Peppy and Passionate at 90: A Conversation with Baseball Living Legend Bullet Bob Feller

As a spry youngster, Bob Feller always wanted to play baseball. When he was 12, he helped his father, who had been a semi-professional pitcher in his youth, build their own baseball diamond on their Iowa farm, complete with a grandstand.

From 1931 to 1932, the Feller family carved and plowed a plain plot of farmland into their transcendental field of dreams. It was there Bob Feller learned the elementals of baseball, building a pitching mound, and setting up a home plate between the house and the barn. A budding Feller spent hours each summer and fall day strengthening his arm by throwing pitches to his dad, taking the first steps on the course to becoming one of the greatest rookie sensations in baseball history.

Today, Feller, 90, nicknamed "Bullet Bob" and "Rapid Robert," is the second-oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (Feller is behind Bobby Doerr, 91,). West of Des Moines, Iowa, Van Meter, population 880, sets just south of Interstate 80. Its rural landscape, full of quietly beautiful scenes such as golden cornfields, hustling tractors, and dawdling dogs on breezy back porches, much belies the contemporary context of city life found in neighboring Des Moines.

"Growing up a kid in the 1920s and 1930s we had a yard, a barn, and lots of chickens," says Feller. "Van Meter is still mostly big farms, barns, and chickens, so it generally looks the same. My father was a very successful farmer, he worked, and he was intelligent. Milking cows and doing chores is what made me so strong. The farms are still there, but now kids donīt want to lift a finger to help them out."

Both parents supported Fellerīs enthusiasm for baseball. Their love of sport and industrious drive energized their son who, from an early age, had one prevailing desire: to chuck balls as hard, accurate, and fast as he could. The young boy understood the process of pitching as something that demanded year-round commitment: in the winter, father and son would play catch inside the barn.

Feller developed into a brawny teenager, with a rocketing pitch, a sturdy-limbed physique, and adult-sized confidence. The kid was such an amazing oddity that dad soon charged spectators 35 cents admission to witness the precocious prowess of the "Heater from Van Meter."

"Sometimes more than a thousand people came to the farm," says Feller. "By the time I was in high school, major league scouts had heard about my fastball. Those were exciting times for a wannabe pitcher."

Organized baseball's regulations at the time prohibited major league clubs from signing players who were still in high school. Cleveland coveted the young phenomena so badly, however, that the club signed him to a secret contract when he was only 16. As a member of an amateur team in Des Moines, Feller garnered so much attention that the Detroit Tigers too offered him a contract.

After Feller revealed he had already signed, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis fined the Indians $7,500. Throughout his career, Feller shunned the open market, rejecting higher salary offers and bigger bonuses in favor of remaining a perennial Cleveland Indian. The Indians first auditioned Feller during the 1936 season. He was only 17 – a high school senior at the time – when he struck out eight members of the St. Louis Cardinals in three innings of an exhibition game.

"I lasted my whole career without an agent," says Feller. "This was all before agents. Agents are the whores who have ruined a part of the game; theyīve prostituted it to the lowest point."

Sensational Rookie Debut

In 1938, his first full season with the Cleveland Indians, the 19-year old flamethrower won 17 games and led the league in strikeouts with 240. Baseball fans had never seen someone so green yet so completely overwhelming at the pitching position. In September of his rookie campaign, in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics, Fellerīs intense fastball helped strike out 17 batters. On October 2, 1938, in a game against the Detroit Tigers, he vanquished 18 batters and set a major league record for strikeouts in a single, nine-inning game. The young sensation went on to become the first pitcher to win 20 or more games before the age of 21, even striking out 15 batters in a single contest.

On opening day of April 16, 1940, Bullet Bob pitched a complete game no-hitter. Fellerīs feat – against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park – remains the only opening day no-hitter in baseball history.

Feller went on to record two more no-hitters in his career; only two other pitchers in baseball history (Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax) have recorded more no-hitters. (Ryan holds the record for most no-hitters, with seven.) He pitched a second no-hitter against the New York Yankees on April 30, 1946, and his third no-hitter took place on July 1, 1951, in a contest against the Detroit Tigers.

"We won the first no-hitter game 1-0, says Feller. "That is what I remember most. The second no-hitter against the Yankees meant a lot to me, the Yankees being such a sore bunch and all. I would rather humiliate the Yankees regularly on the mound and win the game than pitch a no hitter."

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor during World War II, Feller, 23, postponed his baseball career, opting to enlist in the Navy for four years. Upon entrance, he became an anti-aircraft gunner aboard the U.S.S. Alabama, the first big leaguer to enroll in the armed forces. He spent the bulk of his time aboard ship in the gunnery department; he was honorably discharged from service in 1945. The well-decorated war veteran missed four seasons of baseball.

