CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Bob Feller was a teenage sensation, pitching for the Cleveland Indians in the Major Leagues at the age of 17, then returning to Van Meter, Iowa to finish high school.
“Bob was a phenom,” explained Jeremy Feador, the Cleveland Guardians (formerly the Indians) historian. “He left Van Meter, pitched in Cleveland — never pitched a minor league game — and then went back to high school and graduated. That was broadcast on the radio across the country because the national was like, who was this guy, from the cornfields of Iowa to Cleveland.”
Leaving those cornfields, Feller made his career in Cleveland, playing 18 years with the Indians and pitching in the 1948 World Series on the last Cleveland Indians championship team.
An eight-time All-Star, he became a member of the Indians organization and a valued community member until his death 15 years ago in December of 2010, leaving a lasting legacy in Cleveland.
“From a 17-year-old kid pitching at League Park to a 90-year-old ambassador for the club, truly embodied what it meant to be a representative for Cleveland and baseball,” said Feador.
The Bob Feller statue sits outside Progressive Field for what Feller accomplished on the baseball field, but his proudest and most important moments happened thousands of miles away from baseball when he answered a call to duty as the first American professional athlete to enlist in the armed forces after Pearl Harbor.
“Then after the 1941 season when Pearl Harbor was bombed and Bob’s like, there’s more pressing needs for me, the Navy,” explained Feador. “They wanted Bob to be more of a spokesman, to be a recruiter. And Bob’s like, ‘I want to serve’ and he goes on the USS Alabama and is in combat and to sacrifice three of your prime years. He would have been a three hundred game winning pitcher, but never regretted it.”
The Bob Feller Act of Valor Foundation, a nonprofit established in 2013, was designed to instill the values of service, sacrifice, citizenship, and legacy in today’s youth, giving out an annual award.
The “Heater from Van Meter,” “Rapid Robert,” and “Bullet Bob” among his nicknames, Feller pitched three no-hitters, 12 one-hitters, and won 266 games despite missing almost four full years in his mid-twenties for World War II.
Feller, a first ballot member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, elected in 1962 but the greatest pitcher of his generation most proud of being a member of the Greatest Generation.
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