"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!

Game Four

Cleveland News
October 2, 1954

Says it all.

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.

Did you know ...

... the Cleveland Falcons (International-American League) played hockey at Elysium Arena from 1934-1936? Prior to the time, they were called the Cleveland Indians, and following that the Cleveland Barons.

... Margaret Hamilton was born in Cleveland and graduated from Hathaway Brown in 1921? She was a school teacher before she became an actress, and performed at the Cleveland Play House before being called to the stage in New York by 1932 and beginning her film career soon after. In the year 1936 alone she appeared in the films Chatterbox, These Three, The Moon's Our Home, The Witness Chair and Laughing at Trouble. She is best known for playing Cora in the Maxwell House coffee commercials. She is also sister to Dorothy Hamilton Brush.

... the uniform for the Cleveland Indians (baseball) team featured a stylized "C" on the cap in 1936, and a small patch depicting a full headdress-wearing "indian" in profile on the left breast? This image looks more like an actual human being than Chef Wahoo, which was not introduced until 1947.

... LIFE began in November, 1936, a weekly magazine unique in that it was devoted entirely to photojournalism?

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