In 1946, he re-entered Major League Baseball to regain his sovereignty on the mound, setting a big league record for most strikeouts in a single season, with 348. To this day, some baseball historians suggest that he might have won 350 games and tallied nearly 3,500 strikeouts had he not joined the military. Feller, however, never questioned the integrity of his wartime decision or patriotic intent.

"I made the right decision to leave the game," says Feller. "Thatīs all there is to say. I never had any regrets about missing baseball. People make a lot of the fact that I was the first major league baseball player to enlist. So what? Like I have always said, I am really no hero. Heroes do not come back. Survivors return home. Heroes do not. In the end, baseball was only baseball, life and liberty was more important."

After spending his entire career with the Indians, he retired from baseball in 1956 (he was part of the Cleveland Indiansī 1948 Word Series winning team) with 266 wins, 162 losses and 2,581 strikeouts. He led the American League in strikeouts seven times and in wins six times. In addition to his three no-hitters, he recorded 12 one-hit games, and was chosen as an all-star eight times. In 1962, Feller was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. His living-history experiences cannot be matched.

"Looking back, I was honored to be among the greats," says Feller. "I played with some great teammates, made some great friends like Cy Young, and go against some great opponents. I still believe that Ted Williams was the greatest raw hitter I ever saw, but Joe DiMaggio was the best athlete and greatest all around player to me. Lefty OīDoul, considered the father of baseball in Japan, is the best player not in the Hall of Fame."

Feller Today

Fellerīs days are crammed with appointments, meetings, and interviews. In June of 2009, the active nonagenarian was one of the starting pitchers at the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame Classic in Cooperstown, New York. The Bob Feller Museum opened in Van Meter in 1995, and since then Feller has brought in some of baseballīs biggest past and present stars for public appearances. The museum, designed by one of Fellerīs sons, comprises two rooms containing Feller-related memorabilia and baseball items from his personal collection. He visits the museum often, flying in from suburban Cleveland, where he lives with his wife Anne.

Blunt, resolute, and feisty, with large glasses, a slight paunch, and receding white hair, Feller is a man with secure opinions. Fresh from his most recent Cooperstown visit, he says that Pete Rose is a "liar" and "problem" who irreparably disgraced baseball by betting on it and that Rose should remain barred from the Cooperstown shrine (there is talk of a possible reconciliation).

"Pete Rose is not in and he shouldn't be. Betting on baseball is worse than anything else that I can think of, much worse than taking performance-enhancing drugs. He is a liar and a troublemaker for the game. The commissioner should let him fall by the wayside and just go away."

He has been vociferous in his condemnation of steroid users in baseball. On the same day as our interview, Manny Ramirez was outed as the latest representative of the 500-homers club to allegedly test positive for performance-enhancing drugs, joining Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa. Ramirez also breached baseball's drug policy this year, serving a 50-game suspension. Rafael Palmeiro failed a 2005 test. Barry Bonds' urine sample was seized in a 2004 raid and shown to be positive.

"Barry Bonds should also be banned for life," says Feller. "Iīm not surprised by Ramirezīs flunking of the test, none of the news surprises me. They have been lying about it for years and years. This generation wants instant gratifications. Before their sixty they will all be dead, after years of pumping themselves full of things that are eating up their organs. It is all part of our societyīs demand and need for conspicuous consumption. Itīs a mess."

In addition to a regular radio broadcast on the Armed Forces Network, the Cleveland Indians icon stays busy promoting and signing his latest book, "Bob Fellerīs Little Blue Book of Baseball Wisdom," a sequel to his best-selling "Little Black Book of Baseball Wisdom."

"Bob Fellerīs Little Blue Book of Baseball Wisdom" contains nine principles for success on or off the baseball diamond and include family values, hard work, loyalty, appreciating the value of a dollar, self-esteem, practicing the fundamentals, cooperation and teamwork.

At heart and core still an Iowa farm boy, Feller is perhaps the greatest pitcher ever to don an Indians uniform. He still holds the Indiansī career records for wins (266), strikeouts (2,581) and complete games (279) and remains the Indians all-time leader in shutouts (46), strikeouts (2,581), innings (3,828) and All-Star appearances (8). Despite a military career that depleted him of four prime playing years, Feller lists 28th in baseball history with 266 wins.

"The hard work of farm chores, the milking, plowing, pulling, made me healthy and made me what I am," says Feller. "That and lots of good luck – hard work on the farm and lots of good luck."