Bob Feller, a Cleveland sports icon died this past week. It is hard as an outsider to appreciate the influence Bob Feller had on the city of Cleveland. He is the only Cleveland sports player to have a statue put up in his honor. It is a statue of him as a young man throwing his nearly 100 mph fastball. Bob Feller was loved and admired in so many ways. He was admired as a man who gave up four years of a baseball career to serve in the military. He was admired as a man who made the city of Cleveland his home and was a fixture representative of the Indians in the good times and the bad.
Bob Feller went to every single Indians fantasy camp. He readily posed with the campers. He was never one of those guys who thought too much of himself. When I attended 10 years ago, he regularly hung out with the guys. One time I was sitting eating lunch by myself when he sat down across from me and entered into a conversation. Two young kids sat down next to me and also engaged in the conversation. Then one of the kids asked Bob “What are we going to do now Grandpa?”. Feller pitched in every game the campers played against the Indians alumni. They were careful to pitch him against the guys that couldn’t hit a line drive that might hurt an 80 year old man (so that did not include me).
There aren’t too many these days like Bob Feller in the generation of athletes that are hung on themselves. I wish there were more.
2 comments:
Another world-class pitcher was Warren Spahn. I saw him pitch for the Milwaukee Braves back when our family was living in Wisconsin.
Yes, there were a few from that era. Stan Musial was yet another. What a shame we are in the Lebron era.
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