being inducted in the Hall of Fame, stating in 2006, "I know a bum when I see one."

And also for the record - Bob Feller is one of two baseball players to have candy bars named after them. The other was Reggie Jackson. It's a good bar bet.

Sources:
StateUniversity.com
Baseball-Reference.com